How to Cite Something You Found on a Website in APA Style: What to Do When Information Is Missing
Reference template
What’s missing?
Solution
Position A
Position B
Position C
Position D
Retrieved from
http://URL
Nothing; I’ve got all the
pieces
n/a
Author, A.
(date).
Title of document [Format].
Author is missing
Substitute title for
the author
Title of document
[Format].
(date).
Retrieved from http://URL
Date is missing
Use “n.d.” for no
date
Author, A.
(n.d.).
Title of document [Format].
Retrieved from
http://URL
Title is missing
Describe the
document inside
square brackets
Author, A.
(date).
[Description of document].
Retrieved from
http://URL
Author and date are both
missing
Combine author
and date methods
Title of document
[Format].
(n.d.).
Retrieved from http://URL
Author and title are both
missing
Combine author
and title methods
[Description of
document].
(date).
Retrieved from http://URL
Date and title are both
missing
Combine date and
title methods
Author, A.
(n.d.).
[Description of document].
[Description of
document].
(n.d.).
Retrieved from http://URL
Author, date, and title are Combine all three
all missing
methods
Retrieved from
http://URL
Note. The basic reference template is made up of four pieces: author, date, title (with format in brackets if necessary), and source (the
URL). When one or more of these pieces is missing, use the method shown above to adapt the template. In-text citations use the pieces
from Position A and Position B (usually the author and date, but if there’s no author, then the title and date—more details available at
http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/web-page-no-author.aspx).
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