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Reference List: Reference List

Basics of reference list entries.

Reference list entries contain specific publication information, allowing readers to find the publication. The information is presented in a standard format, including order of information, use of italics and parentheses, and other markers to help distinguish between different parts of the reference entry. APA style entries follow this basic format:

Author. (Publication date). Title of document. Publishing information. Electronic retrieval information.

• Only list sources you cite in your text. Do not include sources you read but did not cite.
• The reference list should come after the text of your paper but before any tables, figures, or appendices.
• The reference list appears on its own page, with the title References at the top, centered and in bold type.
• As with the rest of the paper, reference entries should be double spaced.
• Use one space after the punctuation within each reference (e.g., after the period that follows the date). See APA 7, Section 16.1.
• All references have a hanging indent, which means the first line is flush left, and all subsequent lines are indented ½ inch to the right. Learn how to create a hanging indent under the "General Document Formatting" section at the Academic Skills Center.
• References appear in alphabetical order by surname of the author. If there is more than one source with the same author, then those references appear in chronological order, earliest source first.

For specific examples of numerous reference formats with notes and tips, see the  Common Reference List Examples  page. For help on evaluating resources and identifying types of resources, please visit the library's  Evaluating Resources  pages.

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Start with each author's last name, followed by a comma and the first and middle initials (or just the first initial if that is all that is provided). Separate each author with a comma, and include the ampersand (&) before the last name in the list. When creating a reference for a work with two group authors, use an ampersand, not a comma to separate them (as you would with two individual authors).

List authors' names in the order in which they appear on the publication. The order of names often carries significance, so it is important not to change the order in your listing. To be listed as  first author  for a publication usually means that person is the lead researcher on the project.

Severino, C., & Knight, M. Graves, S. J., Anders, K. C., & Balester, V. M.

• For corporate authors—companies, institutions, and other types of collective authors—simply list the corporate name. Corporate authors are common in technical reports and other institutional documents that represent the work of a whole organization.

American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Note that when multiple layers of government agencies are listed as authors in a work, use just the most specific author in the reference.

Instead of “U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute,” use the most specific author.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (n.d.). Health and awareness . https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health-topics/education-and-awareness

When creating a reference for a work with multiple authors, provide surnames and initials for up to 20 authors. For sources with 21 or more authors, use ellipsis points after the name of the 19th author, followed by the final author's surname and initials.

Steyer, T., Ortiz, K., Schemmel, L., Armstrong, B., Hicks, L., Simac, M., Perez, K., Nyung, J., Schlenz, W., Robins, K., O’Neil, O., Muhammad, E., Moore, J. L., Rosinski, P., Peeples, T., Pigg, S., Rife, M. C., Brunk-Chavez, B.,Tasaka, R.... Curtis, F.

When providing a reference entry to a whole edited collection, list the editors at the beginning of the entry and include the abbreviation Ed. (for one editor) or Eds. (for two or more editors) in parentheses after the names.

Bodhran, A. T. (Ed.). Lai, P., & Smith, L. C. (Eds.).

Publication Date

For most publications, include just the year in parentheses.

For publications with no publication date noted, use the letters n.d. within the parentheses to indicate  no date . The most common type of resource with no date is a webpage .

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (n.d.). Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) . https://www.cdc.gov/copd/index.html

Newspapers and popular magazines are easier to find with the month or day of publication rather than a volume and issue number. For periodicals such as a weekly news magazine like Time or a daily newspaper like The New York Times , include the month or month and day.

Hubbard, A. (2014, January 8). New York to be 21st state to OK Medical Marijuana. Los Angeles Times . https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-sh-new-york-medical-marijuana-graphic-20140108-story.html

For republished texts, use the date from the republished version you read. At the very end of the reference list entry, include a note in parentheses with the original publication date.

Piaget, J. (2000). The psychology of the child. Basic Books. https://archive.org/details/psychologyofchil00piag_0/page/n5 (Original work published 1969)

For in-text citations of these republished texts, include both dates with a slash separating them, listing the original publication date first and then the date of the republished version you read.

(Piaget, 1969/2000).

Title of Document

Include the title of the document that you are referencing. Depending on the type of resource, you may have to include more than one title (for an article and the journal, for instance). Do not add quotation marks around titles (unless part of the original title).

• Article and chapter titles follow sentence-case capitalization in regular font style.
• Also capitalize the first word in a subtitle following a colon.
• Provide the periodical title exactly as shown on the cited work (e.g., The New England Journal of Medicine ). Abbreviate only if the official title has an abbreviation (e.g., JAMA Pediatrics ).
• Italicize journal titles and use title-case capitalization.
• Italicize book titles and use sentence-case capitalization.
• Italicize webpages and websites and use sentence-case capitalization.
• For books in multiple editions, include edition information in parentheses after the book title: (5th ed.).
• For ebooks, the format, platform, or device is not included in the reference. (Note that this guideline is a change from APA 6, which recommended including this information in brackets.)

