BBA Guide to Citing and Referencing

Claudia Gdaniec
Last updated by C. Niestroj September 16, 2015

1. Introduction
The introduction to a paper is supposed to set the scene for the readers (including a brief
introduction to the problem dealt with and motivation or purpose), grab their attention and interest,
provide the necessary background information, outline method and findings and finally inform
them on how the paper proceeds in the form of a roadmap.

2. Citation and Quotation1

Using other peoples academic work is good and necessary because nobody wants you to reinvent
the wheel -- that would be a waste of time and energy. As a member of the scientific
community, it is also expected from you that you are familiar with recent research, arguments and
state-of-the-art knowledge in your field. Anne-Wil Harzing (2002) states that [A]n important
aspect that distinguishes academic articles from others is the care that is taken to substantiate
claims and arguments, often by referring to other literature in the field (p. 127). Use Microsoft
Words References Manage Sources APA Style 6th Edition for all in-text citations! By citing
your sources, you show that you have done your homework and that the reader can trust your
claims and arguments. Citing supportive sources strengthens your own position, while citing
opposing literature shows that you are taking the issue seriously and can develop valid arguments
and counter-arguments.
Citing alone, however, is not good enough. It has to be done correctly; and for that purpose
Harzing (2002) developed twelve principles for good academic citing, reproduced in Table 1
below (p. 128).
Table 1: Twelve guidelines for good academic referencing (Harzing, 2002, p. 128)

1. Reproduce the correct reference

2. Refer to the correct publication
3. Do not use empty references
4. Use reliable sources
5. Use generalizable sources for generalized statements
6. Do not misrepresent the content of the reference
7. Make clear which statement references support
8. Check out the original do not copy someone elses references
1
By
libraries are
good sources of information on citations and quotations.
9. the
Doway,
not university
cite out-of-date
references
Harvard style (= author-date style). Here is one example:
10. Do not be unduly impressed by top journals
http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/files/Harvard_referencing.pdf/.
11. Do not try to reason away conflicting evidence
12. Actively search for counter-evidence
1

In this paper, you will not only find instructions as to why, what and how to cite and create
a list of references, but you will also find numerous citations themselves, which you can use as
examples and illustrations.

2.1. Evaluating sources

When are sources useful for academic research and papers? When they are
-

reliable, i.e. fact-checked and reviewed

up-to-date
relevant to your question
written by a scholar who is knowledgeable in the field
published in a reputable publishing house
based on sources that can be verified
unbiased
clear about their assumptions, theoretical framework and methodologies.
These criteria rule out news magazines, newspapers, and most web sites. If you are not sure how
reliable a source is, consider the following:

Does the author present opposing views? Do they present them objectively?
Do they support their arguments with verifiable evidence?
Are figures and statistics plausible and consistent?
Does the author cite sources for all facts and ideas?
If there is more than one version of a source available, such as a book with multiple editions, you
should always cite the most recent edition of the publication. This ensures that you have the most up to
date information possible.

2.2. How to cite

It is best to mention your source at the beginning of your citation, to signal that what follows is a
summary or paraphrase of an external source, because otherwise the reader might be misled into
believing that what they are going to read is your original thought. Your in-text citation refers the
reader to the list of references at the end of your paper.
There are various ways of citing, often depending on how you use the material in your own
argument or to what extent you are convinced of its accuracy. Here are some examples of citation:
1. Author (1999) claims/argues/shows/reports/notes that (pp. 10-15).
2. According to Author (1999), vegetables are healthier than meat (p. 10).
3. Research by Author and Bauthor (Author & Bauthor) supports/illustrates ... ( 2009a).
4. Professor Hansen (personal communication, December 22, 2009) claimed/proposed that
5. The Applied Ecology Research Group at Canberra University (n.d.) recommends (para. 10).
6. Days (1983) description of (pp. 1-29).
7. Yanovski and Yanovski (as cited in Hacker, 2006) reported that the current state of the
treatment for obesity is similar to the state of the treatment of hypertension several decades ago
(para. 3).
Normally, one does not cite an entire book or article but rather a chapter or section or a range
of pages. In the latter case, the information you need is the Authors last name, the year, and the
page number(s). If you begin your citation with, Author says the year, in parentheses, is placed
immediately after the Authors name, and the page number(s), also in parentheses, is listed at the
end of the quotation and before the final period, as in the following example:
Author (2009), after giving a detailed explanation of the bullwhip effect, also offers
some solutions (pp. 10-28).
2

