Question

I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out what type of publication I'm using and how to format a reference for it. For example, I used a definition of the NCLEX-RN from the NCBSN website, but when I was looking through my APA handbook, I didn't see a reference example or section for a website. Is it because what I used is considered an online journal article? Is there somewhere on the sites that I use for research that will tell me what type of publication I'm looking at?

Answer 1

The short answer is: Usually no. Most websites won't tell you anything in the way of citations. However, there are many reputable websites that provide you with proper citation. Example of such websites are: sciencedaily.com, worldcat.org, and the like.

Now, you can use a software to assist you in citations whenever it's possible. I know of a free and fantastic software that you can install, either as a Firefix add-on or stand-alone, that in many cases can generate proper citations based on the page or resource that you are looking at. It's a mature software and I have been using it for years without any problem. Its called Zotero and you can get it from www.zotero.org for free.

Zotero helps you capture the right information from a website, it has hundreds of citation standards that you can use, and it also has form for each captured article or website with fields that you can look into and decide to select if applicable (having a list of possible options might help you determine what material you are using a lot more easily).