Academic Referencing Styles Explained
Academic Referencing Styles Explained
Referencing is the method of acknowledging the information with the sources that have been
used to write the assignment or any kind of written work. When an individual is writing an
assignment, the person uses someone else’s work or ideas. This calls for including the sources
that have been used while writing that piece of work. Referencing can be defined as the
procedure of citing the sources of ideas, relevant theories, conceptual frameworks, data, formula
and diagrams that have been used for writing the academic paper. Referencing is needed not
only to prove authenticity of the writing but also to avoid any kind of plagiarism. It increases the
credibility of the -paper since it is reflected that the writer has consulted a number of books or
articles at the time of writing his or her paper. It must be mentioned in this respect that
referencing should be accurate and a detail record of the several references used is to be kept
for easy navigation of the sources used for writing the assignment, essay or any other kinds of
writing piece. Failure to reference in an academic paper or inappropriate referencing can be
referred as academic misconduct.
Components of Referencing
In-text
At the time of academic writing, such as an essay, report or proposal, often we need to include
some kinds of quotes or ideas of the author or the writer of the particular piece of writing. In-
texting is important because the authenticity of the ideas or the quotes can only be proved when
the source of information is given along with the text.
For example: As viewed by Rogers, (2015), there is a difference between military and non-
military interventions.
The Libyan government accounted for only 743 killings (Ackerman, 2013).
Footnotes
Any kind of notes that is included at the end of the page is called footnote. Usually any kind of
reference or comment is given at the end of the writing piece. Footnote is added in order to refer
to the relevant source at the end of the phrase or sentence.
For example:
Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines the ethical principles and moral or
ethical problems that arise in the business environment[1].
Bibliography or the reference list includes the details of all the resources that have been used at
the time of writing the assignment or the task. It is placed at the end of the writing piece and
includes the names of the books, journals or articles used during writing. It should be kept in
mind that whatever sources that have been in-texted in the piece of writing must be present in
the reference list. The sources we use as in-text, the sources are placed in the reference list
while the sources mentioned in the bibliography are not necessarily used as in-text.
Types of referencing
One of the styles of referencing the text is Harvard. There are different elements that are
provided in Harvard Referencing Style. These elements mainly include Name of the Author, Title
of the book, Title of the Journal, Title of the article, Publisher etc.
The structure of writing the reference for the book with a single author follows the format:
‘Last name, First initial. (Year published). Title of the book. Edition. (the edition is included only in
case, if it is not the first edition) Name of the city published: Name of the Publisher, Page(s)
number’.
In case, the edition is not available, it is assumed to be the first edition and there remains no
need to mention the edition.
Examples:
One author and first edition: Johnson, P. (2016). Minimum possibility of ride. New York: Little
Brown.
One author and not the first edition: Ralf, D. (2015). Maxi and her memorable journey. 5th ed.
New York: Knopf.
In case when there are two authors for a single book, the format of the reference is something
different. The names of the authors are placed in the order they appear on the source. The prefix
‘and’ is used to connect the names of the two authors.
Examples:
Two authors:
Chowdhury, M. and Mahes, K. (2012). Testing of the soft wares. Chennai, India: Dorling
Kindersley, p. 134.
Kamat, P., Seebok, N., Justin, T. and Fryberg, F. (2015). Discovering the Universe. Boston:
Cengage Learning, pp. 455-457.
The referencing style also differs while citing of a particular chapter in an edited book. In case of
an edited book, the edition of the book is always mentioned, even when it is not the first edition.
For multiple works done by the same author, the citation is done in the same way that has been
mentioned here. The format with examples is given below.
Example:
Pressler, M. (2011). My brave girl, Kylie. In: M. Jackson, ed., The The Dogs That We Love, 2nd
ed. Boston: Jacobson Ltd., pp. 92-98.
The referencing style is again different in case of a journal. The elements of a standard structure
of a journal citation are:
‘Last name, First initial. (Year published). Article title. Journal, Volume (Issue), Page(s)’
Examples:
Last name, First initial. (Year published). Article Title. Journal, [online] Volume (issue), pages,
Available at: URL [Accessed Day Mo. Year]
Example:
Example:
Weisman, K. (2014). Deal Reached on Fast-Track Authority for Obama on Trade Accord. The
New York Times, p.A2.
‘Last name, First initial. (Year pulished). Title. Edition. [format] City: Publisher, pages(s).
Available at: URL [Accessed Day Mo. Year]’
Example:
Zadak, L. (2014). The Book Thief. 3rd ed. [ebook] New York: Knopf. Available at:
[Link] [Accessed 12 May. 2016]
‘Last name, First initial. (Year published). Title/description. [format] Available at: URL [Accessed
Day Mo. Year]’
Example:
In-text citation for two or three authors: (Gatsby, Carryway and Nick 2014)
It has to be kept in mind that the reference list has to be arranged in an alphabetical order while
making the Harvard reference list.