If, on the other hand, you do not wish to mention your authors name in the text itself, all of the
citation information is grouped together at the end of sentence, as below:
Although the bullwhip effect can be quite disruptive to the supply chain, there are
solutions for mitigating its effects (Author, 2009, pp. 10-28).
Note that once again the parenthetical citation comes before the final period. With regards to the
pp, this refers to the range of pages 10 through 28. The pp stands for the plural of page,
i.e. it references pages, not one single page. Sometimes, you may want to cite from one particular
page, e.g. (Author, 2009, p. 10). If you want to cite a whole chapter, this is how you do it:
(Author, 2009, Ch. 2). In some literature, you may find citations such as (Author, 2009, pp. 10f.),
where f. stands for following, which is really an abbreviation of pp. 10-11. Something else
you might find is: (Author, 2009, pp. 10ff.), where ff. stands for an unspecified number of pages
following the cited page. Since such a notation is too vague, do not use this abbreviation, but rather
specify the range of pages you are referencing, as shown above (Author, 2009, pp. 10-28).
For two authors, you list both, e.g. Yanovski and Yanovski (2002). If you mention the names
of your authors within the text, separate them with the word and; if you only use a parenthetical
citation, use the & symbol as below:
Yanovski and Yanovski (2002) suggest.
It has been suggested. (Yanovski & Yanovski, 2002).
The example above also applies if your source has three to five authors. However, if your source
has more than five authors, it is recommended that you cite only the first name together with et
al., which is an abbreviation of the Latin meaning and others. Note that there is a no period after
the word et, only after the abbreviation al. Furthermore, it is important to note that all of the authors
names should appear in the References list.
At times, you may wish to cite several sources for the same information. This is done in the same
way as individual listings, i.e. by listing the authors name and the year of publication; however, a
semi-colon is used between entries, as you can see below:
There have been many studies on unemployment in Germany (Schmidt, 2012; Fritz,
2013; Weiss, 2015).
Sometimes, you may want to quote a sentence from a source verbatim. In that case, do not
forget to use quotation marks and to cite the exact page number. The quotation marks should
only go around the actual text you are quoting; the parenthetical citation information comes after the
closing quotation mark, but before the final punctuation, as below:
As Swan (2010) explains, We do not use to before home (p. 433).
If you quote a longer passage, you set it off from your running text, in which case you do
not need to place quotation marks around that block of text. A word of caution: In business studies,
you do not normally quote verbatim unless you particularly want to point the reader to the exact
phrasing of the original, as below:
Place direct quotations that are 40 words, or longer, in a free-standing block of
typewritten lines, and omit quotation marks. Start the quotation on a new line, indented
1/2 inch from the left margin, i.e., in the same place you would begin a new paragraph.
Type the entire quotation on the new margin, and indent the first line of any subsequent
paragraph within the quotation 1/2 inch from the new margin. Maintain double-spacing
throughout. The parenthetical citation should come after the closing punctuation mark.
(Paiz, et al., 2014)
Generally, however, it is better to summarise or paraphrase the information yourself, rather than
quoting directly from the source.

