articles from websites

10 Great Places to Find Articles Worth Reading on the Web

The Internet is arguably the best news morgue on the planet right now. And apart from that great collection of old articles, thousands of new ones are added every day.

The internet unquestionably has masses of content that is enjoyable to read. But there is also a fair amount of clickbait rubbish. How do you find interesting articles to read while avoiding all the low-effort ones?

Here are some of the best article reading sites to find thoughtful and engaging content.

1. Longform

Longform is an article curation service. It recommends both new and classic non-fiction articles from a variety of different online sources.

It encourages submissions from its engaged community of readers, thus giving rise to a diverse and delightful selection of interesting articles to read on any given day. Furthermore, it also accepts readers' own work, though the work has to pass through a strict editorial filter before it is recommended on the site.

The core focus of the Longform site is non-fiction, though a spinoff fiction service launched in 2012 has become perennially popular.

Although Longform retired its article recommendation service in September 2022, you can still check out the “Best Of” annual archive for a rich trove of suggestions from bygone years, or browse by sections to discover topics that interest you. The sections on this article reading site include Arts, Business, Crime, History, Politics, Science, Sports, Tech, and World.

2. Longreads

Another one of the most popular article reading sites is Longreads, a direct competitor of Longform. The different categories of articles you can dig into include food, crime, sports, current events, arts and culture, and more. On Longreads, a section called Shortreads if you prefer having short articles to read.

The site also produces its own stories (often revolving around gun violence, genocide, and environmental destruction), with the work funded by its membership pass. The membership costs $5/month and $50/year.

And in case you still doubt the quality of the work on Longreads, be aware that it has been nominated for four National Magazine Awards and has been highlighted as a quality source by both the Online News Association and the Peabody Awards.

3. The Browser

If you’re drowning from the mindless content on social media, finding interesting articles to read is one of the best things to do when you’re bored online . The Browser sifts through hundreds of articles every day to bring you the finest content from across the web in the form of a newsletter. All the content is handpicked.

The free newsletter itself offers five interesting articles to read per day, and subscribers will also get access to a daily podcast, a daily video, a daily quote, and more.

For this site, subscription plans start at $5/month and $48/year. It offers a free preview, so you can try out their service before you commit. The higher tier plans offer you a special letter from the editor every week, a unique merchandise item every year, and a spot on their London Amble Tour.

4. r/InDepthStories

Reddit has no shortage of enjoyable content posted across its thousands of Subreddits. But as any Reddit user will know, there is also an enormous number of poor submissions that you should not waste your time with. These tips to find your next favorite Subreddit will help you discover content you’ll love the most.

Now, to use Reddit as a good article reading site, you need to know where to look. If you are specifically keen on long-form journalism, you should subscribe to r/InDepthStories for interesting articles to read. It started life as a forum for investigative journalism, but has since grown to become a repo of all forms of high-quality long-form content.

Standards are kept high by the Subreddits mods, who rule with an iron fist. Anything that is not considered long-form will be removed, and they also do not allow political long-form articles. The ban on political content might seem Draconian, but it is done to keep the community civilized and make sure the comments on each article remain focused and thoughtful.

Pocket is best known as a read-it-later bookmarking service. By using browser extensions or mobile apps, you can save stories that pique your curiosity. Later, when you have the time, you can revisit these interesting articles to read and give them your full attention.

However, Pocket also offers a list of curated stories for you. Stories are partially sourced by the company's own editorial team, but are also pulled from the content that its users are saving most frequently on a given day.

The main section focuses on “essential reads”. However, there are also subcategories for topics such as business, career, education, self-improvement, tech, personal finance, science, food, health and fitness, entertainment, and more.

6. CoolTools: The Best Magazine Articles Ever

If you want to delve into some of the most iconic and memorable magazine articles of all time, check out The Best Magazine Articles Ever subsection of CoolTools. This article reading site is a great place to start your journey.

The list is based on suggestions by readers and is not vetted, but there is still a tremendous amount of fantastic and interesting articles for you to read and enjoy.

The best part is The Top 25 Articles list. It rounds up some of the best articles going back as far as the 1960s. Some of the pieces that have made the cut include 1996's Mother Earth, Mother Board: Wiring the Planet by Neal Stephenson in Wired, and 1971's Secrets of the Little Blue Box by Ron Rosenbaum in Esquire.

You can also use the filters to browse by decade. The 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 00s, and 2010s are all available.

Medium is a social journalism platform that launched back in 2012. As one of the most popular article reading sites on the internet, it offers content from a mix of professional journalists and writers, as well as amateur writers who want to discuss a topic in which they are an expert.

Users can subscribe to writers or topics that they are interested in to curate their own feed of relevant content, but Medium also offers browsable sections in case you want to digest something that is outside of your usual wheelhouse when you’re looking for interesting articles to read.

Although you can read some content for free, Medium is designed as a paid platform. It costs $5/month or $50/year, and you get unlimited access to every story with no ads or additional paywalls. Check out our article if you want to get started on Medium today .

Aeon is digital magazine that covers philosophy, science, psychology, society, and culture. The majority of Aeon's articles today are long essays. However, you can still find short articles to read in its archive as the magazine used to publish a category of content called Ideas.

Aeon is a registered charity and all the articles are free for everyone to read. There are no ads, and the organization promises that its content will never have a paywall. Therefore, you don't have to worry about subscriptions. The site only asks you to consider donating if you enjoy the published work and would like to help support them.

9. Nautilus

Nautilus is a great site to get your daily dose of science . You'll find articles on anthropology, neuroscience, the environment, sociology, astronomy, and many more.

Don't worry about being bombarded with jargon or dry facts, though. The content is written in a vivid style, along with gorgeous illustrations, so it feels as though you're being drawn into story after story on the site.

As a free user, you can only read a limited number of articles. The digital membership costs $9.99/month or $59/year. If you like reading and collecting physical copies, you can opt to subscribe to the digital and print membership, which costs $89/year.

10. MakeUseOf

Come on; you've got to let us have this shameless plug! If you want to read the best how-to articles, reviews, listicles, buying guides, and more, you're already in the right place. We’re the trusted article reading site to cover all your tech needs.

Make sure you also check out MakeUseOf’s YouTube channel for the latest insight into the world's newest gadgets. We also release an episode every week on The Really Useful Podcast to discuss tech news, as well as other tips and tricks!

Find the Best Article Reading Sites to Read More of What Matters

If you only read articles from the sites we've recommended and never visit another site again, you can be sure that you're going to become more educated, understand the world more fully, and avoid wasting your time on content that does not deserve your attention.

With new stories suggested almost every day, you’ll never run out of interesting articles to read. So, what are you waiting for? Start reading more today.

Browse Articles

Publisher correction: interim analyses of a first-in-human phase 1/2 mrna trial for propionic acidaemia.

• Dwight Koeberl
• Andreas Schulze
• Stephanie Grunewald

Mechanisms of actin filament severing and elongation by formins

• Nicholas J. Palmer
• Kyle R. Barrie
• Roberto Dominguez

Unlocking carbene reactivity by metallaphotoredox α-elimination

• Benjamin T. Boyle
• Nathan W. Dow
• David W. C. MacMillan

Author Correction: Restoration of vision after transplantation of photoreceptors

• R. A. Pearson
• A. C. Barber

‘Rainbow’, ‘like a cricket’: every bird in South Africa now has an isiZulu name

An effort to create names for wild bird species in the Indigenous language hopes to strengthen conservation research.

A huge outbreak of butterflies hit three continents — here’s why

Swarms of painted ladies that descended on the Middle East, northern Africa and Europe have been traced to their source.

Widespread horse-based mobility arose around 2,200 BCE in Eurasia

• Pablo Librado
• Gaetan Tressières
• Ludovic Orlando

Why female students at an inner London school are seeing scientists in a different light

Julie Gould describes what happened after showing 50 images of working scientists to a bunch of 12–13 year-olds.

• Julie Gould

I was denied tenure — how do I cope?

Researchers can work long and hard for a permanent academic position, only for their hopes to be dashed. Nature sought advice from three scientists who have experienced the same disappointment.

• Nikki Forrester

What’s the best way to tackle climate change? An ‘evidence bank’ could help scientists find answers

Sythensizing research on which policies are most effective is a key priority in climate science, advocates say.

• Helen Pearson

CERN’s $17-billion supercollider in question as top funder criticizes cost

Germany has raised doubts about the affordability of the Large Hadron Collider’s planned successor.

• Davide Castelvecchi

Do scientists make good presidents? How five national leaders performed

Following Mexico’s election result, Nature reviews the legacy of well-known politicians with backgrounds in science and engineering.

• Smriti Mallapaty
• Jeff Tollefson
• Carissa Wong

Structure and topography of the synaptic V-ATPase–synaptophysin complex

• Chuchu Wang
• Wenhong Jiang
• Axel T. Brunger

Author Correction: High-speed and large-scale intrinsically stretchable integrated circuits

• Donglai Zhong

China seeks global impact and recognition

The country’s lead in high-quality research looks set to shape the direction of world science.

• Simon Baker

AI finds huge cache of anti-bacterial peptides hidden in genomic data

Machine-learning technique uncovers nearly 900,000 microbe-fighting peptide sequences in genomes collected from soils and other sources.

