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Harvard Referencing Style: Internet Sources

INTERNET SOURCES

GENERAL GUIDELINES

There are numerous approaches to citing works from the Internet. In order to maintain consistency, the following points should be noted.

  • be consistent throughout and in line with the preferred style guide;
  • cite enough information for the reader to locate the citation in future;
  • many Web documents do give an author somewhere on the page. If not explicit or obvious, the author's name may be found in the header of the HTML encoded text.  You can view this by choosing the option to view document source. Otherwise, use the title as the main reference point, as you would with any anonymous work;
  • cite the exact URL of the webpage and the date on which the document was last updated, if this is apparent. If not available, only provide the date on which the document was accessed;
  • do not allow the URL to run over into the second line. Should this not be possible, start the URL on the second indented line;
  • use the symbols <  ... > to delineate the start and the end of an URL, for example:<http://www.unisa.ac.za>

  • if there is no page number, use inverted commas at the beginning and end of the quote and add (Weida & Stolley, 2013).  If no date is given, it is cited (Weida & Stolley, no date).

IN-TEXT CITATION

Weida and Stolley (2013) ...

.... (Weida & Stolley, 2013)

"....." (Weida & Stolley, 2013:25)

FORMAT OF A REFERENCE TO AN INTERNET SITE

Author’s/ Editor’s Surname, Initials. Year. (Or, “No date” if date of publication Is not given in the source). Title (in italics) [online].  Place of publication: Publisher (publisher in the traditional sense, or the organisation responsible for maintaining the site on the internet). Available from: URL <   > [Date accessed]. (This is the date on which you viewed or downloaded the document) 

EXAMPLE OF A REFERENCE TO AN INTERNET SITE  WITH A DATE

Smith, J. 1999. Outsourcing logistics [online]. Chicago: Logistics International. Available from: <http://www.logisticsinternational.org.us/html> [Accessed on: 28 November 1999].

Weida, S & Stolley, K. 2013. Developing strong thesis statements. Available from: <https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/1/> [Accessed on: 13 October 2015].

EXAMPLE OF A REFERENCE TO AN INTERNET SITE WITHOUT A DATE

Lane, C. et al. n.d. The future of professionalised work: UK and Germany compared [online]. London: Anglo-German Foundation for the Study of Industrial Society. Available from: <http://agf.org.uk/pubs/pdfs/1232web.pdf> [Accessed on: 10 May 2007].