2.3. A special note on online sources

The Internet is not a publication. It is a global network of computers (hardware) that are linked
to each other, coordinated by a set of protocols. When you think of the Internet, you probably think
of one particular source of information on the so-called World Wide Web (WWW), which is not
the same. The quality and reliability of WWW sources range from unreliable (bloggers,
advertisements, company-specific information) to reliable (peer- reviewed conference papers,
scholarly electronic journals, etc.). Be very careful about which sources you use. A frequent
problem with online resources is the lack of dates; i.e. very often the date the document was
created or last modified is not given, and, therefore, you have no sense of whether the entry is
recent or ten years old.
If the webpage does not have a date of publication, you write (Author, n.d., para. 10).
If the source you are citing is a PDF document, page numbers are usually available, and you
should use them accordingly. However, for online sources in html format, it is often impossible to
cite a page number. In that case, cite the chapter number if one is present or the paragraph
number, e.g. (Author, 2009, Ch. 2) or (Author, 2009, para. 10). If the chapters or sections are not
numbered, cite the heading of the section, e.g. (Wagner, et al., 2010, Ch. Captions and Legends) or
(Wagner, et al., 2010, Captions and Legends section). If you need to cite one particular paragraph
in a chapter, this is how you do it: (Wagner, et al., 2010, Ch. Captions and Legends, para. 3).
If your online source does not have an author, then the publisher of the web site is legally
responsible for the content and should be referred to as the author, e.g. (Oregon School
Library, n.d.). This often applies to government agencies and companies websites. When you cite
a government agencys document, do not forget to mention the country the government belongs to.
Note: If neither author nor publisher/sponsor is clear, it is best not to use the site for
academic purposes.
Although it is not recommended, some of you may wish to cite online dictionaries or Wikipedia.
In both cases, since it is highly unlikely that an author will be listed, your in-text citation and your
reference entry will both be listed by the word or subject that is being defined. For example:
Wikipedia defines APA style as a format for academic documents such as journal
articles and books (n.d., para. 1).
The version of APA currently in use is the 6th edition (APA style, n.d., para. 3).
There are many different definitions and collocations that can be used with the
word business (Business, n.d.)
According to the Oxford Dictionary, a group of ferrets is called a business
(Business, n.d., definition 7).
Note, although Wikipedia pages often have a date on which the page was last modified, this
date does not refer to the date the page as a whole was published and should not be used.
Further information regarding the use of wikis will be given later.

2.4. Citing secondary sources

Material that is cited elsewhere is a secondary source. Harzing (2002) has shown how selfperpetuating myths can emerge and persist due to miscitation (p. 127). She therefore advises against
using secondary sources without verifying in the original source that no miscitation has occurred. If
you do have to cite secondary sources because it is crucial to your argument and you have no
opportunity to check the accuracy, make sure you always identify them as such, for example:
Peat, Elliott, Baur, & Keena (as cited in Derntl, 2011) provide a list (p. 3).

3. Tables and Figures

3.1. Tables
Use tables only when they are useful and relevant. Tables have to have a clear title, which is at the
top of the table, as shown in Table 2. This is different for figures, which have their caption
underneath them. Tables and figures have their own, separate and independent numbering
schemes. Number all tables and figures sequentially as they occur in your text. Label your tables
and figures clearly so that they can be understood without reference to your text. Nevertheless,
you need to refer to, and explain, all tables and figures in your text as well.
Try not to copy and paste tables from the source because the quality of copied material is often
inferior. It is better to create new tables based on the data from the source you are getting it from,
but remember to cite the source of your data.
Table 2: Useful words for academic writing (based on data in Gdaniec, 2012, p. 76)

Nouns
statement
claim
assertion
proposition/proposal
suggestion

Verbs
to state sth./that
(express definitely or clearly in speech or writing)
to claim sth./that
(state as being the case, without being able to give proof)
to assert sth./that (state a fact or belief confidently and forcefully)
to propose sth./that
(put forward an idea or plan for consideration)
to suggest sth./that
(cause one to think that something exists or is the case)

3.2. Figures
Figure 1 (Figure style) below is an example of a graphic and caption. It shows two models of how
one can look at the structure of an academic paper. Introduce figures when they are useful and
relevant. Do not insert any just because they look nice. Also, always consider creating your own
figures, even if they are based on another authors data, because their quality is likely to be
better than that of a copy. Be careful with colours. Most publishers refuse to reproduce colour
pictures because they are expensive to print. Make sure a black- and-white reproduction looks
good. And, again, do not forget to cite the source of either the whole figure or the data that it is
based on.
Graphs should always include a legend that explains the symbols, abbreviations, and
terminology used in the figure. These terms must be consistent with those used in the text
(Wagner, et al., 2010, Ch. Captions and Legends, para. 3).

Fig. 1: Two structural models of academic papers. (Derntl, 2011, p. 4)

4. Bullets
The following is an example of the bullet style, which you may want to use for listing items.
You can choose the type of bullet.
Peat et al. (as cited in Derntl, 2011) provide a list of rather pragmatic reasons for writing down
and publishing research results. Among them are the following:

You have some results that are worth reporting. You want
to progress scientific thought.
You want your work to reach a broad audience. You will
improve your chance of promotion.
It is unethical to conduct a study and not report the findings (p. 3).

