Academic Conduct

Referencing

There are two stages to adding references to an essay or assignment.

The first stage is referencing, that is, putting the basic details of the author’s work into the text of your essay.  The second stage is preparing the list of citations, that is, giving the full details of the author’s work at the end of your essay.

The Harvard system of referencing is recommended.  It is also known as the author-date method because the main means of indicating a reference to someone else's work in your text is to insert the author's surname and date in brackets. It also avoids the use of footnotes for providing bibliographical details, which detract the flow of the text. (Use footnotes sparingly for material not directly relevant to your main argument.)

Here are some examples of how you can reference your sources.  The full details of the work cited can then be included in a bibliography at the end of your essay.  (Guidance on writing citations follows these examples.)

• Example 1 - Basic Reference

  In the context of evaluating training programmes, Ashenfelter (1978) noted a potentially serious limitation of this procedure when he observed that the mean earnings of participants in government training programmes decline in the period prior to programme entry.

• Example 2 - Multiple Authors Using One Long Extract From Another Author

  Note that Example (2) includes a long extract not in quotation marks but indented. It also gives the page number where the extract can be found in Hobday's publication. Shorter quotations, if not indented, should be within quotation marks.

  A large number of case studies have documented this for hundreds of firms in the Asian countries (Hobday, 1996; Kim 1997; Goto and Odagiri, 1997). All arrive at a view that is illustrated by a quotation from Hobday (1995). 

  East Asian latecomers did not leapfrog from one vintage of technology to another. On the contrary, the evidence shows that firms engaged in a painstaking and cumulative process of technological learning: a hard slog rather than a leapfrog. The route to advanced electronics and information technology was through a long difficult learning process, driven by the manufacture of goods for export. (p.1188).

• Example 3 - Reference to a Seminal Work Which Merits More Than the Basic Reference

  Occasionally you might want to give the title of the author's work because of its seminal importance or because you want your reader to be immediately informed of the publication rather than have him or her consult your list of references or bibliography.
  "In the savannah, the problems appear at first to be more difficult. However, modernisation of cotton and peanut crops can mean immediate advances." (Dumont, 1966, p. 157).

• Example 4 - Reference to the Title of a Book

  Note that the title of the work is distinguished from the rest of the text.
  During the century and a half following the publication of Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations (1776), a body of economic theory was developed step by step which has become known as the classical theory.

• Example 5 - Reference to Second-hand Sources

  Indian democracy is said to have 'provided a subtle and resilient mechanism for conflict management (Bardham, 1984:77, cited by Toye 1987, p. 133).
  Details of the Toye publication will be cited in the list of references but the Bardham publication would not be listed because you have not actually seen it.  Note here an alternative way of indicating the page number for the Bardham publication: compare with Dumont above).

• Example 6 - Multiple Authors

  Where you refer to a publication written by up to three authors you should list all the names - see Text Example (2) above. Where there are over three authors you should refer to them in text as follows:
  In the multidisciplinary work by Shaw et al (1992) it was pointed out that the behavior of this group of customers was contrary to theoretical expectations.
  In the list of reference all the named authors should be listed.

• Example 7 - Two Works Published in Different Years by the Same Author(s)

  Basic models of regional growth may be found in, for example, Armstrong and Taylor (1985, 1993).
  Both works will appear in the list of references.

• Example 8 - Reference to Two or More Works Written by an Author in the Same Year

  The first time you refer to one work you refer to it thus (Haggett, 1968 a), the second work will be referred to as (Haggett, 1968 b) etc.
  Both works will appear in the list of references.

• Example 9 - Diagrams, Charts and Tables

  Be sure to apply the same basic principle of acknowledgement by referencing to all diagrams, charts, tables, etc. by giving the source below the item.
  Examples:

  i. Source: Lipsey (1998, p. 56)
  Where you have exactly reproduced Lipsey's work

  ii. Source: After Lipsey (1998, p.56)
  Where you have adapted Lipsey's work.

  iii. Source: Compiled from data in OECD (1995)
  Where your table of statistics uses data from several pages of the OECD publication.

  iv. Source: Constructed from OECD (1995, p. 34)
  Where your chart, for example, is derived from data on a specific page.