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uct+a+references+list 10.01.17

How to reference and construct a reference list

High quality university essays depend on using high quality source material and
signalling that use by following a set of referencing conventions. When writing an essay
you will be making direct or indirect references to a variety of books, articles, or other
publications. Every reference should be acknowledged. The referencing format favoured
within the School is the Harvard System because, unlike systems involving numbering,
it is not affected by rearranging the order of the text. The guidelines that follow are not
optional extras, they form part of the School’s marking criteria, and failure to adopt
them in your essays will result in the loss of marks.

Why reference?

The correct referencing of essays, projects and the dissertation, the marks for which
constitute a significant part of your final degree, is very important. It allows you to
summarise the work of other people as well aso add your own commentary, and to
distinguish between the two. Good, clear, accurate referencing helps to convey to
examiners that you have a firm grasp of the relevant literature. It also shows which
summary points, critical evaluation and new insights are your own and which have been
derived from your sources. Unless this is clear, it is impossible to reward you for the
critical capacity, originality etc. that constitutes high-quality work.

Plagiarism (https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studyingeffectively/writing/plagiarism/index.aspx)

Plagiarism means to pass off someone else’s work, intentionally or unintentionally, as

your own. This might be by copying or paraphrasing someone's published or unpublished
work without proper acknowledgment, or representing someone's artistic or technical
work or creation as your own.

Academic Misconduct is anything that gives you an unfair advantage in an assessment,

and is therefore not allowed. The most common forms of Academic Misconduct are
plagiarism, cheating in exams, collusion, and fabricating results or data. The University
of Nottingham takes plagiarism very seriously. Incidences of plagiarism will first be
addressed within the School; they may apply penalties such as giving you a mark of zero
for the piece of work concerned. The University's Academic Misconduct Committee has
the power to apply a range of penalties for serious or repeated cases, including
terminating your course.

How to avoid plagiarism

Don't just copy - In your writing, describe other people's ideas or results (using
references) and their importance to your argument, rather than simply copying what
you've read. Avoid using cut and paste options in electronic material as this encourages
you to simply copy what you've read word for word.

Use a range of sources - Don't just limit yourself to using one source when writing your
assignments. Discussing ideas from a range of sources shows that you have read widely
and that you are able to formulate your own views based on your reading. Remember,
important sources can be available in print and electronic format.

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Develop your own style - You should develop your own style of writing during your time
at University. Try to be concise and clear. Using the words of another author will stand
out from the rest of your work and may alert lecturers to possible plagiarism.

Keep good quality notes - Remember to keep accurate records of the publication details
of everything you read right from the start in order to avoid time consuming searches for
lost references at a later stage. This included not just the author and book/journal article
title, but the page numbers of any quotations you might use.

THE HARVARD SYSTEM

When you refer to an article or book in your essay, you should always acknowledge it,
even if the material you have used is general arguments or information. The basis of the
Harvard system is twofold: citations in the text and a reference list at the end of the
piece.

Citations in the text

The major point to grasp is that we do not expect every sentence or paragraph of your
essays to contain references, nor do we want essays full of quotations. Rather you need
to show that you have read the relevant literature, and referencing allows you to do this,
and to mark out your critical evaluation of the literature from a mere summary.

Citations are references to authors you have drawn upon, and a citation gives the
surname of the author and date of publication. For example:

In his book, Fitzpatrick (2008) argues …………..

If you quote directly, you must include the page number. For example:

According to Fitzpatrick ‘The second principle of a socialist human ethics therefore

concerns its intersubjective nature’ (Fitzpatrick, 2008, p.24).

Only single apostrophes should be placed around the quote. Double apostrophes are
used to signify any quotations contained within the piece of text that is being
quoted. Quotations that are 40 or more words in length should be indented. If you
shorten a quotation, you should indicate the fact that words are missing by using three
full stops (e.g. ‘Thomas Hobbes defined the state … as an entity designed to protect
individuals’ natural rights to life and security’).

The proper abbreviation for ‘page’ is ‘p.’ and for ‘pages’ is pp – without a full-stop. Do
not use variants like ‘pg’. ‘Chapter’ is abbreviated ‘ch.’.

If the source is a specific part of a book rather than the whole, you should indicate the
chapter or run of pages. For example:

In his book on Applied Ethics and Social Problems, Fitzpatrick (2008, ch. 6) uses
the examples of smoking and drug taking in order to present an analysis of the
harm principle.

