15Websites and Electronic Materials

A writer attaches a URL to a claim and assumes the citation is complete. The link opens a homepage, the relevant report has moved, and the cited paragraph was changed after retrieval. A useful electronic citation identifies the item, not merely a route to a site.

Classify underlying sources before treating them as websites; collect authors, titles, dates, URLs, and locators; distinguish exact copies from independent online publications; record mutable sources; and audit link destinations.

A judicial opinion downloaded from an official website remains a judicial opinion. A scanned statute remains a statute. A book PDF remains a book. When an authenticated, official, or exact online copy supplies the normal source's identifying information, Indigo R32.1 applies the equivalent print citation without a URL. Other online copies may call for an added access URL under R32.2 or R32.3; a receiving instruction can specify another treatment. Do not discard meaningful reporter or section data merely because the file arrived through a browser.

An independently published web article, agency guidance page, blog post, dataset, or audiovisual item has its own identification needs. Determine what it is, who issued it, when it was published or updated, and which location supports your sentence. A URL without those fields can leave the reader unable to reconstruct the source if the link changes.

Brown v. Bd. of Educ., 347 U.S. 483, 495 (1954), https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/105221/brown-v-board-of-education/.

The URL is an access supplement here. It does not turn the CourtListener cluster number into a reporter citation or independently certify the decision's current legal status. Some receiving formats may omit the supplemental URL when the reporter citation suffices; check the actual requirement.

Collect the author or responsible institution, item title, website/publication name, publication date/time when supplied and relevant, update information, stable locator, direct URL, and retrieval date. Record missing fields as missing. Do not assign a publication date from a browser download timestamp. Do not invent a personal author for an institutional page.

Indigo R33's basic web formula uses the available author/title/site/date/URL information. Where no publication date exists, use the supplied last-modified or last-updated date with its label; if neither exists, its last-visited treatment supplies an access date. Follow the rule's actual conditional logic rather than adding “last visited” to every item automatically. Our editorial evidence ledger records retrieval for all sources even where the reader-facing citation does not need it.

Publication, update, archive, and access dates describe different events. An archived capture date shows when a snapshot was made; it does not necessarily show when the underlying material was first published. An update date can reflect a small correction or major rewrite. Save the source version used and compare it if your final text relies on a mutable passage.

Fictional training example — not legal authority. Packet: Harbor Records Office, “Filing Checklist,” Harbor Records Site, posted May 1, 2025; paragraph titled “Signatures” states that checklist users should sign the cover sheet. A direct fictional URL is supplied for training only: https://example.org/harbor/checklist. The sentence should attribute that recommendation to the checklist. It does not prove a court requires the signature unless an operative rule says so.

A training citation can identify the office, italicized item title, site, date, and URL. A locator naming the “Signatures” heading is more useful than a fabricated page 1. If the assignment asks for a pinpoint and no stable numerical locator exists, a heading or other accurate locator can improve navigation without inventing pagination.

Prefer the direct official item when available. A homepage is often inadequate. A session-bound search URL may fail for another reader. A login-required source needs that access limitation disclosed in editorial records. A free copy can improve accessibility, but verify that it is the same edition or version you cite.

Archiving can preserve evidence, subject to rights, privacy, and the service's terms. It does not prove authenticity or legal currency by itself. Avoid publicly archiving confidential records merely to stabilize a citation. A lawful private source record can support review without public distribution.

For this project, the Indigo HTML is saved locally with its retrieval timestamp and SHA-256 checksum. The checksum identifies bytes; it does not determine whether every legal example is accurate. Saved context preserves italics and table cells that a plain text extraction alone would lose.

A video or audio item may need speaker/creator, title, publisher/platform, date, URL, and a timestamp locator. A dataset may need creator, title, version, release date, and the exact subset or record relied on. A social post's handle is not necessarily its author's legal identity. Record what is actually supplied and avoid unsupported identity claims.

This handbook offers source-identification orientation rather than a comprehensive media manual. When the material's format demands specialized treatment outside Indigo's coverage, identify the editorial question and consult an authorized primary or publication-specific instruction. Do not force every digital object into a generic website formula.

Open the final direct URL. Confirm that its title/version matches the citation and its passage supports the sentence. Check whether a link redirects to a new edition or a different item. Test the link after export, where line wrapping and punctuation can break destinations. A working HTTP response is only a transport check; it is not a substantive review.

Classify item → identify creator/title/version/date → select real locator → provide direct access URL → record retrieval → compare passage with sentence → test exported link.

An online source check has two layers. First identify what the file is: an opinion, code provision, article, report, standalone webpage, or another source. Then identify whether the copy preserves the information needed for that source's citation. A URL is an access path. It does not replace the opinion's reporter metadata, an article's pagination, or a statute's version information when those fields govern the citation.

Fictional training example — not legal authority. A supplied official-looking training page hosts three items: a PDF opinion with stable reporter page labels, a filing checklist with its own title and publication date, and a news summary linking to the opinion. The PDF is the underlying opinion. The checklist is a standalone web source. The news summary describes the opinion but is not the opinion itself. The invented host has no real institutional status.

If your sentence describes the opinion's reasoning, inspect the PDF and cite the opinion under its source rule. If it describes the checklist's recommendation, identify the checklist, responsible author or organization, site, date, URL, and relevant location under the applicable electronic convention. If you rely only on the news summary, attribute its description accurately and avoid implying that the underlying opinion was read. One host can deliver three sources requiring three different decisions.

