Citing references

Advice for students on International Programmes.

In any piece of research or written work you need to

acknowledge, or cite your sources of information. A list of
references usually appears at the end of a piece of work. Each
reference describes an item, usually published (for example a
book, report or thesis) or part of an item (a chapter, journal
article or electronic document). The reference will also
provide essential details which enable the reader to locate the
cited publications with ease. A bibliographic reference should,
at a glance, answer a number of questions about the item
cited: Who wrote it? Who published it? Where was it
published? When was it published?

The importance of references

The literature review and the process of compiling a
comprehensive list of references about the items you have
consulted are both important elements of the research process.
An incomplete or inaccurate list of references reflects on the
quality of your work and may devalue its impact. A detailed
list of references is used to:
give proper credit to other peoples work and ideas, and to
avoid plagiarism
show that you have consulted widely, have recognised and
acknowledged the relevant debates, arguments and practice
in a given field
substantiate any statement that you make
signpost others to related works and prior publications
enable others to check the evidence and accuracy of your
information, and to consult texts which you have found
relevant and useful
Plagiarism
Referencing your work correctly enables you to avoid
plagiarism. The term plagiarism describes the act of taking
and using another persons thoughts, words, judgements or
ideas as your own, without any indication that they are those
of another person. It is a serious academic offence and can
result in severe disciplinary action.

Citation conventions
There are recognised conventions for citing the work of
others when writing essays and journal articles etc. In-text
citations are placed at the point within the text at which
reference is made to anothers work, and these refer the
reader to the reference list (sometimes called a bibliography)
which is usually placed at the end of the essay/article.
Reference list or bibliography
The terms reference list and bibliography are sometimes used
interchangeably, but here we define bibliography as a list of
consulted readings - for example a list of sources that you

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have studied, but have not specifically cited in the text. A

bibliography is not required for essays. By contrast, the
reference list is defined as a list of cited sources. The sources
listed in a reference list must match against the in-text
citations and similarly, the in-text citations must have a
matching entry in the reference list.
Quoting
In scientific writing the use of direct quotations is
inappropriate, whereas in some subject areas in the
Humanities or Social Sciences it is a recognised practice.
To make it clear when you are directly quoting from a source,
use double quotation marks for short quotations or
indentations for longer extracts, and include the page number
in the citation.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing the words of others does not make them your
own. It must always be clear that the ideas being expressed
are those of the original author. Read the passage until you
thoroughly understand it, and then write your own version
without looking back too often to the original. A citation must
still be given to acknowledge the source of the ideas.
Secondary referencing
The use of secondary referencing in scientific writing is
strongly discouraged. You should never cite an article you
have not seen in full. If it is impossible to read the original
article, but you wish to include the findings of that research as
reported in a review or textbook, then you must cite the
article or book which refers to the original work, eg,
Browns results cited by Jones (1999, p. 563) indicated that
Diagrams and illustrations
Scanned or electronic images included in written work should
always be acknowledged by citation. If the work is to be
published, permission must be sought from the original creator
before inclusion of any graphic material.

Citation and reference styles

There are three main approaches to citing references:
in the author-date approach, the in-text citations are given
using the authors surname and the date (actually year) in
brackets, while the reference list at the end of the document
is arranged alphabetically
the numeric approach uses numbers to indicate citations
within the text, and the reference list at the end is ordered
numerically
the footnotes method uses superscripted numbers within
the text to refer to footnotes at the bottom of each page, in
which the references are given in full

March 2013

If you are writing a paper for publication, the citation style is

dependent on the editorial policy of the journal in which the
item is to appear. Refer to the publishers instructions for
authors.
On your International Programme your teacher will
talk to you about referencing and may give an
example that differs from below depending on your
subject. The author-date style should be used unless
you are instructed otherwise by your teacher.
As an example we have explained the author-date
style in more detail;

