Answered Questions

You’re on the right track! Databases often include information for the online addresses of the titles in their collections, but they are not all located in the same place. To find the publisher URL in ERIC, click on the title of the article in your list of results. If you scroll down to view all the information included for that article, there will be an address listed as the URL on that article page.

It is important to check that that the link is still accurate and live before you use it in a citation - some individual journal addresses may have long since been updated by the publisher, but the updates might not have made it to the database yet! Copy/paste the address into your web browser to verify that it is still accurate and in use.

A good example of this can be seen with the following article in the ERIC database (as of 1 July 2012):

Balci, A. (2010). Acquired levels of geographical concepts among 5^th grade students. Education, 130(3), 363-376.

The link included as the URL for this article in ERIC is http://www.projectinnovation.biz/education_2006.html. However, the journal’s page at this address is suspiciously sparse. From the page, click on the link to its publisher (Project Innovation, Inc), and then click from the publisher’s main website to the page for the journal Education. It’s a completely different page! Clearly the different page is the one that is currently in use for the journal Education, but the publisher has not yet updated the information in ERIC.

If the publication’s website includes an online archive of the journal’s articles, it is best practice to use the URL of the archive page in the citation, since URLs for individual articles are still more likely to change over time. If it does not include an online archive, use the current URL of the page for that particular journal title.

Also note that according to the APA manual, you’ll use a DOI instead of a web address in the citation if it is available.

If you need further assistance finding and selecting appropriate resources, we’ll be happy to help! Use LibAnswers for future questions, or submit our online form to schedule an appointment with a librarian. Additional assistance with writing style, editing, and citations can also be found at the Brenau Writing Center and Brenau Graduate Writing Services.