What information do I need to cite a webpage?

You can find many types of sources online, including websites, webpages (parts of websites), blog posts, articles, and reports or other files (often PDFs) downloaded from websites. Depending on the type of source you use, you may have to follow different formatting guidelines. 

It is important to check the guidelines for the citation style your instructor requires for your assignment. Each citation style (such as APA or MLA) will have different formatting and style rules that must to be followed. 

This page will help you to identify elements of a webpage for writing a citation.

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Typically you need an author, publication date, title of the article, name of the website organization (i.e. who owns it), and a URL for a webpage citation.

Elements of the webpage to use in your citation

New Horizons' Next Target Just Got a Lot More Interesting: NASA webpage with image of space objects.

Author:  No author information is given

Article title: New horizons' next target just got a lot more interesting

Date: August 3, 2017

Organization: NASA

Webpage URL: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/new-horizons-next-target-just-got-a-lot-more-interesting

Website URL: www.nasa.gov

Sometimes pieces of the information may be missing, such as author or date.
 
Authors may also use screen names (noms de plume or pseudonyms), be listed as anonymous, or the content may have been created by the organization.
 
Check your citation style for what to do when there is no author or no date given. 

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