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• No Author, Date, or Title in APA Style | Formats & Examples

No Author, Date, or Title in APA Style | Formats & Examples

Published on November 6, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on January 17, 2024.

Webpage citations in APA Style consist of five components: author, publication date, title, website name, and URL.

Unfortunately, some of these components are sometimes missing. For instance, there may be no author or publication date. This article explains how to handle different kinds and combinations of missing information.

Generate an accurate APA citation for any source now:

Table of contents, basic webpage citation format, no author or date, no author or title, no date or title, no author, date, or title.

You can explore the basic citation format for a webpage using the example generator below.

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APA Citation Style, 7th edition: Web Page with No Author

• General Style Guidelines
• One Author or Editor
• Two Authors or Editors
• Three to Five Authors or Editors
• Article or Chapter in an Edited Book
• Article in a Reference Book
• Edition other than the First
• Translation
• Government Publication
• Journal Article with 1 Author
• Journal Article with 2 Authors
• Journal Article with 3–20 Authors
• Journal Article 21 or more Authors
• Magazine Article
• Newspaper Article
• Basic Web Page
• Web page from a University site
• Web Page with No Author
• Entry in a Reference Work
• Government Document
• Film and Television
• Youtube Video
• Audio Podcast
• Electronic Image
• Twitter/Instagram
• Lecture/PPT
• Conferences
• Secondary Sources
• Citation Support
• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Formatting Your Paper

Document from a Web site with no Author

• When citing sources that you find on the Internet you only need to include a retrieval date if the information you viewed is likely to change over time.  If you reference an article from a news source (e.g., CNN, NBC, Washington Post) or a site that may experience continuous updates, you would then need to include a retrieval date.
• New in 7th edition: You must include the site name in your citation, unless the site name is the same as the corporate author. For example, a citation of a CDC report would not include the site name.

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APA 6th Edition Citation Style

No author / no date.

• APA 6th Edition Guide
• Annual Report
• Article, Journal
• Article, Journal (with DOI)
• Article, Journal (without DOI)
• Book, Chapter in edited work
• Book, Electronic
• Dissertation / Thesis
• Dissertation / Thesis (Database)
• Email/Interviews
• Events, Live
• Newspaper Article
• Newspaper Article (Database)
• Newspaper Article (Website)
• Podcast, Audio
• Reference Work
• Reference Work (Database)
• Website Document
• Video, Online

Newspaper article (from the newspaper’s website) with no author

Proper Bibliographic Reference Format:

• Bibliographic references are double-spaced and indented half an inch after the first line.
• If there is no author, the article title comes first.
• For titles of newspapers, use italics and "headline" style capitalization.
• Use the URL of the homepage of the newspaper to avoid non-working URLs.
• It is no longer necessary to include the date of retrieval.

Barcelona to ban burqa in municipal buildings. (2010, June 14).  Retrieved from http://gulfnews.com

In-Text Citations:

• Citations are placed in the context of discussion using the author’s last name and date of publication.
• When a work has no identified author, cite in text the first few words of the article title using double quotation marks, “headline- style” capitalization, and the year.

(“Barcelona to Ban Burqa,” 2010)

• Alternatively, you can integrate the citation into the sentence by means of narrative.
• There must be a total match between the reference list and the parenthetical citation, so the article title must stand in place of an author’s name in the essay.

“Barcelona to Ban Burqa” (2010) contends that the move is aimed at all dress that impedes identification.

Website with no author and no date

• If there is no date, use the abbreviation n.d.

United Arab Emirates architecture. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.uaeinteract.com/

• When a work has no identified author, cite in text the first few words of the article title using double quotation marks, “headline-style" capitalization, and the year.

(“United Arab Emirates Architecture,” n.d.)

“United Arab Emirates Architecture” (n.d.) describes building materials used in early settlements.

Journal or magazine article (from library database or online) with no author

• For titles of journals or magazines, use italics and "headline" style capitalization.
• Use the URL of the homepage of the journal or magazine to avoid non-working URLS

Famine relief: Just a simple matter of supplying food? (2002). Nutrition Noteworthy , 5(1). Retrieved from http://escholarship.org/uc/uclabiolchem_nutritionnoteworthy

• When a work has no identified author, cite in text the first few words of the article title using double quotation marks, “headline” style capitalization, and the year.

(“Famine Relief,” 2002)

“Famine Relief” (2002) examines the causes of poverty and famine in Africa.

