Q. How do I cite page numbers when my online article has no page numbers?

Digital articles -- articles found on a website -- sometimes do not have page numbers, so what do you do when it comes to your citations? Here are the current rules and recommendations from APA, MLA, and Chicago citation styles:

APA 

The APA 7 website APA Style has clear rules for the Direct quotation of material without page numbers. This guidance is for in-text citations and is covered in Section 8.28 of the APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition

• Provide a heading or section name. It is okay to abbreviate a long or unwieldy heading or section name.

• For people with osteoarthritis, “painful joints should be moved through a full range of motion every day to maintain flexibility and to slow deterioration of cartilage” (Gecht-Silver & Duncombe, 2015, Osteoarthritis section).

• Provide a paragraph number (count the paragraphs manually if they are not numbered).

• People planning for retirement need more than just money—they also “need to stockpile their emotional reserves” to ensure adequate support from family and friends (Chamberlin, 2014, para. 1).

• Provide a heading or section name in combination with a paragraph number.

• Music and language are intertwined in the brain such that “people who are better at rhythmic memory skills tend to excel at language skills as well” (DeAngelis, 2018, Musical Forays section, para. 4).

For the reference at the end of the paper:

• For Journal Article References, "If the journal does not use volume, issue, and/or article or page numbers, omit the missing element(s) from the reference." The same is true for Magazine Articles and Newspaper Articles. 

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MLA

For in-text citations, the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook states: “When a source has no page numbers or any other kind of part number, no number should be given in a parenthetical citation. Do not count unnumbered paragraphs or other parts” (56). So, omit the page number from the in-text citation.  

For your Works Cited list, just leave the page number part out. MLA 8 advises: "Do not use placeholders for unknown information like n.d. (“no date”) and n. pag. (“no pagination”) unless your teacher asks you to do so."  

This guidance seems to be true of MLA 9 as well -- see the helpful guide from Columbia College, "MLA Citation Guide (9th Edition): No Author, No Date, etc."

Chicago

According to the Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition, for eBooks, if no fixed page numbers are available, cite a section title or a chapter or other number in the notes, if any (or simply omit).

For example, in Notes and Bibliography style:

2. Philip B. Kurland and Ralph Lerner, eds., The Founders’ Constitution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987), chap. 10, doc. 19, http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/

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