When Should You Cite a Website?
In STEM writing, websites are a last resort — not a first choice. Academic markers expect peer-reviewed journal articles and textbooks as primary sources. That said, websites are appropriate when citing:
- Government and regulatory documents — CDC guidelines, NHS protocols, NIST standards, WHO reports
- Professional organisation statements — IEEE position papers, ACM policies
- Original data or statistics from a government statistical agency
- Software documentation — when citing a library, framework, or tool
- News articles — to establish the context of a public event, not as scientific evidence
Avoid Wikipedia as a citable source. Wikipedia is useful for background reading but is not accepted as a citable academic source. Follow its citations to the original peer-reviewed source and cite that instead.
What Information Do You Need?
- Author(s): person or organisation that wrote the page
- Title of the page or article
- Website name / publisher (if different from the author)
- Date published or last updated
- URL — copy the direct page URL, not a search result URL
- Access date — required by most styles for web content that can change
Save the page. Web pages can be deleted or updated at any time. Use the Wayback Machine (web.archive.org) to save a snapshot of important pages when you cite them, so you can retrieve the version you read even if the page changes.
APA 7th Edition
APA does not always require an access date — include it only for content that is likely to change (wikis, databases with live data). For stable institutional pages and government reports, no access date is needed.
Standard webpage (with author)
Smith, J. A. (2023, September 12). How machine learning is transforming weather forecasting. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/09/12/ml-weather/
Government/organisation page (organisation as author)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2023, November 8). COVID-19 vaccination: What everyone should know. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/keythingstoknow.html
No author — use page title in italics
Antibiotic resistance: Global action plan. (2022). World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/antimicrobial-resistance/global-action-plan/en/
No date — use (n.d.)
National Cancer Institute. (n.d.). Cancer statistics. https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/understanding/statistics
In-text — APA
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2023)
(Smith, 2023)
("Antibiotic Resistance," 2022)
IEEE
IEEE uses a numbered reference list. For websites, include the author (if available), title, site name, URL, and access date in brackets.
IEEE — webpage
[1] J. A. Smith, "How machine learning is transforming weather forecasting," MIT Technology Review, Sep. 12, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/09/12/ml-weather/. [Accessed: Jan. 10, 2024].
[2] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "COVID-19 vaccination: What everyone should know," Nov. 8, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/keythingstoknow.html. [Accessed: Jan. 5, 2024].
Harvard
Standard webpage
Smith, J.A. (2023) 'How machine learning is transforming weather forecasting', MIT Technology Review, 12 September. Available at: https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/09/12/ml-weather/ (Accessed: 10 January 2024).
Organisation as author
World Health Organization (2023) Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance. Available at: https://www.who.int/antimicrobial-resistance/global-action-plan/en/ (Accessed: 15 February 2024).
In-text
(Smith, 2023) or (World Health Organization, 2023)
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Vancouver
Webpage
1. World Health Organization. Global action plan on antimicrobial resistance [Internet]. Geneva: WHO; 2023 [cited 2024 Jan 15]. Available from: https://www.who.int/antimicrobial-resistance/global-action-plan/en/
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19 vaccination: What everyone should know [Internet]. Atlanta: CDC; 2023 Nov 8 [updated 2023 Nov 8; cited 2024 Jan 5]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/keythingstoknow.html
Chicago Author-Date
Webpage
Smith, Jane A. 2023. "How Machine Learning Is Transforming Weather Forecasting." MIT Technology Review. September 12, 2023. https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/09/12/ml-weather/.
World Health Organization. 2023. "Global Action Plan on Antimicrobial Resistance." Accessed February 15, 2024. https://www.who.int/antimicrobial-resistance/global-action-plan/en/.
In-text
(Smith 2023) or (World Health Organization 2023)
MLA 9th Edition
Webpage
Smith, Jane A. "How Machine Learning Is Transforming Weather Forecasting." MIT Technology Review, 12 Sept. 2023, https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/09/12/ml-weather/. Accessed 10 Jan. 2024.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "COVID-19 Vaccination: What Everyone Should Know." CDC, 8 Nov. 2023, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/keythingstoknow.html. Accessed 5 Jan. 2024.
Special Cases
YouTube video
APA
3Blue1Brown. (2017, October 5). But what is a neural network? [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk
MLA
3Blue1Brown. "But What Is a Neural Network?" YouTube, 5 Oct. 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aircAruvnKk. Accessed 20 Jan. 2024.
No author, no date
| Style | No Author | No Date |
|---|
| APA | Start with title in italics | (n.d.) in place of year |
| Harvard | Use organisation or website name | (no date) in place of year |
| MLA | Alphabetise by title in Works Cited | Include access date; omit pub. date |
| Chicago | Title as first element | "Accessed Month Day, Year" |
| Vancouver | Organisation name or [No author] | [date unknown] or [cited year] |
Common Mistakes Citing Websites
- Using a proxy or database URL: use the direct page URL, not an on-campus library access link that expires
- Omitting the access date: most styles require an accessed date for web content — it proves what version you read
- Citing the homepage instead of the specific page: link to the exact article or page, not cdc.gov or who.int root
- Treating the website name as the author: if a person authored the page, cite them as the author; the website is the container or publisher
- Not recording the date before the page changes: save a screenshot or Wayback Machine snapshot when you cite time-sensitive content
Frequently Asked Questions
My source has no author at all. What do I do?
Use the organisation's name if one is clearly responsible for the content. If there is no identifiable organisation, use the page title. In APA in-text, a title in double quotes for a short work or italics for a longer one: ("Antibiotic Resistance," 2022). In Harvard: (World Health Organization, 2022). Never leave the author slot completely blank.
The page was updated — do I use the original date or the updated date?
Use the most recent updated date if that is the version you read. If the page shows both a published and a last-updated date, use the last-updated date. For APA, format it as: (2023, November 8). This reflects the version of the content you actually cited.
Should I use a short URL or the full URL?
Always use the full direct URL to the specific page — never a shortened URL (bit.ly, tinyurl.com) in an academic citation. Shortened URLs hide the destination and can expire. The full URL lets readers verify where the content lives.
Is a government website a reliable source?
Generally yes — government health agencies (CDC, NHS, WHO), standards bodies (NIST, ISO), and national statistical agencies are considered authoritative sources for the data and guidance they publish. However, they are not peer-reviewed in the same way academic journals are. For clinical or scientific claims, prefer a peer-reviewed journal article wherever one exists.