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How Should I Cite Resources on this Web Site?

One of the questions most frequently asked of our Web site is how to cite the resources served there. This is not an easy question to answer, as there are many conflicting suggestions about how to cite Internet resources. This problem will become even more significant in the future as more information is published on the Internet and as use of the Internet increases.

To make the task of citing our resources easier, we have created a citation for each of the resources on this site. You may use this exact citation or you may modify it to suit your needs to some extent, but not completely. Suggested citations follow standards proposed by the Modern Language Association (MLA).

Most of the resources on our site are based on published papers. However, the Web versions of these resources may differ somewhat from the previously published versions. For that reason, we consider the Web versions to be new editions of the printed publications. If you are citing the Web version of a resource, we recommend that you follow our citation format. We also give the citation of the printed version of the resource. If you would rather cite it, we recommend that you check the printed version to verify that it contains the information you are citing.

Some of the resources on this site are not based on previously printed material. For these, you should model your citation after the information provided on the opening page of the resource.

Below is a sample citation.

This resource is based on the following source (Northern Prairie Publication 0766):

Sargeant, Alan B., Raymond J. Greenwood, Marsha A. Sovada, and Terry L. Shaffer.  1993.  Distribution and abundance of predators that affect duck production - Prairie Pothole Region.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Resource Publication 194. 96pp.

This resource should be cited as:

Sargeant, Alan B., Raymond J. Greenwood, Marsha A. Sovada, and Terry L. Shaffer.  1993.  Distribution and abundance of predators that affect duck production - Prairie Pothole Region.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Resource Publication 194.  Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center Online.  http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/others/predator/predator.htm (Version 29MAR97).

Note that the new citation includes most of the original citation, as well as additional information indicating that you are citing an Internet resource.

  1. Publisher Information.  The location and publisher of this edition is Jamestown, ND: Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center.
  2. Location.  The exact Internet address of the title page of the resource is given.
  3. Version.  Every time we change a resource, we will give it a new version number. This version number coincides with the date of the modification.