| Author: | Pearl Rozenberg Faculty of Law, University of Sydney |
| Subjects: | Electronic information (Other articles) Legal citation Referencing |
| Issue: | Volume 4, Number 4 (December 1997) |
| Category: | Refereed Articles |
Introduction
'The purpose of citation is to enable the reader to identify and find sources ... relied upon by the writer.'[1] Certain standards and guidelines have been established to assist writers to cite in a form that allows a reader to easily find a source. For paper based resources there are well established rules and conventions about the manner in which sources such as cases, legislation and other secondary materials should be cited. [2] Despite the large amounts of electronic resources, as yet there are no established rules for the legal citation of electronic sources of information.[3]
The existing citation rules for paper based resources can not be extended to electronic sources. 'Standards for print materials, such as formats for publication dates, page numbers and even punctuation, become confusing when applied to electronic sources, which may have no publication date or page numbers, and may require unconventional brackets for punctuation'.[4] A citation guide needs to be developed that can handle electronic information.
The purpose of this paper is to generate debate that will hopefully lead to a fully established convention for legal citation of electronic sources. The paper will briefly outline the needs of a legal citation system and then look at electronic sources of information to ascertain its particular characteristics. In doing this, a discussion of how a citation system can be developed that will meet the needs of both legal referencing and the electronic information itself will be generated. The paper will conclude with a proposed citation style that will serve as a basis for discussion.
In assembling the materials for this paper, and generating the style guide, ideas and suggestions have been drawn from existing general citation guides such as Harnack A and Kleppinger G, 'Beyond the MLA Handbook: Documenting Electronic Sources on the Internet' [5], Crouse M, 'Citing electronic information in history papers'[6], Walker J, 'MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources'[7], Li X, and Crane N, 'Electronic Sources: MLA Style of Citation'[8] and Gibaldi J, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.[9] Further, comments given by participants at the First Law and the Internet Conference have been incorporated into the guide. It is hoped that input from this article will further develop the style guide and perhaps lead to the development of a uniform style within Australia.
Legal referencing and citation
All legal referencing and citation systems, whatever their particular form, call for the following requirements:
Individual styles may call for additional requirements, but a survey of all styles show that these points are common to all.
Referencing electronic materials
Materials that are in electronic form have much the same characteristics as those in paper form but with certain additional requirements. As such, information such as author, title, publication date etc. should be given in much the same form as paper based information. The citation should be modified, however, to recognise the unique additional requirements for electronic information.
Locaters and addresses
a. Internet address - the URL
Electronic information has specific locaters or addresses. These addresses must be copied and used exactly or a retrieval failure will occur. Extra spaces or full stops and commas to bring the address into line with existing citation styles should not be added since the change will alter the address.
Further, typographical formatting effects must also be catered for in the citation. Addresses must be copied exactly for effectiveness yet standard typing and printing conventions can cause ambiguity. For instance, if an address is long, it may well need to be printed on two lines. Yet a reader looking at the printed address will not be able to know whether there is an intentional space at the end of the first line or that there is no space and merely an automatic line wrap. 'There is no concise and simple way to show in printed text which spaces are significant and which are not. Line breaks and indentations create additional trouble because their 'white space' gives no clue as to whether a 'space' character is implied. File naming conventions prevent the use of hyphens, slashes or other common symbols to indicate continuation without a space.'[10]
The requirement of exact specificity in the address can be handled by enclosing the address in some form of bracketing that tells the reader that this is the address and exact copying is required. The reader will know that anything within the brackets is a continuous string which should be typed exactly as shown. Any typological effects are excluded since the reader knows that within the brackets there is a continuous string of characters.[11] In the proposed guide, angled brackets '< >' are used. Angled brackets are suggested since they have no meaning in existing legal citation so they are available to take a specific meaning without altering the meaning given to any other bracket types already in use.[12] Further, the Internet standard for URL delimitation uses angle brackets[13] and the use of these angled brackets around addresses is gaining acceptance in other style guides.[14]
b. Other Internet addresses - Gopher, telnet etc.