Works With an Anonymous Author

When a work’s author is designated as “Anonymous,” cite in text the word Anonymous followed by a comma and the date:

(Anonymous, 2010)

In the reference list, an anonymous work is alphabetized by the word Anonymous

Anonymous. (2010). Food safety shake-up needed in the USA. The Lancet , 375(9732), 2122. Retrieved from http://www.thelancet.com

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How To Cite a Website Without an Author: APA, MLA, and Chicago Style

• Posted on April 19, 2022 April 15, 2022

Today, a staggering majority of our information is found online. In fact, it’s rare not to head to the internet when you start researching a topic. This is true even for students who have been well-trained in the use of primary sources and physical references: books, magazines, and newspapers, among others.

Of course, if you have any experience at all with research, you already know how common it is to find online information with no author attributed. This can occur for a variety of reasons, for example, if an article was written by a whole team of employees, or if the work was a combination of both the website staff work and newswire material. When there is absolutely no author name to be found in the content, you still must cite the source accurately.

Similarly, sometimes online information won’t disclose an author’s name but instead lists “anonymous” as the author. Writers occasionally chose to publish anonymously, as it removes their reputation and personal ties from the work. This might be useful if the writer is branching into a new field of study, or if they need to hide their identity for safety reasons. However, as long as the source is reliable and the information is vital to your work it is still seen as appropriate and professional to cite an anonymous source.

Although an article without an author and an article written anonymously may seem similar, they actually have different citation formats across the different styles. The sections below will serve as a guide for properly accrediting the un-named authors in both of these scenarios.

How to Cite a Website Without an Author

Depending on your class subject or industry, you might use APA, MLA or Chicago Styles, all of which differ in what information is necessary for a proper citation. In lieu of the author’s last name, you will need other basic identifiers such as website name, the title of the article, date of publication, access date, and HTML address.

Additionally, depending on your citation style you may require additional information, such as:

• Day month year
• The entire website or specific headings
• Page numbers

Any type of source, including journal article, newspaper article, magazine article, or research paper, may fall under this reference type if there is no author listed on the website. For our purposes, let’s assume you are dealing with a basic website, with no author or an anonymous author, and look at the three basic formatting approaches now.

Named for the American Psychological Association, APA style is commonly used in the social and behavioral sciences, such as psychology, education, and social work. Here is the correct APA citation format for a website without an author. This complete citation is placed at the end of a work, typically in a reference page:

Title. (Year, Month Day). Retrieved from URL of the specific document

An example looks like this:

Chiweenies take over Manhattan for midsummer parade. (2013, October 14). Retrieved from http://www.hellodoggy.com/id/576768/chiweenies-manhattan-midsummer-parade

Note that for an APA reference, there is no period at the end of the citation and no italics are needed. Additionally, and sentence case is used- where only the first word of the title is capitalized. Since the title takes the place of the author’s name, you do not need to list the website separately from the URL.

In-text citations are a shortened version of the above citation placed within the written work to accompany information from the source. APA in-text citations include an abbreviated title, in quotes, followed by the year, in parentheses. An in-text citation for the same example as above is provided here:

(“Chiweenies take over Manhattan,” 2013).

MLA format is another citation style based on a handbook published by Modern Language Association and is most typically used in the humanities. The MLA citation style differs from APA in that it does require the name of the website as well as the organization if there is one. A template for an MLA citation for a website without an author is provided below. This longer citation is placed at the end of the article, on the works cited page:

Name of Organization. Title of Web Document. Title of Website, year if given, URL of specific document. Accessed access date.

Formatted properly, it looks like this:

I Heart Chiweenies. Chiweenies Take Over Manhattan for Midsummer Parade. Hello Doggy, 2013, http://www.hellodoggy.com/id/576768/chiweenies-manhattan-midsummer-parade . Accessed March 2, 2021.

If you do not have a parent organization name that is separate from the website name, you should leave it out and put nothing in the author slot.

For an in-text citation or parenthetical citation, cite only the organization name and page or paragraph number, unless you do not have an organization name, in which case the style requires quotes around the title. Different from APA, MLA uses titlecase for all website citations.

A template for an organization name with paragraph number:

(I Heart Chiweenies, Paragraph 5).

A template for no organization name and no page number:

(“Chiweenies Take Over Manhattan for Midsummer Parade”).