In the text citation you only use the author’s surname, except when there are two
authors with the same surname; in that case you add the authors’ initials.

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Sources written by 2 or more people

If you use a source written by 2 people, then you need to include both names in the
citation. For example: (Yip and Page, 2013)

The correct entry in your list of references would be:

Yip, A.K.T. and Page, S. (2013) Religious and Sexual Identities: a multi-faith
exploration of young adults. Farnham: Ashgate.

If you use a source written by 3 or more people, then you need to use et al in the
citation. For example: (Wilson et al., 2011)

‘et al.’ is an abbreviation for ‘et alia’ which means ‘and others’. You do not list all the
authors in the essay text citation, but in the list of references at the end of your essay
you must list every author. The correct entry in your list of references at the end of your
essay would be:

Wilson, K., Ruch, G., Lymbery, M. and Cooper, A. (2011) Social Work: An
Introduction to Contemporary Practice. 2nd edition. Harlow: Pearson Education

If you have derived the ideas in a sentence or paragraph from one or more published
works, but are not quoting the authors verbatim, you should end the sentence or
paragraph with the names and publications dates of two authors. For
example: (Williams, 2005; van Hooft, 2006).

Secondary Sources

A ‘secondary source’ is one that you have not read yourself, but is used in a source that
you have read. If you want to use a quote or direct statement from a secondary source,
you need to make clear that you have not read the original. For example:

‘The Proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains’ (Marx and Engels, 1972:
362 quoted in Macionis and Plummer, 2008: 106).

Fox and Miller argued that there are no agreed criteria for ascertaining claims of
truth (taken from Rhodes, 1997, p 185).

The sources used in these examples are Macionis and Plummer, and Rhodes, not Marx
and Engels or Fox and Miller. Only the sources you have read yourself should appear in
the reference list. Do not reproduce a long list of all the sources discussed by the author
you have used; we want to know what you have read. We also know that it is unlikely
that a student will have consulted 30 or more different sources for a 3,000-word essay.
Cluttering up your essay in this way is poor referencing practice and will cost you marks!

Reference List

The reference list includes all sources that have been used in writing an essay, a
dissertation or other piece of coursework. It includes all books, chapters in edited books,
journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles, official publications, conference
papers, website materials, radio and television programmes, and films that are referred
to in the text. Sources you may have read whilst you were developing your argument,
but that you do not refer to in the text, do not go in the reference list.

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The reference list is presented at the end of the essay using single line-spacing, with a
line-space between each reference. References should be placed in alphabetical order by
surname of author/s. There should not be different sections according to type of
publication (e.g. books, journal articles); there is only one list. The reference list is
excluded from the word-count of the assignment.

If you have used two or more sources from the same author, they should be presented
in chronological order with the earliest reference presented first. If there are two or more
references to the same author in the same year, they should be distinguished by adding
a, b, c and so on, after the year of publication.

The style of presenting a bibliographic reference varies according to the type of

reference (e.g. book, edited book, journal article). Below are details of how to present
books, chapters in edited books, journal articles, magazine articles, newspaper articles,
official publications, conference papers, website material, radio and television
programmes, and films as bibliographic references.

Books

Name of author/s or editor/s (Ed/s.) (Year of publication). Title of Book. Edition/volume.

Place of publication: Publisher.

Examples:

Featherstone, B., White, S. and Morris, K. (2014) Re-Imagining Child Protection.

Towards humane social work with families. Bristol: Policy Press.

Zontini, E. (2009) Transnational Families, Migration and Gender: Moroccan and

Filipino Women in Bologna and Barcelona. New York: Berghahn.

Chapters in edited books

Name of author. (Year of publication) ‘Title of chapter’. In Name of editor/s (Ed/s.), Title
of Book. Edition/volume. Place of publication: Publisher, page numbers.

Examples:

Evans, T. (1997) ‘Democratization and human rights’. In A. McGrew (Ed.), The

Transformation of Democracy? Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 122-148.

Karner, C. (2004) 'Between structures and agency: from the langue of Hindutva
identity construction to the parole of lived experience'. In G. Baumann and A.
Gingrich (Eds) Grammars of Identity/Alterity: A Structural Approach. Oxford:
Berghahn, pp. 157-72.

Note: not all books have different editions or more than one volume; these are only
included where applicable.