These Neanderthal fire pits offer an extraordinarily precise snapshot of ancient life

Researchers used traces of Earth’s changing magnetic field in sediments to identify the activity of ancient humans.

• Ewen Callaway

A virally encoded high-resolution screen of cytomegalovirus dependencies

A genetic screen that expresses single guide RNA libraries targeting host genes in the human cytomegalovirus genome enables identification of host factors and provides insights into their roles during the viral replication cycle.

• Yaara Finkel
• Aharon Nachshon
• Noam Stern-Ginossar

A disease-associated gene desert directs macrophage inflammation through ETS2

ETS2 —which is associated with inflammatory bowel disease, ankylosing spondylitis, primary sclerosing cholangitis and Takayasu’s arteritis—is a central regulator of human inflammatory macrophages.

• C. T. Stankey

Profiling phagosome proteins identifies PD-L1 as a fungal-binding receptor

Proximity labelling of phagosomal contents is used to identify proteins that localize to phagosomes in host–microorganism interactions.

• Avradip Chatterjee
• David M. Underhill

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APA Citation Guide (7th edition) : Websites

• What Kind of Source Is This?
• Advertisements
• Books & eBooks
• Book Reviews
• Class Handouts, Presentations, and Readings
• Encyclopedias & Dictionaries
• Government Documents
• Images, Charts, Graphs, Maps & Tables
• Journal Articles
• Magazine Articles
• Newspaper Articles
• Personal Communication (Interviews, Emails)
• Social Media
• Videos & DVDs
• Paraphrasing
• Works Cited in Another Source
• No Author, No Date etc.
• Sample Paper, Reference List & Annotated Bibliography
• Powerpoint Presentations

On This Page

Page or section from a website created by a corporate or group author, page or section from a website created by an individual author, page or section from a website with an unknown author, report or document from a website – corporate or group author, government document from a website, in-text citation for two or more authors/editors, on the web but not a website.

Be careful! Just because you found something on the web, it doesn’t mean you are citing a website.

Look at the material closely – is it a journal article? A newspaper article? An encyclopedia? An eBook? Use the format that best describes the item. APA treats a source as a website only when it does not fit another category. 

Identifying the Elements of a Website

Citing source from websites can be challenging because they are not standardized in the same way as journal articles or books. This video from Valencia East Library walks you through the process with an example from the Centre for Disease Control website. 

How to Cite Webpages: APA 7th ed. from Valencia East Library on Vimeo .

It can sometimes be difficult to find out who the author of a website is. Remember that an author can be a corporation or group, not only a specific person. Author information can sometimes be found under an "About" section on a website.

If there is no known author, you can start the citation with the title of the website instead. However, APA tends to reserve this type of citation for a very small set of sources: for example, The Bible and some dictionaries and encyclopedias such as Wikipedia (which should not form a central part of your research). 

The best date to use for a website is the date that the content was last updated. Otherwise look for a copyright or original publication date. Unfortunately this information may not be provided or may be hard to find. Often date information is put on the bottom of the pages of a website.

If you do not know the complete date, put as much information as you can find. For example you may have a year but no month or day.

If there is no date provided, put the letters (n.d.) in round brackets where you'd normally put the date.

Titles of websites should be in plain text but use italics for webpages, articles, etc.

Retrieval Date

Most website citations in APA 7th Edition do not require a retrieval date. Unfortunately, however, determining which situations require this date can be challenging. If you use a stable, archived version of a web page, no retrieval date is needed. But if you use a web page that is continually updated, providing a retrieval date can help clarify inconsistencies between the page when you viewed it and when it was viewed by your reader. 

If a URL is too long to fit onto one line, try to break it at a slash (/).

Note : All citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent in a Reference List.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

Corporation/Group/Organization's Name. (Year webpage was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of page: Subtitle (if any) . URL

Author's Last Name, First Initial. Second Initial if Given. (Year webpage was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of page: Subtitle (if any) . Website name. URL

Title of page: Subtitle (if any) . (Year webpage was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Name of Website. URL

Corporation/Group/Organization's Name. (Year report was last updated/published, Month Day if given). Title of report: Subtitle if given  (Pub. No. Publication Number if given). Website Name if different from author. URL

Name of Government Department, Agency or Committee. (Year of Publication, Month Day). Title of document: Subtitle if given (edition if given and is not first edition). Publisher if different from author. URL

Author's Last Name, First intial. Second Initial if Given or Username if real name not provided. (Year blog post was published, Month Day). Title of blog post. Title of Blog . URL

Title of entry. (Year article was edited, Month Day). In Wikipedia . URL

Note : Cite the archived version of the page you used.  To access this information on Wikipedia  select "View history," choose the version you used, and copy its URL.

Wikipedia may not be considered an acceptable source for a college or university assignment. Be sure to evaluate the content carefully and check your assignment.

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Works-Cited-List Entries

How to cite an online work.

To create a basic works-cited-list entry for an online work, list the author, the title of the work, the title of the website as the title of the container, and the publication details. You may need to include other elements depending on the type of work (e.g., book, scholarly article, blog post) and how you accessed it (e.g., from a journal website, from a database). Below are sample entries for online works along with links to posts containing many other examples.

Article on a website

Deresiewicz, William. “The Death of the Artist—and the Birth of the Creative Entrepreneur.” The Atlantic , 28 Dec. 2014, theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/01/ the-death-of-the-artist-and-the-birth-of-thecreative-entrepreneur/383497/.

Book on a website

Poe, Edgar Allan. “The Masque of the Red Death.” The Complete Works of Edgar Allan Poe , edited by James A. Harrison, vol. 4, Thomas Y. Crowell, 1902, pp. 250-58. HathiTrust Digital Library , hdl.handle.net/2027/coo.31924079574368.

Journal Article in a Database

Goldman, Anne. “Questions of Transport: Reading Primo Levi Reading Dante.” The Georgia Review , vol. 64, no. 1, spring 2010, pp. 69-88. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/stable/41403188.

More Examples

Digital Sources

Government Publications

Journal Articles

Reference Works

Social Media  

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• Plagiarism and grammar
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Cite a Website

Don't let plagiarism errors spoil your paper, citing a website in apa.

Once you’ve identified a credible website to use, create a citation and begin building your reference list. Citation Machine citing tools can help you create references for online news articles, government websites, blogs, and many other website! Keeping track of sources as you research and write can help you stay organized and ethical. If you end up not using a source, you can easily delete it from your bibliography. Ready to create a citation? Enter the website’s URL into the search box above. You’ll get a list of results, so you can identify and choose the correct source you want to cite. It’s that easy to begin!

If you’re wondering how to cite a website in APA, use the structure below.

Author Last Name, First initial. (Year, Month Date Published). Title of web page . Name of Website. URL

Example of an APA format website:

Austerlitz, S. (2015, March 3). How long can a spinoff like ‘Better Call Saul’ last? FiveThirtyEight. http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-long-can-a-spinoff-like-better-call-saul-last/

Keep in mind that not all information found on a website follows the structure above. Only use the Website format above if your online source does not fit another source category. For example, if you’re looking at a video on YouTube, refer to the ‘YouTube Video’ section. If you’re citing a newspaper article found online, refer to ‘Newspapers Found Online’ section. Again, an APA website citation is strictly for web pages that do not fit better with one of the other categories on this page.

Social media:

When adding the text of a post, keep the original capitalization, spelling, hashtags, emojis (if possible), and links within the text.

Facebook posts:

Structure: Facebook user’s Last name, F. M. (Year, Monday Day of Post). Up to the first 20 words of Facebook post [Source type if attached] [Post type]. Facebook. URL

Source type examples: [Video attached], [Image attached]

Post type examples: [Status update], [Video], [Image], [Infographic]

Gomez, S. (2020, February 4). Guys, I’ve been working on this special project for two years and can officially say Rare Beauty is launching in [Video]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/Selena/videos/1340031502835436/

Life at Chegg. (2020, February 7) It breaks our heart that 50% of college students right here in Silicon Valley are hungry. That’s why Chegg has [Images attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/LifeAtChegg/posts/1076718522691591

Twitter posts:

Structure: Account holder’s Last name, F. M. [Twitter Handle]. (Year, Month Day of Post). Up to the first 20 words of tweet [source type if attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. URL

Source type examples: [Video attached], [Image attached], [Poll attached]

Example: Edelman, J. [Edelman11]. (2018, April 26). Nine years ago today my life changed forever. New England took a chance on a long shot and I’ve worked [Video attached] [Tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/Edelman11/status/989652345922473985

Instagram posts:

APA citation format: Account holder’s Last name, F. M. [@Instagram handle]. (Year, Month Day). Up to the first 20 words of caption [Photograph(s) and/or Video(s)]. Instagram. URL

Example: Portman, N. [@natalieportman]. (2019, January 5). Many of my best experiences last year were getting to listen to and learn from so many incredible people through [Videos]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/BsRD-FBB8HI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

If this guide hasn’t helped solve all of your referencing questions, or if you’re still feeling the need to type “how to cite a website APA” into Google, then check out our APA citation generator on CitationMachine.com, which can build your references for you!

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Home / Guides / Citation Guides / APA Format / APA Website Citation

How to Cite a Website in APA

This guide explains all of the important steps to referencing a website/web page in your APA research papers. The guidance below follows APA style, 7th edition.