Simpson, A.V., Stewart, C., & Pitsis, T. (2014). Normal compassion: A framework for compassionate decision making. Journal of Business Ethics , 119 (4), 473–491. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-013-1831-y

Publishing Information

For articles.

For articles, you should generally provide the volume, issue number (if available), and page numbers for the publishing information. Italicize the volume number and use an en dash between the page numbers. For examples and more information, see the Common Reference List Examples page.

• In APA 7, you no longer need to include the publisher location (city and state) as part of a reference.
• Spell and capitalize the publisher name exactly as it appears in the cited work, except for designations of business structure (e.g., Inc., Ltd., LLC), which should be omitted. If the publisher is an imprint or division of a larger publishing company, provide only the specific imprint/division. If two or more publishers are listed on the copyright page, include them all, separated by semicolons.

Burgess, R. (2019). Rethinking global health: Frameworks of power . Routledge.

• In a situation where the publisher of a book is the same as the author, omit the publisher from the publishing element.

World Health Organization. (2019). International statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (11th ed.). https://icd.who.int/

Electronic Retrieval Information

Provide the digital object identifier (DOI) number for articles and books that have them. For articles and books without DOI numbers retrieved from common academic research databases, there is no need to provide any additional electronic retrieval information (the reference list entry looks like the entry for a print copy of the source). For articles and books without DOI number retrieved on the open web, include the URL.

• In APA 7, standardize DOIs in URL form with "https://doi.org/" before the number.
• In almost all cases, the name of the library or institution should not be in the DOI.
• In APA 7, active hyperlinks for DOIs and URLs should be used for documents meant for screen reading. Present these hyperlinks in blue and underlined text (the default formatting in Microsoft Word), although plain black text is also acceptable. Be consistent in your formatting choice for DOIs and URLs throughout your reference list.

Please see the Quick Guide to Electronic Resources for more guidance on how to format DOI numbers, URLs, and other electronically accessed information.

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Knowledge Check: Reference List Overview

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• Referencing

A Quick Guide to Harvard Referencing | Citation Examples

Published on 14 February 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on 15 September 2023.

Referencing is an important part of academic writing. It tells your readers what sources you’ve used and how to find them.

Harvard is the most common referencing style used in UK universities. In Harvard style, the author and year are cited in-text, and full details of the source are given in a reference list .

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Table of contents

Harvard in-text citation, creating a harvard reference list, harvard referencing examples, referencing sources with no author or date, frequently asked questions about harvard referencing.

A Harvard in-text citation appears in brackets beside any quotation or paraphrase of a source. It gives the last name of the author(s) and the year of publication, as well as a page number or range locating the passage referenced, if applicable:

Note that ‘p.’ is used for a single page, ‘pp.’ for multiple pages (e.g. ‘pp. 1–5’).

An in-text citation usually appears immediately after the quotation or paraphrase in question. It may also appear at the end of the relevant sentence, as long as it’s clear what it refers to.

When your sentence already mentions the name of the author, it should not be repeated in the citation:

Sources with multiple authors

When you cite a source with up to three authors, cite all authors’ names. For four or more authors, list only the first name, followed by ‘ et al. ’:

Sources with no page numbers

Some sources, such as websites , often don’t have page numbers. If the source is a short text, you can simply leave out the page number. With longer sources, you can use an alternate locator such as a subheading or paragraph number if you need to specify where to find the quote:

Multiple citations at the same point

When you need multiple citations to appear at the same point in your text – for example, when you refer to several sources with one phrase – you can present them in the same set of brackets, separated by semicolons. List them in order of publication date:

Multiple sources with the same author and date

If you cite multiple sources by the same author which were published in the same year, it’s important to distinguish between them in your citations. To do this, insert an ‘a’ after the year in the first one you reference, a ‘b’ in the second, and so on:

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A bibliography or reference list appears at the end of your text. It lists all your sources in alphabetical order by the author’s last name, giving complete information so that the reader can look them up if necessary.

The reference entry starts with the author’s last name followed by initial(s). Only the first word of the title is capitalised (as well as any proper nouns).

Sources with multiple authors in the reference list

As with in-text citations, up to three authors should be listed; when there are four or more, list only the first author followed by ‘ et al. ’:

Reference list entries vary according to source type, since different information is relevant for different sources. Formats and examples for the most commonly used source types are given below.

