How to cite a website in ASA
A web page or online article. American Sociological Association.
Quick answer
To cite a website in ASA, include the author(s), year, title, and container or publisher details. A concrete example is below.
Example
Purdue Online Writing Lab. 2024. "What is a citation?." . https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/using_research/index.html
This example is rendered with the official CSL definition for ASA. For the exact style required by your journal, paste your references into DEEPNOTIS and pick that style from the dropdown — the app covers 2,800+ variants.
Official source
ASA is defined and maintained by the American Sociological Association. When a formatting rule is ambiguous, their official guidance is the authoritative reference. DEEPNOTIS renders ASA from the same canonical CSL definition.
What you need
For a website, ASA expects these fields at minimum:
- Author or organization
- Year of publication
- Page title
- Website / organization name
- URL
- Access date (some styles)
Common mistakes
- Citing a dynamic page without an access date — crucial because the content can change.
- Using the URL as the title. The title is the page heading; the URL is a separate field.
- Mixing bibliography formatting with in-text citation rules. Reference-list entries and in-text cites follow different patterns — use the style's official guide for both.
- Forgetting the DOI. When a DOI exists, most styles now require it (usually as a full https://doi.org/… URL).
Cite every reference in ASA — at once
Upload your .docx and DEEPNOTIS re-formats every citation in ASA, automatically. Free to start — 3 documents a month, no card.
Last updated: 5 May 2026