How do i cite an online subscription?
Answer
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition, does not offer an example for citing a subscription-only database. We would need to construct a citation based on what we know about the basic forms of citations. I think we could then add in brackets a description of what the format of the information is, which is common practice in APA. Something like this ...
Author. (Date). Title. Retrieved from: URL of database.
Here is what it would look like ...
Good Drugs. (2012). Herbal tea. Retrieved from: www.gooddrugs.com
This would be the basic website citation with a corporate author. However, if we want to indicate somehow that this information is subscription only, and not retrievable by the reader, we could add this tag line ...
Good Drugs. (2012). Herbal tea. Retrieved from: www.gooddrugs.com [Subscription database].
Again, this is an interpretation based on the "spirit" of the law since we cannot locate the "letter" of the law. If your professor does not like this then we would need to defer to him/her as to how it should be done [ :) ].