Chicago Style

Chicago Style is another method for citation and is most frequently seen in the history field, but occasionally used by the humanities as well. For a Chicago-style reference list entry, you must differentiate between a footnote and a bibliography entry. A footnote does not require anything in the author slot, and a template looks like:

“Title,” Website Name, accessed date. URL.

For example:

“Chiweenies Take Over Manhattan for Midsummer Parade,” Hello Doggy, accessed March 2, 2021, http://www.hellodoggy.com/id/576768/chiweenies-manhattan-midsummer-parade .

A bibliography citation, on the other hand, does require the name of the website to take the place of an author’s name. An example would look like this:

Hello Doggy. “Chiweenies Take Over Manhattan for Midsummer Parade.” Accessed March 2, 2021, http://www.hellodoggy.com/id/576768/chiweenies-manhattan-midsummer-parade .

In all cases where the title comes first, and the title begins with an article (such as a, an, the), omit the article and begin with the first word. In our example, this is not applicable, but if the correct title began with “The Chiweenies Take Over … ” you would omit the “The.” Additionally, Chicago Style uses title case but does not feature italics or include the parent organization in any citations.

For an in-text citation, the title of the website goes first, followed by a title abbreviation in quotation marks. An example would be:

(Hello Doggy, “Chiweenies Take Over Manhattan”).

Citing a Website with an Anonymous Author

As mentioned previously, sometimes an author may not want their name associated with their work for a variety of reasons. This is common on blogs with guest posters or on forums, where instead of a name in the author slot it simply states “Anonymous”, “Author” or “Unknown Contributor.”

The citation should still include the title of the webpage, date, and so forth. However, some of the citation styles treat this situation differently than an article with no author.

Whether you’re writing a paper for a boss or adhering to the highest Harvard referencing standards, you want to make sure your citation formats are correct. The different citation formats are listed below.

In APA format, citing a website without a specified author but with a placeholder displaying Anonymous is relatively simple. The one adjustment is to switch out the author’s name with the designation found on the webpage, as shown in the template below:

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

Again, there is no period at the end of the URL and no access date in the citation. With a designation of simply “Author,” an example would look like this:

Author. (2013, October 14). Chiweenies take over Manhattan for midsummer parade. Hello Doggy. Retrieved from http://www.hellodoggy.com/id/576768/chiweenies-manhattan-midsummer-parade

An in-text citation uses the designation and year, or if there is an applicable page or paragraph number that information should also be included.

(Author, 2013) Or (Author, 2013, p. 120)

MLA style dictates that you do not use Anonymous, Author or any other nonspecific designation in place of an actual author’s name. The style states you should treat these “names” as though they do not exist, and default to the standard referencing guides as listed above. As a reminder, the template for this citation is provided below:

As with MLA format, Chicago Style asks you to omit the anonymous designation and stick to the reference format used for a webpage with no author. A template and example for a footnote are restated below:

As a reminder, the format changes for the bibliography page, as you should use the name of the website in place of the Anonymous distinction. A sample citation is provided here:

Creating Citations for a Website Without an Author

All of the above citation styles can be performed manually by plugging in the correct variables to the specified format for long-form (bibliographies, works cited, footnotes) and short-form (in-text) citations. However, as the number of sources you use grows this can become tedious work.

Plus, it leaves you open to a few dangers. First, if you do not format a citation correctly your grade will suffer as a result. The second, more considerable, hazard is that if you do it incorrectly and no one can find your reference, they might think you are making it up. Or, in the case of a website, when someone does a search for that content and finds it verbatim without a proper citation, they might think you are plagiarizing.

Unfortunately, accidental plagiarism is almost as serious as intentional plagiarism in school. In the business world, there is no difference as both can lead to an equally serious lawsuit.

You can avoid that danger by using Quetext’s citation generator for effortless and perfect citations, created automatically. All you do is plug the webpage into the generator, choose your style and hit go. The citation guide will immediately spit out perfectly formatted references that match your needed format.

Final Steps Before Submitting Your Work

No matter how you create your citations, make sure to check your work in full before submitting it to a teacher or manager. That way, you know exactly what you’re turning in and can stand behind your work with confidence knowing you have not committed plagiarism through poor paraphrasing or citations.

If you’re still not confident, you can use software such as Quetext’s plagiarism checker to ensure you have not unintentionally plagiarized from one of your sources. That way, even if you accidentally left out a reference, the system will spot it for you and make sure you give credit where credit is due.

