Tip of the month from PRC
June 1997

How do you cite URLs in a bibliography?

Issued 2 June 1997
Minor revision: 14 july 1997

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Tip of the month is edited by Peter Ring, PRC (Peter Ring Consultants, Denmark)
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This month's tip was inspired by and includes parts of (with permission) a mail from Cees de Bondt <cbon@pi.net>, AlQuin Business Engineering Amstelveen, Home of CoBrA - NL, http://www.pi.net/~cbon/ = "The Quality Homepage" (worth visiting if you are interested in quality management).

Why is citation of URLs different from other citations?

Very simply - because a webpage may change every day, leaving no trace of its past!

This is the crucial point and a really severe problem:

because most webpages changes fairly often,
and few of them are kept in history records with all versions:

If you have given a reference, you can't be sure that when your reader wants to read/check it ...

if it's still available at all,
it hasn't been changed.

This is a natural part of the dynamic nature of the Internet. From a conservative viewpoint of rock hard documenting it is certainly a weakness. But in driving the World ahead, it is certainly a big advantage: you can ...

correct your failures,
put something out, and then polish it afterwards, based on the reactions from your readers (like I did with the May '97 tip of the month).

For me to see, there are three possible solutions to this problem:

The big centralised solution: "The International Library for Back Issues of Scientifically Interesting Webpages" (here called "TILBISIW"). It will be huge, and who is to decide what to include. Honestly, I don't think it'll work - but it's the way libraries basically think.
The smaller centralised solution. Whenever you make a citation, you must either - make a copy of that webpage with all graphics, and send it to TILBISIW, which uploads it in their citation database website. or (probably better) - first request TILBISIW to make a copy of it, and then make a reference to both TILBISIW's reference-ID and the original URL. This could work - if somebody is willing to pay for it.
The decentralised solution: the person who makes a citation should (offer to) keep a copy of the cited webpage, which could then at least be e-mailed to interested readers.

Conclusion

At least until solution 1 or 2 has been implemented (if that ever happens), the decentralised solution (3) is the only practical solution if - in the individual case (!?) - there is a need for the reader to check the reference. Please also note, that web refs are VERY easy to amend maliciously and falsify, unless you have a TILBISIW!

May be we should put it up to somebody who will work for the creation of TILBISIW (or whatever they will call it)?

Recommendation

The author who includes the citation must keep a copy of the page ...

On his/her own website, or
Be willing to send it by e-mail on request.

Literature & A Suggested Solution

This list is produced by Cees de Bondt.

There are quite a few paper references on the topic, e.g.:

Patrias K. National Library of Medicine recommended formats for bibliographic citation. NIH, Bethesda MD. 1991.
The Chicago manual of style. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1993.
Scientific style and format, 6th ed. Cambridge University Press, UK. 1994
Instructions for authors in journals.
Joseph Gibaldi and Walter S. Achtert. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 3rd ed. NY: MLA, 1988.
Xia Li and Nancy Crane. Electronic Style: A Guide to Citing Electronic Information. Westport: Meckler, 1993.

However each of them gives different solutions, of which I derived this generic format:

Author(s) [year]. Page title. Document title [kind of medium] issue date; address/source. Availability data [visiting date]

Examples:

On Web pages:
Stoddard M. [1995]. AHSL Educational Services -- draft. [web page] Feb 1995; http://amber.medlib.arizona.edu/homepage.html [16 Mar 1995]

Usenet references:
Stoddard M. (1995). How do you cite URL's in a bibliography? [usenet posting] 16 Mar 1995 .- comp.infosystems.www.users. No archive known. [17 Mar 1995]

FTP files:
Bruckman, Amy [1994]. Approaches to Managing Deviant Behavior in Virtual Communities [ftp file] Aug 1994 .- ftp:// ftp.media.mit.edu /pub/asb/papers/deviance-chi94 (4 Dec1994)

Telnet sessions:
Gomes, Lee [1992]. Xerox's On-Line Neighborhood: A Great Place to Visit [telnet file] Mercury News 3 May 1992 .- telnet:// lambda.parc.xerox.com 8888, @go #50827, press 13 (5 Dec 1994)

GOPHER files:
Quittner, Joshua [1993]. Far Out: Welcome to Their World Built of MUD [gopher file] Published in Newsday, 7 Nov. 1993 .- gopher://gopher /University of Koeln/About MUDs, MOOs and MUSEs in Education/Selected Papers/newsday (5 Dec 1994).

If you disagree with these ideas - or have other relevant points, experiences, or ideas +/-, please e-mail me !

Ideas for new "Tip of the month" subjects are very welcome, too!