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Wikipedia Edit-a-thon at Smith College

Spring 2020

Examples of citing a web page

When citing from biographical notes and other short texts affiliated with special collections and archives, include as much information as possible. 


Sample text in an article:

Florence R. Sabin's Wikipedia entry [1] needs a LOT of work, although her biographical note[2] is quite nice.


Sample references (tied to the footnotes above):

  1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_R._Sabin
  2. Biographical Note, Dorothy Kenyon Papers finding aid, Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College.

How to cite a web page

According to Wikipedia, citations for World Wide Web pages typically include the following list below.  *Caveat:*  you may not be able to determine all of the information below, but if you are fairly certain you're using a reputable source, include as much of the information below as you can:

  • URL of the webpage
  • name of the author(s)
  • title of the article within quotation marks
  • name of the website
  • date of the website's publication
  • page number(s) (if applicable)
  • the date you retrieved (or accessed) the webpage (required if the publication date is unknown)