APA format is much different than MLA format and other styles. If you need to cite websites in MLA , or you’re looking for more styles , check out the other resources on EasyBib.com!

Guide Overview

Here’s a run-through of everything this page includes:

What is a website? Am I citing a website or a web page?

Citing a website in the text (in-text citation), citing a website on the reference page, citing a general web article without an author, titles of pages on the web, extra information, publisher information, web addresses and dois, apa format for online news articles, additional website citation examples, troubleshooting.

A website is a place on the Internet that holds a group of individual pages (called web pages).

Think of a website like a tree. A website is the tree, and the individual web pages are the branches. Use YouTube as an example. YouTube is the site, and the individual channel pages and video pages are the branches. Wikipedia is a site, and each article has its own individual web page on that site.

Most of the time, you aren’t trying to cite a whole, entire site, but actually an individual web page. If you used a YouTube video to help you with your research project, you wouldn’t cite the entire YouTube site, you would cite the specific YouTube page the video was found on.

Here’s a similar question we’re often asked when it comes to the APA citation of a web page:

Q: This page describes citing specific pages and articles. Can I cite an entire site?

A: According to the APA manual (7th edition), it is not necessary to cite a site in its entirety in a reference list. Instead, include a reference to the website in the body of your paper and cite any web page individually.

The Department of Justice has just released a new site called ReportCrime.gov at https://www.reportcrime.gov/ to help people identify and report crimes in their area.

In the above passage, the website is stated in the text rather than cited. This guide focuses on how to cite individual pages found on the web (web pages). If you used an entire website, it’s perfectly acceptable to cite the whole site in the text of your paper, as shown above, but for the most part, you want to cite the page where the information was found.

If you’re seeking out an APA citation website to take the stress away from proper referencing, try out EasyBib.com! Stop typing into the search bar, “how to cite a website APA” or “APA in-text citation website.” EasyBib.com is the answer to your referencing questions and needs!

When you include a piece of information from a site in your project, you must include two citations: a brief citation in the text and also a full citation on the reference page.

When it comes to mentions in the text, students are sometimes tempted to put the web address in the body of a project. However, URLs can be long, clunky, and distracting. They should never be written in the body of a project.

Instead of writing the full address in the text, use the last name of the author and the date the source was published. If no author is shown, write the title of the individual page and the date.

For direct quotations, you may use paragraphs to indicate the quotation’s location in the work. Count the paragraphs manually if needed and use the abbreviation “para.” for paragraph.

Check out this in-text citation APA website example:

                 Cite your source

The above APA website in-text citation (the author’s last name and the date the information was published) corresponds to the information on the final page of the project, the reference page.

Here’s how the full APA citation for a web page looks on the final page of the project:

Need more in-text citation APA website info? Here’s more on how to build an APA parenthetical citation . You may also like our full-length guide on how to create an APA in-text citation .

If you’re looking for information on structuring other styles in the text of your paper, check out our page on MLA in-text and parenthetical citations .

In the next section of this APA citation website guide, we’re going to focus on how to format an APA website citation. If you’re wondering how to create an APA citation of a web page, the majority of web references use the structure shown below.

General structure for how to cite a website in APA

Note: A retrieval date is no longer required for online sources. It’s only needed if the content is likely to change over time (such as wikis and social media). The article or page title should be italicized. The URL is at the end and does not have a period after it.

Full reference example:

View Screenshot | Cite your source

Example of an in-text citation for a website in APA:

If you’re looking for an APA format website to do the work for you, try out EasyBib.com’s citation generator. Our APA citation website makes referencing a breeze!

APA citation for website structure:

Do you need to cite a source with no author in APA ? No problem. Wikipedia pages, online dictionary sites, and online encyclopedia sites are just a few examples of sites without an author. When there is no clear individual author, use the website organization (group author) as the author.

Group authors

There are plenty of times when an individual’s name isn’t listed as the author, but the information on the site is written by a group, organization, or company.

In an APA website citation, it is completely acceptable to use the group’s name in the author position. Type it out in its entirety and add a period at the end. Check out the various APA citation of web page examples at the bottom of the page to see group authors in action!

Note: If the author name and website name is the same, just list it once in as the author; leave out the website name section in the APA citation. 

APA citation for website example:

If you’re wondering whether to include the full date in your APA citation for web pages (month, day, and year) or just the year, we have the answer for you here.

An APA citation of web page reference includes the month, day, and year if it’s a site that is updated with new information frequently. Blog posts, newspaper articles, posts from social media profiles, and YouTube videos are just a few of the sources that would display the full date. In an APA citation for web pages, it’s written in this order in parentheses: (Year, Month Day).

If there is any information missing, simply include what is available. Also, if there is no date , indicate this by using (n.d.).

No date APA website example:

If you’re using the EasyBib citation generator to create an APA citation for a web page, our technology structures dates for you in their proper order. It’s the APA format website (and also the APA in-text citation website) you’ve been waiting for. Give it a whirl!

Here’s the advice we provide on many of our guides:

• If the source you are citing is a standalone source, meaning an entire book, television series, or film, the title of such sources should be in italics.
• If, however, you are citing a piece of a larger source, i.e., a journal article, a page on a site, or an episode of a show, the title should be in sentence case and not in italics.

Long story short, do not italicize an APA citation for web pages’ title in the text and on the final page of references.

For full references on the final page of the project, only include capital letters at the beginning of the title, at the beginning of each proper noun, and at the beginning of the first word in the subtitle.

The title is written in the text only when there isn’t an author listed. So, instead of showing the reference as (Author, Date), use (“Title of Page,” Date) in any APA citation for web pages. Notice the switch from sentence case to title case in the text reference.

A little extra information goes a long way when it comes to site citations. If you’re including a unique source type, include information about the medium directly after the title. This information is placed in brackets. Only the first letter is capitalized.

Here are a few examples you might see in an APA citation for a web page:

[Image attached]

[Infographic]

[Status update]

To see some of the extra information in action, scroll down to the examples towards the bottom of this page.

Speaking of extra information, it may not hurt to get some extra details on grammar topics in that brain of yours. Brush up on your adjective , pronoun , and interjection knowledge with our comprehensive guides!

Any information related to the publisher is not invited to the web citation party. In an APA citation of a web page, you do not need to include information about the company that made the site, where its offices are located, or any other similar information about the company in any web references. One thing less to worry about in your APA citation for web pages!

Other source types are much different, so before you exclude publisher information from all of your references, make sure you check out our APA citation page. While you’re at it, check out our other helpful resources, such as APA reference page  and MLA works cited .

We also need a web address and DOI number in an APA citation for a web page. Including site addresses and DOIs are an absolute necessity. Addresses and DOIs (which stand for direct object identifiers) are usually the last item in an APA website citation.

For sites, after adding the full URL to the APA citation for a web page, do not end it with a period. If the address is very long, it is acceptable to roll it onto the next line, but break it up so that a type of punctuation mark or symbol is the first item closest to the left margin. Check out the APA citation of a webpage URL below.

APA citation of a webpage example of a properly structured URL:

DOI numbers are assigned by publishers to electronic sources such as journal articles, e-books, datasets, and more. They’re a string of numbers and sometimes other characters. If the source you’re using has a DOI number assigned to it, place it at the end of the APA website citation, instead of the URL, in this format: https://doi.org/10.XXXXXXXXX. Place the DOI string in place of the X’s shown above.

DOIs were created to combat the problem of broken links and 404 errors (pages taken down). Think about it: if a webpage is taken off of the Internet, it can be pretty difficult to find a copy of it. If you’re lucky, an archive site may have a copy stored somewhere, but for the most part, when sites are gone, they’re gone. DOIs are permanent, making them the ideal choice to include in any APA citation for webpages.

APA properly structured DOI:

APA differentiates between traditional newspapers that are online versus news websites with no daily/weekly/monthly newspaper or magazine edition. Unsure what you’re citing? Follow this decision tree:

• YES –> Cite it as a newspaper article.
• NO –> Cite it as a web page or a news site article.
• NO –> Cite it as a web page or news site article.

Online news article APA example:

News sites with no associated daily/weekly/monthly publication should be cited like a web page. That means the article title is italicized and the publisher/site name is in plan font. This format applies to articles from these sites:

• MSNBC Fox News

Newspaper article online APA example:

Sites associated with a daily/weekly/monthly publication should be cited as a newspaper article. That means the article title is in plain font and the publisher/site name is italicized. This format applies to articles from these sites:

• The New York Times
• The Guardian
• The Times of India
• The Wall Street Journal
• The Washington Post
• Yomiuri Shimbun

Below are various web reference examples to give you a quick visual of how pages are structured and organized. Quick reminder that if you’re trying to create a reference for an e-book found on the web, use the APA book citation page. In addition, if it’s an online article from journal, use our APA journal page.

If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to build your references, EasyBib.com is an APA citation website that does the work for you. Try it out and say hello to stress-free referencing and goodbye to constantly searching for “how to cite a website APA” or “how to cite APA” on search engines. The APA offers more information here .

How to cite a group/organization/company:

How to cite a blog post in apa:.

The structure is the same, but the format is slightly different: The blog article title is in plain text, and the name of the blog is italicized.

