Citing Internet Resources: Full-Text Databases

So you've found an article on Expanded Academic Index, on Business Index, or another WebPALS periodicals database. Now what? Because full-text articles provided through online databases are a relatively new format, most style manuals have only limited suggestions for citation forms. The following illustrations are based on Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information [Ref/PN/171/.F56/L5/1996]. This book gives suggested citation formats for both MLA and APA styles.

MLA Style

Basic Format:

Author last name, First name. "Article Title." Journal Volume number.Issue number (year):

     Number of pages or paragraphs, or n. pag (no pagination). Medium. Supplier. Database

     name. Item or accession number if present. Access date.

Example:

Klarer, Mario. "Orality and Literacy as Gender-Supporting Structures in Margaret Atwood's

     'The Handmaid's Tale'". Mosaic 28.4 (1995): 129-143. Online. WebPALS:

      Expanded Academic Index. 12 Dec. 1997.

APA Style

Basic Format:

Author last name, First name. (Year). Title. Journal [Type of medium], volume(issue, if

     given), paging if given, or other indication of length. Available: Supplier/Database Name

     [Access date day month year].

Example:

McGraw, Dan. (1997). All technology is real: Online information services take aim at

               newspapers. U.S. News & World Report [Online], 123, 43-46. Available: WebPALS:

               Expanded Academic Index [12 December 1997].

  Back to Library Internet Instruction

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http://www.mnstate.edu/library/instruct/FullTextDB.htm
Last updated 11/24/99

goodmanb@mnstate.edu