Law- AGLC
Australian Guide to Legal Citation is Australian referencing style used at the time of legal citation.
The referencing style consists of Citation in the body of the page. A superscript is used for the
same purpose. A list of footnotes is added at the end of each page. The bibliography or the
reference list is added by the end of the writing piece. The referencing style has been adopted by
majority of Australian Law Library. It is used in all journals, articles and other law related writing
piece.
Superscript numbers are used whenever it is required to in-text any kind of citation of books or
journals. This is done to show from where the idea or the quotes have been taken from. It must
be kept in mind that when citations are repeated, the bibliography is not repeated.
The style or format of the AGCL referencing and citation is a collaborative approach between the
Melbourne University Law Review Association and the Melbourne Journal of International Law.
Various revisions have been made on the referencing style but the same style has been followed
for citing legal writings since the time the style was published for the first time. The reference
style is used in various law schools and universities. In fact, it is used by the practitioners as well.
Unreported Decisions:
1
Minister for immigration and Citizenship v SZIAI [2010] HCA 42 (24 May 2010)
For legislations:
Gazettes:
Western Australia, Western Australia Government Gazette, No 40, 29 February 2016, 532
E J John and W Zedia, Manual of German Law (Oceanea Publications, 4 th revised ed, 1986) vol
1
1, 96
Journal Article:
1
Augusto Rozinni, ‘How Judges Undermine the Rules of Laws’ (2012) 12 International Trade and
Business Law Review 180, 136
Newspaper Article:
‘Little Corporate Appeal in the Green Bottom Line’, Business, The Age (Melbourne), 17 May
1
2014, 6.
For theses:
Jenny Lin, The Criminal Jury Trial in Western Australia (Phd Thesis, University of Western
1
Australia, 2013)
Websites:
1
Law Society of Western Australia, History of the Law Society of Western Australia,
<hyttp://[Link]/history>
It is to be noted here that the references that have been stated above as examples are used in
the same style in the Bibliography. The style of writing has been accepted by a wide range of
people in regular practitioners of law and other legal places. It is often asked that why a different
referencing style is used for citing references related to law and legal approaches.
OSCOLA
Generally OSCOLA referencing is used for legal referencing. The style is used for referring both
primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include Cases, Statutes, and Legislation cases
and even for human rights related cases. Details of the format used for OSCOLA referencing is
given as under:
Reference list for cases: Name of the party is written, and then a neutral citation is given,
followed by the Law report citation, written in italics. In such situations, when the cases are not
reported, the ER or the WLR are written with the references. This point is very vital, failing to
which results in failing of a specialist report. It must also be noted that full stops are not used in
the abbreviations. Separation is done with a semi-colon instead.
Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2012] UKHL 14, [2012] I AC 885 R (Robin) v Parole Board [2014]
EWCA Civ 1032, [2015] QB 752 Page v Smith [2011] AC 155 (HL)
In case, if there is no paragraph then the page number is given in the bracket.
Example: Arscottv The Coal Authority [2014] EWCA Civ 920, [2014] Env LR 6 [27] (Laws LJ)
Act of Supremacy 1996 Human Rights Act 1998, s 12(2)(a) Penalties for Disorderly behavior
(Amendment of Minimum Age) Order 2014, SI 2014,3624
The name of the author is given in the same form, as it appear in the publication. However, in
bibliographies, only the surname followed by the initial of the last name is written. Relevant
information is given about the editions, translators and of the publisher as well. The page number
is also cited by the end of the citation after closing the brackets.
Example of book referencing: Name of the author or authors, name of the book, Year of first
publication in brackets followed by page number.
Garent Johanson, Goff and Jones: The law of reinstitution (1st supplement, 8th edition, Sweet &
Maxwell 2012)
K. Weighzt and L. Kobez, An introduction to Companion Law (Tony Weiz tr, 2nd edn, OUP 2014)
For referencing edited books: Name of the author, name of the book, edited year in brackets is
given.
Example: Francis Rose, ‘The evolution of the Species in Andrew Burlow and Alan Rodger
(eds), Mapping the law’. Essays in Memory of Peter Birks (OUP 2012)
For referencing journal articles: Name of the author is written as it appears in the journal
article, name of the theory is included in inverted commas, [date of publishing] page number.
Example: Paul Craige, ‘Pure Theory’ and the values in Public Law [2015] PL 440
HJA Griffith, ‘The Common Law and the Criminal Constitution’ (2013) 155 LPO 45, 52
For referencing online journals: Name of the author, ‘The name of the journal’ (2016)
accesses day Mon Year.
