Q. What is referencing?
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A.
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When preparing a piece of written work you will inevitably
come across other peoples’ ideas, theories or data
which you will want to make reference to in your own
work. Making reference to others is called ‘citing’,
and the list of these authors’ works are given
at the end of a piece of written work in the form of
a ‘reference list’.
The process of citing authors (and the associated reference
list) can be done in one of two main styles - the Harvard
or the Numeric. These are both described in the
British Standard BS5605 - Citing and Referencing
Published Material (British Standards Institution
1990). This guide describes the Harvard Referencing
System.
Whichever system is adopted, one golden rule applies:
*** be consistent in everything you do! ***
This consistency applies to format, layout, type-face
and punctuation.
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Q. Why reference?
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A.
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- To show evidence of the breadth and depth of your
reading
- To acknowledge other peoples’ ideas correctly
- To allow the reader of your work to locate the
cited references easily, and so evaluate your interpretation
of those ideas
- To avoid plagiarism (i.e. to take other peoples’
thoughts, ideas or writings and use them as your
own)
- To avoid losing marks!
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Q. What is the difference between a reference list
and a bibliography?
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A.
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At the end of your essay under the heading ‘references’
you list all the items you have made direct reference
to in your essay (by the authors’ name and year
of publication). This list of books, journals, newspaper
articles (or whatever) is organised ALPHABETICALLY
by the names of the authors (or originators) of the
work. This list can be subdivided by year and letter
if necessary - (see page 12) This is your reference
list.
Also, during the course of your preparatory reading
you may use material that has been helpful for reading
around the subject, but from which you do not make
specific reference to in your essay. It is important
to acknowledge this material. Under the heading ‘bibliography’
list all these items, again alphabetically by author,
regardless of whether it is a book or journal. Include
this list after the reference list.
Nb.
Confusingly some people call the ‘reference
list’ the ‘bibliography’ (and only
use one list). No one is right or wrong in doing either,
often institutional convention will determine some
aspects of style.
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Q. How do I cite authors in my essay?
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A.
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The Harvard System (sometimes called the ‘name
and date system’), uses the name of the author
of the work you wish to cite and the date it was published.
These are incorporated into the text of your work
each time you make reference to that person’s
ideas.
Eg.
... Jones (1993) has suggested that body image is
related to self-esteem ...
Or the name and date can be in brackets (a comma
is optional but be consistent):-
... some commentators suggest that body image is
related to self-esteem (Jones, 1993), others believe
a more complex relationship exists ...
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Q. What rules apply if there is more than one author?
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A.
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If there are two authors the names of both should
be given in the text and in the reference list. If
there are more than two authors the name of
the first author only should be given, followed by
the abbreviation et al (meaning ‘and others’).
Eg.
Knowles et al. (1991) showed that polymer
...
Nb.
et al is in italics and is followed by a full
stop.
Within the reference list, if there are more than
three authors it is acceptable to again only use
the first named author:
Eg.
Wilkins, R. et al. (1989). Social psychology.
7th ed. London: Routledge.
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Q. What will my reference list look like?
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A.
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Everything you cite in your essay will be listed
once alphabetically by author (or originator) and
subdivided by year and letter, if necessary - (see
Q. How do I distinguish between two items by the same
author in the same year?)
Eg.
Adams. P. J. (1995) Mill workers in Lancashire
1845-1875. London: Cambridge University Press.
Bishop, J. and T. Lawrence (1993) A history of
Victorian employment. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University
Press.
Knowles, D. (1989) The way forward: historical
change and revisionism. Cambridge: Harvester Press.
Salcey, B. (1996) Changes in history. Guardian.
21st June. p9.
Smith, L. (ed.) (1987) Statistics for engineers.
London: Helman.
Thompson, R. (1991a) A place in history. History
Today. 24 (3), 31.
Thompson, R. (1991b) Historical theory and real people.
History Today. 24 (6), 42-50.
Wilkins, R. et al. (1993) Unearthing the
evidence. Derby: Derbyshire Historical Society.
A bibliography would look the same as this.
See section two ‘formats’ for conventions
that apply to all the different types of media e.g.
books, journals, newspapers, conferences etc..
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Q. Where do I find the exact information that I
need for my list of references?
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A.
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Usually from the title page (or reverse title page)
of the book or document you are citing. Remember though
that:-
- The order of authors’ names should
be retained
- Cite the first named place of publication
- Edition dates are not reprint dates (new
editions will have new text and must be cited as
such). The copyright sign will often indicate the
date of production
If your material has not originated from a commercial
publisher and lacks obvious title page data, then
the appropriate information should be gleaned from
any part of the publication, if you can say with some
certainty that it fulfils the required criteria for
your reference list.
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Q. Is an editor cited in the same way as an author?
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A.
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Yes. But make sure that it is the editor you are
citing as the originator of the text, not one
of the chapter writers (see page 10).