APA citation of a web page example for Facebook:

The text of the post is italicized, while the site name (Facebook) is in plain text.

APA citation of a web page example for Twitter:

Cite your source

If the name of the author is unknown, start the APA citation of a web page for Twitter with the username.

Need another set of eyes to check your paper for grammar and spelling edits? Not quite sure if every determiner , preposition , or conjunction is where it belongs? Check out our grammar and plagiarism checker . It’s the answer to all of your grammar questions!

If you’re still confused and typing into the search bar, “how to cite APA” or “how to cite a website APA,” try out EasyBib.com’s reference generator. It’s fast, easy, and allows you to focus on your writing and research, and less on your references. The best part? It creates both types of references. It has an in-text citation website APA generator and also a full reference generator! What are you waiting for? Go see the magic happen!

Here’s a quick video overview of how to cite a website in APA:

Solution #1: Determining the website company, the author, the publisher, or both (APA)

A website citation included in an APA-format bibliography doesn’t need a publisher, so you do not need to worry whether the website company is the publisher of a page you want to cite!

If an author isn’t credited on a given webpage, the website company should be listed as the author. This also goes for online encyclopedias, dictionaries, etc.

Here’s an example for a full bibliography:

Roman empire. (2022, February 6). In Wikipedia . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_Empire

Here is an example for an in-text citation:

(“Roman Empire,” 2022)

Solution #2: How to cite images and videos from social media in APA format

Making a bibliographic citation for a photo or video from social media is similar to making a citation for any website. Examples that fall into this category include photos, videos, or social media-specific mediums like highlights, reels, moments, or lives.

For your full citation in your bibliography, use the caption of the photo or video, up to 20 words, as the title. Denote the style of media in brackets, following the title.

For sources like Instagram Reels, Highlights, and other media whose exact date of posting is hard to discern, include the date you found and cited the photo or video rather than the original date the media was shared.

Here are examples of bibliographic citations:

World Wildlife Foundation [wwf]. (2021, October 20). This year marks our 60 years of action for people and nature. Together, we’ve done so much… [Photo]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVQQbF_KmA6/

New York Times [nytimes]. (n.d.) NYC Marathon 2021 [Highlight]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17928514339867051/

Here are the corresponding in-text citations:

(World Wildlife Foundation, 2021)

(New York Times, 2021)

Solution #3: How emojis are cited in APA format

If the website or social media post you are citing contains an emoji, keep the emoji in your full bibliographic citation without altering it.

Reference list example:

Grande, A [arianagrande]. (2021, October 18) the final #voicebattles begin tonight @nbcthevoice.🧚🏼‍♂️ thank you @kchenoweth, i love you. [Photo]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVLfY_vv_3c/

In-text citation example:

(Grande, 2021)

If you have trouble pasting the emoji into your full citation, put the emoji’s name followed by the word “emoji” all in brackets within your citation instead. Use Unicode’s Emoji Charts to look up the widely accepted, technical name of the emoji you want to cite.

Grande, A [arianagrande]. the final the final #voicebattles  begin tonight  @nbcthevoice . [woman fairy emoji] thank you  @kchenoweth , i love you. [Photo]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/CVLfY_vv_3c/

This guide is not officially associated with the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, but it does provide information in line with the manual. 

APA Formatting Guide

APA Formatting

• Annotated Bibliography
• Block Quotes
• et al Usage
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Paraphrasing
• Page Numbers
• Parenthetical Citations
• Reference Page
• Sample Paper
• APA 7 Updates
• View APA Guide

Citation Examples

• Book Chapter
• Journal Article
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Website (no author)
• View all APA Examples

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You will need the webpage’s author’s name, publication date, title of the page, website name, and the URL.

Here is an example with an author:

Geggel, L. (2021, July 6). A brief history of dinosaurs . LiveScience. https://www.livescience.com/3945-history-dinosaurs.html

Usually, if no author is shown the website is assumed to be the author. In these cases, the website name replaces the author name in the beginning of the reference.

For example:

National Park Service. (2018, July 23). Night skies as a cultural-historical resource . https://www.nps.gov/subjects/nightskies/cultural.htm

The URL of a website is mandatory if you cite a website or a webpage. Where you include the URL depends on the type of citation. To cite a website as a general reference without any reference to a specific page or particular details, simply add the name of the website in the text and include the URL in parentheses. There is no need to add a reference list entry. However, to cite a webpage on a website, you need to provide both an in-text citation and a reference list entry. Do not add the URL in the in-text citation. Just add the author’s name and year. The URL is given only in the reference list entry. Templates for in-text citations and reference list entries of a website or webpage along with examples are given below.

Website as a general reference

In-text style:

We took the data from the Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India (https://censusindia.gov.in/).

Webpage of a website

In-text citation templates and examples:

Author Surname (publication year)

Skelton (2017)

Parenthetical:

(Author Surname, publication year)

(Skelton, 2017)

Note that month and day are not mentioned in in-text citations.

Reference list entry template and example:

Author Surname, F. M. (Year, Month Day). Title of the webpage. Name of the Site. URL

Skelton, R. (2017, February 16). Fact check’s return perfect timing in ‘post truth’ age. ABC Opinion. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-02-16/fact-check-return-perfect-timing-in-post-truth-age/8277268

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Differences between websites and journal articles

As you undertake research for your next paper or project, you will likely encounter both websites and online journal articles. But, what’s the difference between these two types of sources? In this post, we discuss the main differences between websites and journal articles.

What is a website?

A website is a set of web pages grouped together under one domain. Typically, when you think you are citing a website, you are actually citing a web page : one page of the website that likely has a single author (a blog post) or a corporate author (a government webpage).

• Typically have multiple web pages that are linked together, and that can be individually cited

Examples of common, credible websites are:

• Government websites (.gov)
• University websites (.edu)
• Non-profit organizations (.org)

Online newspaper articles should not be cited as websites. Follow the appropriate style guidelines for online newspaper articles to create correct citations for this source type.

What is a journal article?

Also known as scholarly articles , journal articles are secondary, peer-reviewed sources that you can use in your research papers. They are published in journals, which are periodicals, published on a regular basis, that include multiple articles.

Today, most of the journal articles that you find are online or in a digital format, and this may cause some confusion over whether a work is a website or a journal article.

Journal articles:

• Are hosted on a platform, database, or digital repository, but are not websites
• May be in the form of a PDF
• May also be available in a traditional print format

The most important thing to remember is that an online journal article is not a website . A journal article that you find online should be cited just like a printed article, with the addition of a DOI. A DOI is a “digital object identifier” and represents an article’s permanent location online. While URLs often change, DOIs do not.

How do I know if the work I'm citing is a website or a journal article?

Check the address.

Pay close attention to the address of the source. If the address ends in .pdf, for instance, it is likely a journal article that is available online in a downloadable form. Also, most online journal articles have permalinks, or DOIs, that represent their permanent location online.

Although an online journal article may appear to have a URL because it's hosted by an online database, that address does not actually point to the article's official location online. In other words, if you list an online journal article as a website with a URL in your bibliography, your instructor will not be able to get to that article to verify if it's a credible source.

Check the origin

Take note of where you found the source. If you encountered the work on Canvas or Blackboard, it’s not likely that it originated there.

Look carefully for signs that the work is a journal article or website: does it have a cover page, with publication info, including a DOI? Is there any info at the bottom (footer) of the work that gives you clues to its origin? When in doubt, do a brief Google or Google Scholar search to see if you can pinpoint the work's origin or ask your instructor or a librarian.

How to use BibGuru to cite online sources

Use the BibGuru searchbar to find both website and online journal article sources for your bibliography. Select the correct tab for the source type and input a URL (for websites) or DOI (for journal articles).

BibGuru allows you to create accurate citations in APA , MLA , Chicago , and many other styles. You can find online sources easily with the search bar and instantly add them to a bibliography.

Frequently Asked Questions about differences between websites and journal articles

No. Although many articles are hosted on websites, they should be cited as articles .

A website is a set of web pages grouped together under one domain.

Journal articles are published in journals, which are often hosted online by a platform, database or digital repository. Online journal articles:

A journal is a periodical that is published on a regular basis, while a book is typically published once. Journals feature different journal articles in each issue. Books, even when they are published in multiple editions, typically feature the same general content.

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Reference List: Electronic Sources

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Note:  This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style  can be found here .

Important Note: Some electronic citations necessitate the use of brackets. APA style dictates that brackets should directly surround their content without spaces (e.g., [bracketed content] should look like this). When possible, include the year, month, and date in references. If the month and date are not available, use the year of publication. Additionally, APA 7 th  edition no longer requires the use of “Retrieved from” before URLs or DOIs; special exceptions, however, are made for resources that are unarchived. Including the retrieval date for these sources indicates to readers that the version of the work they retrieve may be different than what was originally used. 

Please note: the following contains a list of the most commonly cited electronic sources. For a complete list of how to cite electronic sources, please refer to the 7 th edition of the APA Publication Manual.

Webpage or Piece of Online Content

If the page names an individual author, cite their name first:

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of page . Site name. URL

Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist . Medium. https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01

If the resource was written by a group or organization, use the name of the group/organization as the author. Additionally, if the author and site name are the same, omit the site name from the citation.

