They lard their lean books with the fat of others’ works.

—Robert Burton, “Democritus to the Reader,” Anatomy of Melancholy

Do what you can where you are with what you’ve got.

—Teddy Roosevelt

We’re drowning in information and starving for knowledge.

—Rutherford D. Rogers

Science is organized knowledge.

—Herbert Spencer

The lecturer should give the audience full reason to believe that all his powers have been exerted for their pleasure and instruction.

—Michael Faraday

Such labored nothings in so strange a style,
Amaze the unlearned and make the learned smile.

—Alexander Pope

When you steal from one author, it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many, it’s research.

—Wilson Mizner

The illiterate of the 21^st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

—Alvin Toffler

What the styleguides are wrestling with is the incredible variety of sources available on the Web. You may find useful information at any or all of the following, and each styleguide tells you how to cite these sources a little differently.

• Web sites: You’re familiar with Web sites. 
• Online databases: These are just databases available on the Web. Examples include 

The GPO Printing Office database, where you can search for any publication that the U.S. government has put out

EBSCO Publishing databases that archive academic, biomedical, corporate, government, and other types of information

The STN Database in Science, Technology, Patents, and Business, where you can search for just about anything in the world related to science and business.

• E-mail: You all know what email is, but you might not know that some of the styleguides refer to e-mail communications as electronic letters. 
• Discussion groups: The Internet provides thousands of discussion groups via e-mail. If you have an idea, or a whole article that you want to distribute to all members of a list, you send it as an e-mail to the list address, and it is distributed to all other members. If you are curious about what kinds of discussion groups are available on the Web, visit www.tile.net.
• Newsgroups: Newsgroups aren't too different from discussion groups or just plain old personal e-mail. They are online forums for discussion of related topics, accessible by a newsreader (person registered with that particular newsgroup). Some newsgroups allow postings or messages from anyone, while others are moderated (postings are screened). Several University departments have set up newsgroups for specific issues and class use.
• Listservs: Software like the original LISTSERV® provides a commercial mailing list management system that allows you to subscribe to an electronic mailing list, create a mailing list, or manage a mailing list. Mailing lists are e-mail-based discussion groups. All members that are registered to a particular mailing list receive a copy of every message sent to that list via email.
• Chat sessions: These interactive online real-time exchanges of information can be fun and informal, much like a group of friends chatting about some topic. Formal chat sessions often have a moderator who provides information to a group of people and answers questions they may have. A good number of formal chat sessions record the conversation in a transcript, which is later available as a complete record for participants, and an archive for people who did not participate in the chat. Keep this distinction in your mind. You'll note that some of the style guides differentiate between retrievable and non-retrievable information. 
• FTP: Using an ancient and reliable (if a bit daunting) technique for sending files over the Internet, File Transfer Protocol sites post information you can download. FTP is a standardized method for sending unencoded binary files over the Internet. It's more reliable than other methods, such as sending a file an attachment to an email. You don't have to know the mechanics of how this is done to take advantage of information on FTP sites.
• Telnet: If you are researching topics in the physical sciences or mathematics, you may have occasion to go to a Telnet site, using specially designed software that lets your PC emulate a mainframe terminal, so you can log on via the Internet to much more powerful computers and perform tasks as if you were actually working on the remote computer itself.
• Gopher: Long ago, in Internet years, there were many treasures to be found in sites where you could “go fer” the info, using Gopher, a tool for organizing and displaying files on Internet servers. A text-based system, Gopher predates the Web. And with the explosion of the graphic-happy Web, most Gopher databases are being converted to Web sites, easily searchable by Internet search engines. Here's a tidbit for you trivia hounds…Gopher was developed at the University of Minnesota and named after the school's mascot. 

The styleguide you need to use depends on your professor or department (if you are a student) or the academic journal you are writing for:

• For social sciences, use the APA style.
• For humanities and science, and when in doubt, use the Columbia Online Style.
• For English and foreign languages, use the MLA Style.
• For biology and other sciences, use the CBE Style.
• For humanities in general, use the Chicago Style.

If your professor tells you to follow the CBE or CMS, and you know you will be doing a great deal of research on the Web, point out, ever so gently and respectfully, that the CBE or CMS guides don’t currently have sections to cover many of the types of information derived from the Web.

Show your professor the examples on these pages to determine which style is acceptable.

Crazy idea

Get your first paper done a few days before it is due (perish the thought!). 

Review the works cited or reference list with the professor to make sure that the two of you are in agreement.

Our conclusion:

It's OK to moan and groan about citations, but we guarantee that sooner or later you'll be so familiar with how to cite your Web references that you won’t give it another thought. The format will become second nature to you. And just maybe, as you maneuver through the halls of academia on your way to getting your degree, you'll look back and say, “That wasn't so bad!”