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I get conflicting information about APA website citations from different sources. What is the best way to cite website documentation in APA style? For example, if I want to cite an announcement website about Apache Struts project releases (with no author given), do I cite it as: Apache Struts Team. (2018). Announcements 2018. Retrieved from https://struts.apache.org/announce-2018.html

And in-text citation would be given like this? Struts 2.3.36 was released as a "General Availability" release on October 15, 2018 (Apache Struts Team, 2018).

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    Do you not need to also include the date at which you have accessed the website?
    – customcommander
    Mar 23 '19 at 8:11
  • @customcommander It looks like APA style to cite website doesn't require the date that website was accessed.
    – J. A.
    Mar 24 '19 at 22:29
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DISCLOSURE: I work for Mendeley as a software engineer. The reason I have used Mendeley is to show how it would cite this particular reference with this particular citation style using a tool familiar with academics and scholars.

Based on my findings, the citation would look like:

Apache Struts Team. (2018). Announcements 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2019, from https://struts.apache.org/announce-2018.html

And the in-text citation would look like:

(Apache Struts Team, 2018)

Please find below the steps I took to produce this answer:

  1. I imported https://struts.apache.org/announce-2018.html using a Mendeley tool; I manually entered missing information in an attempt to construct a reference similar to yours:

    enter image description here

  2. And this how the reference looks like in Mendeley:

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  3. I can select this reference a copy/paste it using a citation style:

    enter image description here

  4. The formatted citation will use this citation style:

    enter image description here

  5. This is what you get when you paste it:

    Apache Struts Team. (2018). Announcements 2018. Retrieved March 28, 2019, from https://struts.apache.org/announce-2018.html

  6. Then I can use another Mendeley tool to produce an "in-text" citation: (using the same citation style as in step 3)

    enter image description here

  7. Which gives me this in-text citation:

    (Apache Struts Team, 2018)

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The title of your question indicates that there is no author mentioned, but in the body of the question, you imply that the author is a corporate body, i.e. the Apache Struts Team. This certainly counts as an author.

In their blog about style, the APA say that you should cite information found on the web in the same format as you cite information found in a physical print form for the same kind of content. They provide a template that uses author, date, title, and source:

Author, A. (date). Title of document [Format description]. Retrieved from https://URL

In text: (Author, year)

They also provide alternate templates for citations when you are missing one of the four pieces of information.

Regarding a website with no author mentioned, the APA say in their FAQs:

How do you reference a web page that lists no author?

When there is no author for a web page, the title moves to the first position of the reference entry:

Example:
All 33 Chile miners freed in flawless rescue. (2010, October 13). Retrieved from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39625809/ns/world_news-americas/

Cite in text the first few words of the reference list entry (usually the title) and the year. Use double quotation marks around the title or abbreviated title.: ("All 33 Chile Miners," 2010).

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