In addition to Internet locations located using the URL, there are other servers such as Gopher and Telnet that use command-pathway methods. 'Here an Internet document is located through a series of commands, directory paths and / or menu selections.'[15] The majority of these can be converted into an URL and then cited using the angle brackets discussed above. If they can not be converted into an URL, then the command sequence needs to be given. The address should be given, with vertical slashes ' | ' used to indicate the sequence of menu selections.[16]
With two types of address method, the URL and the command sequence, a method of differentiating between them is needed. Again, the brackets will assist. Only URLs should be enclosed in the angled brackets. Command sequences are not so enclosed since they are not an exact address - rather a pathway. In this way it is known whether it is a URL, for which exact copying of characters is needed, or whether it is a command sequence, where the slashes are not characters within the address but menu selections. [17]
The difference between URLs and command sequences is confusing given the similarity they show when cited. As the URL becomes fully accepted as the standard address tool and all servers are converted to accept the URL the problem will disappear. At that point, the citation distinctions currently maintained for gopher, telnet, world wide web and so on will disappear with only one rule being given for any Internet address.
Invisible revisability
'Many on line documents possess an attribute we might call "invisible revisability"'.[18] This is 'the process by which an electronic document can be altered, moved, or deleted by the author or by computer systems managers, without any publicly-accessible trail of evidence'.[19] Almost all electronic information is under constant construction and revision, enabling the information to remain current and fresh, but which also means that the information contained there might change frequently and without notice.[20]
'Invisible revisability' can be handled within a citation by including in the citation the researcher's date of access to the material, as well as any publication date of the material itself. The date of access serves the same function as notification of edition when citing books. It tells the reader that over time there may be different versions of this material, and that the version at that particular time was accessed. This new concept in legal referencing should be included into the citation to counter the effects of invisible revisablity.
Continuous nature of electronic information
Pinpoint referencing may be impossible in some electronic materials. A legal citation needs to be able to move the reader to the exact point in the document that was referred to. In the paper based information this is generally accomplished by using the arbitrary divisions inherent in paper publishing - the page.[21] This precision is currently not possible for most electronic information since there are no internal markings or divisions of the information in electronic documents. Where the electronic information is a replica of a paper product it will often include the page markings so that a precise electronic reference can be given by utilising the copied page numbers. However, for electronic information that has preceded the paper version or for which no paper version is forthcoming there will be no ability to piggy back onto the page numbers. Similarly, not all electronic information that copies paper versions have included the page numbers. These electronic sources are continuous data.
The problem of lack of ability to pin point reference is a serious problem when considered in the legal referencing area which calls for specificity. The reader needs to be able to be lead to the exact point. Where there are internal markings such as paragraph numbers, these should be used. Where there are no such markings, it is possible to lead the reader to the general area by the use of specific search terms[22] or descriptors[23] but these methods fail to get the reader to the exact point.
Discussion and future directions
The proposed guide has attempted to give a complete guide to electronic information sources so that a reader can use them and get to the same document or source. There are some problems that still remain.
Completeness
First, it could be argued it is not complete. It may not incorporate all methods of electronic information and even if it did, new ones are constantly being developed. It is true that, 'like the Internet itself, the information sources are in a constant state of flux and therefore, [our style] will also need to change as the sites themselves proliferate [as we] adapt to the new era of electronic print.' The guide is an attempt at this point in time to find a way to assist in the citation of electronic information. A leap must occur and a start made.
One common method for the Internet
The sample citation guide subdivides the Internet into categories such as WWW, FTP, Gopher, Telnet etc[24] with slightly different rules for each. With the increasing use of the URL, is there any need to separate Internet sites? Should there be only rule for citing the Internet? If a single rule is adopted, what will happen to sources that can not handle URLs?
Solving the inability to cite within documents
The lack of ability to pin point reference all electronic information is caused by the form of the information itself. It lacks any internal divisions which can be used to locate information within the document. publishers of electronic information should be made aware of this problem. It can be corrected if publishers adopt a convention of internal marking of all electronic information. This can be done by assigning paragraph numbers to all data[25] or some electronic system that a search engine could read[26] that would allow access to any specific point within a document.
