# Specify article is electronic

**URL:** <https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/specify-article-is-electronic/1749>\
**Category:** CSL Usage\
**Created:** [January 11, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/specify-article-is-electronic/1749 "2022-01-11T15:15:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![larsgw](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/larsgw/32/187_2.png) [@larsgw](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/larsgw)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:15pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/specify-article-is-electronic/1749/1 "2022-01-11T15:15:11Z")

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A lot of times when a journal is entirely electronic there are no page numbers in the same sense as for print journals. Is there a standard way to specify in CSL input data that a journal article or journal is electronic? Maybe `genre`?

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**Author:** ![Denis\_Maier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8491ac/32.png) [@Denis\_Maier](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Denis_Maier)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 3:36pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/specify-article-is-electronic/1749/2 "2022-01-11T15:36:08Z")

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I don’t think so. I was almost sure we’ve included a new variable `article-id` or `e-id` or `article-number`, but I can’t find it.

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**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Karcher](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/sebastian_karcher/32/176_2.png) [@Sebastian\_Karcher](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Sebastian_Karcher)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 4:23pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/specify-article-is-electronic/1749/3 "2022-01-11T16:23:09Z")

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In existing styles we just go by the lack of a page number and, potentially, by the existence of `number` (which we use for article numbers, e.g. in APA style)

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**Author:** ![larsgw](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/larsgw/32/187_2.png) [@larsgw](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/larsgw)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 6:48pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/specify-article-is-electronic/1749/4 "2022-01-11T18:48:19Z")

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Thank you. Does `number` on `article-journal` have any conflicting meanings?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sebastian\_Karcher](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/discourse.citationstyles.org/sebastian_karcher/32/176_2.png) [@Sebastian\_Karcher](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Sebastian_Karcher)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/specify-article-is-electronic/1749/5 "2022-01-11T19:06:53Z")

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No – not sure why we didn’t add this as an example in the specifications, might be good to make this explicit.

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**Author:** ![Denis\_Maier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8491ac/32.png) [@Denis\_Maier](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/u/Denis_Maier)\
**Post date:** [January 11, 2022, 10:48pm UTC](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/specify-article-is-electronic/1749/6 "2022-01-11T22:48:48Z")

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Good idea. By the way, that reminds me of my question regarding [style coding guidelines](https://discourse.citationstyles.org/t/do-we-need-style-coding-guidelines/1627). Perhaps we should think about this again.