What Information Do You Need?
- Author: a named person, or more often an organisation such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO) or a professional society.
- Date: the publication date, or the "last reviewed" or "last updated" date shown on the page.
- Title of the page, not just the name of the website.
- Website name, when it differs from the author.
- URL: copy the address of the exact page you used.
- Date you accessed it, which some styles always require and others only need in certain cases.
Illustrative examples. Page titles, dates and addresses below are placeholders. The organisation names are real, but the pages are not, so always copy the details from your own source. Follow your program's style requirements and academic-integrity policy where they differ from what you see here.
APA 7th Edition: Web Pages
Page by an organisation (author is also the website)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2025, March 14). Hand hygiene in healthcare settings. https://www.cdc.gov/xxxxx
Page on a different site from its author
Riverbend Health System. (2024, November 8). Preparing for your surgery: A patient guide. Riverbend Patient Education Library. https://www.example.org/xxxxx
Page that changes over time (retrieval date)
World Health Organization. (n.d.). Page title in sentence case. Retrieved March 14, 2026, from https://www.who.int/xxxxx
In-text
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2025) or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2025) recommends…
On the first citation of a group author with a well-known abbreviation, write the name out with the abbreviation in the parenthetical citation, for example (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2025). Later citations can use (CDC, 2025). APA 7th does not put "Retrieved from" before a URL unless the page is meant to change over time and no archived version exists.
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AMA 11th Edition: Web Pages
AMA always includes the date you accessed the page. Include the publication date and the date it was last updated when the page gives them.
Page by an organisation
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hand hygiene in healthcare settings. Published March 14, 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026. https://www.cdc.gov/xxxxx
Page on a different site, with an update date
2. Riverbend Health System. Preparing for your surgery: a patient guide. Riverbend Patient Education Library. Published November 8, 2024. Updated February 2, 2025. Accessed September 8, 2026. https://www.example.org/xxxxx
Vancouver: Web Pages
Vancouver (NLM style) marks a web source as an internet source and puts the date you cited it in square brackets.
Page by an organisation
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Hand hygiene in healthcare settings [Internet]. Atlanta (GA): Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; 2025 [cited 2026 Sep 8]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/xxxxx
Page with an update date
2. Riverbend Health System. Preparing for your surgery: a patient guide [Internet]. Riverbend (WA): Riverbend Health System; 2024 Nov 8 [updated 2025 Feb 2; cited 2026 Sep 8]. Available from: https://www.example.org/xxxxx
Harvard: Web Pages
Harvard differs from school to school. This is the common pattern, and it always includes the access date.
Page by an organisation
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2025) Hand hygiene in healthcare settings. Available at: https://www.cdc.gov/xxxxx (Accessed: 8 September 2026).
In-text
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2025)
MLA 9th and Chicago Author-Date
MLA 9th
"Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 Mar. 2025, www.cdc.gov/xxxxx. Accessed 8 Sept. 2026.
Chicago author-date (17th ed.)
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2025. "Hand Hygiene in Healthcare Settings." Last modified March 14, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/xxxxx.
MLA leaves out the author when an organisation is both the author and the website's publisher, and starts with the page title. The access date is optional in MLA but useful for pages that change.
No Author, No Date, Updated Pages and Retrieval Dates
| Situation | What to do |
|---|
| No individual author | Use the organisation as the author. If there is no organisation either, APA moves the page title into the author position, and AMA and Vancouver start with the title. |
| No date | APA: (n.d.). Harvard: (no date) or (n.d.), depending on your guide. AMA and Vancouver: leave the publication date out and give the access date. Check your program for any preferred wording. |
| Page was updated | Use the most recent date the page shows. AMA and Vancouver can also record the update date. |
| Retrieval or access date | APA: only when the content is designed to change and is not archived (add "Retrieved Month Day, Year, from URL"). AMA, Vancouver and Harvard: always. |
| Page is a PDF | If it is a formal report or guideline, treat it as one. See how to cite a government report and how to cite a clinical practice guideline. |
Social media and organisation posts
Cite a post only when the post itself is what you are discussing, such as a health agency's public statement. For a claim about care or outcomes, go to the guidance behind the post. In APA the pattern is below, where the description in brackets tells the reader what kind of source it is.
Organisation or Author Name [@handle]. (Year, Month Day). First 20 words of the post [Post]. Platform Name. URL
Is This Web Source Good Enough to Cite?
Being easy to find does not make a page suitable for a nursing paper. Before you cite it, ask these questions.
- Who is responsible? A national health agency, a professional society, a university or a hospital is a stronger source than an anonymous page or a commercial site.
- How current is it? Look for a published or reviewed date, and check that the guidance has not been replaced by something newer.
- Where does it get its facts? Good pages point to studies, guidelines or data you can follow.
- Why does the page exist? Selling a product or promoting a viewpoint should make you more careful, whatever the web address ends in.
- Is it the right kind of source for the job? A patient-education page is a good source when your topic is patient teaching or health literacy. To support a claim about effectiveness, use peer-reviewed research or a clinical practice guideline instead.
Web addresses ending in .gov, .edu or .org tell you little by themselves. Judge the page, not the suffix. Your assignment may also restrict web sources, so read the rubric first.
Quick Comparison
| Element | APA 7th | AMA 11th | Vancouver | Harvard |
|---|
| Page title | Italic | Plain | Plain, followed by [Internet] | Italic |
| Access date | Only for changing pages | Always (Accessed) | Always [cited] | Always (Accessed) |
| URL label | None | None | Available from: | Available at: |
| In text | (Author, Year) | Superscript number | Number in order of citation | (Author, Year) |
Common Mistakes
- Citing only the home page when you used a specific page.
- Writing "Google" or the name of a search engine as the source.
- Forgetting the access date in AMA, Vancouver or Harvard.
- Adding "Retrieved from" to every APA web reference out of habit.
- Citing a patient handout as if it were peer-reviewed evidence.
- Relying on a page with no date, no author and no sources.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I use the copyright year at the bottom of the page?
Only if there is nothing better. Prefer the date the page was published or last reviewed. A footer copyright year usually covers the whole site.
What if the page has been updated since I used it?
Cite the version you read and give the date shown on it. AMA, Vancouver and Harvard access dates tell the reader when you saw that version.
Do I cite a page I read on a hospital intranet?
Internal policies are usually not open to your readers. Ask your instructor how to reference them, and be careful not to include confidential or identifying information.
Can I cite a website in a paper that uses mostly journal articles?
Yes. Agency and society pages are often the right source for definitions, statistics and official positions. Just make sure each one passes the credibility questions above.