'Elegance' - Is conciseness lost with electronic information?
A footnote should be 'elegant'. It should be concise, clear and simple. However, by the time all the information is given to locate it electronically and this is combined with the paper based version[27], the citation has often stretched over three lines.[28] To a certain point, conciseness is lost with electronic information since it has long addresses. It can be questioned, however, if the duplication in giving the paper source is needed.
Further, when citing cases, there is a convention that the authorised source of the case should be cited. If another version of the case is used, both the authorised and used version are cited, with any pin point referencing given to the version actually used. This however, results in a longer than needed citation. Is there any need to refer back to the authorised version? Legislation is cited in a neutral form - only the name, year and jurisdiction is given. Whether the researcher accessed the authorised version, a version in a commercial publication or an electronic source is not relevant. Cases, too, could be cited in this neutral manner. Taking this point far further, the team at Austlii have also been questioning some of the existing conventions given the new constraints of electronic information. They are advocating the adoption of a 'vendor and medium neutral citation standard'[29] for cases.
Even if some form of neutral citations are adopted, whether neutral by medium, publisher or both, what will become of all the old cases? Is everything to be converted or will the change only apply to future cases? If it is only prospective, how should the 'old' cases be cited if accessed electronically? At this point we need to ask whether the old conventions are relevant any longer? Can we develop a citation style that moves beyond the older constraints? The guide sampled below gives examples using the existing conventions but also gives suggestions for more media neutral methods where applicable.
Invisible revisabilty and its effects
The 'invisible revisablilty'[30] of electronic information through on-line sources and the Internet raises three problems.[31] First, invisible revisability with its constant changes and updates means that only current information is kept. Old information is deleted and lost forever. This means that historic research becomes impossible on electronic sourced information. For instance, discovering the wording of legislation that existed two years ago before it was amended will not be possible since only the current wording will appear. Publishers should attempt some type of archiving of materials so that both the current version and historic versions can be accessed.
Invisible revisibilty means that the information is not static. It is constantly changed without any reference being made to what was changed or indeed whether a change was indeed made. While this ability to easily alter and update the information is a key feature, knowing whether it has been up dated is also important. Some electronic information sources list last modified dates but not all. Publishers of such information should establish a protocol of notification with the document of last change or update. Further, where the document is long or contains many parts, only some of which may have been altered, then last modified dates for parts or sections should be given. This protocol would be similar to that currently in use in paper based loose leaf services that give last update dates for sections.
The last effect of invisible revisisbilty is that its inherent ability to change means that it may often be impossible to see the same information even if the reader goes to the same electronic site. The citation tells where the information was located at the time the citation was made. Unlike printed information, electronic information may have been modified, moved, or deleted by the time the reader tries to verify the citation. Citations, may therefore on occasion appear to be incorrect through no fault of the researcher.
This last effect creates a serious problem when citing electronic information. Researchers should be aware of this problem and take steps to minimise its effect. Where there is a paper version of the information, it should be cited in addition to the electronic source used. Where there is no paper version, the electronic information may still exist even if not at the same location. 'In many cases what might be thought to be ephemeral, Scan be located later in computer archives or logbooks'[32] as shown in the citation example of archived listserv messages discussed above.[33]
As a last resort to counter the effects of invisible revisability, a printed version of the entire site should be taken at the time of research and kept for future reference.[34] Further, some form of date stamping, similar to the automatic attachment by electronic mail programs that shows the exact time and date that a message was sent should occur with the download of the information. In this way the message or information can be produced and verified.
Handling future developments
The proposed guide that follows this discussion is a start at establishing a style guide. As more developments occur there is a need for collaboration with scholars and publishers regarding the use of conventions and protocols so that emerging problems can be resolved. It is recognised that worrying about citations and referencing is not a high priority in legal academic circles. However, if we wish to develop and increase the use of electronic information we must ensure that it is able to be referenced. If we can't cite the wealth of materials available electronically, we can't use them in scholarship or expect others to do so. A forum should be established to discuss and deal with existing and emerging problems.