5. Important Information on Sections, Sub-Sections and

Paragraphs
5.1. Splitting sections into sub-sections
If needed, you can use sub-sections. But remember that if you have x.1 (or x.1.1, for that matter),
you also need to have x.2 (or x.1.2). If you do not want to break up your section into at least two
sub-sections, the introduction of one sub-section does not make sense.
If you break your sub-section into further sub-sections, use Heading 3 style.

5.2. Paragraphs
For easier reading, you need to break your sections into paragraphs. Never write in one big blob! It
would make it extremely hard on your poor readers.
You have probably noticed that the first paragraph after a header or heading is not
indented. Use the Body Text 1 style for the first paragraph after a header or heading. All
subsequent paragraphs are indented (Use Body Text style).

6. Style Issues
6.1. Widows and orphans
By the way, so-called orphans and widows are sad lines of text in a document that are
dangling all by themselves at the bottom or the top of a page, which does not look good. To solve
this problem, you should either get rid of some words so that a whole line of text disappears that
would otherwise stand all alone or you insert line breaks to create extra blank lines so as to group
several lines together.

6.2. Contractions
Contractions are not allowed in formal papers, i.e. do not contract do not as dont, or it is as
its. A positive side effect is that you will never again confuse its and its.

6.3. Acronyms
You have to introduce acronyms explicitly for two reasons: they probably have different
meanings in different contexts and your reader may not be familiar with what the acronym stands
for. Here is an example:
The new head of the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is Craig
Fugate. After FEMAs disastrous failures in 2005, the head at the time had to resign.
That is, first spell out the complete name and add the acronym in parentheses. Once you have
established the reference and meaning of your acronym, you can use it in the remainder of your
paper.

6.4. Numbers
Normally one- and two-digit numbers are spelled out (and hyphenated) except in enumerations (e.g.
page 2) or in referring to items in a list. Others suggest writing out all numbers under twenty as
words, and all numbers 21 and above in digits. Generally, as long as you are consistent, it should be
fine. However, there are two important points to keep in mind:
You use digits when they modify a unit of measurement, e.g. 12 grams vs. twelve
students.

All numbers that begin a sentence must be spelled out.

7. Important Information Regarding Your List of References

Your list of references should contain any and all those sources that you cite, both directly and
indirectly, in your text, alphabetically by last name. If you do not have the authors name and youve
used a company or organization in the place of the name, this will be listed alphabetically as well. As
noted above, when listing an online dictionary or Wikipedia page, it is listed by the topic or word
youve searched, not by the dictionary name or Wikipedia. This makes it easier for readers to locate
your sources in the References list. If youve looked up two separate definitions, both without dates,
you can differentiate them by writing (n.d. a) and (n.d. b).
Note that page numbers for citations and quotes, including for sources of quoted figures and
tables, do not belong in the list of references but rather with the citations inside your text. See
examples above.
Remember that Ed. after a name stands for editor, and Eds. for the plural, i.e. editors.
When your source has more than two authors, you cite it as Author and Bauthor et al., 2009
in your in-text citation. In your list of references, however, you have to spell out the names of all of
the authors.

Start with the last name of the author, followed by a comma, then by the initial(s) of the
authors first name(s). See Section 9 below for examples of references.
Next comes the year the work was published, in parentheses.
If your list of references contains two or more works by the same author(s), start with the
earliest year of publication. If you list two publications by the same author from the same year,
add a letter to the year of publication, in alphabetical order, e.g. Author, A. (2009a). ... Author,
A. (2009b). ...
If you list an authors article in a journal, you give the title of the article, the name of the journal,
the volume and issue, and the range of pages of that particular article in that particular issue
and volume of the journal, e.g.
McElroy, S. Kotwal, R., Keck, P. Jr., Akiskal, H. (2009) Comorbidity of bipolar and eating
disorders: Distinct or related disorders with shared dysregulations?, Journal of Affective Disorders,
Volume 86, Issue 2, 107-127.

