Harvard Referencing for Electronic Sources

FAQs & Troubleshooting

I can’t find a guideline for the source I want to cite

As information formats and technolgies are changing rapidly, standards and conventions for citing many electronic sources have not yet been formalised by style authorities. If there is no specific guideline for a particular electronic source, base your citation on an existing guideline.

What is the 'accessed' date?

The date on which you viewed or downloaded the source. As web-based materials can change or disappear at any time, you must cite the date on which you accessed the information.

I need to cite a website and don’t know where to look for 'bibliographic' information

Finding bibilographic information (author, date, publishing information etc) for printed sources like books is relatively easy; the required details are usually on the first few pages. With electronic sources, finding the relevant information is not always so straightforward. You may need to look a little harder and be resourceful.

How do I find the author of a webpage?

If authorship of a site or web page is ascribed to an individual, then cite them as author. If you can’t see a specific named author, then identify the organisation that published the information. In such cases, ascribe authorship to the smallest identifiable organisational unit.

To find this information:

• scroll down to the bottom of the webpage and look at the footer information.
• Look for an 'about' link.
• Look at the page header for organisational logos or other identification.
• If there is no information on the webpage you want to cite, go to the home page of the website and look for author information there.

Who is the publisher of a website?

The term publisher is used here to cover both the traditional idea of a publisher of printed sources, as well as organisations responsible for maintaining websites. In this case, look for the largest identifiable unit.

Finding the date on a webpage

• The date of publication is often provided in the footer area of the page with the author’s name.
• If a Web document includes both a creation date and the date it was last updated, cite only the ‘last updated’ date.
• If a web document has no date, check the site homepage. If a date is available there, cite that.
• If you are citing a wiki, check the history of the page and cite the date of the most recent revision.

How do I reference a source that lists no author?

When there is no author for an electronic source, the title moves to the first position of the reference entry. See the Table of Citations for an example.

What if a website has no date?

Use the abbreviation n.d. (no date) when the electronic publication date is not available. See the Table of Citations for an example.

TIP: Currency is important. If factual or statistical information is undated, don’t use it.

What if there's no author, publisher or date?

If you can’t find date, author or publisher information on a specific webpage, use any information available from the site's home page.

In the unlikely event that you can’t find any information, cite the url of the site as the author. However, if the sponsorship and authorship of a site can't be identified, think twice about using it for your research.

What about page numbers?

Many electronic resources have no page numbers. When they are not available, omit this information from your in-text citation.

In the case of electronic journal articles (those available in online form only) you can use section or paragraph numbers (please check with your tutor for their preferences). Sections of an article are divided by subheadings. For example:

(Morris 2004, sec. 3, par. 2)