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Chicago - Referencing Guide

Citing Electronic Documents

Citing Electronic Documents

Documents published in electronic formats are cited in the same way as print documents. If the electronic document has an author and date of publication, cite these in the text. The full description of the document (including its electronic source data) will be given in the reference list at the end of your essay or assignment. Always question the validity of electronic documents with no author or publication details.

If page numbers are not given, use paragraph or other section numbers if you need to be specific.

If there is no author or date, follow the guidelines for print resources.

In the unlikely case that the document has no author, date or obvious title, then the Internet address may be cited in the text.

Whole Internet site

To direct readers to an entire internet site (but not a specific document on the site), it is sufficient to give the address of the site in the text. Make sure the internet address you provide is current and links to the site:

Kidspsych (http://www.kidspsych.org) is a wonderful interactive Internet site for children.

Remember that internet addresses may change.

No page numbers

Use a paragraph number if no page numbers are present:

(Derrida, 1994, sec. 2, para. 7)

No author, date or title

Please keep in mind that citing information from an Internet page with so few credentials may not be suitable in a piece of academic writing:

It has been stated that the problem cannot be solved (http://www.xyz.com).


See the All Examples page for examples of in-text and reference list entries for specific resources such as electronic documents, articles, books and web pages.