Example: Graham Greenleaf, ‘The Global Development for Free Access to Internet Information’
(2011) 1(2) EJLY [Link] accessed 14 May 2010
For referencing websites: Name of the author, name of the material used from website (The
proposed law, day month Year) accessed day Month Year
Example:
Sarah Coley, ‘Virtual Friend who Fired Employee’ (Naked Law 12 May 2010)
[Link]/2015/03/intext html accessed 15 May 2015
For referencing a Newspaper article: Name of the author, Name of the article, name of the
newspaper (Place, day Month Year)
APA
American Psychological Association or APA style of referencing is the most commonly used
referencing style in the social sciences. In recent perspective, 6th Edition of APA referencing has
been in use. Different formats used for referencing and in-texting can be discussed here. The
reference list of APA format is always made hanging. While writing the name of the book, the
name of the publisher, state and country are also included in the reference list. The description
with related examples is given below:
Last name of author, initial of first name. (Year of publication). Name of the book or journal, page
numbers.
Example:
Berney, T. K. (2012). Social quality and friendship development. Current direction in the science
of Psychology, 12, 7-10.
Last name of the author, initial of the first name. (year of publication). Name of book or
journal, page numbers. The name of the two authors are separated by an ampersand and not
‘and’.
Example:
The names are written in a list with last name and the first initial and are separated by commas.
However, at the time of writing the final name of the author the ampersand sign is used. The year
of publication is given in brackets. Name of the book or journal. Page number.
Example:
Kernis, L. M., Cornell, P. I., Sunwell, C. Y., Harwol, U.P., Tintas, K. O., Bach, H. S., & Kinder, J.
U. (2013). More attention given for stability of self esteem. Journal of Personality and
Psychology, 63, 1345-1350
Example:
Miller, P.I., Choi, P.L., Tinder, T.G, Thomas, T.E., Rubin, L. T., Harland, O. R., . . . Robin, U. T.
(2011). The Herdonic contingency technology. Journal of Personality development, 65, 2013-
2020.
Last name of the author or authors, Initial of the first name. (Year), Name of the book or
journal. Retrieved Day in numeral Month, Year, From URL.
Example:
For online sources, the APA format also recommends to provide a Digital Object Identifier or
DOI, if it is available, as opposed to the available URL. This approach is made to provide a long
lasting link of the online sources. These codes are unique to each documents and are mainly
consists of both alpha-numeric characters. In certain cases it is found that the DOI is not
available. In those cases, URL is solely used for denoting the exact site for the online source.
Certain things are kept in mind at the time of in-texting the references. For example, at the time
of including the name of the author at the beginning of a sentence, the last name of the author is
written and the year of the published book or journal is written in brackets. Likewise, when there
are two or three authors, last name of the authors are written with the year in the brackets.
Example:
According to Stenberg, (2013), the approach made by people for cognitive behavior.
According to Brisk, Stanley and Monitt, (2014), the approach made for the sake of understanding
the situation.
The approach made for the sake of understanding the situation (Brisk, Stanley & Monitt, 2014).
Unlike Harvard referencing, Available at is not written, instead retrieved from is written. The
hanging style of referencing list must not be forgotten. This is a unique style of providing the list
of references used while writing the piece of writing.
Vancouver
Vancouver referencing style is used in ‘medicine and science’ related writing pieces. This
reference style is numbered. The citation in the text of other’s work is indicated by the use of
numbers. A numbered reference list is provided at the end of the document that includes the full
details of the corresponding in-text references. The rules and guidelines for this referencing style
have been proposed by the International committee of Medical Journal Editors. This guideline is
now maintained by the U.S. National Library of Medicine. The same method is known as Uniform
Requirements for Manuscripts that has been submitted to Biomedical Journals.
It has to be kept in mind that the references are listed in numerical order and in the same order in
which the references has been cited in the academic writing. It is recommended that the
reference list is to be started in a new page. The reference list must contain all the in-texted
references in the reference list. The unpublished articles or journal should never be used. Usually
Arabic Numerals are used such as 1,2,3,…. The journal title whose abbreviation is used must be
in the format of NLM Catalog. One has to be sure of using all the references that have been used
in the text.
The way of citing this reference follows this pattern: Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for
Authors, name of Editors, and name of the Publishers (Edition number)
Name of the author is given. Name of the book. Name of the city: followed by the name of the
publisher; year of publication. Page number with a ‘p’ in the end.
Example:
O’Deniel P, Editors. Rethinking of the social epidemiology: towards a better scientific approach.
Dordrecht: Springer; 2011. 632 p.