The reference to volume and issue of the journal can be abbreviated as 86(2); see
examples in Section 9 below. However, in many instances you will not be citing a physical journal,
but rather the online version. In this case, the above still applies, but the words Retrieved from and
the url are added, e.g.:
McElroy, S. Kotwal, R., Keck, P. Jr., Akiskal, H. (2009) Comorbidity of bipolar and eating
disorders: Distinct or related disorders with shared dysregulations?, Journal of Affective Disorders,
Volume 86, Issue 2, 107-127. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15935230

If you cite from a newspaper or magazine, give the full date in the list of references, e.g. 2010,
March 18. The full date is not necessary in your in-text citation; there the year is sufficient,
unless you cite more than one issue of the same newspaper or magazine.
The title of a book or the name of a journal appears in italics.
When you list a URL in your references, remove the active link to the WWW that MS Word
creates automatically. This can be done either by right-clicking the link and choosing Remove
Hyperlink or Hyperlink entfernen. Alternatively, if you press the backspace button immediately
after the url, it should remove the hyperlink without erasing any of the address itself.
As APA guidelines are frequently updated, changes are sometimes made to the formatting
requirements. As of the APA 6th Edition, it is not usually necessary to include the date on which you
accessed a website. The exception to this rule is Wikis or other websites which are likely to change
frequently.
The best p r a c t i c e is to use Microsoft Words References Manage Sources feature,
which helps you keep track of your sources, makes it easy to insert in-text citations and
creates a References list for you. In this case, you do not need to know the order or amount of
information to include, you just need to choose the correct format (book, webpage, etc.) and fill in
the forms and Word will do the rest! It also helps you update all your sources.

8. Conclusion
Your conclusion emerges from the details in the body of your paper. It should contain a
summary of your aims, objectives, and results, with a comparison with previous results and the
conclusions drawn, implications of your research, as well as further questions for future research
(see Derntl, 2011, p. 6).

9. References
(Have MS Words Manage Sources automatically create a References list here. This should
work beautifully if you have created all your in-text citations with MS Words Insert
Citation feature.)
APA Style. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. Retrieved on 15.09.15 from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APA_style
Applied Ecology Research Group. (n.d.). Notes on the Structure of a Scientific Paper. Canberra: University of
Canberra, Australia. Retrieved from http://aerg.canberra.edu.au/pub/aerg/edupaper.htm
Author, A. (1999). Name of Chapter. In A. E. Editor (Ed.), Name of Book (pp. 1-40). London: Nice Publishing
House.
Author, A., & Bauthor, B. (2009a). Name of Chapter. In A. E. Editor (Ed.), Name of Book (pp. 100- 150).
London: Nice Publishing House.
Author, A., & Bauthor, B. (2009b). Title of Report. Pennsylvania State University.
Business. (n.d.) In Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved from
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/business
Day, R. (1983). How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper (2nd ed..). Philadelphia, PA: ISI Press.
Derntl, M. (2011). Basics of Research Paper Writing and Publishing. Unpublished manuscript, RWTH
Aachen University, Information Systems & Databases. Retrieved from http://dbis.rwthaachen.de/~derntl/papers/misc/paperwriting.pdf
Gdaniec, C. (2012). Lecture Notes for Technical Publications and Presentations. Unpublished lecture notes,
South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences, Department of Electrical Power Engineering., Soest.
Hacker, D. (2006). Social Sciences: Documenting Sources, Research and Documentation Online (4th ed.).
Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins. Retrieved from http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c09_o.html
Harzing, A.-W. (2002). Are our referencing errors undermining our scholarship and credibility? Journal of
Organizational Behavior 23, 23, 127-148. Retrieved from
http://business.nmsu.edu/~mhyman/M610_Articles/Harzing_Journal_of_Organizational_Be havior_2002.pdf
Oregon School Library. (n.d.). MLA Secondary Citation Maker. Oregon School Library Information System.
Retrieved from http://www.oslis.org/orig-steps/resources/cm/mlcitationss
Paiz, J.M, Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., Brizee, A., & Keck,
R. (2014, Nov. 11). In-text citations: The basics. Retrieved from
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/02/
Swan, M. (2010). Practical English usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
TED. (2009). Paper Template of Proceedings. Technology and Economic Development, 3rd International
Conference on Innovation, Technology and Knowledge Economics. Ankara. Retrieved from
http://conf09.metu.edu.tr/about.htm
Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Angeli, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., & Brizee, A. (2010). APA Tables
and Figures 2. Retrieved from http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/20/
Yanovski, S. Z., & Yanovski, J. A. (2002). Drug therapy: Obesity. 346(8), 591-602.