Sign Up for Quetext Today!

Click below to find a pricing plan that fits your needs.

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How to Cite a Website with No Author

Last Updated: February 10, 2023 Fact Checked

This article was reviewed by Gerald Posner and by wikiHow staff writer, Jennifer Mueller, JD . Gerald Posner is an Author & Journalist based in Miami, Florida. With over 35 years of experience, he specializes in investigative journalism, nonfiction books, and editorials. He holds a law degree from UC College of the Law, San Francisco, and a BA in Political Science from the University of California-Berkeley. He’s the author of thirteen books, including several New York Times bestsellers, the winner of the Florida Book Award for General Nonfiction, and has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History. He was also shortlisted for the Best Business Book of 2020 by the Society for Advancing Business Editing and Writing. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 95,618 times.

If you're doing research for a paper or project, you'll likely use online sources. Some websites don't list an author for much of their content. Often, you can list the organization or institution that maintains the website as the author. If naming the organization or institution as an author doesn't make sense, create a citation for a website with no author. The specific format varies depending on whether you're using the Modern Language Association (MLA), American Psychological Association (APA), or Chicago citation style.

• Example: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites .

• Example: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites . The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U,

• Example: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites . The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008,

• Example: The Purdue OWL Family of Sites . The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008, owl.purdue.edu/owl/purdue_owl.html. Accessed 29 Oct. 2018.

MLA Works Cited Format

Name of Website . Name of Website Sponsor, Day Month Year of resource creation, URL. Accessed Day Month Year.

• For example, you might write: "The Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) has some of the most thorough information for research and writing available on the internet." Since the name of the site is included in the narrative, you don't need a parenthetical citation.

• For example, you might write: "Kids psych is an interactive website designed to teach children about psychology (http://www.kidspsych.org).
• Cite to the initial homepage of the site, not a secondary page. Typically this won't be a long address. However, if the URL is long and looks awkward in your paper, talk to your instructor or supervisor about creating a shortened version.

• Example: Canada: Education structure.

• Example: Canada: Education structure. (2018).

• Example: Canada: Education structure. (2018). In Global road warrior .

• Example: Canada: Education structure. (2018). In Global road warrior . Retrieved February 17, 2018, from http://www.globalroadwarrior.com/#mode=country&regionId=27&uri=country-content&nid=62.18&key=country-ed-structure

APA Reference List Format

Title of page in sentence case. (Year). In Title of website in sentence case . Retrieved Month Day, Year from URL.

• For example, you might write: "Grading scales in Canada differ among the provinces, which can make it difficult for children moving in the middle of a term ("Canada," 2018)."

• Example: Financial Accounting Standards Board .

• Example: Financial Accounting Standards Board . Financial Accounting Foundation.

• Example: Financial Accounting Standards Board . Financial Accounting Foundation. https://www.fasb.org/home. (Accessed October 29, 2018).

Chicago Bibliography Format

Title of Website . Sponsor of Website, Month Day, Year of resource creation. URL. (Accessed Month Day, Year).

• Example: Financial Accounting Standards Board , Financial Accounting Foundation, https://www.fasb.org/home, (accessed October 29, 2018).

Community Q&A

• Distinguish between a webpage and a website. The website is the whole thing, while a webpage is an individual part of the larger website. [16] X Research source Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• A website's "about" page is a good place to find the name of a potential author. There may also be a web form you can use to contact the site's owner and ask who you should list as an author. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_works_cited_electronic_sources.html
• ↑ https://utica.libguides.com/c.php?g=703243&p=4991659
• ↑ https://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/cite-website
• ↑ https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/missing-information
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_author_authors.html
• ↑ https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/reference_list_electronic_sources.html
• ↑ https://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/c.php?g=723038&p=5226475
• ↑ https://libguides.csuchico.edu/c.php?g=414275&p=2822429

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APA Citation Style 7th Edition: No Author, No Date etc.

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No page numbers.

No Title 

No Database Name

If no author or creator is provided, start the citation with the title/name of the item you are citing instead. Follow the title/name of the item with the date of publication, and the continue with other citation details.

Note : an author/creator won't necessarily be a person's name. It may be an organization or corporation, for example Health Canada or a username on a site such a YouTube.

If no author or creator is provided, use a shortened version of the title where you'd normally put the author's last name. 