Referencing an e-book:
Name of the author, name of the book, [Internet]. Name of the city: Name of publication; year
[cited Year Mon Day]. Page number with a p. Available from: URL DOI
Example:
Example:
Kennagati O, Harris C, Brody T, Flaning PG. The effect of smoking on the ligament of a cartilage
surgery in arms and knee: a systematic review. An K Sports Med [Internet]. 2013 Jun [cited 2014
July 20]; 32(13):2365-6. Available from: http//[Link]/content/63/23/2545 DOI:
10.1156/0236458515865478
Name of the television show [television broadcast]. Catalyst. Name of the city: name of the
channel; year Mon day
Example:
Stem cells in the brain [television broadcast]. Catalyst. Sydney: ABC; 2010 Jun 29.
For in-texting, Vancouver referencing is done by placing the number of the reference by the end
of the sentence using number in brackets. It has to be noted here that the number can be placed
in any form. It is not necessarily has to be placed in round or square brackets. The same can be
done by the means of superscript.
Examples:
Using round brackets: …as one the authors have said that the darkest part of human life is
easily lightened.(1)
Using square brackets: …as one of the authors failed to meet their role in society.[1]
Using superscript: …as one of the authors have said the darkest days are yet to come. 1
It is not that only the number of the reference is denoted by the end of the sentence. The page
number of the book or journal is sometimes mentioned as well. The same thing can be written in
brackets or in superscript form.
For example:
Using round brackets: …for those who have not received any kind of sentimental support from
the elders.(1 p.53)
It has to be noted here that while citing the reference number in the form of superscript the page
number is written in brackets.
For more than one reference: In case more than one reference has to be cited, the number of
the reference list is given separating them by commas.
Example: …as it has to be seen people are not ready to take risk. (1,3,6-8)
For further detail, refer to: [Link]
MLA
MLA or Modern Language Association referencing style is generally used to reference academic
writing for liberal arts and humanities. Recent update of the MLA referencing no longer requires
underling the name of the author. The URLs are also not inserted. It is recommended that the
writer has to include the web address of the reference used for citing the source. In case when
the date of publication is not available the abbreviation n. d. is used. And when the name of the
publisher is not available n. p. is written.
For preparing the reference list, the name of the authors are given with the name of the writing
piece followed by the name of the city: publisher, year of publication and mention whether it is in
print form or is available in the web.
Mumford, Louis. The Culture of the unseen cities. New York: Harcourt, 2011. Print.
Johanson, Natalie et al. Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies 5.2 (2012): 31 pag. Web.
23 May. 2012
name of the author or authors are given. Followed by “name of the journal”. Vol.(year): Web or
Print Day Mon. Year
Example:
Name of the authors. Name of the article. Name of the newspaper day Mon. year, Edition Print.
Example:
Seamnak, Susan. “Feeling right at one’s home: Government residence and traditional
rules.” Montreal Gazette 27 Jun 2014, 4th Ed.: Print.
Last name of the author, first name of the author. “Document title.” Title of the overall Web
site. Version of the website available. Name of the publisher, publication date. Web. Date of
access
Example:
Joyce Wielfied. “You cannot read that solution” NBC New York. NBC Universal, 20 Apr. 2012.
Web. 29 Apr. 2012
It has to be kept in mind that no Accessed from or Retrieved from is written in the MLA
referencing of websites.
Name of the program that has been telecasted in Television. Name of the authors. Name of the
program. Channel name Television. Day Mon. Year. Television
Example:
“Scandal of the century.” Narr. Linden. The Fifth Estate. CBC Television. 23 Jun. 2012.
Television.
Cassat, Mother and Child. 2013. Wilchita Art Museum, Wichita. American Painting: 1998-
2012. By Johanson Pierce. New York: McGraw, 1998. Slide 23
First name of the Singer, last name. “Name of the music”. Name of the album. Year CD or DVD.
Example:
For referencing a review available in both print or online format: Name of the writer. “Name
of the article” Rev. of the topic name. Name of the city Name of the paper day Mon. Year:
Volume Print or Web
Example:
In-texting with one author: Last name of the author is written with the page number of the book.
It has to be noted that the name is not separated by comma.
Example: …he then left for his work to meet his childhood friend. (Mubar 425).
In-texting with two or three authors: Names of the authors separated by commas and the
number of page or pages.
Example: ([Link] 2013)
It has to be kept in mind that there is a difference in referencing and in-texting when a particular
page of the web is selected and when the complete web is used. In case when a particular page
or range of pages is used for reference, the same is mentioned by the means of separating it
with commas.
In text of government publication: The name of the authority is written and the year of
publication is mentioned.
In text for an art or photograph: Name of the artist is written and then the year of the
publication of the piece of art is written.
Example: (Cassatt 1960)
Duska R, 'Business Ethics: Oxymoron Or Good Business?' (2000) 10 Business Ethics Quarterly.