Group name. (Year, Month Date). Title of page . Site name. URL

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (2019, November 21). Justice served: Case closed for over 40 dogfighting victims . https://www.aspca.org/news/justice-served-case-closed-over-40-dogfighting-victims

If the page's author is not listed, start with the title instead. Additionally, include a retrieval date when the page's content is likely to change over time (like, for instance, if you're citing a wiki that is publicly edited).

Title of page . (Year, Month Date). Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

Tuscan white bean pasta.  (2018, February 25). Budgetbytes. Retrieved March 18, 2020, from  https://www.budgetbytes.com/tuscan-white-bean-pasta/

If the date of publication is not listed, use the abbreviation (n.d.). 

Author or Group name. (n.d.).  Title of page . Site name (if applicable). URL

National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.). Mental health conditions . https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions

Wikipedia Article

APA 7 treats Wikipedia articles as special instances of entries in reference works. Thus, there are a few differences between reference entries for pages on Wikipedia and those for generic webpages.

Title of article. (Year, Month Date). In  Wikipedia.  URL of archived version of page

Quantum mechanics. (2019, November 19). In Wikipedia . https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quantum_mechanics&oldid=948476810

Wikipedia articles often update frequently. For this reason, the date refers to the date that the cited version of the page was published. Note also that the manual recommends linking to the archived version of the page, rather than the current version of the page on the site, since the latter can change over time. Access the archived version by clicking "View History," then clicking the date/timestamp of the version you'd like to cite.

Online Scholarly Journal Article: Citing DOIs

Please note: Because online materials can potentially change URLs, APA recommends providing a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), when it is available, as opposed to the URL. DOIs are an attempt to provide stable, long-lasting links for online articles. They are unique to their documents and consist of a long alphanumeric code. Many—but not all—publishers will provide an article's DOI on the first page of the document.

Note also that some online bibliographies provide an article's DOI but may "hide" the code under a button which may read "Article" or may be an abbreviation of a vendor's name like "CrossRef" or "PubMed." This button will usually lead the user to the full article which will include the DOI. Find DOIs from print publications or ones that go to dead links with doi.org's "Resolve a DOI" function, available on the site's home page .

APA 7 also advises writers to include a DOI (if available), even when using the print source.

Article from an Online Periodical with DOI Assigned

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Vol.( Issue), page numbers. DOI

Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Development and validation of the active empathetic listening scale. Psychology & Marketing, 23 (2), 161-180. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20105

Article from an Online Periodical with no DOI Assigned

If an online scholarly journal article has no DOI and is published on a website, include the URL. If an online scholarly article has no DOI and is published on a database, do not include a URL or any database information. The only exception is for databases that publish articles that are in limited circulation (like ERIC) or that are only available on that particular database (like UpToDate). Note that retrieval dates are required for unarchived sources that are likely, or intended, to change over time. 

Perreault, L. (2019). Obesity in adults: Role of physical activity and exercise. UpToDate . Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/obesity-in-adults-role-of-physical-activity-and-exercise

APA 7 th edition does not provide guidance on how to cite abstracts. However, if you only use information from the abstract but the full text of the article is also available, we advise you to add "[Abstract]" after the article or source name. If the full text is not available, you may use an abstract that is available through an abstracts database as a secondary source.

Online News Article

Note:  The format for this type of source depends on whether your source comes from a site with an associated newspaper.

If the source  does  come from a site with an associated newspaper, leave the title of the article unformatted, but italicize the title of the newspaper.

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Publication . URL

Richards, C. (2019, December 9). Best music of 2019: Lana Del Rey sings lullabies about the end of America. Washington Post . https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/best-music-of-2019-lana-del-rey-sings-lullabies-about-the-end-of-america/2019/12/06/6e82c5ec-15d8-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html

On the other hand, if the source  doesn't  come from a site with an associated newspaper, italicize the title of the article, but leave the name of the site unformatted.

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article . Name of publishing website. URL

Jones, J. (2020, May 10). Why flats dominate Spain's housing market . BBC. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200506-why-do-flats-dominate-spains-housing-market

Electronic or Kindle Books

It is not necessary to note that you have used an eBook or audiobook when the content is the same as a physical book. However, you should distinguish between the eBook or audiobook and the print version if the content is different or abridged, or if you would like to cite the narrator of an audiobook.

Lastname, F. M. (Year).  Title of book . Publisher. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year).  Title of book [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book (N. Narrator, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Publisher. URL (if applicable)

Dissertation/Thesis from a Database

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation or thesis (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis, Name of Institution Awarding Degree]. Database Name.

Duis, J. M. (2008). Acid/base chemistry and related organic chemistry conceptions of undergraduate organic chemistry students  (Publication No. 3348786) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Northern Colorado]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Entry in an Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Encyclopedia with a Group Author

Note:  An online dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia may be continuously updated and therefore not include a publication date (like in the example below). If that’s the case, use “n.d.” for the date and include the retrieval date in the citation.

Institution or organization name. (Year). Title of entry. In Title of reference work . URL

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Braggadocio. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary . Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/braggadocio

Entry in an Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Encyclopedia with an Individual Author

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of entry. In F. M. Lastname (Ed.), Title of reference work (edition). Publisher. URL or DOI

Martin, M. (2018). Animals. In L. A. Schintler & C. L. McNeely (Eds.), Encyclopedia of big data . SpringerLink. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_7-1

Note: If the dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia does not include an edition, simply skip that step.

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group (Year). Title of dataset (Version No.) [Data set]. Publisher. DOI or URL

Grantmakers in the Arts. (2019). Arts funding trends, United States, 1994-present (ICPSR 37337) [Data set]. National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture. https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NADAC/studies/37337

Graphic Data (e.g. Interactive Maps, Infographics, and Other Graphic Representations of Data)

Give the name of the organization or individual followed by the date and the title. If there is no title, in brackets, you should provide a brief explanation of what type of data is there and in what form it appears. Include the URL and the retrieval date if there is no publication date.

HatchMed. (2017). 8 ways to improve patient satisfaction [Infographic]. HatchMed.com. https://www.hatchmed.com/blog/2017/1/30/8-ways-to-improve-patient-satisfaction

Google. (n.d.). [Google Map of Purdue University]. Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4237095,-86.9233886,17z

Qualitative Data and Online Interviews

If an interview is not retrievable in audio or print form, cite the interview only in the text (not in the reference list) and provide the month, day, and year in the text. If the interview transcript is published in an online periodical, like a magazine, cite the interview the same way you would cite the medium where it is published, as shown below:

Schulman, M. (2019, December 8). Peter Dinklage is still punk rock. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/peter-dinklage-is-still-punk-rock

If it is an audio file or transcript published in a database, credit the interviewee as the author and use the following model:

Paynter, W. (1970, September 17). Interview with Will Paynter [Interview]. Studs Terkel Radio Archive; The Chicago History Museum. https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/interview-will-paynter

Online Lecture Notes and Presentation Slides

When citing online lecture notes, be sure to provide the file format in brackets after the lecture title (e.g. PowerPoint slides, Word document).

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of presentation [Lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, etc]. Publisher. URL

Smith, C. (2017, October 13). AI and machine learning demystified [PowerPoint slides]. SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/carologic/ai-and-machine-learning-demystified-by-carol-smith-at-midwest-ux-2017

Computer Software/Downloaded Software

Do not cite standard office software (e.g. Word, Excel) or programming languages. Provide references only for specialized software.

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group. (Year). Title of software (Version No.). Publisher. URL

Maplesoft. (2019). Maple companion (Version 2.1.0). Cybernet Systems Co. https://www.maplesoft.com/products/MapleCompanion/

E-mails are not included in the list of references, though you should parenthetically cite them in your main text:

(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).

Online Forum or Discussion Posting

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [username]. (Year, Month Date). Title of post [Online forum post]. Publisher. URL

Stine, R. L. [RL__Stine]. (2013, October 23). I’m R.L. Stine and it’s my job to terrify kids. Ask me anything! [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1p32dl/

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Tweet]. Site Name. URL

Note : If the tweet includes images, videos, or links to other sources, indicate that information in brackets after the content description. Also attempt to replicate emojis if possible.

National Geographic [@NatGeo]. (2020, January 12). Scientists knew African grays are clever, but now they’ve been documented assisting other members of their species—even strangers [Tweet; thumbnail link to article]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/NatGeo/status/1216346352063537154

Twitter Profile

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

MLA Style [@mlastyle]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://twitter.com/mlastyle

Facebook Post

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Type of post]. Site Name. URL

Note: If the Facebook post includes images, videos, or links to other sources, indicate that information in brackets after the content description. Also attempt to replicate emojis if possible.

U.S. Department of the Interior. (2020, January 10). Like frosting on a cake, snow coats and clings to the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah [Image attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/USInterior/photos/a.155163054537384/2586475451406120/?type=3&theater

Facebook Page

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group. (n.d.). Home [Facebook page]. Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

Little River Canyon National Preserve (n.d.). Home [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved January 12, 2020 from https://www.facebook.com/lirinps/

Instagram Photo or Video

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Type of post]. Site Name. URL

BBC [@bbc]. (2020, January 12). Skywatchers have been treated to the first full moon of 2020-known as a “wolf moon”-at the same time as a [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/B7OkWqbBwcf/

Blog Post  

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of post. Publisher . URL

Axelrod, A. (2019, August 11). A century later: The Treaty of Versailles and its rejection of racial equality. Code Switch, NPR . https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/08/11/742293305/a-century-later-the-treaty-of-versailles-and-its-rejection-of-racial-equality

YouTube or other Streaming Video

Last Name, F. M. [Username]. (Year, Month Date). Title of video [Video]. Streaming Service. URL

Lushi, K. [Korab Lushi]. (2016, July 3). Albatross culture 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AMrJRQDPjk&t=148s

Note : The person or group who uploaded the video is considered the author. If the author’s name is the same as the username, you can omit the [Username].

