How_to_reference

How to reference

These Harvard-based guidelines are generic and are meant to supplement, not replace, the

guidelines given to you for your programme, which are usually provided in your module

handbooks. Some subjects make these guidelines available on the portal. You are advised to

follow your module/programme instructions exactly for citing and referencing sources, and use

this guide for further information only. For further information on a wide variety of sources,

consult Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2008)

Cite them right: the essential referencing guide.

Newcastle upon Tyne: Pear Tree Books.

Contents:

1.

In-text references / citations

This means how to put references in the body of your assignment, and this section

includes the following cases:

1.1

1.2

1.3

1.4

1.5

1.6

1.7

1.8

1.9

1.10

1.11

1.12

1.13

1.14

1.15

1.16

1.17

1.18

1.19

1.20

2.

Reference list or bibliography

This means how to make a reference list or bibliography (this section describes the

difference

between the two) at the end of your assignment for the following types of

sources:

A typical reference

- what to include and what not to

Incorporating others’ material

- words and expressions to use

Author's name occurs naturally

in the sentence

Author’s name does not occur naturally

Page numbers

- when to use them

More than one cited document

by the same author(s) in the same year

Two authors

of one work

More than two authors

of one work

Dictionaries, encyclopaedias or other collaborative works with several authors

No originator

Newspaper where no author is given

Corporate authors or organisations

where no individual’s name is indicated

Year of publication unknown

Secondary sources

(one author referred to in another’s text)

Different authors saying the same thing

Author in an edited book

Diagrams, photos, charts, maps and other illustrations

Unsure whether to cite or not?

How many references should there be?

Compare, comment and critique

University of Plymouth Guide to Referencing

The difference between a reference list and bibliography

How to make a reference list

2.2.1

Books

(several authors, edited books, chapters, editions, same author and

year, theses and dissertations)

2.2.2

Journal Articles

(periodicals, printed, electronic and online)

2.2.3

Downloaded articles

2.2.4

Web pages

2.2.5

Conference papers

2.2.6

Newspapers

2.2.7

Film and television programmes

2.2.8

Interviews

2.2.9

No obvious author

, publisher, date or place, inc. Government publications

NB for types of source not listed here, please refer to Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2008)

Cite

them right: the essential referencing guide.

Newcastle upon Tyne: Pear Tree Books

2.1

2.2

1.

In-text references / citations

How to put references in the body of your assignment

1.1

A typical in-text reference

in an author/date (Harvard type) system might look like the

one below. Note that the full stop comes after the reference to include it in the sentence

to which it refers:

One of the most problematic aspects of environmental policy-making is said to be

that of persuading big actors of its apparent importance (McDonald

, 2006).

However…

When you are putting references into the body of your assignment, whatever type of

source you use (book, newspaper article, journal article, website etc.), the basic

principle is the same in Harvard styles of referencing: you just need to include the

author’s surname

and

the year of publication

.

Do not include too much information

in the in-text reference:

the web address,

publisher, title etc. are not necessary and are distracting, unless they occur naturally in

the sentence to help give it meaning - for example:

In Poole’s article on ‘Why the polar icecaps are melting’ (2006), the biggest cause

is cited as being…

1.2

Incorporating

others’ material

Please follow your course guidelines (usually in your module or programme handbook) in the first

instance; only use this Harvard guide for further support with different types of sources.

2

University of Plymouth Guide to Referencing

In this document, we have tried to vary how the references are integrated to avoid

excessive repetition. The reference needs to be attached to the particular piece of

material it refers to, but depending on how the material is incorporated into your work,

the reference may come at the beginning, in the middle or at the end of your sentence -

they are all acceptable, and varying how you use them avoids irritating repetition. The

following three tables give examples of phrases you can use to integrate ideas and/or

citations into your text:

?

as the verb in the main clause, follow

ed by a ‘that’ clause

Rees (2004

) argues that …

Rees (2004

) observes that …

?

as the verb in a ‘comment’ clause, follow

ed by the main clause

:

As Rees (2004) argues,

…

As Rees (2004

) observes, …

?

as a noun in the main clause

Rees (2004

) uses the argument that …

Rees (2004

) makes the observation that …

Other commonly used expressions are:

?

for quotation (remember to include the page number) or paraphrase (no page number)

According to Rees (2004),

…

As far as Rees (2004

) is concerned, …

?

for quotation only

In the words of Rees (2004:6),

‘…’.