In the reference list you should indicate editorship
by using one of the following abbreviations:
Smith, L. (ed.) (1987) Statistics for engineers.
London: Helman.
Or:
Smith, L and Pearson, D. T. (eds.) Solving problems
with algebra. Aberdeen: Falmer.
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Q. What do I do if I can’t find a named person
as the author or editor?
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A.
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Sometimes it is impossible to find a named individual
as an author. What has usually happened is that there
has been a shared or ‘corporate’ responsibility
for the production of the material. Therefore the
‘corporate name’ becomes the author (often
called the ‘corporate author’.
Corporate authors can be:
Government bodies
Companies
Professional bodies
Clubs or societies
International organisations
Eg.
Institute of Waste Management (1995) Ways to improve
recycling. Northampton: Institute of Waste Management.
The ‘corporate author’ appears in the text
in the usual way.
Nb.
For journal articles without authors the journal
title becomes both author and cited journal
title.
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Q. What do I do if I want to refer to a part or
chapter of a book? (edited)
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A.
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An edited book will often have a number of authors
for different chapters (on different topics). To refer
to a specific author’s ideas (from a chapter)
quote them in the text - not the editors. Then in
your reference list indicate the details and
the book details from which it was published.
Eg.
Whitehead, C. (1991) Nutrition and growth of fat
and lean broiler genotypes. In: W. Haresign, and D.
Cole (eds.) Recent advances in animal nutrition.
London: Waverley. pp. 73-89.
Nb.
Note the use of ‘in’ to link the chapter
to the book and the use of page numbers. Whitehead
would appear as the author in the text, and in the
reference list. The year of publication is given once.
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Q. What do I do if I want to cite an author that
someone else has cited?
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A.
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A journal article or book someone else cites that
you have not seen is called a ‘secondary source’.
You should:
- try and find this source for yourself and cite
it in the normal way. It is important if you are
criticising ideas that you do it ‘first hand’
- if you cannot locate the secondary source, you
may cite it in your essay using the reference that
is provided in your ‘primary source’
In your text and reference list you must link these
two items with the term ‘cited in’. The
format is:
Author of original work’s surname, initials.
(Year of original publication) Title of original work.
Place of publication: Publisher. Cited in Author/editor
surname, initials. (Year) Title. Place of publication:
Publisher.
Eg.
... a change in family circumstances can affect a
child’s emotional stability (Pollock, 1995) cited
in Jones (1996)
Pollock, T. (1995) Children in contemporary society.
Cambridge: Macmillan. Cited in Jones, P (1996) A
family affair. London: Butterworth.
Nb.
Only the primary source title is italicised and both
years are included.
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Q. Should I use page numbers?
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A.
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If you wish to direct your reader to a specific page
or quotation it is acceptable to quote the page number
within the text:
Eg.
... whilst it is possible that ‘poor parenting
has little effect on primary educational development
it more profoundly affects secondary or higher educational
achievement’ (Healey, 1993, p.22)
Nb.
It is not necessary to indicate the page number in
the reference list. Quotes within the text should
be kept short (normally no more than one sentence
long), and include quotation marks. It is acceptable
to use a colon before the page number e.g. Healey,
1993:22.
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Q. How do I include a longer quotation in my text?
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A.
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Longer quotes should be:
- preceded by a colon
- indented from your main text
- single spaced on typed documents
- not have quotation marks
- cite author, year and page number
Eg.
It was just a fragment, no more than 30 seconds:
The Euston Road, hansoms, horse drawn trams, passers-by
glancing at the camera but hurrying by without the
fascination or recognition that came later. It looked
like a still photograph, and had the superb picture
quality found in expert work of the period, but this
photograph moved!
Walkley (1995, p.83).
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Q. How do I distinguish between two items by the
same author in the same year?
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A.
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Occasionally authors publish two or more book or
journal articles in any given year. This would make
the text citation identical for both. To distinguish
between different articles, letters (a,b,c etc.) are
used with the date in the text:
Eg.
...Johnson (1991a) has progressed both experimental
and practical aspects of software technology to the
point where they provide a serious challenge to Pacific
Belt dominance (Johnson, 1991b) ...
Within the reference list the articles are presented
alphabetically: 1991a then 1991b, etc..
Eg.
Johnson, C. (1991a) Software: the way ahead....
Johnson, C. (1991b) Changing global markets in
IT ...
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Q. What do I do if publication details are not given?
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A.
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Occasionally you will come across documents that
lack basic publication details. In these cases it
is necessary to indicate to your reader that these
are not available. A series of abbreviations can be
used and are generally accepted for this purpose:
- author/corporate author not given use [Anon.]
- no date use [n.d.]
- no place (sine loco) use [s.l.]
- no publisher (sine nomine) use [s.n.]
- not known use [n.k.]
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