• Entire book
• Book chapter
• Translated book
• Edition of a book

Journal articles

• Print journal
• Online-only journal with DOI
• Online-only journal with no DOI

• General web page
• Online article or blog
• Social media post

Sometimes you won’t have all the information you need for a reference. This section covers what to do when a source lacks a publication date or named author.

No publication date

When a source doesn’t have a clear publication date – for example, a constantly updated reference source like Wikipedia or an obscure historical document which can’t be accurately dated – you can replace it with the words ‘no date’:

Note that when you do this with an online source, you should still include an access date, as in the example.

When a source lacks a clearly identified author, there’s often an appropriate corporate source – the organisation responsible for the source – whom you can credit as author instead, as in the Google and Wikipedia examples above.

When that’s not the case, you can just replace it with the title of the source in both the in-text citation and the reference list:

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Harvard referencing uses an author–date system. Sources are cited by the author’s last name and the publication year in brackets. Each Harvard in-text citation corresponds to an entry in the alphabetised reference list at the end of the paper.

Vancouver referencing uses a numerical system. Sources are cited by a number in parentheses or superscript. Each number corresponds to a full reference at the end of the paper.

A Harvard in-text citation should appear in brackets every time you quote, paraphrase, or refer to information from a source.

The citation can appear immediately after the quotation or paraphrase, or at the end of the sentence. If you’re quoting, place the citation outside of the quotation marks but before any other punctuation like a comma or full stop.

In Harvard referencing, up to three author names are included in an in-text citation or reference list entry. When there are four or more authors, include only the first, followed by ‘ et al. ’

Though the terms are sometimes used interchangeably, there is a difference in meaning:

• A reference list only includes sources cited in the text – every entry corresponds to an in-text citation .
• A bibliography also includes other sources which were consulted during the research but not cited.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the ‘Cite this Scribbr article’ button to automatically add the citation to our free Reference Generator.

Caulfield, J. (2023, September 15). A Quick Guide to Harvard Referencing | Citation Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved 27 September 2024, from https://www.scribbr.co.uk/referencing/harvard-style/

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Citations - APA: Formatting - Essay, Reference List, Appendix, & Sample Paper

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Sample Papers

• Diane Hacker APA Sample Paper

If you are adding an appendix to your paper there are a few rules to follow that comply with APA guidelines:

• The Appendix appears  after  the References list
• If you have more than one appendix you would name the first appendix Appendix A, the second Appendix B, etc.
• The appendices should appear in the order that the information is mentioned in your essay
• Each appendix begins on a new page
• APA Sample Paper - with Appendix (Purdue OWL example)

Quick Rules for an APA Reference List

Your research paper ends with a list of all the sources cited in the text of the paper. Here are nine quick rules for this Reference list.

• Start a new page for your Reference list. Centre the title, References, at the top of the page.
• Double-space the list.
• Start the first line of each reference at the left margin; indent each subsequent line five spaces (a hanging indent).
• Put your list in alphabetical order. Alphabetize the list by the first word in the reference. In most cases, the first word will be the author’s last name. Where the author is unknown, alphabetize by the first word in the title, ignoring the words a, an, the.
• For each author, give the last name followed by a comma and the first (and middle, if listed) initials followed by periods.
• Italicize the titles of works: books, audiovisual material, internet documents and newspapers, and the title and volume number of journals and magazines.
• Do not italicize titles of parts of works, such as: articles from newspapers, magazines, or journals / essays, poems, short stories or chapter titles from a book / chapters or sections of an Internet document.
• In titles of non-periodicals (books, videotapes, websites, reports, poems, essays, chapters, etc), capitalize only the first letter of the first word of a title and subtitle, and all proper nouns (names of people, places, organizations, nationalities).
• If more than one place of publication is listed give the publisher's home office. If the home office is not given or known then choose the first location listed.
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• Last Updated: May 31, 2024 10:28 AM
• URL: https://libguides.lahc.edu/apa

Referencing at Birmingham Newman

• Introduction to Newman Harvard referencing
• In-text citations: guide and examples

Using Newman Harvard referencing in your work

Presenting your full reference lists, reference list examples: frequently used sources, reference list examples: written sources (online or print) a-z, reference list examples: other sources (audio, video and multimedia) a-z, further help.

• Last reviewed
• Help with other referencing styles

Your tutors will be expecting to see in-text citations and full references in your assignments. Don’t forget, every in-text citation must also be fully referenced in your reference list at the end of your assignment.

Anyone reading your reference list must be able to find all of the sources that you have cited in your in-text citations if they want to, so it’s important to give full details for every source.