Suggested style guide
The style guide itself makes no recommendations as to how to cite paper based sources. Where a paper version is required to be cited, the guide refers the writer to give the citation 'using rules for hard copy referencing'. Any hard copy citation rule can be used, allowing different established hard copy styles to be used with the proposed guide.[35] Where examples are given, the plain language hard copy style set out in the Australian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (Sydney: LBC Information Services, in press) is used, but this was merely used to illustrate the point. Which ever hard copy reference system is used, it will be concluded with a colon and then the electronic citation is given.
Electronic sources of information
In the legal area, many CD ROMs and other electronic media are in fact electronic versions of hard copy materials. If this is the case, you can always locate an item on the electronic medium, then locate the hard copy, and use the hard copy. If you have done this, you have used a hard copy and should reference it using the rules for hard copy or print sources.
Information in this section has been based on the MLA Style Guidelines in Gibaldi J, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995, 4th ed). The style has however been simplified by the removal of non essential punctuation marks and modified so as to give the greater precision that legal citations require. In this respect, it is a version of the MLA guide, but this style guide is not the same as the MLA-style guidelines and all comments should be directed to the author.
a. Periodically published CD ROM
A periodically published CD ROM is one that is updated at intervals. Updates add information and may correct or otherwise alter the information. As such, it is important to note the version of the CD ROM being used.
(i) Materials with a hard copy version
Many databases collect and present materials previously or simultaneously made available in print. Where there is a print version, the citation should:
Footnote
- Give the citation to the hard copy, from information in the CD ROM, using the rules for hard copy referencing, followed by a colon,
- Title of the database, in italics,
- Publication medium (CD ROM),
- Parentheses enclosing:
- Place of publication, followed by a colon,
- Name of publisher or vendor, followed by a comma,
- Electronic publication date, followed by a comma,
- Version number or identifier, if available,
- Specific page or CD ROM location, (if required), to the extent possible,
- The citation concludes with a full stop.
Bibliography
Follow steps 1, 2,3,4 and 6.
Examples
Surrey S, Pathways To Reform: The Concept of Tax Expenditures (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973) at 59 : Tax Books on Disc CD ROM (Location: Publisher, version 1996 / May) at search
. AAT Case no 9568 (1994) 29 ATR 1001 : Tax Partner, Australian Tax Reports CD ROM (Sydney: LBC Australian Tax Practice, version 1996) at search
para 6. Vineberg B, 'The Ethics of Tax Planning' [1969] Br T Rev 31: Current Tax Issues CD ROM (Location: Publisher, 1995, Version 95b)
or more simply[36]
Vineberg B, 'The Ethics of Tax Planning' 1969 : Current Tax Issues CD ROM (Location: Publisher, 1995, Version 95b).Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) s19 : Australian Taxes with Cases CD ROM (Sydney: CCH, CD No.6 6/96).
or more simply[37]
Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (Cth) s19.(ii) Materials with no hard copy version
If no printed source or hard copy exists at that time, your citation should consist of:
Footnote
- Author details using hard copy method adopted, followed by a comma,
- Title of the material accessed, in quotation marks,
- Date of the material (if given) followed by a colon,
- Title of the database, in italics,
- Publication medium,
- Parentheses enclosing:
- Place of publication, followed by a colon,
- Name of the vendor or publisher,
- Electronic publication date,
- Version number or identifier, if available,
- Specific page or CD ROM location, (if required), to the extent possible,
- The citation concludes with a full stop.
Bibliography
Follow steps 1, 2,3,4,5,6 and 8.
Example
Computer Law Services, 'Family Law' Aug 1997: State Legislation CD Rom (Sydney: CLS Aug 1997).
b. Non periodically published CD ROM
Many CD ROMs are not published periodically. They are issued as most books are - a single time.
(i) Where a hard copy version exists
The same rules as for periodically issued CD ROMs are used, except that there will be no version number, only the year of publication.
