How can I use BibTeX to cite a web page?

Question

I'm looking to cite a number of web pages using bibtex and I was wondering if there was a specific template of the form @<template name here> for doing that. If you could use the following website as an example that would be great

http://web.archive.org/web/20080207010024/http://www.808multimedia.com/winnt/kernel.htm

Answer 1

A simple way of doing it in BibTeX is with a @misc entry:

@misc{WinNT,
  title = {{MS Windows NT} Kernel Description},
  howpublished = {\url{http://web.archive.org/web/20080207010024/http://www.808multimedia.com/winnt/kernel.htm}},
  note = {Accessed: 2010-09-30}
}

You should also perhaps include an author if you know it. And remember to load a package such as hyperref or url.

---

If you are using BibLaTeX there is an @online entry type:

@online{WinNT,
  author = {MultiMedia LLC},
  title = {{MS Windows NT} Kernel Description},
  year = 1999,
  url = {http://web.archive.org/web/20080207010024/http://www.808multimedia.com/winnt/kernel.htm},
  urldate = {2010-09-30}
}

Answer 2

I always use the defaults suggested by Wikipedia (see "BibTeX entry" at the bottom), available if you click on "cite this page".

Answer 3

The JabRef reference manager suggests to use the "electronic" type. So I do it like this:

@electronic{Rub1,
 author = {Rubino, Daniel},
 editor = {{Windows Phone Central}},
 title = {IE9 for Windows Phone 7: Adobe Flash, demos and development},
 url = {http://www.wpcentral.com/ie9-windows-phone-7-adobe-flash-demos-and-development-videos},
 urldate = {14.01.2013},
 originalyear = {18.02.2011}
}

In the BibTeX export of Citavi there is als the type "www". Depending on your editor you have to define the styles "electronic" and "www", so "misc" seems to be probably the safest.

But then you should use \bibliographystyle{alphadin} and do it like this:

@misc{Rub1,
 author = {Rubino, Daniel},
 editor = {{Windows Phone Central}},
 title = {IE9 for Windows Phone 7: Adobe Flash, demos and development},
 url = {http://www.wpcentral.com/ie9-windows-phone-7-adobe-flash-demos-and-development-videos},
 lastchecked = {14.01.2013},
 originalyear = {18.02.2011}
}

Answer 4

I found a very good tutorial on http://www.polymtl.ca/biblio/utiliser/guide_bibtex.pdf (French; the link is now dead, available at the Wayback Machine)

With this, i have modified the ieeetr.bst file to integrate the ignored tags url and urldate to all the types of entries (style was imposed for the report at the end of study).

The file was renamed (mystyle) and placed in the same local folder as the ref.bib file. Called with

\bibliographystyle{mystyle}
\bibliography{ref}

(1) add the new entries :

ENTRY
  { address
...
    url
    urldate
  }
  {}
  { label }

(2) add this function

FUNCTION {format.url}
{ url empty$
    { "" }
    {   
        ". \emph{Disponible}~\url{" * url * "}" *
        urldate empty$
         { "there is url but no urldate in " cite$ * warning$ }
         { 
            "~(\emph{consult\'e le} " * urldate * ")" *
         }
         if$
    }
  if$
}

(3) for all types, call the function with format.url "" output ! Example for @incollection:

FUNCTION {incollection}
{ output.bibitem
  format.authors "author" output.check
  format.title "title" output.check
  blank.sep
  crossref missing$
    { format.in.ed.booktitle "booktitle" output.check
      format.bvolume output
      format.number.series output
      format.chapter.pages output
      format.addr.pub "publisher" output.check
      format.edition output
      format.date "year" output.check
    }
    { format.incoll.inproc.crossref output.nonnull
      format.chapter.pages output
    }      
  if$
  format.url "" output 
  new.block
  note output
  fin.entry
}

I hope it can help you

Answer 5

Hm, it would seem that it isn't possible to cite webpages directly, but there does seem to be a workaround using the general purpose @misc field.

https://texfaq.org/FAQ-citeURL

Answer 6

If you are creating your own bst file and you want it to incorporate web references, I use this function:

FUNCTION {internet}
{ output.bibitem
  format.titleclass output
  format.authors " " * "author" output.check
  title empty$
    {""}
    { title "t" change.case$ * ".\,\ " *}
  if$
  format.address output
  publisher empty$
    {
      institution empty$
        { }
        { institution "; " * output}
      if$
    }
    { publisher "; " * output}
  if$
  year empty$
    { " [date unknown; " }
    { year
      month empty$
        { " [\ignorespaces " * }
        { "~" * month * " [\ignorespaces " *}
      if$
    }
  if$
  revised empty$
    { "" * }
    { "revised~" * revised * "; " *}
    if$
  accessed empty$
    { "" * }
    { "accessed~"  * accessed * "]. " *}
    if$
  website *
  doi empty$
    {}
    { add.period$ " " * doi * }
  if$
  output
  add.period$
  format.referenceclass output
  fin.entry.noperiod
}