If you're citing something which is part of a bigger work, like an article from a magazine, newspaper, journal or encyclopedia, or chapter or short story from a book, put the shortened title in quotation marks in your in-text citation. 

Example, paraphrasing: ("A few words", 2014) 

If you're citing an entire work, like a book, website, video, etc., italicize the shortened title in your in-text citation

Example, 'paraphrasing: ( A few words , 2014)

If and only if an item is signed as being created by Anonymous, use "Anonymous" where you'd normally put the author's name.

Alphabetical Order in References List

When putting works in alphabetical order, ignore initial articles such as "the", "a", or "an". For example the title The best of Canada would be alphabetized as if it started with the word best instead of the word The

If the title begins with a number, alphabetize it as if the number was spelled out. For example the title 5 ways to succeed in business would be alphabetized under F as if it had started with the word Five .

If no date is provided, use the initials n.d. where you would normally put the date.

Also use the initials n.d. if the date of content is difficult to determine, such as on a Wikipedia page.

Page numbers may not be provided for some items, such as online materials. If this is the case:

References List

If a citation would normally include page numbers but none are provided, skip the page numbers in the citation.

In-Text Citation - Quoting Directly

When quoting directly in the text of your paper, you would normally include page numbers if they were given. If there are no page numbers given:

• Indicate the paragraph number instead of the page number with the word "para." before it. For example: (Smith, 2012, para. 3)
• If there are headings, give the name of the heading, followed by the word "section" and the number of the paragraph within the section it is from. For example: (Smith, 2012, Discussion section, para. 3)
• If there is only one paragraph, provide the author's last name and the year and omit the page number

Occasionally an item may not have a title. If you are citing something with no identified title, write a description of the item placed in square brackets. Put this description in brackets where you'd normally put the title.

If you find an article through the  search bar  on the main library page, you might be unsure which database the article is from, because this searches across many different databases.

You can find the name of the database a few ways:

Method 1. Click on the title of the article in the search results list. This will bring you to a page with a description of the article as well as other useful information. Scroll down to the bottom of this list of information, and you should see "Database" listed near the bottom.

Method 2. You can also find the name of the database in the summary of information just below the title of the article in the search results list. It will look something like this:

Notice the name of the database is listed at the end.

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Citing a Website Without Authors

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Using articles published on websites as sources in academic papers is an increasingly common practice, and for good reason. They are easy to access and can contain a breadth of valuable information. It can be challenging, however, to properly cite websites when there is no clear author for the article, or if there are numerous authors listed. So how can you go about creating accurate references for these types of sources? Read on for informative tips that will help you create citations like these for your next paper.

Below are formulas and examples for how to cite a web page in MLA formatting , APA style , and Harvard referencing, which are some of the most popular styles on Cite This For Me. (The Harvard example in this article adheres to the rules in Harvard – Cite Them Right style specifically). The examples for “many authors” assume that there are six or more authors listed in the source.

How to cite a web page in MLA style with no author

“Title of the Article or Individual Page.” Title of the website , Name of the publisher, Date of publication, URL.

“Facts About Giant Pandas.” Smithsonian National Zoological Park , Smithsonian Institute, 2004, www.nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/giantpandas/pandafacts.

How to cite a web page in MLA style with many authors

First Author Last Name, First Name, et al. “Title of the Article or Individual Page.” Title of the website , Name of the publisher, Date of publication, URL.

Smith, Martha, et al. “The Early Works of Emily Dickinson.” Dickinson Electronic Archives, University of Maryland, 1994, www.emilydickinson.org/index.html .

How to cite a web page in APA style with no author

Title of web page. (Year, Month Date of publication). Retrieved from URL

India: Country specific information. (2013, October 3). Retrieved from http://travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1139.html

How to cite a web page in APA style with many authors

Author 1 Last Name, First Middle Initial, Author 2 Last Name, First Middle Initial, Author 3 Last Name, First Middle Initial, Author 4 Last Name, First Middle Initial, Author 5 Last Name, First Middle Initial, Author 6 Last Name, First Middle Initial . . . Final Author Last Name, First Middle Initial. (Year, Month Date of publication). Retrieved from URL.

Satalkar, B., Choi, M.J., Angeli, L.L., Harland, A.A., Stamos, J.A., Thomas, S.T., . . . Rubin, J.H. (2010, July 15). Water aerobics. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com  

How to cite a web page in Harvard style with no author

Web page title (Year published) Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Palladio’s Italian villas (2005) Available at: http://www.boglewood.com/palladio/ (Accessed: 23 December 2018).

