Now for the bad news. The number and use of e-documents available on the Net has increased so rapidly that style authorities have been hard-pressed to meet the challenge. Although the American Psychological Association (APA) and Modern Language Association (MLA) have recently (spring 1995) issued new style manuals that address e-documents, their coverage is slight and the manuals have not been available for review. On the other hand, the Chicago Manual of Style (14th edition), the Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources, the National Library of Medicine Recommended Formats for Bibliographic Citation (NLM), and Xia Li and Nancy B. Crane, Electronic Style, have been available for some time. Yet all have problems.

Below are examples based upon these sources; where there are no exact examples for e-documents, analogies to print style are offered.

Go to

• APA style
• Chicago Manual
• Government Information
• Li and Crane
• MLA style
• NLM style

• APA Format (via University of Wisconsin)
• APA Style for Referencing Srouces (via Buffalo State)

Analogy from ink-on-paper style.
Within the text of your document use the author-date method, e.g., (Hoemann, 1995). At the conclusion of the document, list in alphabetical order (by author) all references cited:

Example: One author (multipart)

Hoemann, G. H. (1995). Electronic Citation--Examples by Authority. Electronic Style...the Final Frontier. Http://web.utk.edu/~hoemann/style.html

Example: Two authors (multipart)

Hoemann, G. H., & Bloggs, Joseph (1995). From net to Net. Evolution of the Internet. Http://web.utk.edu/~bloggs/evolution.html

Example: One author (one file)

Hoemann, G. H. (1995) Electronic Style...the Final Frontier. Http://web.utk.edu/~hoemann/style.html

Example: Two authors (one file)

Hoemann, G. H., & Bloggs, Joseph (1995). Whatever Happened to Paper?. Http://web.utk.edu/~bloggs/whatever.html

The Chicago Manual of Style, Fourteenth Edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993), notes the rapid increase of e-documents and follows the guidelines of the ISO (International Standards Organization): discretion is allowable in choosing punctuation to separate elements of the citation, but internal consistency is vital (see pp. 633-34).

No links found to the Chicago Manual online

Information from an online service (e.g., Dialog)(in the manner of rule 15.422)

Hoemann, George H., et al. The Wonderful World of the Net. Des Moines: Iowa Center for Electronic Education, September 1994. 104, Dialog, ERIC, ED 29950.

Electronic Documents: (online database)(in the manner of 15.424)

George Hoemann, "Figuring Out the Net," in Netwire [database online] (Chicago: Net Wire, 1993- [updated 11 March 1994; cited 20 April 1994]), accession no. 0006783; NO=NW356; 7 screens; available from DIALOG Information Services, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.

or;

Hoemann, George H. "Figuring Out the Net." In Netwire [database online]. Chicago: Net Wire, 1993- [updated 11 March 1994; cited 20 April 1994]), accession no. 0006783; NO=NW356. 7 screens. Available from DIALOG Information Services, Inc., Palo Alto, Calif.

Electronic Bulletin Boards/Listservs

"Where is it Now?," in Netnews Log7764 [electronic bulletin board], s.l. 1 September 1993-; [cited 1 April 1995], available from listserv @ UBVM.BITNET

or:

"Where is it Now?." In Netnews Log7764 [electronic bulletin board]. S.l. 1 September 1993-; [cited 1 April 1995]. Available from listserv @ UBVM.BITNET

Diane L. Garner and Diane H. Smith, The Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources (Bethesda, MD: Congressional Information Service, 1993), give this general rule: "Always provide as much information as you can about an electronic source. The goal is to provide as much information as you can accurately supply that will help the reader locate the exact source cited." (151)

To this end Garner and Smith suggest clarity of punctuation (151-152), and note the differences between "electronic parts" and "electronic sources."

No links found to Complete Guide to Citing Government Information Resources online

Electronic part--1--Author and Title

Hoemann, George H. "Counting up URLS" (File name: X5503.txt; 12/4/94;34016 bytes).

Electornic part--2--Title of Whole

Text from: Netwire (on-line database). Referenced: 12/9/94, 4:13p.m. EST

Electronic Source

Available on: The International Bulletin Board (electronic bulletin board). Acme Publishing Company, Chicago.

Email

Hoemann, George (HOEMANN@UTKVX.UTK.EDU). Subject: Electronic Style (Electronic mail). Message to: Gretchen Whitney (GWHITNEY@UTKVX.UTK.EDU), Jan. 15, 1995.

Message to Listserv

Hoemann, George H. Subject: Raining On My Page (Electronic mail). Message to: UTKSIS-L Discussion List (UTKSIS-L@UTKVM1.Bitnet), Mar. 7, 1995.

To date, Xia Li and Nancy B. Crane, Electronic Style: A Guide to Citing Electronic Information

Links to discussion and reviews of Li and Crane

• PACS-L review
• More reviews

Li and Crane suggested formats.