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of talk [Video]. TED. URL

Al-Mutawa, N. (2010, July). Superheroes inspired by Islam [Video]. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/naif_al_mutawa_superheroes_inspired_by_islam#t-4909

Or (if on YouTube)

Username. (Year, Month Date). Title of talk [Video]. YouTube. URL

Tedx Talks. (2011, Nov. 15). TEDxHampshireCollege - Jay Smooth - How I learned to stop worrying and love discussing race [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbdxeFcQtaU

Podcast Episode

Host, A. A. (Host). (Year, Month Date). Title of episode (No. if provided) [Audio podcast episode]. In Name of podcast . Publisher. URL

Prime, K. (Host). (2019, March 29). For whom the cowbell tolls [Audio podcast episode]. In Radiolab . WNYC Studios. https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/whom-cowbell-tolls

Thursday, February 23: The Clark Library is closed today.

MLA Style (9th Edition) Citation Guide: Websites

• Introduction to MLA Style
• Journal Articles
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Table of Contents

Entire website - no separate pages or sections, page or section from a website.

Note: For your Works Cited list, all citations should be double spaced and have a hanging indent.

A "hanging indent" means that each subsequent line after the first line of your citation should be indented by 0.5 inches.

It can sometimes be difficult to find out who the author of a website is. Remember that an author can be a corporation or group, not only a specific person. Author information can sometimes be found under an "About" section on a website.

If there is no known author, start the citation with the title of the website instead.

The best date to use for a website is the date that the content was last updated. Otherwise look for a copyright or original publication date. Unfortunately this information may not be provided or may be hard to find. Often date information is put on the bottom of the pages of a website.

If you do not know the complete date, put as much information as you can find. For example you may have a year but no month or day. If the source does not include a copyright/last modified date, then omit the date and include an access date in your citation instead.

Access Date

Date of access is optional in MLA 8th/9th edition; it is recommended for pages that may change frequently or that do not have a copyright/publication date.

In your works cited list, abbreviate months as follows: 

January = Jan. February = Feb. March = Mar. April = Apr. May = May June = June July = July August = Aug. September = Sept. October = Oct. November = Nov. December = Dec.

Spell out months fully in the body of your paper. 

Author, or compiler name (if available).  Title of Website,  Name of Organization Affiliated with the Website, Date of copyright or date last modified/updated, URL. Accessed access date.

Works Cited List Example:

Mabillard, Amanda.  Shakespeare Online,  29 Dec. 2011, www.shakespeare-online.com. Accessed 6 July 2016.

In-Text Citation Example:

(Author's Last Name)

(Mabillard)

Note: In this example, the name of the organization affiliated with the website is omitted since it is the same as the website title.

Created by an Unknown Author, or the Author is the same as the Website Title/Publisher

 "Title of Section."  Title of Website,  Publisher or Sponsoring Organization, Date of publication or last modified date, URL. Accessed Date Month (abbreviated) Year.

Note: The publisher or sponsoring organization can often be found in a copyright notice at the bottom of the home page or on a page that gives information about the site . If the website publisher is the same as the author and title of the web site , then include only the title of the web site. 

“ Athlete's Foot - Topic Overview.”  WebMD, 25 Sept. 2014, www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/tc/athletes-foot-topic-overview.

("Title of Section")

(“Athlete's Foot - Topic Overview”)

Created by a Known Author

Author's Last Name, First Name. "Title of Page or Document."  Title of Website,  Publisher or Sponsoring Organization, Date of copyright or date last modified/updated, URL. Accessed Date Month (abbreviated) Year.

Morin, Amy. "How to Prevent the Media From Damaging Your Teen's Body Image."  Verywell Family,  About Inc., 6 Oct. 2019, www.verywellfamily.com/media-and-teens-body-image-2611245. Accessed 1 Nov. 2019.

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APA Citation Guide (7th Edition): Websites and Webpages

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Website or Webpage?

A website is a collection of webpages that are under one domain. One website will have several webpages like Home, About Us, Contact Us, Services, Products, etc. All of these pages together make up a website. In other words, a webpage is an independent page of a website. 

If you simply mention a whole website it is not necessary to create a reference list entry. Name the website in the text of your paper and provide the URL in parentheses.

• Use the webpage and website category for your source  only if there is no better category for it . Do not use it if a source is simply available online, e.g., if a journal article is available from an online database, use a journal article format for your reference.
• Some information, (e.g., author, date), might not always be obvious on websites or webpages. Sometimes it may be necessary to check places such as the "About Us", the "Copyright" or the "Acknowledgements" page(s).
• Do not use any punctuation at the end of URLs as punctuation could interfere with the link.
• If the author of the website is the same as the name of the website, omit the website name.
• Retrieval date is normally not necessary unless the content is likely to change and the page is not archived, e.g., a Wikipedia entry. The format is: Retrieved February 1, 2020 from https://xxxxxxx

Webpage on a Website with an Individual Author

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date). Title of work . Site Name. URL

Picheta, R. (2020, July 1). This new high-tech glove translates sign language into speech in real time . CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/30/health/sign-langage-glove-ucla-scn-scli-intl/index.html

Webpage on a Website with a Group Author

Name of Corporation/Group/Organization. (Date).  Title of work . Site Name. URL

World Health Organization. (2020, June 29). Timeline of WHO's response to COVID-19 . https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/29-06-2020-covidtimeline 

Note : When the author and site name are the same, omit the site name from the source element.

Webpage on a Website with No Date

Author or Group Name. (n.d.). Title of page . Site name. URL

National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.). Mental health conditions . https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions

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A data-driven approach to making better choices

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Imagine a world in which some important decision — a judge’s sentencing recommendation, a child’s treatment protocol, which person or business should receive a loan — was made more reliable because a well-designed algorithm helped a key decision-maker arrive at a better choice. A new MIT economics course is investigating these interesting possibilities.

Class 14.163 (Algorithms and Behavioral Science) is a new cross-disciplinary course focused on behavioral economics, which studies the cognitive capacities and limitations of human beings. The course was co-taught this past spring by assistant professor of economics Ashesh Rambachan and visiting lecturer Sendhil Mullainathan.

Rambachan studies the economic applications of machine learning, focusing on algorithmic tools that drive decision-making in the criminal justice system and consumer lending markets. He also develops methods for determining causation using cross-sectional and dynamic data.

Mullainathan will soon join the MIT departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and Economics as a professor. His research uses machine learning to understand complex problems in human behavior, social policy, and medicine. Mullainathan co-founded the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) in 2003.

The new course’s goals are both scientific (to understand people) and policy-driven (to improve society by improving decisions). Rambachan believes that machine-learning algorithms provide new tools for both the scientific and applied goals of behavioral economics.

“The course investigates the deployment of computer science, artificial intelligence (AI), economics, and machine learning in service of improved outcomes and reduced instances of bias in decision-making,” Rambachan says.

There are opportunities, Rambachan believes, for constantly evolving digital tools like AI, machine learning, and large language models (LLMs) to help reshape everything from discriminatory practices in criminal sentencing to health-care outcomes among underserved populations.

Students learn how to use machine learning tools with three main objectives: to understand what they do and how they do it, to formalize behavioral economics insights so they compose well within machine learning tools, and to understand areas and topics where the integration of behavioral economics and algorithmic tools might be most fruitful.

Students also produce ideas, develop associated research, and see the bigger picture. They’re led to understand where an insight fits and see where the broader research agenda is leading. Participants can think critically about what supervised LLMs can (and cannot) do, to understand how to integrate those capacities with the models and insights of behavioral economics, and to recognize the most fruitful areas for the application of what investigations uncover.

The dangers of subjectivity and bias

According to Rambachan, behavioral economics acknowledges that biases and mistakes exist throughout our choices, even absent algorithms. “The data used by our algorithms exist outside computer science and machine learning, and instead are often produced by people,” he continues. “Understanding behavioral economics is therefore essential to understanding the effects of algorithms and how to better build them.”

Rambachan sought to make the course accessible regardless of attendees’ academic backgrounds. The class included advanced degree students from a variety of disciplines.

By offering students a cross-disciplinary, data-driven approach to investigating and discovering ways in which algorithms might improve problem-solving and decision-making, Rambachan hopes to build a foundation on which to redesign existing systems of jurisprudence, health care, consumer lending, and industry, to name a few areas.

“Understanding how data are generated can help us understand bias,” Rambachan says. “We can ask questions about producing a better outcome than what currently exists.”

Useful tools for re-imagining social operations

Economics doctoral student Jimmy Lin was skeptical about the claims Rambachan and Mullainathan made when the class began, but changed his mind as the course continued.

