Citation issue (help needed)

[Nash]

Ok, so here's the deal:

I'm looking up information on various (well, 3) tests for the identification of macromolecules  (in this case, Iodine test for starch and glycogen, Benedict's Test for reducing sugars, and Buiret's test for proteins).

I've been having a horrible time finding sources for my lab, even though the the info. I need is pretty basic (essentially what constitutes a positive/negative result and why. ex: a positive result occurs when blah reacts with blah, resulting in a blah colour)

so I finally decided to look them up in online encyclopedias, and I found what I wanted. Now here's the problem:
  I Although I got the info from a website, the info itself comes directly from a published encyclopedia (the names of which are provided, along with the publisher etc,) but without page numbers or authors. Now, do I cite the encyclopedia itself (ie. as an encyclopedia) or as a website, using the info for the published encyclopedia?

I'm leaning towards citing it in the format for citing a published encyclopedia, as it makes more sense than citing just the web page from which I got it, seeing as how I can reference an encyclopedia without page numbers if it's in alphabetic order (like most encyclopedias I have seen).


also, if anyone knows of any other good sources, feel free to give me a link 

 

[James]

In MLA format, you can do it the way you described, or cite the website such:

"Article." Website. 2007. (or other copyright date). Publisher/Author. 25 Sep. 2007 (Date of access or page). <http://weburl>

 

[Trelow]

It has become quite common to cite the internet reference. If you are going to I'd suggest checking out WebCite or a similar service in order to preserve the archivability of your reference.

http://www.webcitation.org/