Dates deserve particular care. A copyright notice at the bottom of a site may describe the site rather than the page's publication date. A last-updated label may apply to the page, a linked file, or the surrounding site. An access date records your visit. Do not choose a conveniently visible year and label it publication without examining what it describes. If the source lacks a publication date, use the applicable no-date or access-date treatment and record the uncertainty.

An archived copy can preserve a changing source, but it has its own limits. Verify that the archive captured the content needed for the proposition, including any tables or linked attachments. A saved page can preserve text while losing the document it links to. Record the original and archived access paths when appropriate. The capture date does not become the underlying document's enactment, decision, or publication date.

For research integrity, save the inspected version locally when permitted and useful, together with retrieval information and a checksum. A checksum helps detect later byte changes; it does not establish legal accuracy, official status, or authenticity by itself. Preserve the source's visible date and version information because those facts cannot always be reconstructed from a filename. Do not distribute third-party protected material merely because you saved a working research copy.

At the final edit, open the source destination again when feasible and verify that it leads to the intended material. Remove tracking or session information only when doing so leaves a working stable destination. A shortened link that no longer reaches the source is not an improvement. Keep access failures in the editorial record and state the limits of what was inspected. A durable electronic citation connects a correctly classified source to a reproducible passage; it does not promise that every link will remain unchanged forever.

Indigo R32 draws distinctions that a blanket “always add a URL” rule misses. An authenticated, official, or exact online copy is cited as the equivalent print source under R32.1, without URL information. A print source available online can receive an access URL when that materially improves retrieval under R32.2. An online source with the identifying features and fixed pagination of a print source uses the corresponding source form plus a URL under R32.3. A standalone webpage follows the webpage formula. The task is to classify the copy, not merely notice that it has a web address.

An exact copy preserves the whole printed source and its pagination. A reflowed transcription may preserve the words while changing layout or omitting pagination; do not label it an exact paginated copy without checking. An official host can supply an official document, a summary, a press release, and an archive of superseded documents. Identify the particular item and its status. The government domain alone does not collapse those distinctions.

The CourtListener Brown model in this chapter supplies an optional access route to an inspected transcription. It demonstrates recoverability alongside the conventional reporter citation. It is not a rule that every official or exact PDF citation must carry a URL. The relevant source category and any receiving instruction determine whether that addition belongs in the finished document.

Missing fields and repeated institutional names

Use a personal byline when the source gives one. If no personal author is available, use an apparent institutional author when appropriate. Indigo R33.1.2 omits the institutional author when the website title already makes the owner clear. That prevents an unnecessary repetition while keeping the institution identifiable. It does not authorize guessing that a parent organization wrote a separately attributed author's article.

Fictional training example — not legal authority. A page titled “Receipt Guide” has no byline and appears on the fictional Harbor Records Office website. The site title itself identifies the responsible office. Under the supplied facts, Receipt Guide, Harbor Recs. Off., followed by the direct URL and appropriate date treatment, avoids stating the same office twice. If the site title instead obscured the responsible institution, retain the institutional-author field needed for identification. The full citation depends on the source's actual fields, not a fixed number of slots.

If the source supplies a publication date, use it. Include an exact posting time when the convention calls for it, particularly for a source updated through the day. If no publication date exists but the source gives a last-modified or last-updated date, identify that date using the corresponding label after the URL. If none is available, a last-visited date records access. Do not relabel a last-updated date as original publication, or add the present year simply because the page is still reachable.

Archive the right object

A webpage can load text, images, tables, and linked documents through separate requests. A saved copy may contain only some of them. After saving a permitted research copy, reopen it and confirm that it preserves the particular evidence used. If the proposition relies on a linked report's table, save and identify the report itself. A screenshot of the landing page does not preserve the table just because a button to download it remains visible.

A stable item URL is preferable to a search-results URL whose query, filters, and session state are needed to reproduce the result. When a source can only be reached through a database search, record the search instructions and identifying fields accurately rather than substituting the root domain and assuming the reader can infer the path. Indigo permits a navigation parenthetical for unusually unwieldy access routes. Use it sparingly and test the stated steps.

An archived access URL supplements the source's original identity; it does not replace the publication's title or date. Record which capture contains the cited passage. A capture that redirects, fails to load an attachment, or shows a later revision cannot establish the earlier text merely because its calendar date looks suitable. If the needed version cannot be recovered, revise the claim or identify the source limitation.

Versions, data, and audiovisual locators

For a dataset, the relevant object may be a release, a table, a record, or a computed selection. Record its creator, title, release identifier and date, the table or variables used, and the actual selection needed to reproduce the result. Preserve units and any supplied limitations. A citation to a dashboard homepage cannot explain how a particular numerical statement was obtained when the displayed result depends on filters. This is a source-record method; specialized disciplines and receiving publications may prescribe a more specific citation form.

For audio or video, use the actual recording, its speaker or creator, title, platform or publisher, publication information, and a time locator. Verify whether the timestamp measures elapsed time from the recording's start or from a player that skips an introduction. A transcript can be a separate version with edits or missing material. If quoting the recording, compare the words with the recording at the stated time rather than trusting an automatically generated transcript.

Digital sources benefit from one final check after export: open the linked destination, inspect the displayed title and version, and test the locator. A broken anchor can leave the main page accessible while losing the pinpoint. A line-break character accidentally copied into the URL can change its destination. Repair the access path while preserving the actual source identity and version used.