Hi friends, I have referenced direct quotes from website in some places in my thesis. Since it is online, I do not have page number ! How do I reference it?

"....................................." (Wendi [Online version], 2003) --> This is how have done until now. Sups never commented on it but now bit worried if it is wrong. In some occasions, there is no year as well. Since there is no information available on hard copy (from my country), there is no way I can escape from some of these materials online. Please suggest !

Hi Swetchha,

I'd just use '(Wendi, 2003)' within the text. If there's no year I'd use 'n.d.' and add the usual 'Retrieved *DATE*...' on references. What refencing style do you use?

Thanks, Skig. If that was not the direct quote, I would have no worries. What do you mean by within text? Are these examples correct as you suggested?

"There are three apples on the tree" (Wendy, 2003) - if year available
"There are four apples on the ground" (Mandy, n.d.) - if no date available
"There are five apples on the table" (Sandy, 5 October 2011) - retrieved date

I chose APA 5th in EndNote. My Uni does not specify the one. Sups had not complained about the style yet...they look happy. Which one do you think is the best in Social Science? I am in UK Uni.
Thanks, Swetch

To butt in...:$

"There are three apples on the tree" (Wendy, 2003) - if year available
"There are four apples on the ground" (Mandy, n.d.) - if no date available
"There are five apples on the table" (Sandy, 5 October 2011) - retrieved date

1 and 2 seem fine to me as in-text references. What Skig meant, at least how I interpreted it, was that 'retrieved date' etc is for your final bibliography. So in the full bib, you put in as much info as possible with the entry and then if it's a website, the website address, link and then 'retrieved date' (I actually use 'Available at [link], 'accessed on' [date] but the main thing is as much info as possible. I would think if you use n.d. more than 2 or 3 times in your thesis, you will have to put in some explanation about the dearth of data. However, if you can't find when a site was last updated that usually signifies trouble, or at best that's it not that reliable.

If your uni doesn't state a style, I would pick one and stick with it. I'm not doubting you, or maybe I am (!!) but are you sure that your dept/uni doesn't have a referencing style guide? Most departments are pretty picky about referencing styles.

Hi Ady,

Thank you so much for more clarification. My university guideline says "It is also useful to decide at an early stage on one of the conventions for
giving references (your supervisor will help with this, if you are not familiar with them), so that everything you write follows the convention you have settled on. " but does not say any particular one to select. I did discuss with sups in early stages as well as recently, they do not have problem with the one I chose. I wish they had the specific one ! Swetch

I'm in the social sciences and I use Harvard. Lots of uni Harvard guidelines available online
http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm - just one of many. I agree it would be easier
if your uni just stipulated what they want.

Thank you so much, Ady. It is very useful. I wish my Uni also uses something like this. Since I have already entered references in EndNote, selecting Harvard would do if I want to use it. I selected APA 5th as I liked the output style & also found its output similar to other PhD thesis references in my Dept. My EndNote output style only shows Harvard (Category Science). Is there any other output Harvard (Social Science) so that it would be easier for me to just switch to Harvard style? Thanks once again. Swetch

Ady is right, I meant the retrieved date to go on your referencing section and examples 1 and 2 to be used in the actual content of the chapter. Personally, I wouldn't switch references halfway through as consistency is one of the things that is looked at and changing referencing style would mean that you have to change it everywhere (plus I like APA8-)).

This website is great: http://www.usq.edu.au/library/help/referencing/apa#journals - it uses the latest edition of APA though (6th and not the 5th). Not many changes have been made so still a good source imo.

I used APA 5th. I had a couple of websites as references in my thesis. I told endnote they were websites, and then let it decide how to display them in the text and in the referece section.

In text them came up as (Author, date) Though in the case of these I put the organisation as there wasn't a single author. In my case this becaue (The American College of Rheumatology, 1999).

Thanks, catalinbond. The problem with APA 5th is if I select web page and there is no name of the author, I put name of the organisation such as Aussie Press Freedom in Author's box and it comes very strangely. If I put in in Publisher box, it does not display. So, I just did manually i.e. According to Aussie Press Freedom (2012), "press freedom is important to all of us". Do you use direct quote from web site like this?? Thanks, Swetch

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I don't have a single direct quote in my thesis so can't help on that bit. Is there any way you could avoid having to direct quote to get round the lack of page numbers?
It was a few months ago now so I cna't fully remeber where I put the organisation name. I definitely had it in endnote as a website. I'll have to check. Otherwise I wouldn't worry too much on it. I don't think the examiners even looked at the references in my thesis! (probably other to check that there names were there :p )

Thank you so much, catalinbond. I am paraphrasing some of the direct quotes from web site...seems the problem will get solved with this. Indeed, as everyone suggested, I would stick to whatever I have at the moment - the department confirmed that if I maintain consistency, no problem whatever style I select. All of yr suggestions are eye opening to me.

Thank you !! Swetch