A reference list entry should contain:

• the last names and initials of all of the authors or editors of a source
• the year of publication
• the full title of the source
• details of where the source can be found or where it was published

Reference lists have punctuation rules that are very different to how you normally write. Use the following guide and referencing examples to help you present your references correctly.

Put all the entries in your reference list in alphabetical order by the first authors’ surnames. Every entry in your reference list must end with a full stop.

Authors' and editors' names

List all the names of the authors or editors in the same order as they appear on the source.

Do not mix named people and organisations (e.g. Laws, D. and Department for Education) – use organisation names only if there are no individual people’s names given.

Write names in this format:

• [Last Name]
• [Initial(s)]
• [full stop]

Lists of names should be separated by commas, with the last name on this list preceded by ‘and’. If the people named are editors, not authors, write (ed.) or (eds.) after their names.

Do not mix authors and editors. If both are listed, use authors.

Anionwu, E.

Krauss, L. M. and Cox, B.

Nye, E., Gardner, F., Hansford, L., Edwards, V., Hayes, R. and Ford, T.

Pollard, A. (ed.)

Glister, J. and Lee, J. (eds.)

Year of publication

This should be in round brackets and comes straight after the authors’ or editors’ names. Do not put a full-stop after the date.

The full title of the source

Always write the title in ‘sentence case’. This means that you only use capital letters for the first word of the title and for any proper nouns (names of things that are usually capitalised, e.g. ‘Elizabeth’ or ‘London’).

Follow this rule even if the source you’re using does not.

Depending on what sort of source you have used, you will need to either write the title in italics (slanted text) or put it into single quotation marks. The referencing examples will tell you which you should use.

Example: title of a book

Pride and prejudice

Example: title of a journal article

'The Darcy effect: regional tourism and costume drama'

Publication details

The details you put into this section depend on the type of source you’re using.

8th edn. London: Routledge.

Revised edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

British Journal of Criminology, 59 (4), pp.1035-1053.

Business, Education and Technology Journal, 2001 (Fall), pp.6-21.

Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-48760522 (Accessed 14 July 2019).

DOI: 10.1787/9789264305847-en.

The referencing examples will tell you what details to use for each type of source. If you can’t find an example for the type of source you’re using, use the ‘Where to get further help’ section of this guide for more options.

Anonymised sources from professional experience placements or research data

For courses involving placements or professional experiences, or if you carry out research in these areas, it’s unethical to name people or organisations directly. You should change the names of people and organisations to code names.

In your research, you used Midtown High School’s Behaviour management policy and Uptown Grammar School’s Pupil code of conduct . In your assignment you might change the name ‘Midtown High School’ to ‘Secondary School A’ and ‘Uptown Grammar School’ to ‘Secondary School B’.

An in-text reference may look like this:

Strategies include working with pupils to create "personalised positive behaviour plans" (Secondary school A, 2015a)...

In an interview, a teacher from Midtown High School says something of interest. You might change the name of the teacher to ‘Teacher A1’ to show that they were from Midtown High School. A teacher from Uptown Grammar School might therefore become ‘Teacher B1’.

Use the code names in all your in-text citations and in your full reference list.

In your reference list entry, you must also remove anything from the publication details that might identify organisations or people – even if this means that you have to leave out parts of the full reference that you would normally include (for example, the URL of the source).

Secondary school A (2017) Behaviour management policy.

Rather than

Secondary school A (2017) Behaviour management policy. Available at http://www.uptown.sch.uk/upload/docs/behaviour-management.pdf (Accessed: 23 May 2019).

Reference list entries for secondary references

You will find details on how to set out secondary references in the In-text citations: guidance and examples tab, under the heading 'Citing a source that is cited in another source (secondary referencing)' .

Your reference list should only contain the details of sources that you have actually read.

If you used the following in-text citation in your essay:

(Scriven, 1991, cited in Hattie, 2012, p.143)

you would only put the Hattie source in your reference list, as you did not read the source by Scriven.

Hattie, J. (2012) Visible learning for teachers: maximizing impact on learning. Abingdon: Routledge.

Anyone who is reading your work and who wants to find the Scriven source can consult Hattie to find the reference for it.

Book or e-book

You reference books and e-books in the same way unless the e-book has been downloaded to an e-reader (Kindle, Kobo, etc.)

• Author(s) [Last name, Initials]
• Year (in round brackets)
• Title of book (in italics )
• [full-stop]
• Edition [Nth edn]
• Place of publication

You don't state the edition number if it is the first or only edition of the book.

Book with one author

Bell, J. (2018) Doing your research project. 7th edn. London: Open University Press.

