# Citing online references

Wm. Beasley (wab@nptn.org)
Mon, 18 Oct 1993 08:34:05 CDT

- Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
- Next message: Simon E Spero: "Re: <'s for URLs"
- Previous message: Christopher McRae: "Re: Other approaches to the URN question..."

    Message-Id: <199310181334.AA23655@library.ucsf.edu>

    Date:         Mon, 18 Oct 1993 08:34:05 CDT

    From: "Wm. Beasley" <wab@nptn.org>

    Subject:      Citing online references

    To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.bitnet>

Please respond directly to the author, not PACS-L. Thanks, Dana

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
As I begin to have my classes use the Internet, an issue which increasingly
rears its head is that of how to cite information found online in a
reference list at the end of a paper or stack. A list follows of examples I
need to know how to cite.... at the very least, I could use a suggested
format I might pass on to my students. Even better would be a formal
reference somewhere to lend legitimacy to the format suggested. The list:
1. A listserv bulletin (e.g. a PACS-L announcement of the Internet Hunt)
2. A Usenet newsgroup posting (e.g. answer to a tech support question)
3. A file resident on a Gopher (e.g. a local "about this gopher" document)
4. A community computer system file (e.g. "About the Cleveland Free-Net")
5. A commercial computer system file (e.g.a document permanently posted in
a Compuserve data library within a SIG)
6. A reference located in a WAIS search (e.g.a review from within an online
database of software reviews)
7. A reference located in a file obtained via anonymous ftp (e.g.the README
file to accompany a piece of freeware)
8. A reference found in WWW (e.g. "About the World Wide Web")

One must bear in mind, of course, that many of these do not exist in any
paper form, and that some of the access methodologies may obscure the
actual physical location of the original electronically stored file.
Nonetheless, it seems that in order to legitimize this type of access more
thoroughly we must be able to cite and replicate it in some fashion.

My apologies if I'm the only one who doesn't know this... reply directly
via email, please; will summarize to PACS-L if sufficient interest. Thanks.

Wm. Beasley
Cleveland State University

- Next message: Simon E Spero: "Re: <'s for URLs"
- Previous message: Christopher McRae: "Re: Other approaches to the URN question..."