An Entire Work

Basic form

Author. (date). Title (edition), [type of medium]. Availability

Example One: No author

Network Handbook [Online]. (1994, December). Available: DIALOG/Internet File: (INF7)

Example Two: One author

Hoemann, G. (1995) Hitchhiking on the Net, [Online]. Available FTP: stop.the.insanity Directory: pub/text/1995 File: hitchhiking

Example Three: More than one author

Hoemann, G., Spock, V., Picard, J. L. (1994, August) Where Were You When the Universe Blinked-Out? [Online]. Available e-mail: FLEETHQ@UFP.GOV.BITNET Message: Get WWW0023.TXT-1

Parts of a Work

Basic form

Author. (date). Title. In Source (edition), [type of medium]. Availability

Example One: No author

Tennessee Walker. (1987). In All the World's a Paddock (3rd ed.), [Online]. Available: Knowledge Index File: All the World's a Paddock (FILE3)

Example Two: One author

Hoemann, G. (1987). Chapter I: The Shock of War. In What God Hath Wrought: The Embodiment of Freedom in the Thirteenth Amendment, [Online]. Available: FTP: stop.the insanity Directory: pub/text/1987 File: whatgod1.txt

Example Three: More than one author

Hoemann, G., Bloggs, Joseph. (1993). How to Escape the Brain-Drain. In The Survivor's Guide to Graduate School, [Online]. Available: URL: http://web.utk.edu/~bloggs/howto.html

E-messages

Basic form (varies with forum)

Author of message. (year, month, day). Subject of message. Electronic Conference of BBS [Online]. Availability

Example: Listserv

Hoemann, G. (1994, October 15). Favorite Movies. UTKSIS-L Discusssion List [Online]. Available e-mail: UTKSIS-L@UTKVM!.BITNET

Example: Usenet

Hoemann, G. (1995, March 11). American Civil War Homepage [Discussion], [Online]. Available: e-mail:USENET newsgroup: alt.war.civil.usa

Example: Email

Hoemann, G. (1995, April 29). About Last Night... [e-mail to J. Bloggs],[Online]. Avaiable e-mail: BLOGGS@UTKVX,UTK.EDU

Links to MLA online style suggestions

• Suggested MLA e-document formats
• Style Manual--MLA (via University of Illinois)
• MLA Handbook: Discussion
• MLA Style (via Purdue University)

Analogy from ink-on-paper style.
Within the text of your document use the author-page method, e.g., (Hoemann 133); (Hoemann and Myers 2) if the browser provides pagination. If not, use author-URL. With no author, use the first word of the title as it will appear in the list of references at the end of the work ("Drugs" 31) or ("Drugs" URL).

Example: One author

Hoemann. George H. Liberty is No Negation: Slavery and the Thirteenth Amendment. Http://web.utk.edu/~hoemann/liberty.html

Example: Two or three authors

Hoemann, George H., and Joseph Bloggs. Remembering the Good Times. Http://web.utk.edu/~bloggs/remember.html

Example: More than three authors

Hoemann, George H., et al. The Decline of the Library. Http://web.utk.edu/~hoemann/decline.html

Example: Part of a whole

Hoemann, George H. "Electronic Style--Examples by Authority." Electronic Style...the Final Frontier, http://web.utk.edu/~hoemann/style.html

Karen Patrias, National Library of Medicine Recommended Formats for Bibliogrpahic Citation (Bethesda, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1991), addresses style quetsions regarding bulletin boards services, online databases, and email.

Online Databases

The base information includes title, type of medium, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, frequency of publication, and availability.

Example: Citation for an entire database

TREK [database online]. San Francisco (CA): UFP Productions; 1969- . Updated monthly. Available from: UFP Pruductions; DIALOG Information Services, Inc., Palo Alto, CA.

Example: Citation for part of a database

WARPROJ [database online]. Chicago (IL). Illinois Historical Soceity; 1987-1994 [updated 1994 Nov 27; cited 1994 Dec 4]. Illinois Federalized Militia Units in Tennessee; identifier:WP/94/76/ILLTN; [300 lines]. Available from: Illinois Historical Society, Chicago, IL.

Electronic Bulletin Boards

Example: Citation for an entire Bulletin Board

NETNUTS BBS [electronic bulletin board]. [New York (NY)]: Unwired Publishers; 1993- . Available from: 800-555-5555.

Example: Contribution to a bulletin board

Hoemann, George. This Citation Thing. In: NETNUTS [electronic bulletin board]. [New York (NY)]: Unwired Publishers; [1994 Nov 11; cited 1995 Jan 3, 10:17 pm]. Main Bulletin; [4 screens].

Email

Example: email message

Hoemann, George. Stuff. Message to: Margaret Casado. In: SprintMail [electronic mail system]. [Reston (VA)]: Spring International. 1995 Mar 28, 6:17 am; Message No.:FGJH-1234-9850; [17 lines].

The examples given above show how variant are the suggested approaches to e-documents. Despite the differences, each style guide attempts to do the same thing: point the reader in the right direction to secure a copy of the original information source. To that end it is well to repeat the observation made above by Garner and Smith:

Always provide as much information as you can about an electronic source. The goal is to provide as much information as you can accurately supply that will help the reader locate the exact source cited.