Book with more than one author

Cross, A., Borthwick, A., Beswick, K., Board, J. and Chippindall, J. (2016) Curious learners in primary maths, science, computing and DT. London: SAGE.

Don't use et al. in your full references: write all the authors out in full. Remember your reference list is not included in your word count.

Chapter or section of an edited book

Information about Cite them right 12th edition . January 2023.

We are aware that the latest edition of Cite them right , published in 2022, has changed the way that editors' names should be written in reference lists for this type of source.

You may choose whether to use this guidance or the new guidance. However, your references for this type of source should be consistent across your reference list. If this is the case, you should not lose any marks. Be aware that, if you are using a reference management app with " Cite them right 12th edition" as the output style, your references will be formatted in the new way, and you should check any that you may have entered manually or created with an earlier edition or Birmingham Newman Harvard style.

Use this guidance:

• for books and e-books where each chapter or section has a different author or authors
• when you want to use a section of a standard book, like a foreword, introduction, commentary, notes or other editorial material, that is written by a different named author to the book's author or authors.
• Author(s) of chapter or section [Last name, Initials.]
• 'Title of chapter or section' (in 'single quotation marks')
• in Editor(s) names [Last name, Initials] (ed.) or (eds.)
• Title of whole book (in italics )
• pp. [page range of chapter or section]

You don't state the edition number if it is the first or only edition of the book.

When you use several chapters or sections of this type of book or e-book, each chapter or section needs its own reference list entry.

Chakraborti, R. (2010) ‘Constructing character’, in Cavanagh, D., Gillis, A., Keown, M., Loxley, J. and Stevenson, R. (eds.) The Edinburgh introduction to studying English literature. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 129-138.

Worrall, N. (2016) 'Commentary', in Chekhov, A. The cherry orchard . Translated by M. Frayn. London: Bloomsbury Methuen.

In-text citations for chapters of sections of edited books

You use the authors of the chapter or section that you have used in your in-text citation:

(Chakraborti, 2010, p.131)

(Worrall, 2016, p. xxiv)

Journal article (online or print)

Print or online journal articles with volume and issue numbers.

• 'Title of article' (in 'single quotation marks')
• Name of Journal (in italics and Title Case)
• Volume number or name (if available)
• (Issue number or name) (in round brackets) (if available)
• pp. [page range]

Some journals do not split volumes into issues, and some don't use volume numbers at all. Just use the details that are available in your reference.

Wijtvliet, W. and Dyevre, A. (2021) 'Judicial ideology in economic cases: evidence from the general court of the European Union', European Union Politics , 22(1), pp. 25-45.

Online journal articles with a DOI

A DOI ('Digital Object Identifier') is a permanent reference for an online document. If the article you are referencing has a DOI, use this instead of volume/issue and page numbers.

• DOI: [number]

Staring-Derks, C., Staring, J. and Anionwe, E.N. (2015) 'Mary Seacole: global nurse extraordinaire', Journal of Advanced Nursing , DOI: 10.1111/jan.12559.

When you use a DOI, don't state the date you accessed the document.

Copies of journal articles in archives, repositories or direct from the author

"pre-prints" and "post-prints".

Sometimes you may find an article that has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a journal that you wish to use. These are called pre-prints . Pre-prints are common in scientific and healthcare related disciplines, where the results of new research are highly anticipated or may be needed quickly, but may be found in other disciplines too.

On the other hand, you can also find copies of articles that have already been published, but a copy has also been archived by the university where the author works. Sometimes, you may also contact the author of an article and ask for a copy to use. These copies are called post-prints .

You are free to reference pre-print and post-print copies of articles in your work, but you should always make sure that your copy of the article is real and from a legitimate source. Pre-prints and post-prints may not have the journal publisher's formatting or page numbers.

• [Pre-print] OR [Post-print] (in [square brackets])
• Available at: [URL]
• (Accessed: [date]) (in round brackets)

If the author sent you the document directly, you can replace the URL and Accessed date with:

• Author-supplied copy

Mac an Ghaill, M. and Haywood, C. (2018) 'Performance and surveillance in an era of austerity: schooling the reflexive generation of Muslim young men', British Journal of Sociology of Education [Post-print]. Available at: https://newman.repository.guildhe.ac.uk/id/eprint/17211/ (Accessed 9 December 2022).

Ikueze, S. and Ejesu, O. A. (2022) 'Journalism and the representation of truth in Nigerian postcolonial literature', African Journalism Studies [Pre-print]. Author-supplied copy.

In-text citation for pre-print and post-print copies

You must still use page numbers for quotations and paraphrases in in-text citation for pre-print and post-print copies of articles. This means that if the part of the article you are citing is on page 4 of the document in front of you, this is what you should use in your in-text citation.