Footnote
- Give the citation to the hard copy, from information in the CD ROM, using the rules for hard copy referencing, followed by a colon,
- Title of the database, in italics,
- Publication medium (CD ROM),
- Parentheses enclosing:
- Place of publication, followed by a colon,
- Name of publisher or vendor, followed by a comma,
- Electronic publication date,
- Specific page or CD ROM location, (if required), to the extent possible,
- The citation concludes with a full stop.
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4 and 6.
Example
Coleridge ST, The Complete Poetical Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge (Oxford: Clarendon, 1912): English Poetry Full Text Database CD ROM (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993).
(ii) Where no hard copy version exists
Footnote
- Author details using hard copy method adopted, followed by a comma,
- Title of material in quotation marks, followed by a colon,
- Title of the database, in italics,
- Edition, release or version, if relevant,
- Publication medium (CD ROM),
- Parenthesis enclosing:
- Place of publication, followed by a colon,
- Publisher, followed by a comma,
- Electronic publication date,
- Specific page or CD ROM location, (if required), to the extent possible,
- The citation concludes with a full stop.
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 8.
Example
Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? Deluxe ed CD ROM (Novato: Broderbund, 1992).
Cite these as you would for CD ROMs, but at publication medium type 'Diskette'.
Example
Corporations Act (Cth) s19 : 1996 Corporations Law Kit (EIS, 1995) Version
1/96, s19.
or more simply[38]
Corporations Act (Cth) s19.
Cite these as you do CD ROMs, but at publication medium type 'Magnetic tape'.
Multi media publications are where a number of electronic publications are issued as a packages of materials in different mediums. Cite these as you would a CD ROM but specify all the media used. If doing a specific citation from within the package, state which medium was accessed and then continue with the specific cite rules.
Information in this section has been based on the MLA Style Guidelines in Gibaldi J, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1995, 4th ed). The style has however been simplified by the removal of non essential punctuation marks and modified so as to give the greater precision that legal citations require. In this respect, it is a version of the MLA guide, but this style guide is not the same as the MLA-style guidelines and all comments should be directed to the author.
(i) Material with a hard copy version
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,6 and 7.
Example
'State Backs Republic Vote' March 30 1993: Ausnews Online LEXIS (2 Nov 1997).
Congress, House of Representatives, Rep N Johnson of Connecticut, speaking on the Taxpayer Bill of Rights II, HR 2337, 104th Cong, 2nd sess, Congressional Record, (16 April 1996) vol 142, no 48, H3407 : Tax Notes Today On line LEXIS (April 24 1996).
(ii) Material with no hard copy version
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,5,6,8 and 9.
Example
'Time Warner, Inc, Sales Summary, 1988 - 1992' : Disclosure/Worldscope Online LEXIS (4 Jan 1994).
Information in this section has been based on the Harnack and Kleppinger revisions recommended for Walker J's 'MLA-Style Citations of Electronic Sources' (Endorsed by the Alliance for Computers and Writing),' Vers. 1.0 [39] as set out in Harnack A and Kleppinger G, 'Beyond the MLA Handbook: Documenting Sources on the Internet'.[40] The style has however been simplified by the removal of non essential punctuation marks and slightly modified so as to give the greater precision that legal citations require. In this respect, this guide is a version of the Harnack Kleppinger guide, but this style guide is not the same as the Harnack Kleppinger guidelines and all comments should be directed to the author.
An early application of the Internet was file transfer protocol or FTP. This is a standard method of sending files from one computer to another. FTP sites are computers that allow anyone with network access to retrieve files from the ftp sites.
(i) Hard copy version exists
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,4 and 5.
Example
FCC, Application of FCC's ex parte rules to Internet messages (1997): <ftp://ftp.cica.indiana.edu/ pub/gov/fccforms.txt> (23 April 1997).
(ii) No hard copy exists
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,5,6 and 7.
Example
Brinson D and Radcliffe M, 'An Intellectual Property Primer for Multi-Media Developers' © 1994) <ftp://etext.archive.umich.edu/pub/Legal/Computing/LawPrimer.txt> at 82 (1 Nov 1997).
