Examples of proper documentation of electronic sources are provided in this document.  Please refer to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Paper (5th edition- 1999) from pages 178-202.  The information contained in this book can also be found on the Internet at the following address, http://www.mla.org. This website  provides the most current information for documenting Internet sources using the MLA format.

Citing Electronic Publications

When citing an electronic source, it is important to remember that enough information needs to be provided to allow the reader to locate the source.  References to electronic sources need to contain more information than print citations due to the impermanence of electronic documents.  Unlike print sources,  resources located on the Internet and from databases often change in format as well as content much more frequently than their print counterparts.   The two major pieces of information that an electronic source requires are publication date and the uniform resource locator (URL).  When citing an electronic source, the date assigned to the document is important to note as well as the date on which the researcher accessed the document.  The URL is the path where the document can be found.  For the URL, it is important to provide the complete address, including the access mode identifier (http, ftp, gopher, telnet, etc.)

Examples

1) Scholarly Project or Information Database
 

Thomas-U.S. Congress on the Internet.  15 Feb. 2000. Library of Congress.

          20 Feb. 2000 <http://thomas.loc.gov>.

1. The title of the database is underlined.
2. Name of the editor of the database (if provided).
3. Electronic publication information (including version, last update, and the name of the sponsoring
   organization).
4. Date of access and network address.
 

2) Document within a Scholarly Project or Information Database
 

"Microsoft."  Hoover's Online. 2000. Hoover's Company Information. 15 Feb. 2000

       <http://www.hoover.com/co/capsule/0/0,2163,14120,00.html>.

The format for this type of electronic source is the same as the Scholarly Project except that the article is noted and displayed in quotation marks.  The other difference is that the URL is a path to the article being referenced rather than the database.
 

3) A Professional or Personal Site
 

Anderson, Margaret Vail. Digital Librarian. 2 Feb. 2000 <http://www.servtech.com/

        ~mvail/home.html>.

Documenting a professional or personal site follows a similar format.  The author, title, and date of access is noted as well as the URL.  The major difference for this type of source is for the title section.  If the the site is untitled, it is permissible to use  "Home page" in place of the formal title.
 

4) An Online Book within a Scholarly Project
 

Aristotle.  Politics. Oxford: Clarendon, [1957]. The Perseus Project. Ed.

       Gregory Crane. Feb. 2000. Tufts U. 15 Feb. 2000 <http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/

       cgi-bin/text?lookup=aristot.+pol.+1252a>.

An online book contains the same information that should be cited for the corresponding print source. The addition of the last update as well as the date of access for the electronic source is needed for the online book. The complete URL is provided to enable the reader to find the source.
 

5) An Online Government Publication
 

United States. Central Intelligence Agency. The World Factbook. Jan. 1999.

        15 Feb. 2000 <http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/>.

Government publications require the name of the government followed by the name of the agency. The date of the last update as well as the date of access and URL completes the citation for an electronic government source. When many agencies contribute to the work of a government source, the agency that is issuing the work can be used as the author. Otherwise, if the author is an individual, then this should be noted in the citation.
 

6) An Article in a Scholarly Journal
 

Plutschow, Herbert. "An Anthropological Perspective on the Japanese Tea Ceremony."

      Anthropoetics 5.1 (1999): 10 pp. 15 Feb. 2000 <http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/

       humnet/anthropoetics/home.html>.

Unlike other electronic sources, this type of source should have the number of pages listed. If this is not available then the number of paragraphs should be included. Only include the pages or number of paragraphs if this information is provided.
 

7) An Article in a Newspaper or on a Newswire
 

Reid, T. R. "IRA Pulls Out of Disarmament Talks." Washingtonpost.com 15 Feb. 2000.

       16 Feb. 2000 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53692-2000Feb15.html>.

Besides the URL, the major difference in citing this source is the title of the online newspaper.  While both the online and print sources are similar, the online version usually is differentiated with "online" or  ".com" that is added to the already existing print title.
Examples are AP Online and New York Times on the Web.
 

8) An Article in a Magazine
 

Wilmut, Ian.  "Dolly's False Legacy." Time Magazine 11 Jan. 1999. 16 Feb. 2000

       <http://www.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/articles/0,3266,17694,00.html>.
 

9) A Work from an Online Service (subscription databases).
 

Singh, Robert.  "Gun Control in America." Political Quarterly July-Sept. 1998: 288-297.

      Expanded Academic ASAP.  Infotrac.  Weinberg Memorial Lib., Scranton.  20 Feb. 2000

      <http://infotrac.galegroup.com/itweb/scranton_main>.
 

Easterbrook, Gregg.  "Warming Up."  The New Republic 8 Nov. 1999: 38 pars. Academic Universe.

         Lexis-Nexis.  Weinberg Memorial Lib., Scranton. 3 May 2000 <http://www.lexis-nexis.com/lncc/>.
 

For online databases that are accessed from the library either on campus or by a remote location, the above examples should be followed.  All the information that is required for the documentation of the print source is included as well as the information that is unique to electronic sources. Both the database and name of the service are underlined. The name of the library and the city are also provided. The date of access and the URL of the service's home page for the library are also included. If the pagination for the article is not provided,  the number of paragraphs can be listed.

Sawa-Czajka, Elzbieta.  "International Trends: Are There Female Political Elites in Poland?"  Journal of 

     Women's History  8.2 (1996). Contemporary Women's Issues. Responsive Databases Services. 

      Weinberg Memorial Lib.,  Scranton.  20 Feb. 2000 <http://rdsweb1.rdsinc.com/>.

For scholarly journals that include the volume and issue numbers, there should be a decimal between these numbers.  This information should be provided only if it is available.

Cosgrove, Maryellen Smith.  "A Distance Learning Partnership." Teaching Education 8 

     (Winter/Spring '97): 105-7. WilsonSelect.  OCLC's FirstSearch. Weinberg Memorial Lib., Scranton. 

     20 Feb. 2000 <http://firstsearch.oclc.org/>.
 

McCann, Sean.  "The Imperiled Republic: Norman Mailer and the Poetics of Anti-Liberalism." 

     ELH 67.1 (2000): 61 pars. Project Muse. Johns Hopkins University Press.  Weinberg Memorial Lib., 

      Scranton. 6 May 2000   <http://muse.jhu.edu/index.html>.
 

Prepared by David Marks
May 6, 2000