Creating APA Citations for Websites With No Author

When you come across a relevant article published on a website, you may want to include it as a source for your APA paper. Unfortunately, many times online articles may not have an author byline. The way to format APA citations with no author is to use the article’s title instead.

Although it is acceptable to include information from sources with no author listed, make sure it at least comes from a reliable website, such as a government, university or reputable organization.

APA Citations for Online Articles

Even if you do not know the author’s name or the article’s date, you can still cite it in your APA paper and the reference list.

Reference List Example

If there is no date available, use n.d. in place of the year.

In-Text Citation Examples

With No Author Name Listed

Many times, especially in local newspapers, articles are printed as staff articles or without any author’s name listed. In this case, place the article’s title in the first element.

Reference List Example

In-Text Citation Example

 

Evaluating Online Articles

Your research should focus on finding authoritative sources. One way to establish authority is to inspect the author’s name and professional background. For example, if an article describes how to treat a medical condition, you would certainly want to know the author’s credentials before following any advice.

It doesn’t matter if you’re writing a short essay or a long research paper. In either case, you can use online articles with no authors as sources. Just be sure to include solid primary and secondary sources to back up your research.

Although you may find articles with no author listed on reputable sites, it is better to establish the authority of your article by using sources written by established authors. If you find a random article that seems “formula” created with no listed author or references, bypass that source and choose a better one.