To quote Rees (2004:6),

‘…’.

With regard to

…

, Rees (2004:6) has the following to say:

‘…’.

If the suggestion that ‘…’

(Rees, 2004:6), then a question must be asked about

…

Some more phrases to use:

Making statements and giving options

to assert

to make an assertion

Making observations and referring to

sources or data

to cite

to document

3

Please follow your course guidelines (usually in your module or programme handbook) in the first

instance; only use this Harvard guide for further support with different types of sources.

University of Plymouth Guide to Referencing

to believe

to claim

to make a claim

to consider

to express ~

to say

to state

to suggest

to make a suggestion

to think

Arguing

to argue

to present/put forward an argument

to conclude

to reach a conclusion

to contend (noun: contention)

to demonstrate

to emphasise

to place/put emphasis on

to hypothesise

to present a hypothesis

to insist

to make ~ clear

to make a point

to reason

to recommend

to make a recommendation

to show

to stipulate

to stress

Agreeing with another viewpoint

to accept

to acknowledge

to admit

to agree

to be in agreement with

to concede

to make a concession

to recognise

to support (a view)

to draw upon

to find

to indicate

to note

to observe

to make an observation

to point out

to quote

to refer to

to report

to show

Defining and Describing

to call ~ ~

to categorise

to divide ~ into ~ categories

to classify (noun: classification)

to describe

to describe ~ as ~

to define ~ as

to give a definition

to give an example

to identify

to illustrate

to give an illustration

to liken ~ to

to refer to ~ as

Disagreeing with another viewpoint

to counter (an argument)

to criticise ~

to make a criticism of ~

to differ

to disagree

to dispute ~

to oppose ~

1.3

If the

author's name occurs naturally

in the sentence, the year is given in

parentheses, for example:

In a popular study Widdecombe (2005) argued that deforestation was the

regrettable result of...

1.4

If the

name does not occur naturally

in the sentence, both the name and year are

given in parentheses, for example:

Please follow your course guidelines (usually in your module or programme handbook) in the first

instance; only use this Harvard guide for further support with different types of sources.

4

University of Plymouth Guide to Referencing

More recent studies (Williams, 2007; Roberts, 2007) show that carbon emissions

produced by increased reliance on the private car and much greater use of air

transport have a significant impact on...

1.5

Page numbers

should be included when you are citing direct quotations, however short

or long. The number(s) should appear after the year within the parentheses.

The following two styles (with either just a colon, or with a comma and p. [page] or pp.

[pages]) are the most commonly used - your handbook will either specify one format, or

you can choose which to use, but be consistent:

(2005, p.3)

or

(2005:3),

As noted by Weare (2005:3), 'the phenomenon observed is dramatic', which

suggests that…

1.6

When an author has published

more than one cited document in the same year

,

these are distinguished by adding lower case letters (a, b, c, etc.) after the year and

within the parentheses, for example:

Hudson (2005a) discussed the possible problems associated with nuclear power...

1.7

If there are

two authors

, the surnames of both should be given for example:

1.8

If there are

more than two authors

, the surname of the first author only should be

given, followed by ‘

et al

.’ (L

atin for 'and others', preferably in

italics

in both the text and

the reference list at the end, and followed by a full stop as it is an abbreviation), for

example:

Chavez

et al.

(1997) conclude that the solution lies in improved education to

promote sustainability literacy...