*Need more help? Check out our Harvard referencing tool .

How to cite a web page in Harvard style with many authors

Author Last Name, First Middle Initial et al. (Year published) Web page title. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

Burton, P.A et al. (2012) The world’s oldest castles. Available at: http://www.castlesofspain.co.uk/ (Accessed: 14 December 2018).

Need help learning how to write an annotated bibliography ? Trying to make an in-text citation for a website ? Cite This For Me has citing guides and tools to help you with this and more!

If the webpage’s author is not available, use the title of the webpage in the in-text citation. For a webpage title, enclose the title in double quotation marks and use title case, not sentence case, in the in-text citation.

In case the title is too long, use a shortened version.

Webpage Example In-Text Citation With No Author:

“Nephrology in 2020 and Beyond” 2020 states… (paraphrase)

The article “Nephrology in 2020 and Beyond” (2020) states that…

Parenthetical:

The article explains the theory that future nephrology will focus on proactive kidney disease diagnoses (“Nephrology in 2020 and Beyond,” 2020).

For a shortened version, use only the noun in the noun phrase of the title:

(“Nephrology,” 2020).

If the webpage’s author is not available, use the title of the webpage first in the reference entry.

Webpage Example Reference Entry With No Author:

Nephrology. (2022, January 25). In Wikipedia . https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nephrology

When a webpage does NOT have an author, use the title of the article or webpage to reference it within the text. Unlike other formats, do not include the year in which the webpage was created. If the title is long, use a shortened form, creating a noun phrase and excluding beginning articles. The phrase must include the first words shown in its citation on the Works Cited page.

Format: Parenthetical Citation

(“Title of the article”)

( Title of the Webpage )

Example: Parenthetical Citation

(“All Things Elon”)

( Writing Characters )

Format: Narrative Citation

According to “Title of the Article,” it is known that . . .

According to Title of the Webpage , it is . . .

Example: Narrative Citation

According to “A Crow’s Voice,” the crow is one of the most intelligent of all birds out there.

According to Investing in NFTs , these digital assets are one of the fastest growing sectors.

As per the MLA 9 handbook, if you don’t find an author’s name, don’t state it as “Anonymous.”  Instead, omit the author’s name and fill in the next element of the works-cited entry: the name of the webpage.

“Title of the Article or Individual Page.” Website Name , Publisher, Day Month Year Published, URL.

“Stanley Crane Dies at Smithsonian’s National Zoo.” Smithsonian’s National Zoo & Conservation Biology Institute , Smithsonian Institute, 9 Feb. 2022,

https://nationalzoo.si.edu/news/stanley-crane-dies-smithsonians-national-zoo

For footnotes for a webpage with no authors, include as much of the following information as possible: the title or description of the page, the title of the website, the owner or sponsor of the site, and the URL. If available, include the publication date or modification date; if not available, include the access date.

“Title of the Webpage,” Title of the Website, Owner of the Site, Published/Updated/Accessed Month Day, Year, URL.

15. “Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Pandemic,” World Health Organization, WHO, last modified October 14, 2021, accessed February 19, 2022, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019.

For a bibliography entry for a webpage with no author, include as much of the following information as possible: the title or description of the page, the title of the website, the owner or sponsor of the site, and the URL. If available, include the publication date or modification date; if not available, include the access date in your citation. When formatting the citation for your bibliography, include the site owner at the beginning of your citation in the author field.

Website Owner Name. “Webpage Name.” Website Name. Published/Updated/Accessed Month Day, Year. URL.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration. “New Era of Smarter Food Safety.” FDA. Last modified January 27, 2022. https://www.fda.gov/food/new-era-smarter-food-safety.

How do I cite a source that has no author?

Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook . For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook .

When a work is published without an author’s name, begin the works-cited-list entry with the title of the work. Do not use Anonymous in place of an author’s name:

“English Language Arts Standards.” Common Core State Standards Initiative , 2017, www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/.

“An Homily against Disobedience and Wylful Rebellion.” 1570. Divine Right and Democracy: An Anthology of Political Writing in Stuart England , edited by David Wootton, Penguin Books, 1986, pp. 94–98.