The author-date approach

This is often referred to as the Harvard system but please
note that there is no one Harvard style, you may see many
variations in format.
The references are cited in the main body of the text by
inserting the authors surname and the year of publication in
brackets at the relevant point. The reference list contains the
sources you have cited in alphabetical order by authors
surname.
Here is an example using the style of the Journal of Advanced
Nursing:
within the text of the work:
Probing was used to ensure the credibility of the data and
reduced the risk of socially desirable answers (Barriball &
While 1994).
in the reference list
Barriball K.L. & While A. (1994) Collecting data using semistructured interviews: a discussion paper. Journal of Advanced
Nursing 19, 328335.
Notice the use of punctuation: the authors initials are
followed by full-stops, as is the articles title. There isnt any
punctuation between the italicised journal title and the
volume number. The volume and/or issue information is
followed by a comma, and the page numbers by a final fullstop. Although this is relatively straightforward, many
circumstances can arise that require additional rules.
Rules for the citations in the text
when two or more references to the same author have been
cited together they should be arranged in chronological
order, eg, (Brown 2003, Brown 2006) Remember that the
reference list should also order them in chronological order
by date of publication,
when two or more references to the same author have been
cited from the same year, differentiate them with an a b c
annotation, eg, (Smith 2004a, Smith 2004b). Keep each
year distinguished in the same way in the reference list (eg,
(2010a) etc) and keep them in the same order.
if two authors have the same surname, add their punctuated
initials in the citation, eg, (Smith T.H. 2002, Smith W.
2002)
if you refer explicitly to an author in the text you dont
need to repeat their name in the citation; just the year in

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brackets will be sufficient, eg, Cooks key paper on

Hepatocellular carcinoma (1985) is often cited in this area.
when quoting directly from a text, the page number on
which the quote appears should be given after the year and
a comma, eg, (Jones 2005, p. 255)
Rules for numbers of authors names
Rules for the number of authors names to include in a
citation and in the reference list may differ between the
various author-date styles. You will be expected to do it in the
following way:
In a citation:
if the work you are referring to has two authors, use &
(not and) eg (Brown & Black 2005)
if there are three or more authors use, in italics et al. which
means and others eg (Brown et al. 2006)
In the reference list:
all authors names should be included. The final authors
should be joined not by a comma but by an ampersand, eg,
(White S., Brown R., Green C. & Black C.) If there are
only two, then they should be joined by an ampersand.

Reference lists
Uniformity, consistency and accuracy are the three golden
rules for reference lists. The examples on the following pages
should help clarify how to format entries. In the meantime,
also bear these points in mind:
where an important element of a reference is not available,
for example the date or author of a document, this should
be stated
including the issue number for a journal is essential where
each issue starts with page 1, but is not considered essential
if the page sequence continues throughout the whole
volume
preferably avoid citing unpublished works, conversations or
correspondence
check your list of references before submitting your work,
even if you have used bibliographic software
Journal title abbreviations
Often journal titles are given in abbreviated format. You are
required to always use the full title of a journal (as specified
by the JAN style) in your reference lists. If you come across
an unfamiliar abbreviation you can look up medical and
biomedical journal abbreviations using the journals database
in PubMed.
Reference list examples for different document types
Journal articles

A standard journal article reference should include, in this

order: author(s) with initials (followed by full stops); year of
publication (in brackets); title of the article; journal title (in
italics); volume (in bold) (and issue if required in brackets)
and first and last page numbers (followed by a full stop), eg:
Mertens E.I., Halfens R.J.G. & Dassen T. (2007) Using the
Care Dependency Scale for fall risk screening. Journal of
Advanced Nursing 58(6), 517-622.
Book references

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A reference to a book should include, in the following order:

author(s) or editor(s); date of publication; title of the book (in
italics); edition number (if not the first); publisher and place of
publication. Book titles should be italicised like journal titles.
This helps them stand out from article titles and chapters from
books. References should be punctuated as in these examples:
Books - personal author(s)
Orem D. (2001) Nursing: Concepts of Practice. 6th ed.
Mosby, St Louis.
Books - editor(s)
Bick D. & Graham I.D. (eds) (2010) Evaluating the impact
of evidence-based practice. STTI/ Wiley Blackwell,
Chichester.
Book - organisation as author
British Medical Association (1993) Complementary
medicine: the BMA guide to good practice. Oxford University
Press, Oxford.
Chapter references

If you are referring to a specific chapter in a book you will

have to note the title of the chapter and its author(s) as well as
the title of the whole work and its editor(s) and include the
first and last page numbers of the chapter, eg:
Sandall J. (2004) Promoting normal birth: weighing the
evidence. In Normal Childbirth: Evidence and Debate
(Downe S. ed.) pp 161-171.
Notice the differences from a reference list entry for a whole
book: the editors follow the title of their edited work, and are
in brackets. Also notice that the page numbers for the chapter
are preceded by pp. which means pages.
Official publications

HM Government (2008) Health is global: a UK Government

strategy 2008-13 Department of Health, London.
Munro E. (2011) The Munro Review of Child Protection:
Final Report - A Child-Centred System. TSO, London
(CM. 8062).
Notice the CM number shown in brackets for this official
policy document. This is the command number used for
Secretary of State publications.
If official publications are available only in electronic form,
then cite them as web documents see example below under
Web documents.
Diagrams or illustrations

These can be treated in a similar way to book chapters, but

with illus. appended, eg:
Danielson E. (2005) Efferent connections of the vermis. In
Grays Anatomy (Standring S., ed.), 39th edn. Elsevier,
Edinburgh, p. 364, illus.
Legal documents different conventions apply when citing
legal sources such as statutes and case reports see OneSpace
Study for information on citing legal references.

