Citation, Documentation of Sources

Q. Hi. I need to list resources in many documents, and sometimes URL listings are not enough. How can I find author information at websites?

A. Are you asking how to find out who is the author of a given website? I’m afraid I can’t help you—if the owner of the site hasn’t posted his or her name, I don’t think there’s any way to know. It’s just one of the reasons that some internet documents may not be suitable for citing in careful research.

Update from another reader: If you want to find out the owner of a website (its domain) you can look it up using the Whois database from InterNIC. It will tell you who owns the domain name. While it may not tell the person doing the search who is the author of a particular article, it will give contact information for the owner of the domain, such as his or her email address, and that person may be able to answer questions such as who is the author of a particular article.