(Mac an Ghaill, and Haywood, 2018, p.4)

Legislation (Laws -- Acts of Parliament)

• Title of Act [Year] (in italics )
• c. [Chapter number] (if relevant)
• County/jurisdiction (required only if you have references to laws from more than one country)

Use in in-text citation

Use the full title of the Act of Parliament in your in-text citation, and add a section number when you quote or paraphrase a specific part.

Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panels are responsible for "serious child safeguarding cases in England which raise issues that are complex or of national importance" ( Children and Social Work Act 2017 , s.13).

Use in reference list

Children and Social Work Act 2017 , c. 16. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2017/16/contents (Accessed: 17 March 2020).

News article (online or print)

For an online news article, use the following:

• Name of online news source (in italics )
• Day and month

If there is no named author, the name of the news source moves from its position after the title of the article to the 'first position' in front of the date.

Stanford, P. (2022) 'Pope Benedict XVI: obituary', The Guardian , 31 December. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/dec/31/pope-benedict-obituary (Accessed: 4 January 2023).

For an article from a print newspaper, replace the online publication details with:

• p. [page number]

Bayes, H. (2015) 'Can theatre break down social barriers about mental health?', The Stage , 21 May, p.6.

Report, briefing paper or short documents (including PDFs published online)

You can use this guidance to reference most documents published online as PDFs by organisations, and for printed reports and short documents.

• Author(s) [Last name, Initials.] OR Organisation name
• Title of source (in italics )

Save the Children (2021) Annual report 2021: together, we power possible . Available at: https://www.savethechildren.org.uk/content/dam/gb/reports/annual-report-2021-save-the-children.pdf (Accessed: 4 January 2023).

If you are referencing a printed document, replace the online publication details with the following:

Lemos, G. (2005) The search for tolerance: challenging and changing racist attitudes and behaviour among young people . York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

Teaching and learning materials from Birmingham Newman modules

Use this guidance when you need to reference sources provided to you as part of your studies, either in person or uploaded to Moodle. This includes lectures, presentations, handouts and other materials created by lecturers and other students.

Do not use this guidance to reference text extracts or scans from books or journal articles or other published sources. Use the appropriate guidance for the type of source instead.

• Author(s) [Last name, Initials.]
• 'Title of source' (in 'single quotation marks')
• [Medium] (in [square brackets])
• Module code and title (in italics )
• Birmingham Newman University
• Day and month (if appropriate)
• Available at: [URL] (if required)
• (Accessed: [date]) (in round brackets) (if required)

If the source is not available online, replace the online publication details with the word 'Unpublished'. Remember to end your reference with a full stop.

Chen, L. (2019) 'Apiary construction: part 1' [Lecture]. BKU401: Introduction to Beekeeping . Birmingham Newman University. 16 October. Available at: https://moodle3.newman.ac.uk/19-20/mod/page/view.php?id=9999 (Accessed: 22 October 2019).

Springer, P. (2017) '5 key readings on recreation and social policy' [Handout]. PEU663: Recreation and Society . Birmingham Newman University. Unpublished.

Use this example to reference webpages, unless your source is

• an online news article
• a blog or vlog post
• a social media post

For these, use the separate examples in this guide.

• Author(s) [Last name, Initials] OR Organisation name
• Title of webpage (in italics )

You can usually find the title of a webpage on the browser or tab heading.

Named author

Doyle, A. (2019) Behavioural based job interview questions. Available at: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/behavioral-job-interview-questions-2059620 (Accessed: 14 August 2019).

Organisation as author

Runnymede Trust (no date) Common cause networks. Available at: hhttps://www.runnymedetrust.org/projects-and-publications/parliament/common-cause-network.html (Accessed: 10 March 2021).

AI (Artificial Intelligence) generated content (e.g ChatGPT, DALL-E)

Please note that, at this time, Birmingham Newman Library does not recommend using and citing information generated by AI systems in your work unless you have expressly agreed with your tutors that it is OK to do so.

AI content with shareable links

If the AI system provides you with a shareable link to a session containing multiple prompts, use the automatically-generated session title or the first prompt of the session (in full) in your reference list entry.

• Name of AI system or tool
• (Year) (in round brackets)
• Title of chat OR Full first prompt (in italics )
• [Prompt provided by [First Name, Family Name] (in [square brackets]) (if not yourself)

Do not change the automatically generated name of any session unless it would create confusion about which session you are referring to. Remember that you can add a letter (a, b, c etc.) after the year to distinguish between references from the same ‘author’ in the same year.