For works created by a corporate author—an institution, a government body, or another kind of organization—list that entity as the author:

Hart Research Associates. It Takes More Than a Major: Employer Priorities for College Learning and Student Success . Association of American Colleges and Universities , 2013, www.aacu.org/publications-research/periodicals/it-takes-more-major-employer-priorities-college-learning-and.

An exception: if a corporate author is also the work’s publisher, list that entity as the publisher and skip the “Author” slot:

Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America . National Endowment for the Arts, June 2004.

Cite these works in your text by title or by corporate author—that is, by the first item in the works-cited-list entry:

The homily argues that rebelling against the English monarch amounts to rebelling against God (“Homily” 97).

Eighty percent of employers believe that all college students “should acquire broad knowledge in the liberal arts and sciences” (Hart).

Review a source carefully before deciding that it has no author. It’s important to credit authors for their work.

Home / Guides / Citation Guides / Harvard Referencing / Harvard Referencing Style Examples / Referencing sources with no author in Harvard style

Referencing sources with no author in Harvard style

This guide shows you what to do when the source you need to reference has no author. Sometimes, you’ll come across sources that don’t have authors listed. These types of sources are often ones like reference books, Wikipedia pages or newspaper articles. How you reference a source with no author varies somewhat, based on the type of source. The general rule is to use the title of the book, article or newspaper in the place of the author in both the in-text citation and full reference.

Here are some examples of how to reference sources with no author in Harvard style.

Books with no author

If you are referencing a book with no author, simply use the title of the book in italics where you would have used the author’s surname.  

In-text citation template:

( Book name, Publication year, Page number)

The moon orbits the Earth in an elliptical orbit in 27 days and 8 hours ( Children’s illustrated treasury of knowledge: Earth, 2013, p. 5).

The word ‘ballast’ is defined in the Concise Oxford English dictionary (2011, p. 101) as ‘a heavy substance, such as gravel or lead, placed in the bilge of a ship to ensure its stability’.

When referencing a book with no author in the reference list, the following format is used:

Title of the book (Publication year) Place of publication: Publisher name.

Children’s illustrated treasury of knowledge: Earth (2013) London: BPI Worldwide.

Concise Oxford English dictionary (2011) 12th edn. New York: Oxford University Press.

Web page with no author

For web pages with no author, such as Wikipedia pages, you’ll use the page title in single quotation marks in place of the author’s surname.

Here’s how the in-text citation would look:

Early New High German was an early form of German predominant in the early modern period (‘Early New High German’, 2020).

For the full reference, you’ll follow a similar format:

‘Early New High German’ (2020) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_New_High_German (Accessed: 19 October 2020).

Often when citing websites, it may appear that the web page has no author when it actually has an organization as its author, or the author is using a handle or username instead of their real name. This guide on how to cite a website in Harvard style provides details on how to cite web pages with different types of authors.

Newspaper/magazine articles with no author

When citing a newspaper or a magazine article in which the author’s name is not given, the format used for the in-text citation is:

( Name of the newspaper, Year of publication)

The article ( The Guardian , 2020) stated that …  

For the reference list, you’ll also use the newspaper title where you would normally place the author’s name. This is followed by the year of publication, the title of the article, the day and month, and, finally, a page reference if it is a print article, or a URL and access date if it is an online article.

Full reference template:  

Newspaper title (Year of publication) ‘Title of the article’, Day Month of publication. Available at: URL (Accessed: Day Month Year).

The Guardian (2020) ‘Wednesday briefing: last orders in fight to avoid lockdown’, 23 September. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/23/wednesday-briefing-last-orders-in-fight-to-avoid-lockdown (Accessed: 23 September 2020).

Published October 29, 2020.

Harvard Formatting Guide

Harvard Formatting

• et al Usage
• Direct Quotes
• In-text Citations
• Multiple Authors
• Page Numbers
• Writing an Outline
• View Harvard Guide

Reference Examples

• View all Harvard Examples

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In-Text Citations: Author/Authors

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Though the APA's author-date system for citations is fairly straightforward, author categories can vary significantly from the standard "one author, one source" configuration. There are also additional rules for citing authors of indirect sources, electronic sources, and sources without page numbers.

A Work by One Author 

The APA manual recommends the use of the author-date citation structure for in-text citation references. This structure requires that any in-text citation (i.e., within the body of the text) be accompanied by a corresponding reference list entry. In the in-text citation provide the surname of the author but do not include suffixes such as "Jr.". 

Citing Non-Standard Author Categories

A work by two authors.