Bruckman A, 'Approaches to Managing Deviant Behavior in Virtual Communities' <ftp://ftp.media.mit.edu/pub/asb/papers/deviance-chi-94> (4 Dec 1994).
The World Wide Web is a collection of electronic documents scattered throughout the Internet.
(i) Hard copy version available
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,4 and 5.
Examples
Trade Practices Act (Cth) 1974 s 52 :
<http://www.austlii.edu.edu.au/legis/cth/consol_act/tpa1974149/s52.html> (10
Oct. 1996).
or more simply
Trade Practices Act (Cth) 1974 s 52.
The Commonwealth of Australia v Tasmania (Tasmanian Dam Case) (1983) 158 CLR 1 : <http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/high_ct/158clr1.html> (5 Sept.1997).
News Ltd v Australian Rugby Football League et al Unreported Full Federal Court Decision 1996, No. 96000870 : <http://www.austlii.edu.au/cases/cth/federal_ct/96000870.html> at about 20% through the case (10 Oct 1996).
(ii) No hard copy version exists
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,5,7 and 8.
Example
News Ltd v Australian Rugby Football League et al Unreported Full Federal Court Decision 1996, No. 96000870: <http://www.austlii.edu.au/cases/cth/federal_ct/96000870.html> at about 20% through the case (1 Oct 1996).
Telnet provides a remote log-on capacity which enables users at a terminal to log on to a remote computer and function as if directly connected to that computer. At its simplest, it enables a user to connect to any appropriately configured computer on the Internet and use it.
(i) Hard copy exists
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,5 and 6.
(ii) No hard copy exists
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,5,6,8 and 9.
Example
Gomes L, 'Xerox's On-Line Neighbourhood: A Great Place to Visit' Mercury News 3 May 1992 telnet lamba.parc.xerox.com 8888 @go #50827, press 13 (5 Dec 1994).
Synchronous communications are real time news groups or bulletin boards. They allow people to 'talk' to each other.
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,5 and 6.
Examples
Harnack A, Group Discussion telnet moo.du.org/port=8888 (4 Apr 1994).
The Internet gopher provides menu driven access to many facilities of the Internet.
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,6 and 7.
Examples
Louis-Jacques L, 'Law Lists' <gopher://lawnext.uchicago.edu/00/.internetfiles/lawlists> (27 April 1997).[41]
Quittner J, 'Far Out: Welcome to Their World Built of MUD' Published in Newsday 7 Nov 1993, gopher University of Koeln | About MUDS, M00s, and MUSEs in Education | Selected Papers | newsday (5 Dec 1994).
Listservs are E-mail discussion sites or bulletin boards.
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,5,7 and 8.
Examples
Metschke B, <Bernadette.Metschke@ag.gov.au> 'Legislative Instruments Database (LID)' 30 Oct 1997 <anz-law-librarians-one@uow.edu.au> (1 Nov 1997).
Best C,
Seabrook RHC, <seabrook@clark.net> 'Community and Progress' 22 Jan 1994 <cybermind@jefferson.village.virginia.edu> (22 Jan 1994).
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,5,7 and 8.
Example
Fulkes J, <jim.fulkes@earthlink.net> 'Re: Australian Newspaper Survey on Senator Alston's Proposals' 1 Nov 1997 <aus.org.efa> (3 Nov 1997).
Slade R, <res@maths.bath.ac.uk> 'UNIX Made Easy' 26 Mar 1996 <alt.books.reviews> (31 Mar 1996).
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,5,7 and 8.
Example
Greenbaum A, <a.greenbaum@unsw.edu.au> 'Greetings' 27 Aug 1997 Personal Email 28 Aug 1997).
