How do I reference a computer file?

Question

How do I reference a computer file?

Answer

The aim of referencing is to give credit to the person that produced the information you are using, and also to show where you got this information. Thus, these are the key elements that form references.

In Harvard style referencing to reference a computer file you should try to find out who the author is – it may say this on the document or the place where you downloaded the file. If a person cannot be identified then you should substitute this for the company or organisation that it is from.

If you cannot find out any information about who produced it then you can put the title of the document in place of the author. You should also indicate that the author is unknown by putting it in a separate reference list or by adding (unknown author) after the title.

You should then provide a year of publication/production, if this is unknown then you should indicate (no date) where the year would be.

You then need to provide the title of the document.

Following this you should indicate how you accessed the document, such as (online). If it is accessed online then you should provide the web address to find the document, this is sometimes provided in square brackets. You should then indicate the date that you accessed the website to get the document.

If you cannot identify an author, organisation or date then you should probably reconsider using that source, as you can’t be sure that it is reliable.

Example:

In text:

Essays are usually written from an author’s point of view (UKEssays, 2016).

Reference list:

UK Essays, 2016, What Is An Essay [online], Available from: [https://www.ukessays.com/resources/undergraduate/essay/what-is-an-essay.php?cref=1], Accessed: 4 September 2016.

References