Name both authors in the signal phrase or in parentheses each time you cite the work. Use the word "and" between the authors' names within the text and use the ampersand in parentheses.

A Work by Three or More Authors

List only the first author’s name followed by “et al.” in every citation, even the first, unless doing so would create ambiguity between different sources.

In  et al. , et  should not be followed by a period. Only "al" should be followed by a period.

If you’re citing multiple works with similar groups of authors, and the shortened “et al” citation form of each source would be the same, you’ll need to avoid ambiguity by writing out more names. If you cited works with these authors:

They would be cited in-text as follows to avoid ambiguity:

Since et al. is plural, it should always be a substitute for more than one name. In the case that et al. would stand in for just one author, write the author’s name instead.

Unknown Author

If the work does not have an author, cite the source by its title in the signal phrase or use the first word or two in the parentheses. Titles of books and reports are italicized; titles of articles, chapters, and web pages are in quotation marks. APA style calls for capitalizing important words in titles when they are written in the text (but not when they are written in reference lists).

Note : In the rare case that "Anonymous" is used for the author, treat it as the author's name (Anonymous, 2001). In the reference list, use the name Anonymous as the author.

Organization as an Author

If the author is an organization or a government agency, mention the organization in the signal phrase or in the parenthetical citation the first time you cite the source, just as you would an individual person.

If the organization has a well-known abbreviation, you may include the abbreviation in brackets the first time the source is cited and then use only the abbreviation in later citations. However, if you cite work from multiple organizations whose abbreviations are the same, do not use abbreviations (to avoid ambiguity).

Two or More Works in the Same Parentheses

When your parenthetical citation includes two or more works, order them the same way they appear in the reference list (viz., alphabetically), separated by a semi-colon.

If you cite multiple works by the same author in the same parenthetical citation, give the author’s name only once and follow with dates. No date citations go first, then years, then in-press citations.

Authors with the Same Last Name

To prevent confusion, use first initials with the last names.

Two or More Works by the Same Author in the Same Year

If you have two sources by the same author in the same year, use lower-case letters (a, b, c) with the year to order the entries in the reference list. Use the lower-case letters with the year in the in-text citation.

Introductions, Prefaces, Forewords, and Afterwords

When citing an Introduction, Preface, Foreword, or Afterword in-text, cite the appropriate author and year as usual.

Personal Communication

For interviews, letters, e-mails, and other person-to-person communication, cite the communicator's name, the fact that it was personal communication, and the date of the communication. Do not include personal communication in the reference list.

If using a footnote to reference personal communication, handle citations the same way.

Traditional Knowledge of Indigenous Peoples

When citing information you learned from a conversation with an Indigenous person who was not your research participant, use a variation of the personal communication citation above. Include the person’s full name, nation or Indigenous group, location, and any other relevant details before the “personal communication, date” part of the citation.

Citing Indirect Sources

Generally, writers should endeavor to read primary sources (original sources) and cite those rather than secondary sources (works that report on original sources). Sometimes, however, this is impossible. If you use a source that was cited in another source, name the original source in your signal phrase. List the secondary source in your reference list and include the secondary source in the parentheses. If you know the year of the original source, include it in the citation.

Electronic Sources

If possible, cite an electronic document the same as any other document by using the author-date style.

Unknown Author and Unknown Date

If no author or date is given, use the title in your signal phrase or the first word or two of the title in the parentheses and use the abbreviation "n.d." (for "no date").

Sources Without Page Numbers

When an electronic source lacks page numbers, you should try to include information that will help readers find the passage being cited. Use the heading or section name, an abbreviated heading or section name, a paragraph number (para. 1), or a combination of these.

Note:  Never use the page numbers of webpages you print out; different computers print webpages with different pagination. Do not use Kindle location numbers; instead, use the page number (available in many Kindle books) or the method above. 

Other Sources

The  APA Publication Manual  describes how to cite many different kinds of authors and content creators. However, you may occasionally encounter a source or author category that the manual does not describe, making the best way to proceed unclear.

In these cases, it's typically acceptable to apply the general principles of APA citation to the new kind of source in a way that's consistent and sensible. A good way to do this is to simply use the standard APA directions for a type of source that resembles the source you want to cite. For example, a sensible way to cite a virtual reality program would be to mimic the APA's guidelines for computer software.

You may also want to investigate whether a third-party organization has provided directions for how to cite this kind of source.