ChatGPT (2023) Van Eyck vs Coolidge . 12 September. Available at: https://chat.openai.com/share/92c3873d-a1c6-4254-b74e-5bbcffada2c1 (Accessed 18 September 2023).

ChatGPT (2023a) Sun-themed poetry workshop [prompt provided by Ben Moore]. 18 September. Available at: https://chat.openai.com/share/9272556d-5d5b-4452-bf8c-401e01b263b7 (Accessed 18 September 2023).

AI content without shareable links

If the system does not give you a shareable link to a session, or does not allow for sessions containing multiple prompts, you will need to provide a reference list entry for every prompt and response that you use in your work that is provided by the AI system.

• Full prompt text (in italics )

Interrail Chatbot (2023a) Tell me about overnight trains . 15 September.

Interrail Chatbot (2023a) Do I always need to reserve a seat? 15 September.

Anthology (collection) of texts e.g.poems, plays, short stories, essays or extracts

You should only use this guidance if you are referencing the collection as a whole. For individual plays, poems and stories, see the guidance under each source type under 'Written sources (online or print) A-Z' on this page.

• Editor/compiler [Last name, Initials] (ed.) or (eds.)
• Title of anthology (in italics )

Wu, D. (ed.) (2012) Romanticism: an anthology. 2nd edn. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell.

• Author(s) or editor(s) [Last name, Initials]
• Narrated by [First name, Last name] (if available)
• (Downloaded: [date]) (in round brackets)

Rowling, J.K. (2015) Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets. Narrated by Stephen Fry. Available at: http://www.audible.co.uk (Downloaded: 19 June 2018).

Bills (Parliament - draft legislation)

Bills are draft laws discussed and debated in Parliament. If they become law, you must use the referencing guidance for ‘Acts of Parliament’ instead.

Bills can be published by either the House of Commons or House of Lords.

• Title of Bill (in italics and Title Case)
• House of [Commons or Lords]

Anonymity (Arrested Persons) Bill (2017) Parliament: House of Lords. Bill no. 30. Available at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2017-2019/0030/lbill_2017-20190030_en_1.htm (Accessed: 21 August 2019).

Blogs and 'news' sections of websites

• 'Title of message' (in 'single quotation marks')
• Title of Blog (or website) (in italics )
• Day and month of message

Craig, M. (2022) 'Why we can’t tackle the environmental emergency without tackling racism', The Runnymede Trust blog , 8 November. Available at:https://www.runnymedetrust.org/blog/why-we-cant-tackle-the-environmental-emergency-without-tackling-racism/ (Accessed: 5 January 2023).

Book downloaded to an e-reader (Kindle, Kobo, Nook, etc.)

E-readers often don’t use page numbers. Use the information your e-reader gives you (for example 'loc' (location) or percentage).

• Author(s) (Last name, Initials)
• Edition [Nth edn.]

Using 'loc' in an in-text citation

Woolf, again, pokes fun at the lofty, overwrought style of Victorian biography (Woolf, 2012, loc 1239).

Reference list entry

Woolf, V. (2012) Orlando: a biography. Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Orlando-Biography-Virginaia-Woolf-ebook/dp/B006T5JTSY (Downloaded: 11 March 2021).

Book read or downloaded in accessible format from RNIB Bookshare

If you use the PDF version of the book from RNIB Bookshare, then you can reference it as a standard book or e-book, as the page numbers for your in-text citations will be identical to those in the file. However, for other accessible versions use the guidance below, and note the differences for presenting your in-text citations.

• [EPUB] (for Online Reader or EPUB files) OR [MS Word] OR [DAISY] OR [Braille] (in [square brackets])
• Place of Publication

Anthony, D. (2009) Partnership working [EPUB]. Abingdon: Routledge.

Mullany, L. and Stockwell, P. (2016) Instriducting English language [MS Word]. 2nd edn. Abingdon: Routledge.

Collins, P.H. and Bilge, S. (2016) Intersectionality [Braille]. London: Wiley.

In-text citation of accessible formats

Most accessible formats will not follow the page numbers of the standard editions of books and will often not have traditional page numbers. For your in-text citation, you have two options:

• Cross reference your quotes and paraphrases with the standard edition or the PDF edition which has the page numbers and then use these page numbers in your in-text citations. If you do this, then do not reference the book as an accessible resource in your reference list . Use the standard guidance instead.
• Use the page or progress system available in the accessible resource. This can often be (for example) a percentage, a location code or a section and page number.
• For MS Word files use the page number in an unedited version of the document (i.e the page number it was on when you downloaded it and before you changed the font size, style or page margins, etc.)

