Referencing - Questions &

Q. What do I do if I can’t find a named

person as the author or editor?

A.
Sometimes it is impossible to find a named individual as an author.
What has usually happened is that there has been a shared or
‘corporate’ responsibility for the production of the material.
Therefore the ‘corporate name’ becomes the author (often called
the ‘corporate author’).

Corporate authors can be:

Government bodies
Companies
Professional bodies
Clubs or societies
International organisations

E.g.
Institute of Waste Management (1995) Ways to improve recycling.
Northampton: Institute of Waste Management.

The ‘corporate author’ appears in the text in the usual way, with the
year of publication.

Nb.
For journal articles without authors the journal title becomes both
author and cited journal title.

Q. What do I do if I want to refer to a

part or chapter of a book? (edited)

A.
An edited book will often have a number of authors for different
chapters (on different topics). To refer to a specific author’s ideas
(from a chapter) cite or quote them (the chapter writer) in the text
- not the editors. Then in your reference list indicate the chapter
details/title and the book details from which it was published.
E.g.
Whitehead, C. (1991) Nutrition and growth of fat and lean broiler
genotypes. In: Haresign, W and Cole, D. (eds.) Recent advances in
animal nutrition. London: Waverley. pp. 73-89.

Nb.
Note the use of ‘in’ to link the chapter to the book and the use of
page numbers. Whitehead would appear as the author in the text,
and in the reference list. The year of publication is given once.

Q. How do I use quotations?

Most referencing involves putting the information you have read
into your own words within the context of your answer. Quotes are
sometimes used but should, in most instances, be kept to a
minimum. There are two ways to present both SHORT and LONG
quotations.

A.
To direct your reader to a short quotation (no more than one line)
from your source material it is normal to quote the page number
within the text (after the author and year) and to include quotation
marks:

E.g.
... whilst it is possible that ‘poor parenting has little effect on
primary educational development it more profoundly affects
secondary or higher educational achievement’ (Healey, 1993, p.22)

Nb.
It is not necessary to indicate the page number in the reference
list. It is also acceptable to use a colon before the page number e.g.
Healey, 1993:22.

Longer quotes should be:

• preceded by a colon
• indented from your main text (tabbed in at the side)
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 • single spaced on typed documents
• not have quotation marks
• cite author, year and page number

E.g.
It was just a fragment, no more than 30 seconds: The Euston
Road, hansoms, horse drawn trams, passers-by glancing at
the camera but hurrying by without the fascination or
recognition that came later. It looked like a still photograph,
and had the superb picture quality found in expert work of the
period, but this photograph moved!
Walkley (1995, p.83).

Q. How do I distinguish between two

items by the same author in the
same year?

E.g.
Johnson, C. (1991a) Software: the way ahead....
Johnson, C. (1991b) Changing global markets in IT ...

Same authors’ with a different year are listed earliest year first in
the reference list.

Q. How do I distinguish between two

authors with the same surname in
the same year?

A.
At times you may come across two authors with the same surname
and publications in the same year. In this instance, you can use
their initial(s) to overcome any confusion.

E.g.

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 . . . certain sociologists agree that achievement at school is due to
parental encouragement (Smith, F, 2006) whereas other advocate
peer influence (Smith, E, 2006) . . .

2.1 Books
Author/editor surname, initials. (Year) Title. Edition. Place of
publication: Publisher.

E.g.
Orem, D. E. (1991) Nursing: concepts of practice. 4th ed. St. Louis:
Mosby-Year Book.

3.1 World Wide Web

The principles for citing web pages are the same as for other types
of media - use author name and date of publication in your text and
the following format for the reference list. The nature of web
publication can often mean that author names are missing and
dates are vague or unavailable. The solution to this problem is to
decide who is responsible for producing the web page (the
originator) and they will then become the ‘author’. It is often easier
to find this information (and a date) if you look at the Home Page
link for the site you are in or at the ‘About Us’ or ‘Contact Us’ type
of links associated with that page. The web page reference list
format is:

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

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

Do not worry about omitting ‘place and publisher’ if they are not
available.

E.g.
British Nutrition Foundation (2003) Healthy eating: a whole diet
approach [online] London: British Nutrition Foundation. Available
from: http://www.nutrition.org.uk/home.asp?
siteId=43&sectionId=325&subSectionId=320&parentSection=299&
which=1 [Accessed 11th August 2005].

The “Accessed date” is the date on which you viewed or downloaded

the document. It may be subject to changes or updating and
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including this date allows for this possibility. Keeping a record of
the document as you used it (if permissible) is recommended.

3.2 E-book
It is good practice to differentiate between books and e-books. The
format is as follows:

Author, initials. (Year) Title [online]. Place of publication: Publisher.

Available from: URL. [Accessed date].

E.g.
Hutcheon, L. (2002) Politics of postmodernism [online]. London:
Routledge. Available from: http://reader.eblib.com/Reader.aspx?
p=181639&o [Accessed: 3rd August 2009].

3.4 Blogs
Author, initials. (year) Title of blog entry. Date written. Title of blog.
[online]. Available from: URL. [Accessed date].

E.g.
Olsen, E (2008) Five things I love about Firefox 3. 9 April 2008.
Librarian Avengers. [online]. Available from:
http://librarianavengers.org/page/2/ [Accessed 2 July 2008].

3.5 Wikis
Wiki name. Date. Title of article. [online]. Available from: URL.
[Accessed date].

E.g.
Wikipedia. 2008. William Shakespeare. [online]. Available from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_shakespeare [Accessed 3 July
2008].

Lexis-Nexis wiki for higher education. 2008. Consumer Law.

[online]. Available from:

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http://wiki.lexisnexis.com/academic/index.php?
title=Consumer_Law [Accessed: 23 July 2008].

3.6 YouTube
Screen name. Year. Title. [online]. Available from: URL. [Accessed
date].

E.g.
Leelefever. 2008. Podcasting in plain English. [online]. Available
from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-MSL42NV3c [Accessed
3 July 2008].

4.3 Images - Online

Originator (Year) Title of image [online]. Available from: URL.
[Accessed date]

E.g.
Daisy_Chains (2009) Victoria Butterfly Gardens [online]. Available
from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69561650@N00/3784458656/
[Accessed: 3rd August 2009].

4.7 Seminar/Lectures or Lecturer’s

Notes
Lecturer’s surname, Initials. (Year) Title of Lecture, Course. Course
code. Place, Day, Month.

E.g.
Williams, B. (2004) Introduction to pollination. Plant Biology.
BIO1234. University of Bramchester, Fri 12th August.

4.8 Notes taken by self at lecture

Lecturer’s surname, Initials. (year) Lecture Notes. [Description of
Lecture Note, Day, Month].
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E.g.
Maxwell, J. (2003) Lecture notes. [Notes from World War One
History lecture, Monday, 10th July].

5.9 Page numbers can be written:

p.33-39. 33-39. pp.33-39.

When making reference to an author’s work in your text, their name is followed by the
year of publication of their work:

Cormack (1994, pp.32-33) states that 'when writing for a professional

readership, writers invariably make reference to already published works'.