E-books

Books that have been accessed online should be referenced thus in your list of
references:

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 Wright Mills, C. (2000) The Sociological Imagination. [Online]. Available
at http://lib.myilibrary.com/Open.aspx?id=256409 [Accessed 30 April 2014]-

When you cite a quote from an online book where there are no page numbers given in
the text: (Author, Date: online, n.pag.).

Articles in academic journals

Journal articles are one of the main sources of information to use for assignments. They
are usually peer-reviewed, which means they have gone through a lengthy scrutiny
process, and are often more up-to-date than books. It is important to get the detail right
so that your readers can easily trace your source in case they want to check up on what
you say, or read more about the topic.

Name of author/s. (Year of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal, Volume number
(issue number), Page-numbers of article.

Examples:

Foster, C. D. (2001) ‘The civil service under stress: the fall in civil service power
and authority’, Public Administration, 79(3), 725-749.

Karner, C. and Parker, D. (2011) ‘Conviviality and Conflict: Pluralism, Resilience

and Hope in Inner-City Birmingham’, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies,
37(3), 355-372.

Most of the articles we recommend are available in both print and electronic formats and
the level of detail given above is sufficient. Some journals are only available
electronically; this is how you reference an article from such a journal:

Ellis-Sloan, K. (2014) ‘Teenage Mothers, Stigma and Their Presentations of Self'.

Sociological Research Online. 19(1) [Online]. Available at
http://www.socresonline.org.uk/19/1/9.html [Accessed 11 August 2014].

If there are no page numbers in the text of an online version of an electronic journal,
this is how you cite it in the text: (Ellis-Sloan, 2014: online, n.pag.)

Conference papers

Academics often present their ideas for papers at conferences, where they will get
feedback from their peers. Not all conference papers are developed into full-blown
academic journal articles, and you often find preliminary ideas and data in them.

Name of author/s. (Year of publication, Month of conference) Title of Conference Paper.

Paper presented at the Title of Conference of the Name of Organisation Holding the
Conference, Location of conference.

Example:

Newman, J. (2001, September) New Labour and the Politics of Governance. Paper
presented at the Annual Conference of the European Group of Public
Administration, Vaasa, Finland.

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Foreign language sources

Although the vast majority of your sources should be in English, there may be occasion
to cite relevant sources that have been published in other languages. Most languages
simply follow the same formats as English. There are a couple of exceptions, namely
those languages that use characters or non-Romanised forms. The main principle is that
you provide a Romanised form of the language and then provide a translation in
brackets for the book, article and journal titles. Here are some examples in Chinese:

Yang L. and Lan H. (2011) Zhongguo canjiren shehui baozhang zhidu (China’s
Social Security System for Disabled People in China), Beijing: Renmin chubanshe.

Xia Y. (2006) ‘Wo guo canjiren hunyin jiating quanyi baozhang wento yanjiu’
(Research on Issues Relating to the Protection of Marriage and Family Rights for
Disabled People in China), Fa shang yanjiu (Studies in Law and Business), 6, 91-
97.

If the author is an institution not a person, you need to provide a translation of the
institution’s name:

Zhongguo canjiren lianhehui (China Disabled Persons’ Federation) (2002)

Zhongguo canjiren shiye nianjian 1994–2000 (China Yearbooks of Work Relating
to Disabled People 1994–2000), Beijing: Huaxia chubanshe.

Official papers

Name of author/s. (Year of publication) Title of Official Publication (Official publication’s

reference number), Place of publication: Publisher.

If the report is not known by name, it can be cited and referenced by its command
number. Please note that there have been several series of these, all with distinctive
abbreviations; be careful to use the correct version.

Examples:

Beveridge Report (1942) Social Insurance and Allied Services, Cmd 6404,
London: HMSO.

Cm. 8122 (2011) Higher Education, Students at the Heart of the System, London:
HMSO.

Newspapers and magazines

When citing newspaper or magazine material with a named author, follow the format of
journal articles, with the article title and page number. For example:

Travis, A. and Morris, S. (2014, 30 April) ’Prison Governors Ordered to cut costs
by £149m a year’, The Guardian, p. 14

In this case the citation in the text would be: (Travis and Morris, 2014).