“Ashesh and Sendhil started with two provocative claims: The future of behavioral science research will not exist without AI, and the future of AI research will not exist without behavioral science,” Lin says. “Over the course of the semester, they deepened my understanding of both fields and walked us through numerous examples of how economics informed AI research and vice versa.”

Lin, who’d previously done research in computational biology, praised the instructors’ emphasis on the importance of a “producer mindset,” thinking about the next decade of research rather than the previous decade. “That’s especially important in an area as interdisciplinary and fast-moving as the intersection of AI and economics — there isn’t an old established literature, so you’re forced to ask new questions, invent new methods, and create new bridges,” he says.

The speed of change to which Lin alludes is a draw for him, too. “We’re seeing black-box AI methods facilitate breakthroughs in math, biology, physics, and other scientific disciplines,” Lin  says. “AI can change the way we approach intellectual discovery as researchers.”

An interdisciplinary future for economics and social systems

Studying traditional economic tools and enhancing their value with AI may yield game-changing shifts in how institutions and organizations teach and empower leaders to make choices.

“We’re learning to track shifts, to adjust frameworks and better understand how to deploy tools in service of a common language,” Rambachan says. “We must continually interrogate the intersection of human judgment, algorithms, AI, machine learning, and LLMs.”

Lin enthusiastically recommended the course regardless of students’ backgrounds. “Anyone broadly interested in algorithms in society, applications of AI across academic disciplines, or AI as a paradigm for scientific discovery should take this class,” he says. “Every lecture felt like a goldmine of perspectives on research, novel application areas, and inspiration on how to produce new, exciting ideas.”

The course, Rambachan says, argues that better-built algorithms can improve decision-making across disciplines. “By building connections between economics, computer science, and machine learning, perhaps we can automate the best of human choices to improve outcomes while minimizing or eliminating the worst,” he says.

Lin remains excited about the course’s as-yet unexplored possibilities. “It’s a class that makes you excited about the future of research and your own role in it,” he says.

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IRS makes Direct File a permanent option to file federal tax returns; expanded access for more taxpayers planned for the 2025 filing season

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IR-2024-151, May 30, 2024

WASHINGTON — Following a successful filing season pilot and feedback from a variety of partners, the Internal Revenue Service announced today that it will make Direct File a permanent option for filing federal tax returns starting in the 2025 tax season.

The agency is exploring ways to expand Direct File to make more taxpayers eligible in the 2025 filing season and beyond by examining options to broaden Direct File’s availability across the nation, including covering more tax situations and inviting all states to partner with Direct File next year.

The IRS plans to announce additional details on the 2025 expansion in the coming months.

The decision follows a highly successful, limited pilot during the 2024 filing season, where 140,803 taxpayers in 12 states filed their taxes using Direct File. The IRS closely analyzed data collected during the pilot, held numerous meetings with diverse groups of stakeholders and gathered feedback from individual Direct File users, state officials and representatives across the tax landscape. The IRS heard directly from hundreds of organizations across the country, more than a hundred members of Congress and from those interested in using Direct File in the future. The IRS has also heard from a limited number of stakeholders who believe the current free electronic filing options provided by third party vendors are adequate.

The IRS will continue data analysis and stakeholder engagement to identify improvements to Direct File; however, initial post-pilot analysis yielded enough information for the decision to make Direct File a permanent filing option. The IRS noted that an early decision on 2025 was critical for planning and programming both for the IRS and for additional states to join the program. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel recommended to Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen to make Direct File permanent. He cited overwhelming satisfaction from users and improved ease of tax filing among the reasons for his recommendation, which Secretary Yellen has accepted.

“The clear message is that many taxpayers across the nation want the IRS to provide more than one no-cost option for filing electronically,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “So, starting with the 2025 filing season, the IRS will make Direct File a permanent option for filing federal tax returns. Giving taxpayers additional options strengthens the tax filing system. And adding Direct File to the menu of filing options fits squarely into our effort to make taxes as easy as possible for Americans, including saving time and money.”

State and eligibility expansion

Building on the success of the limited pilot – where taxpayers with relatively simple tax situations in 12 states were eligible to use Direct File – the IRS is examining ways to expand eligibility to more taxpayers across the country. For the 2025 filing season, the IRS will work with all states that want to partner with Direct File, and there will be no limit to the number of states that can participate in the coming year. The agency expects several new states will choose to participate.

The IRS is also exploring ways to gradually expand the scope of tax situations supported by Direct File. Over the coming years, the agency’s goal is to expand Direct File to support most common tax situations, with a particular focus on those situations that impact working families. Announcements about new state partners and expanded eligibility are expected in the coming months.

“User experience – both within the product and integration with state tax systems – will continue to be the foundation for Direct File moving forward,” Werfel said. “We will focus, first and foremost, on continuing to get it right. Accuracy and comprehensive tax credit uptake will be paramount concerns to ensure taxpayers file a correct return and get the refund they’re entitled to. And our North Star will be improving the experience of tax filing itself and helping taxpayers meet their obligations as easily and quickly as possible.”

Direct File’s role in the tax system

During the agency’s review, many taxpayers told the IRS they want no-cost filing options. Millions of taxpayers who did not live in one of the 12 pilot states visited the Direct File website to learn more about this option or asked live chat assistors to make Direct File available in their state.

As a permanent filing option, Direct File will continue to be one option among many from which taxpayers can choose. It is not meant to replace other important options by tax professionals or commercial software providers, who are critical partners with the IRS in delivering a successful tax system for the nation. The IRS also remains committed to the ongoing relationship with Free File Inc., which has served taxpayers for two decades in the joint effort to provide free commercial software. Earlier this month, the IRS signed a five-year extension with industry to continue Free File.

As the IRS works to expand Direct File, it will also work to strengthen all free filing options for taxpayers, including Free File, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program (VITA) and the Tax Counseling for the Elderly program (TCE).

Pilot analysis and feedback

In the six weeks following the close of the Direct File pilot, the IRS closely analyzed pilot data and gathered feedback from diverse groups of stakeholders, including Direct File users, state officials and representatives across the country’s tax community.

While data analysis and partner engagement are ongoing, the IRS’ post-pilot analysis has yielded three conclusions that support making Direct File a permanent tax filing solution:

1. Taxpayers overwhelmingly liked using Direct File

As detailed in the IRS Direct File Pilot: Filing Season 2024 After Action Report PDF , more than 15,000 Direct File users participated in the General Services Administration’s Touchpoints survey, which collects comprehensive user feedback about government systems:

• 90% of respondents ranked their experience as Excellent or Above Average.
• When asked what they particularly liked, respondents most commonly cited Direct File’s ease of use, trustworthiness and that it was free.
• Additionally, 86% of respondents said that their experience with Direct File increased their trust in the IRS.
• 90% of survey respondents who used customer support rated that experience as Excellent or Above Average.

For the primary quantitative measure of taxpayer opinions of Direct File, the IRS selected the Net Promoter Score (NPS) customer sentiment metric, which asks users, “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend Direct File to a friend or family member?” NPS scores range from -100-+100. Direct File has a NPS of +74. If compared to benchmark scores from financial services companies, Direct File would lead in eight of nine categories.

2. Direct File made the tax filing experience easier

Direct File’s users reported saving time: Filing taxes with Direct File generally took less than an hour, and many reported filing in as little as 30 minutes. Nearly half of Direct File users reported paying for tax preparation the previous year, and the Treasury Department estimates that Direct File users saved $5.6 million in tax preparation fees this filing season.

3. Direct File helps catalyze the IRS’s digital transformation

To build Direct File, the IRS assembled a team of experienced tax experts, digital product specialists, engineers and data scientists from across the federal government. The agency partnered with the U.S. Digital Service and GSA’s 18F, as well as private sector partners, who all brought critical agile technology expertise. Working side by side at IRS headquarters and collaborating with remote team members across the country, the Direct File team developed and delivered a strong technology product.

The Direct File pilot also gave the IRS the chance to test customer service innovations on a large scale.

Live Chat served as Direct File’s primary customer support channel because it could be integrated directly into the product. This allowed customer support to gradually expand in concert with the overall number of users in each phase of the pilot. The IRS is exploring how this approach could impact taxpayer service overall as the agency works to provide taxpayers with more choices in how they can interact with the IRS.

“We’re mindful that the most important decision we made during the pilot was to focus on executional certainty,” Werfel said. “We took the time to get it right. We found the right first step to test the demand and the user experience and build a strong product. We will apply that same critical lesson for next year as we take a strategic approach to expanding Direct File’s availability and capabilities.”

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After publishing an article critical of Israel, Columbia Law Review’s website is shut down by board

FILE - A student protester parades a Palestinian flag outside the entrance to Hamilton Hall on the campus of Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. The student-run legal journal, Columbia Law Review, was taken offline Monday, June 3, 2024, after its board of directors objected to the publication of an article that accused Israel of genocide. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, Pool, File)

FILE - Protesters demonstrate against the war in Gaza outside the entrance to the campus of Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. The student-run legal journal, Columbia Law Review, was taken offline Monday, June 3, 2024, after its board of directors objected to the publication of an article that accused Israel of genocide. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - Police stand guard as demonstrators chant slogans outside the Columbia University campus, on April 18, 2024, in New York. The student-run legal journal, Columbia Law Review, was taken offline Monday, June 3, 2024, after its board of directors objected to the publication of an article that accused Israel of genocide. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - Student protesters camp on the campus of Columbia University, Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. The student-run legal journal, Columbia Law Review, was taken offline Monday, June 3, 2024, after its board of directors objected to the publication of an article that accused Israel of genocide. (Pool Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

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NEW YORK (AP) — Student editors at the Columbia Law Review say they were pressured by the journal’s board of directors to halt publication of an academic article written by a Palestinian human rights lawyer that accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and upholding an apartheid regime.

