REFERENCING &

CITING IN THE TEXT

Adopted from Oxford Universitys Student Guide

By: Byron John T. Siy

REFERENCING?!
When preparing a piece of written work, you will
inevitably come across other peoples ideas,
theories or date, and you will want to make
reference to these in your own work.

CITING
! Making reference to other authors in your own written

work is called citing. The names of the authors who

are cited in your text are gathered together, and
supplied as an alphabetical list at the end of your
written work. This is a reference list.
! The process of citing authors (and the associated

reference list) can be done in one or two main stylesthe Harvard or the Numeric. This guide describes the
Harvard Referencing System, as it is the system
generally used in management research.
! Direct and Indirect Citations

Direct Quotations
When taking a direct quotation, you must give the documents author, year
of publication and he page number(s) on which the quote appears.
Quotations of up to 4 lines should be placed n double quotation marks
within your text. You can place the name, date and page numbers before or
after the quote, e.g.:

Roberts et al. (2004, p.342) say that Patterns of organization and methods
of research vary across different disciplines and faculties.

Indirect Quotations

Usually written in your own words

Paraphrased

Nursing & Midwifery Council (2004) The NMC Code of Professional Conduct:
Standards for Conduct, Performance and Ethics, London: Nursing & Midwifery
Council.
Direct quotation
Professional codes of practice often require standards of professional
conduct hat extend beyond the legal requirements; referring to nursing
practice in cases where child protection is an issue the Nursing & Midwifery
Council (2004, p.9) states that Where there is an issue of child protection, you
must act at all times in accordance with national and local policies.
Indirect quotation
Health professionals who work with patients where child protection is an issue
are required by their code of professional conduct to comply with all relevant
national and local policies (Nursing & Midwifery Council, 2004).

WHY BOTHER TO REFERENCE?

!

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 accusations of cheating (i.e. taking other peoples

thoughts, ideas or writings and using then as though they are
your own)

To avoid losing points!

REFERENCES
!

Within your piece of written work, you will have cited a number
of books, journals, newspaper articles (or whatever), using the
authors name and the date of publication.

At the end of the piece, you provide a list of all those authors,
giving full details of what their work is called, and where it was
published. This reference list is headed References, and
provides all the information about the published works you have
mentioned in your text, ALPHABETICALLY by the names of the
authors (or originators). This list can be subdivided by year and
authors initials if necessary. (More about this later.)

Everything you cite (i.e. mention) in your piece of written work

will be listed once alphabetically by author and subdivided by
year and letter, if necessary, in your References.

CITING REFERENCES IN YOUR REPORT

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 persons ideas.

CITING A SINGLE AUTHOR

The author and the date of publication are provided.

For example:
Jones (1993) has suggested that body image is related to selfesteem.
or
Some commentators suggest that body image is related to selfesteem (Jones, 1993); while others believe a more complex
relationship exists.

Note the comma after Jones.

Citing the Authors Point of View

If you are discussing or quoting the general theme of the material (book, website,
journal), page numbers are unnecessary. Examples:

Mandela (1960) obtained results which...

In a recent study (Mandela, 1960)...
Where you are quoting or referring to figures or data, page numbers must be
included. Examples:

Schon (1991, p.17) found that several factors contributed to the

emergence of professional pluralism" which shows that
In some professions, awareness of uncertainty, complexity, instability,
uniqueness, and value conflict has led to the emergence of professional pluralism
(Schon 1991, p.17).

CITING MORE THAN ONE AUTHOR

Of 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 in Latin)
For example:
Knowles et al. (1991) showed that motivation.
Note that et al is in italics and is followed by a full stop.

In your reference list, however, you will list all the authors who compose the et al.
For example:
Knowles, R., Jones. T. and Hammond.L. (1989) Social Psychology. (7th ed.) London:
Routledge.
or
Knowles, Ronald, Jones, Theodore and Hammond, Louise. (1989) Social Psychology. (7th
ed.) London: Routledge.

THE REQUIRED INFORMATION

! You will find all the information that you need to build

up the reference from the title page of the book or

document you are citing. Remember to:
! Keep the order of authors names
! Cite the first named place of publication.
! And note that 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 for example, papers presented at

conferences, but not published has not originated

from a commercial publisher and lacks obvious title
page data, then the appropriate information should be
obtained from any part of the publication.
A books editor is referenced exactly as an author.

For example:
Smith, Leonard. (ed) (1987) Statistics for Business
Students. London: Heinemann.
or
Smith, L. and Pearson, D.T. (eds.) (1991) Solving Problems
with Algebra. Aberdeen: Falmer.

SAMPLE FORMATS FOR THE

REFERENCE LIST

BOOKS
! Author/editor surname, initials. (Year) Title.

Edition. Place of publication: Publisher.

For example:
Orem, D.E. (1991) Nursing: Concepts of
Practice. (4th ed.) St. Louis: Mosby-Year Book.

Note:
- The title of the book uses capital letters for each word,
and there is a full stop at the end of the title.
- The title is in italics.
- The date is the year of publication not printing.
- The edition is only mentioned of other than the first.
- The place of publication is the City not the Country (
normally the first stated).

JOURNAL ARTICLES
! Author surname, initials. (Year) Title of

article, Journal name, Volume number,

Issue or Part number, first and last
page numbers.

For example:
Johns, C. (1993) Professional
supervision, Journal of Nursing
Management, Vol.21, No.1, pp.9-18.

Note:
-

The title of the paper is between single quotation

marks and in lower case, with a comma following.

Journal name is italicized, not the article title.

You could have used the form 21(1), 9-18 (note

with this method the vol. no. is in bold) for the
above example, but the format using the terms
vol., no., and pp. is the easiest way for the
reader to absorb the information.

p. indicates only one page and pp. indicates a

range of pages.

NEWSPAPERS
!

Journalist name, initial. (Year) Title of news item. Name of newspaper.

Date. Page number.

For example:
Peters, R. (1992) Picking up Maxwells bills. Independent. 4 June, p.28.
Note that the name of newspaper is italicized.

If it is news article and does not attribute an author, the newspaper name
is used in the text and instead of the author in the reference list.
For example:

The Guardian (1995) Lottery for breast cancer help. The Guardian. 21
March, p.10.

World Wide Web

!

Author/ editor, initials. (Year) Title [online]. (Edition). Place of

publication: Publisher (if ascertainable). Available from: URL
[Accessed date].

For example:
Holland, M. (1996) Harvard System [online]. Poole: Bournermouth
University. Available from:
http://www.bournermouth.ac.uk/service_depts/lis/LIS_Pub/
harvardsyst.html [Accessed 15 November 2000].

The accessed date is the date on which you viewed or downloaded

the document. It may be subject to changes or updating and this
allows for this possibility. Keeping a record of the document as you
used it (if permissible) is recommended.
Often organizations put information on the Internet without citing a
specific author. In these cases, ascribe authorship to the smallest
identifiable organizational unit (in the way that you would cite
material by a corporate author).

Other Sources
! Past thesis
! Dissertations
! Movies / Films / Documentaries
! Personal Interviews
! Conference Papers
! Maps

Reference vs Bibliography

Thank You.
Recommended site:
http://www.library.uq.edu.au/training/citation/harvard_6.pdf