If an item from a newspaper does not have a named author, the name of the newspaper
goes where otherwise the author’s name would have been. The in-text citation would be
this:

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 ‘A third of managers would rather employ a man in his 20s or 30s over a woman
of the same age for fear of maternity leave, according to a new study’ (The
Guardian, 12 August 2014, p.12)

The reference in the reference list would be this:

The Guardian (2014) ‘40% of managers avoid hiring young women’. 12 August
2014, p.12

Printed fiction

References to novels, for example, can be made in the same way as conventional
academic sources. However, the older and more well-known a novel is, the more likely
that it will exist in several editions. For instance Richmal Crompton’s ‘William’ books first
appeared in the early 1920s. Since the pagination will vary between editions, you
should therefore give a chapter rather than a page reference when writing the text
citation for a direct quotation. This will enable a reader with a different edition to identify
the context more easily. The reference in the references list at the end of the essay
should include full details of the edition you have used. For example:

‘To William the fascination of any game consisted mainly in the danger to life and
limb involved’ (Crompton 1922 ch. IX).

Television, radio and film

You should indicate where you saw or heard material that you use, treating programmes
in the same way as printed ephemera. For example:

‘The faith structure is still taught in schools in this country’ (‘The Andrew Marr
Show’, BBC1 TV, 27 April 2014).

Cinema film can be referred to simply by its title and the year as this is sufficient for a
reader to get access to the original, if it is available at all.

Online sources

The proliferation of online sources sometimes leads to the forgetting of the basic
principle of referencing: to give enough information for the reader to call up the site if
possible, without cluttering up the text of your essay. The most common error made by
students is to use the long web address where otherwise the author would go. This is
incomplete and highly frustrating for the reader, as a web address alone does not tell the
reader who created the site or when it was accessed. Websites have authors/creators,
often organisations as well as individuals, and these should form the basis of how you
reference them.

Where the author of a web-based publication is known as well as the organisation, you
use the author’s name as per usual, both in the in-text reference and in the reference
list. For example, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation website publishes reports under
authors’ names, so use them like this in the text: (Lee et al., 2014), and like this in the
reference list:

Lee, N., Sissons, P., Hughes, C., Green, A., Atfield, G., Adam, D. and Rodriguez-
Pose, A. (2014) ‘Cities, Growth and Poverty. How can economic growth in cities
benefit people in poverty?’ Available at https://www.jrf.org.uk/report/cities-
growth-and-poverty-evidence-review [Accessed 4 September 2018]

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Where the author is not known, use the organisation’s name instead. The in-text
reference would be: (NCVO, 2018), and the reference in the reference list:

NCVO (2018) ‘UK Civil Society Almanac 2018 – Fast Facts.’ Available at
https://data.ncvo.org.uk/a/almanac18/fast-facts-2015-16/ [Accessed 4
September 2018]

Online sources and peer review

There is, of course, a much bigger problem with web-sites than how to reference them.
Both the strength and the weakness of the internet is the open access to it. Material on
web-sites is very often unmoderated and transient. The range of validity and reliability
is analogous to that from chats in the pub to the British Medical Journal. You will need
to apply a very high level of critical scrutiny to material from this source.

In particular, you should not use Wikipedia or similar sites; these can be edited in an
instant and have produced many factual errors and distortions. An essay full of
references to such sites is likely to be of poor quality, as it is evidence of not having read
the source materials recommended on your reading lists. Essays of this nature are the
product of laziness and poor time management and get low marks. Getting a good
degree requires more than a quick skim through the first page of a Google search.

Modules have reading lists for a reason. Although academic books and journals are not
infallible sources, they have been through a process of peer review, where experts in the
field comment on drafts prior to publication, and only then is material published. This
offers more of a quality filter than an unedited “here today, gone tomorrow” internet site
which could have been compiled by anyone. University-based knowledge production is
not perfect and is always open to contestation, and as a university student you are
expected to accord academic scholarship a high degree of respect.

Key points on referencing

1. Make sure you acknowledge the sources you have used and that you follow the
Harvard System as presented above.

2. In researching for your essays and dissertations prioritise peer-reviewed material and
be wary of internet material from unknown sources.

3. If you do use internet material, reference it comprehensively, don’t just leave a web
address. The body text of your essays should not contain any web addresses, but give
the site author/creator and date. Full referencing details for internet sites should be in
the list of references at the end of your piece of work.

4. When quoting directly word for word from a source in the text of your essay you must
give the author name, date of publication and page number, having enclosed the
quotation in quotation marks. Copying word for word and leaving the quotation marks
out is inadequate referencing, even if you give the author and date.

5. Order your list of references at the end of your piece of work alphabetically, by author
surname. The heading for this list should be References.

6. Failure to reference properly may result in the loss of marks, and can be a signal of
plagiarism.