This with bib file entries like

@INTERNET{www11b,
    AUTHOR    = "Schultheis, J. D.",
    TITLE     = "Fun with Reference Citations",
    ADDRESS   = "Baltimore (MD)",
    PUBLISHER = "Random House",
    YEAR      = "2013", 
    MONTH     = sep # " 10",
    ACCESSED  = "2014 " # sep # " 26",
    WEBSITE   =
             "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trajectory\_of\_a\_projectile",
    DOI       = "\url{doi:10.10.1038/nphys1170}"     }

@INTERNET{www11a,
    TITLE    = "Flight Equations with Drag",
    WEBSITE  = "http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/flteqs.html",
    ACCESSED = "2011 " # oct     }

@INTERNET{www11c,
    AUTHOR   = "Grissom, Gus",
    INSTITUTION = "Glenn Research Center, National Aeronautics
                   and Space Administration",
    TITLE    = "Flight Equations with Drag",
    ADDRESS  = "Cleveland (OH)",
    YEAR     = "1999",
    MONTH    = dec # "12",
    REVISED  = "2014 " # jun # " 12",
    ACCESSED = "2014 " # oct # " 7",
    WEBSITE  = "http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/flteqs.html"}

@INTERNET{manktelow2010history,
    TITLE     = "History of taxonomy",
    AUTHOR    = "Manktelow, Mariette",
    WEBSITE   = "\url{http://www.atbi.eu/summerschool/files/%
                summerschool/Manktelow\_Syllabus.pdf}",
    ACCESSED  = "2014 Aug~26",
    ADDRESS   = "Uppsala (Sweden)",
    PUBLISHER = "Uppsala University Dept. of Systematic Biology",
    YEAR      = "2010"     }

@INTERNET{smith2014metcalf,
    TITLE    = "Assault on california power station raises alarm on
                potential for terrorism",
    AUTHOR   = "Rebecca Smith",
    WEBSITE  = "\url{http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/%
                SB10001424052702304851104579359141941621778}",
    ACCESSED = "2014 Aug 26",
    PUBLISHER= "The Wall Street Journal",
    MONTH    = feb,
    YEAR     = {2014}     }

I get this result:

Answer 7

Try this, please:

@misc{AdamsManual1,
  author = {MSC.\hspace{2pt}Software\hspace{2pt}Corporation},
  title = {{Adams Manual: Tire Models, using the Fiala handling force model}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://www.mscsoftware.com/product/adams; https://www.coursehero.com/file/13499609/tire-models/}},
  year = 2005,
  note = {Accessed: 2021-03-20}
}

The output:

Answer 8

Thanks from me, I could use this Question thread to solve my problems with URL citations. I think, my solution adds a bit flexibility.

This part extends the answer from @madit:

For online publications there is not only an URL, but also a DOI (See Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_object_identifier, example: https://doi.org/10.1002/andp.19163540702) for a specific source, for example in journals (i.e. Nature, Science, ...) and also academic eBooks.

So it is often desired to cite with a DOI instead of an URL with a date of access.

So in the same folder as main.tex are the style file bibstyle.bst and the bibliography source file myRefs.bib.

In main.tex, the bibliography is created by:

\bibliographystyle{bibstyle}
\bibliography{myRefs}

In bibstyle.bst multiple adjustments need to be made:

1. At the beginning, new possible entries (doi, url, urldate) need to be created:

ENTRY
  { address
    ...
    doi
    ...
    url
    urldate
    ...
  }
  {}
  { label }

2. Then, a new function needs to be created, that formats the new entries into a part of the final citation. Here, I worked from the code of @madit, but I included the preferred option for the DOI and I changed the return for no URL or DOI from { "" } to 'skip$. Unless the last adjustment is made, it may throw an error along the lines of ---the literal stack isn't empty for entry MyCitation. The reason is basically because LaTeX may not handle an emtpy string well instead of no return, when building the citation text. Additionally for the DOI output, I linked it via the official doi website (https://doi.org/) to guarantee that the link works and that it is displayed correctly via \detokenize even with characters like _ or \ in \texttt mode. So this results in:

FUNCTION {format.url}
{ doi empty$
    { url empty$
        'skip$
        {
            ". URL:~\url{" * url * "}" *
            urldate empty$
             { "there is url but no urldate in " cite$ * warning$ }
             { 
                "~(Accessed on: " * urldate * ")" *
             }
             if$
        }if$
    }
    {". DOI:~\href{https://doi.org/" * doi * "}{\texttt{\detokenize{" * doi * "}}}" *
    }if$
}

3. The last step is to include

  format.url "" output 
  new.block

before

  note output
  fin.entry
}

in all different source type functions, for example:

FUNCTION {booklet}
{ output.bibitem
  format.authors output
  format.title "title" output.check
  howpublished "howpublished" bibinfo.check output
  address "address" bibinfo.check output
  format.date output
  format.url "" output 
  new.block
  format.note output
  fin.entry
}

The advantage using this solution is: The bibliography handles URLs and DOIs automatically without using url = {\url{...}}, or url = {\href{...}{...}},. I hope this helps.

Note: To adjust the link-colors, I used in main.tex:

\usepackage{hyperref}
\hypersetup{
    colorlinks,
    citecolor=black,
    filecolor=black,
    linkcolor=black,
    urlcolor=black
}% sets the style for links