When the editors refused the request and published the piece Monday morning, the board — made up of faculty and alumni from Columbia University’s law school — shut down the law review’s website entirely. It remained offline Tuesday evening, a static homepage informing visitors the domain “is under maintenance.”

The episode at one of the country’s oldest and most prestigious legal journals marks the latest flashpoint in an ongoing debate about academic speech that has deeply divided students, staff and college administrators since the start of the Israel-Hamas war.

Several editors at the Columbia Law Review described the board’s intervention as an unprecedented breach of editorial independence at the periodical, which is run by students at Columbia Law School. The board of directors oversees the nonprofit’s finances but has historically played no role in selecting pieces.

In a letter sent to student editors Tuesday and shared with The Associated Press, the board of directors said it was concerned that the article, titled “Nakba as a Legal Concept,” had not gone through the “usual processes of review or selection for articles at the Law Review, and in particular that a number of student editors had been unaware of its existence.”

“In order to preserve the status quo and provide student editors some window of opportunity to review the piece, as well as provide time for the Law Review to determine how to proceed, we temporarily suspended the website,” the letter continued.

Those involved in soliciting and editing the piece said they had followed a rigorous review process, even as they acknowledged taking steps to forestall expected blowback by limiting the number of students aware of the article.

In the piece, Rabea Eghbariah, a Harvard doctoral candidate, accuses Israel of a litany of “crimes against humanity,” arguing for a new legal framework to “encapsulate the ongoing structure of subjugation in Palestine and derive a legal formulation of the Palestinian condition.”

Eghbariah said in a text message that the suspension of the law journal’s website should be seen as “a microcosm of a broader authoritarian repression taking place across U.S. campuses.”

Editors said they voted overwhelmingly in December to commission a piece on Palestinian legal issues, then formed a smaller committee — open to all of the publication’s editorial leadership — that ultimately accepted Eghbariah’s article. He had submitted an earlier version of the article to the Harvard Law Review, which the publication later elected not to publish amid internal backlash, according to a report in The Intercept .

Anticipating similar controversy and worried about a leak of the draft, the committee of editors working on the article did not upload it to a server that is visible to the broader membership of the law journal and to some administrators. The piece was not shared until Sunday with the full staff of the Columbia Law Review — something that editorial staffers said was not uncommon.

“We’ve never circulated a particular article in advance,” said Sohum Pal, an articles editor at the publication. “So the idea that this is all over a process concern is a total lie. It’s very transparently content based.”

In their letter to students, the board of directors said student editors who didn’t work on the piece should have been given an opportunity to read it and raise concerns.

“Whatever your views of this piece, it will clearly be controversial and potentially have an impact on all associated with the Review,” they wrote.

Those involved in the publishing of the article said they heard from a small group of students over the weekend who expressed concerns about threats to their careers and safety if it were to be published.

Some alluded to trucks that circled Columbia and other campuses following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, labeling students as antisemites for their past or current affiliation with groups seen as hostile to Israel.

The letter from the board also suggested that a statement be appended to the piece stating the article had not been subject to a standard review process or made available for all student editors to read ahead of time.

Erika Lopez, an editor who worked on the piece, said many students were adamantly opposed to the idea, calling it “completely false to imply that we didn’t follow the standard process.”

She said student editors had spoken regularly since they began receiving pushback from the board on Sunday and remained firmly in support of the piece.

When they learned the website had been shuttered Monday morning, they quickly uploaded Eghbariah’s article to a publicly accessible website . It has since spread widely across social media.

“It’s really ironic that this piece probably got more attention than anything we normally published,” Lopez added, “even after they nuked the website.”

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Columbia Law Review Website Is Taken Offline Over Article Criticizing Israel

The board of directors of the student-run publication said that the article, by a Palestinian human rights lawyer, had not been subject to sufficient review.

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By Sharon Otterman

The website of the Columbia Law Review, one of the United States’ most prestigious student-edited law journals, was taken offline Monday by its board of directors after its editors published an article that argues Palestinians are living under a “brutally sophisticated structure of oppression” by Israel that amounts to a crime against humanity.

As of Tuesday evening, visitors to the website of the 123-year-old journal saw only a blank page with the message “Website is under maintenance.”

The decision to suspend access to the website is the latest example of how American universities have sought to regulate expression that is highly critical of Israel amid concerns that it veers into antisemitism. That, in turn, has spurred complaints about censorship and academic freedom when it comes to Palestinian scholarship.

In a statement, the board of directors , which consists of faculty members and alumni, said it had decided to suspend the website on Monday after learning two days earlier that not all of the students on the Law Review had read the essay before publication.

The board said that it had asked the editors to hold the article until June 7, to give others time to read it but that they had published it on Monday instead. The board then decided to take the website down temporarily “to provide time for the Law Review to determine how to proceed.”

In a letter Tuesday to the editorial staff that was provided to The New York Times, the board charged that the article had been handled with unusual secrecy, calling that “unacceptable.”

The involvement of the 12-member board, which includes Gillian Lester, the law school dean; Gillian Metzger, a constitutional law scholar at Columbia; and Ginger Anders, an alumna and former assistant to the U.S. solicitor general, was also unusual. The board is not typically involved in the editorial decisions of the student-led organization.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time ever that the board of directors of the Law Review has intervened in any way in the publication of an article,” said Katherine Franke, a Columbia law professor who supported the piece’s publication.

“It’s a little hard for me to believe that if the article had been about anything else, the board would have cared about the process,” she added.

The 105-page article, written by Rabea Eghbariah , a Palestinian human rights lawyer and a doctoral candidate at Harvard, calls Zionism a form of colonialism and racism and argues that a new legal concept is needed to fully encapsulate the extent of its harms. That concept, Mr. Eghbariah argues, is nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe, which is also the word used by Palestinians for their forced displacement from Israel in 1948.

Mr. Eghbariah called the website’s shutdown an attempt to silence his scholarship.

“What is so scary about Palestinians speaking their truth?” he said.

The editors on the Review did use a “somewhat irregular process” in editing the piece, “Toward Nakba as a Legal Concept,” because they were concerned about censorship, Professor Franke said. Students involved in the editing said that among the roughly 100 people involved with the journal, they had created a smaller committee to solicit and select the piece, a procedure the Review does not always use.

That committee defended the process. In a statement, it said that the article “went through at least six rounds of intensive editing and fact-checking over several months to prepare for publication. Thirty editors collectively spent hundreds of hours working on the article — numbers consistent with other articles the Review publishes.”

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, dozens of university faculty members across the country have been investigated, suspended or fired for making statements that critics charge are antisemitic or supportive of the attack. Student protests have also been widely condemned as antisemitic, even when the protesters say that their anti-Zionist views do not mean they are against Jews.

In November, a shorter version of Mr. Eghbariah’s article was fully edited at the Harvard Law Review but was pulled from publication at the last minute after an emergency vote by the entire editorial staff, The Intercept reported. The Nation later published that essay in full.

In its letter to the Columbia Law Review editorial staff, the board of directors said Tuesday that it would like to restore the website soon but requested that a note be appended to the article stating that it not been “subject to the usual processes of review and editing.”

“It was solicited outside of the usual articles selection process and edited and substantiated by a limited number of student editors,” the board wanted the note to read. “Contrary to ordinary practice, it was not made available for all student editors to read.”

The board also noted that some members of the Law Review had complained of issues beyond being excluded from the article’s editing.

“We are concerned about the atmosphere on the Review, and about statements some students have made to us about feeling excluded and unwelcome at the Review,” the board wrote to the staff. “We hope to work with you to address those issues going forward.”

Sharon Otterman is a Times reporter covering higher education, public health and other issues facing New York City. More about Sharon Otterman

Our Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War

News and Analysis

After a barrage from Hezbollah militants on northern Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened a “very intense”  military response.

Even as Hamas and Israel appear to be inching closer to a cease-fire agreement, analysts are skeptical that the sides will ever implement a deal  that goes beyond a temporary truce.

Some Gazans are urging Hamas to accept a cease-fire plan outlined by President Biden, but many remain deeply skeptical  that the United States, as Israel’s chief ally, would truly bring an end to the war.

Columbia Law School: The website of the Columbia Law Review was taken offline by its board of directors after its editors published  an article arguing Palestinians are living under a “brutally sophisticated structure of oppression” by Israel that is a crime against humanity.

A Debate at Holocaust Museums: The Israel-Hamas war has also forced Holocaust museums to confront one of the most emotional and divisive issues within the Jewish community: how to discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict .

In the West Bank: Since the war in Gaza began, armed Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied territory, often accompanied by the army, have stepped up seizures of land long used by Palestinians .

A Fateful Encounter: In an Israeli prison infirmary, a Jewish dentist came to the aid of a desperately ill Hamas inmate. Years later, the prisoner became a mastermind of the Oct. 7 attack .