Common mistakes when creating a Webpage reference

Webpages are one of the most common references types you can create for your papers. While, the information included in a webpage reference is pretty straight-forward, there are a few common mistakes we see students make.

How can there be a mistake?

Using PERRLA's reference search feature makes it easy to quickly grab a webpage's bibliographic information.

When you enter a URL into the Reference Look Up, PERRLA will look at the webpage's information and automatically pull any of the bibliographic data provided by the website itself. HOWEVER, the accuracy of that data is dependent on the website itself.

If a website doesn't enter its information correctly, it may be passed to PERRLA incorrectly as well. That's why PERRLA always shows a preview of the Reference data to users before creating the reference. This is your chance to check the reference information provide by the website matches the information of the reference itself.

Here are some things you can be sure to check for your next webpage reference.

Journal Article vs Webpage

One of the most common mistakes we see is when searching for Journal Articles using the URL of the article instead of a DOI.

While PERRLA is able to identify many online journals as Journal Reference types from their URL, there are times when journal articles may be mistakenly identified as a webpage. This is important because Journal references and Webpage references italicize opposite parts of the reference.

When you search for a reference with a URL or DOI, the first question in the form allows you to make sure the correct reference type is selected. You can change the reference type PERRLA will create between the four most common types of references: books, journal articles, webpages, and gray literature.

As you change the reference type, PERRLA will automatically adjust the reference's information to fit into any corresponding fields for the new reference type.

Missing Contributors

Contributors for a reference are the individuals or organizations responsible for creating the content on a webpage. In many cases this would be individual authors or organizations.

If an organization (not an individual person) is responsible for creating the page's content, then the organization should be listed as a Group Author in the contributor field.

A good example of this would be any article by the CDC, which never has a direct author listed. The group author should be listed as "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," with CDC as the abbreviation in the appropriate spot. 

Tip: If the group author is the same as the website name, be sure to add the information in both fields. PERRLA will handle formatting the reference correctly for your selected format.

Title Capitalization

While PERRLA tries to correct the capitalization of page tiles and site names, there are many proper words or names that may be missed.

PERRLA provides capitalization guidance in both the Page Title and the Site Name fields. A quick glance at capitalization can really help make sure you're creating your reference with accurate information.

Retrieval Date

The best kind of date for any reference is its publication date. However, webpages may also include the date you accessed (or retrieved) the information as well.
You should only include a retrieval date in addition to a publication date if the website you are accessing may change on a frequent basis. A good example of this would be Wikipedia pages or pages with content about ongoing events.

For some formats, even if the page changes frequently, a publication date will always override the retrieval date anyways.