1.9

For works such as

dictionaries, encyclopaedias

or

other collaborative

works of

several authors, none of whom have a dominant role, the

title

may be use, for example:

Global warming can be defined as ‘the rise in the earth’s surface air temperature

associated with the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere’ (Cullins’

Encyclopaedia of Climate Change, 2006).

Please follow your course guidelines (usually in your module or programme handbook) in the first

instance; only use this Harvard guide for further support with different types of sources.

5

Bell and Rowley (2006) propose that renewable sources of energy...

University of Plymouth Guide to Referencing

1.10

If there is

no originator

then it is no longer conventional to use '

Anon

'. Instead,

substitute the tile for the author, using the appropriate formatting for the type of source

as per the guidelines for the full list of references:

It has been suggested (

Three pillars to hold the roof up: environmental, social and

economic sustainability in challenging times

, 2010

) that…

or

1.11

However, if it is a reference to a

newspaper where no author is given

, the name of

the paper can be used:

The

Daily Record

(1999:

3) conducted a survey into peoples’ attitudes towards

conflicts in countries such as...

1.12

For

corporate authors or organisations where no

individual’s

name is indicated

,

use the organisation name instead, for example:

One study (People and Planet, 2004) found that…

1.13

If the exact

year of publication is not known

, but there is some indication of roughly

when the text was written, 'ca' ('circa') should be used, for example:

In his recent survey, Shearer (ca 2005) claimed...

One source considers that…

(

‘What if we just do nothing?’

2005).

If there is

no indication of date

(but you think the text is still valid and useful

nonetheless), say so, for example:

In the course of his work, Jones (no date supplied) said he found one of the most

surprising discoveries to be

…

1.14

For a

secondary source

(ie if you refer to a source quoted in another work), ideally you

should aim to trace the original source. If you are unable to check it, you need to cite

both in the text, for example:

A study by French (1984, cited in Saunders, 1995:24) showed that...

(Note that you need to list the work you have used, i.e. Saunders, in the list of

references section at the end of the essay and in the bibliography)

Please follow your course guidelines (usually in your module or programme handbook) in the first

instance; only use this Harvard guide for further support with different types of sources.

6

University of Plymouth Guide to Referencing

1.15

If a

number of different authors are essentially saying the same thing

or agree on a

particular issue, you can include all the different authors in one reference for example:

Many studies suggest (Smith and Stafford, 2006; Hassan, 2005; George, 1999;

Bertelli, 1997) that...

1.16

Referring to an author in an

edited book

, name first the author you are referring to, and

then the editor:

1.17

Diagrams, photos, charts, maps and other illustrations

should be cited like

quotations with the author and date given alongside the illustration and full details

included in the list of references.

1.18

If you're

not sure whether to cite something

, err on the side of caution and cite it.

1.19

The

number of citations

an essay should have varies depending on the nature of the

work. However, you should be averaging at least 2-3 citations per A4 page of text. Note

that it is perfectly acceptable for every paragraph to carry one or more references.

Indeed, some sentences may even have more than one reference.

1.20

However, remember that the objective is not to simply regurgitate what others have said,

but to

compare, comment on and critique

relevant material and theories (see Study

Guide 8, ‘Critical Thinking’ on our portal pages:

/learn

.

There’s

also information on how to book a tutorial with a Learning Development advisor). The

reason you use others' material is to explore and develop ideas, so you should not think

of references as a crutch for your existing (perhaps only partially informed)

beliefs.

Therefore, when integrating others’ material into your text it is importan

t to

analyse it, show how it is relevant, discuss its significance and evaluate the

theory

in question as opposed to simply pasting it in to bulk out the assignment or

serve simply as a second opinion. With this in mind, aim to find the

‘right’ balance

be

tween using others’ work to illuminate your enquiry and illustrate your claims, without

leaning on it so heavily that your assignment has little or no input of your own.

Shail (1999, in Sourge and Furze, 2000) suggests that...

2.

Reference list or bibliography (Harvard system)

7

Please follow your course guidelines (usually in your module or programme handbook) in the first

instance; only use this Harvard guide for further support with different types of sources.