The Internet is set up with hypertext linkage capability so that it is possible to link from one document to another indefinitely. 'The essential openness of hypertext linking means that there is no meaningful distinction between primary and secondary addresses. It also means the whole concept of 'whole work' is meaningless for many Internet documents, except as an author groups a set of related files under a single title. More importantly for citation purposes is the likelihood that one might prefer to cite a source 'indirectly', that is by pointing to a document that contains a link to a relevant document rather than the document itself. For example, if one wanted to cite only one file in a collection, but also make it convenient for users to understand the 'context' of the collection and perhaps access similar documents' a form of citation similar to indirect legal referencing, such as 'cited in' should be used. The analogue for 'cited in' or 'quoted by' on the Internet is linkage. As such the citation should state 'linked' or 'Lkd' together with the linkage details.
To cite a specific file and provide additional information concerning its contextual linkage, provide the following:
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,5,6,8 and 9.
Example
Rozenberg P, 'Pearl's home page' Lkd University of Sydney Law Faculty Web Site, at 'Staff Pages' <http://www.law.usyd.edu.au/~pearl/> (12 Sept 1997).
While the Internet and other electronic sites are constantly changing, there is some attempt to archive materials. To cite a file archived at a listserv or Web address, provide the following information:
Footnote
Bibliography
Follow steps 1,2,3,4,5,6,8 and 9.
Example
Seabrook RHC, <seabrook@clark.net> 'Community and Progress' 22 Jan 1994 <cybermind@jefferson.village.virginia.edu> via <listserv@jefferson.village.edu> (29 Jan 1994).
This example is an archival file from the listserv example below:
Seabrook RHC, <seabrook@clark.net> 'Community and Progress' 22 Jan 1994 <cybermind@jefferson.village.virginia.edu> (22 Jan 1994).
Notes
I would like to thank Gayle Schabe, Kylie Bender, Greg Rudd, Matthew Geier and the Academic Computing Support Unit at University of New South Wales for their technical assistance and support and the Board of Studies of ATAX for giving me the opportunity to go on sabbatical this past year. An earlier version of this style guide has been published in the Australian Law Librarian. The guide in this article has been modified and improved compared to the earlier version. This article is a preliminary version of part of a book being prepared for LBC Information Services - Australian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation.
[1] Campbell E, York E and Tooher J, Legal Research: Materials and Methods, (Sydney: LBC Information Services, 4th ed, 1996) at 14.
[2] While there are established conventions, often the minute aspects of actual citation, such as full stops, dots and commas, have no general agreement. Each publisher has their own in house rules and uses them. See Campbell et al, above note 1.
[3] There are some guides available, both in print and electronically, which suggest citation methods. These include the High Court Review Style Guide and the Melbourne University Law Review Style Guide. No standard formats or generally accepted styles, however, have been developed.
[4] Guernsey L, 'Cyberspace Citations' Chronicle of Higher Education 12 Jan 1996; cited in Harnack A and Kleppinger G, 'Beyond the MLA Handbook: Documenting Electronic Sources on the Internet' 10 June 1996 <http://falcon.eku.edu/honors/beyond-mla> (10 Oct 1996).
[5] 10 June 1996 <http://falcon.eku.edu/honors/beyond-mla> (10 Oct 1996).
[6] 12 April 1996 <http://www.people.memphis.edu/~crousem/elcite.txt> (3 Oct 1996).
[7] Ver. 1.0, Rev. Apr 1995. <http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla.html> (10 October 1996).
[8] 29 Apr 1996. <http://www.uvm.edu/~xli/reference/mla.html>.
[9] (New York: MLA, 4th ed, 1995).
[10] Harnack A and Kleppinger G, 'Beyond the MLA Handbook: Documenting Electronic Sources on the Internet' 10 June 1996 <http://falcon.eku.edu/honors/beyond-mla>(10 Oct 1996), at point 1 of heading "Four ambiguities to be clarified".
[11] Within the legal area, any change in bracketing should be avoided. Square and round brackets have precise meanings when used for cases and so on. They should not be used here since they would give the reader the wrong information. Instead a new form of bracketing is used, with no previous history of meaning.
[12] Within legal citations, round and square brackets are already used, with particular meaning, in citing cases.
[13] Berners-Lee T, et al 'RFC 1738: Uniform Resource Locators (URL)' December 1994. <ftp://ds.internic.net/rfc/rfc1738.txt> (25 Feb 1996) accessed from Harnack and Kleppinger, above note 9.
