Bibliographies and Referencing
When writing essays, reports and other assignments, it is important to acknowledge the sources of your information; the books, magazine articles and websites you used. Passing off someone else's work as your own, be it ideas, graphics or statistics, is plagiarism and is as serious an offence as cheating in an exam.
You must acknowledge the source or author when using direct quotes (copying word for word) as well as when using someone else's ideas or information and putting them into your own words.
This guide uses the Author-Date or Harvard system as a way of citing authors and sources used within an assignment. Check with your teacher as to which method you are required to use.
In-Text Referencing
This system provides references in the text or body of your work rather than at the bottom or end as in the footnote system. For more information on the footnote or documentary-note system refer to the Style manual for authors, editors and printers. 5th ed. 808.02 STY
Any material paraphrased, summarised or quoted should be referred to with author, publication date and page number/s.
"The first priority for sufferers is to be understood." (Harrison 1992, p. 12)
Where the author is referred to in the body of the text, there is no need to repeat their name/s.
Harrison (1992, p. 27) states that...
When referring to more than one source, separate the authors with a semicolon.
(Harrison 1992; Jackson 1990)
Where material is written by two or three authors, they should all be named.
A more recent study (Withers, Nguyen & Hope 1995, p.50) disputed this theory...
For more than three authors, the phrase et al. (which means 'and others') should be used.
Pringle et al. (1996, p.53) argued that...
If you are summarising or referring to an entire or large part of another's work, the page numbers may be omitted.
Frank (1983) concluded that...
Bibliography and Reference Lists
A bibliography is a list of all the information you used in creating your assignment. Include all sources of information, even if you didn't cite or quote them within the assignment.
A reference list is a list of all the sources you have cited or directly quoted from within your assignment. No additional items can be included.
Bibliographies and Reference Lists should be at the end of the assignment on a separate page and arranged alphabetically by the author's surname. The format of each reference will differ depending on the source type (eg. Book, article, website).
The following examples are sourced from the Style manual for authors, editors and printers, 5th ed.
Book
Author's Surname, Authors Initial/s Year of publication, Title, Publisher, Place of publication.
Merry, G 1997, Food poisoning prevention, 2nd edn, Macmillan Education Australia, Melbourne.
Chapter in a Book
Author's Surname, Authors Initial/s Year of publication, 'Chapter title', in Editors (eds), Title, Publisher, Place of publication.
Bryant, SL 1989, 'Growth, development and breeding patterns of the long-nosed potoroo', in G Grigg, P Jarman & I Hume (eds), Kangaroos, wallabies and rat kangaroos...
Journal or Magazine
Author's Surname, Authors Initial/s Year of publication, 'Title of article', Title of Journal, volume, issue, page numbers.
Marchelier, PM & Hughes, RG 1997 'New problems with foodborne diseases', Medical Journal of Australia, vol.275, pp. 771-5.
Newspaper Article
(If the article has no author, provide details like titles, date and page numbers in the in-text citation. If this occurs there is no need to put an entry in the reference list)
Author's Surname, Authors Initial/s Year of publication, 'Title of article', Title of newspaper, date, page number/s.
Towers, K 2000, 'Doctor not at fault: coroner', Australian, 18 January, p.3.
Website
Author (person or organisation responsible for the site) site date (date of sites creation or latest update), name and place of the sponsor of the site, viewed date, URL (web address).
Department of Finance and Administration 2001, Department of Finance and Administration, Canberra, viewed 7 August 2001, http://www.finance.gov.au
.Video or Dvd
Title date of recording, format (video recording, motion picture, television program), publisher, place of recording.
Grumpy meets the orchestra 1992, video recording, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney.
For more information
- Check the shelves: Style manual for authors, editors and printers 808.02 STY
- Search the LLC Catalogue with the key term 'citation'
- Explore the web
- Ask a Librarian!
The LLC recommends these web links:
- Harvard (author-date) style examples
Monash University guide to Harvard referencing. Includes in-text and reference list examples - Harvard Referencing for Electronic Sources
University of NSW guide to referencing electronic sources (websites, email, video, e-journals etc).