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Electronic sources
Citing electronic information can be problematic. Web-based
information in particular is subject to change or may
disappear completely. As a result, it is very important to add
the date the source was accessed.
Full-text documents online

A standard reference should contain: Author/editor, year,

title, medium, place of publication and publisher.
Some database producers may provide instructions on the
citation format. Indicate this in the references, eg:
Tabet, N and Feldman, H. Ibuprofen for Alzheimers
disease (Cochrane Review). In: The Cochrane Library,
Issue 3, 2005. Chichester: Wiley. DOI:
10.1002/14651858.CD004031 (Citation as instructed).
Internet sources

A standard reference to an internet source should include the

author, the date the information was published or updated
(either year or full date) the title of the work, the URL
(including the internet access protocol (for example ftp://,
telnet://, http://), and the date accessed. The accessed date is
the date you viewed, downloaded or printed the web page.
This is necessary to allow for any subsequent changes which
may be made to the page, or if the page is no longer available.
The information should be presented and ordered as in the
following examples:
Web documents

Department of Health (2010) Recognised, valued and

supported: Next steps for the Carers. Strategy Retrieved from
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Public
ations/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_122077 on 7
June 2011.
WHO (2008) Global Priorities for Research in Patient
Safety. Retrieved from
http://www.who.int/patientsafety/research/
priorities/global_priorities_patient_safety_research.pdf on
10 December 2009.
E-journal articles

Where journals are available in print form as well as online it

is unnecessary to refer to the online access details, the
standard journal reference information will suffice. If the
journal is only available online, then the access date may be
required as there might be more than one version. However,
many online-only journals provide a persistent URL to the
definitive version of each article, which can be quoted, eg:
Bick D.E., Kettle, C., Macdonald S., Thomas P.W., Hills
R.K. & Ismail K.I. (2010) The PEARLS Study:
Enhancing immediate and longer-term assessment and
management of perineal trauma: a matched pair cluster
trial. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 10:10
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2393/10/10
Alternatively the DOI (a unique number that identifies the
article) can be used if it is available, eg:
Hasson D, Gustavsson P. (2010) Declining Sleep Quality
among Nurses: A Population-Based Four-Year
Longitudinal Study on the Transition from Nursing

September 2012

Education to Working Life. PLoS ONE 5(12): e14265.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014265
If you cannot find the DOI and there is no quoted persistent
URL, then it is acceptable to include the web address of the
journals home page, eg:
Menezes A.M., Hallal P.C., Muino A., Chatkin M., Araujo
C.L. & Barros F.C. (2007) Risk factors for wheezing in
early adolescence: a prospective birth cohort study in
Brazil. Annals of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology 98(5),
427-31. Retrieved from http://www.annallergy.org/ on 16
June 2007.

General tips for electronic sources

always bookmark useful web documents
save and print all the documents and correspondence that
you intend to cite, just in case they arent effectively
archived or disappear
learn to appraise critically and evaluate resources in terms
of currency and authority resources that dont cite a
specific author or publication date should be treated with
caution. You should not be referencing Wikipedia articles
or other articles of dubious authority for your essays.
if there is no apparent author, try to identify the most
relevant and specific corporate unit, but if this is not
possible, use the title in place of the authors name
if no date is available, state no date

Good note taking

Record the full bibliographic details of any item you read, if
you think you might decide to refer to it later in your work.
Specific pieces of information are required depending on the
type of material being referenced see the examples given
above in Reference Lists.
Filecards are useful for noting down these details. If you keep
photocopies of articles, be aware that you will not necessarily
find all the information you need printed on the page, so make
sure you write any missing details on the copy. If you have
found your references in a database, the required information
can be saved or printed out. If you use bibliographic
management software, you can often save the records straight
to your own database.

Further information
See the Library Services web pages for further support with
citing references including different methods such as the
footnote approach here::
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/help/plagiarism/citing/index.a
spx

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September 2012