[14] The guides listed above notes 5 to 8 use angled brackets. Other guides, such as Hoemann GH, "Electronic Style -- Elements of Citation" 3 Nov 1995 <http://funnelweb.utcc.utk.edu/~hoemann/style.html> use square brackets.
[15] Harnack and Kleppinger, above note 10, at point 1 of heading "Four ambiguities to be clarified."
[16] Slashes are selected since they seem be the most used format in other guides. The vertical slash has been chosen since it is not used in legal citation and is little used in URL's.
[17] See the difference between the citations for the WWW and telnet.
[18] Harnack and Kleppinger, above note 10, at point 2 of heading "Four ambiguities to be clarified".
[19] Harnack and Kleppinger, above note 10, at point 2 of heading "Four ambiguities to be clarified".
[20] Harnack and Kleppinger, above note 10, at point 2 of heading "Four ambiguities to be clarified".
[21] Where greater specificity is possible it should be used. For instance, if each paragraph is numbered, the paragraph number should be used, in addition to the page.
[22] A case drawn from a CD ROM (illustrating CD ROM citation) was able to be slightly specific but only by telling the reader the exact search request to use in the CD ROM which would get the reader to roughly the correct point.
[23] See for instance the example illustrating citation of the World Wide Web. The case retrieved from the Internet could only refer the reader to "about 20% of the way through".
[24] See list at start of Citation Guide.
[25] See for instance Greenleaf G, Mowbray A, King G and Chung P who suggest internal paragraph numbers. Greenleaf G, Mowbray A, King G and Chung P, 'Austlii and the Courts: public information and the public interest' Australian Administration Annual Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, September 1996; cited in personal email from Greenleaf G "Citation standards - Notes on Austlii's current approach" (5 May 1997).
[26] This would be a hidden sort of referencing that need not appear in the text. It would only be read by search engines.
[27] The authorised version needs to be cited given the convention of citing authorised sources.
[28] See examples given in the sample citation guide.
[29] Greenleaf G, Mowbray A, King G and Chung P, 'Austlii and the Courts: public information and the public interest' Australian Institute of Judicial Administration Annual Conference, Wellington, New Zealand, September 1996; cited in personal email from Greenleaf G "Citation standards - Notes on Austlii's current approach" (5 May 1997).
[30] See discussion above, at text referenced by footnote 11.
[31] CD ROMs do not have invisible revisabilty. They are updated by a new CD ROM being issued, analogous to a new edition to a book.
[32] Crouse M, 'Citing electronic information in history papers' 12 April 1996 <http://www.people.memphis.edu/~crousem/elcite.txt> second last paragraph (3 Oct 1996).
[33] Many of these archives can be searched through Wide Area Information Server queries or standard web browsers. See for instance Crouse M, above note 32.
[34] Harnack and Kleppinger, above note 10, and others suggest this.
[35] There are numerous style guides which cover the citation of hard copy resources. Some of these include the Canadian Guide to Uniform Legal Citation (Montreal: McGill Law Journal, current edition), The Blue Book: A Uniform System of Citation (Cambridge: Harvard Law Review Association, current edition), Turabian KL, A Manual for Writers (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, current edition), The AGPS Style Manual (AGPS: Canberra, current edition) and chapters inside most legal research books. There are also specific legal style guides forthcoming from the major legal publishers in Australia.
[36] Is there any reason to give both the CD ROM and hard copy cite? The content is the same regardless of where it was accessed. Where something has a hard copy and electronic version a citation to the version used should be sufficient.
[37] When dealing with hard copy legislation there is no need to show the version used - be it the authorised version or one published elsewhere. Arguably the same format should be followed when accessing the electronic version.
[38] See note above.
[39] <http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/mla/html> (4 October 1996).
[40] Version 1.3, last revision 10 June 1996 <http://www/csc.eku.edu/honors/beyond-mla> (4 October 1996).
[41] This site now has a web address: <http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/~llou/lawlists/info/html>. If accessed through the URL, cite as for WWW documents.