Examples of in-text citations for accessible resources

(Anthony, 2009, 54%)

(Mullany and Stockwell, 2016, loc 4535)

(Collins and Bilge, 2016, s.4 p.6)

Book translated from a foreign language

• Translated by [First name or Initials Last name]

You don't state the edition number if it is the first or only edition.

Translators' names are written differently to the usual way you write names in references.

Schweitzer, A. (1911) J.S.Bach. Translated by Ernest Birmingham Newman. New York: Dover Publications.

Murakami, H. (2003) Norwegian wood. Translated by J. Rubin. London: Vintage.

Book with author(s) and editor(s) named

Older texts, such as classic plays and novels and important scientific or philosophical works, are often reprinted in new editions.

You should add the details of the editor to your references because

• the editor may have made important contributions to the work and should be credited
• it will be easier for the person reading your work to find the exact edition you used.
• Edited by [First name or Initials Last name]

Editors' names are written differently to the usual way you write names in references.

Mill, J. S. (1982) On liberty . Edited by G. Himmelfarb. London: Penguin.

When referencing an edited book, use the publication date of the edition you are using, not the publication date of the original.

Book review published in a journal or other periodical (e.g. newspaper, magazine)

• Reviewer(s) [Last name, Initials]
• 'Title of review' (in 'single quotation marks') (if available)
• Review of [Book title] (in italics)
• by [Author of book being reviewed] [First name (or initials) Last name]
• Name of Journal or Periodical (in italics and Title Case)
• Issue number or name (in round brackets) (if available)

If the article is published in a periodical that does not have volumes and issue numbers (e.g. newspapers) replace these details with:

Hagopian, P (2019) 'The war that never ended'. Review of The Vietnam war reexamined , by Michael G. Kort. History Today , 69(2), pp.99-101.

Fox, M. (2022) 'The fine print'. Review of Index, a history of the , by Dennis Duncan. The New York Times Sunday Book Review , 27 February, p.1.

If the book review is published online, you can replace the print publication details with either the DOI or URL publication details. Use the guidance for Online journal articles with a DOI or News article (online or print) to help you.

Computer programming or source code

Only follow this guidance if you wish to reference the actual code of a program or application.

If you want to reference the content of a program or application, use the 'mobile and computer apps' example.

• Developer name [Last name, Initials] or Organisation
• (Year of release or update) (in round brackets)
• Title of program/source code (in italics and Title Case)
• (Version number) (in round brackets)
• [program code] or [source code] (in [square brackets])
• (Accessed: [date]) OR (Downloaded: [date])

If the program you are referencing is a physical item (e.g. a CD-ROM), rather than online or a downloaded file, replace the online publication details with:

• Place of distribution
• Distributor's name

Shiny Frog Ltd. (2019) Bear (Version 1.6.15) [source code]. Available at: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/bear/id1016366447 (Downloaded 12 August 2019).

Sega Enterprises (1987) Alex Kid in Miracle World [program code]. ROM cartridge. Tokyo: Sega Enterprises Ltd.

If no developer or organisation is listed, use the title of the app in your in-text citations and as the first part of the full reference.

Conference papers

• 'Title of paper' (in 'single quotation marks')
• Title of conference (in italics )
• Location of conference

Conole, G. (2010) 'Current challenges in learning design and pedagogical patterns research', Seventh international conference on networked learning. Denmark, 3-4 May. Available at: http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/organisations/netlc/past/nlc2010/abstracts/Conole.html (Accessed: 22 July 2010).

If the paper is in a printed edition of the conference proceedings, you should substitute the online publication details with:

Morgan, J. I. (2013) 'Exploring the benefits of a brief health psychology intervention in the workplace', Contemporary ergonomics and human factors: proceedings of the international conference on ergonomics and human factors. Cambridge, 15-18 April. London: CRC Press, pp.441-442.

Confidential information

The ' special cases ' section of this guide shows you how to create code names for organisations and people that must remain confidential.

• Code name of institution
• Title of document (in italics )

Do not add any other details.

Secondary school A (2015) Behaviour management policy.

Remember to also substitute the code name into the title of the document if necessary:

Primary school B (2018) Safeguarding at primary school B.

Dictionary (online or print)

Rules for referencing dictionaries are slightly different for online and print versions.

Referencing an online dictionary

• 'Word or phrase being cited' (in 'single quotation marks')
• Name of dictionary (in italics )

Using a dictionary definition for an in-text citation

...the definition of 'hero' suggests a character should have "superhuman strength, courage or ability" ('Hero', 2014)

'Hero' (2014) Oxford English dictionary . Available at: https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/86297 (Accessed 19 August 2019).

Referencing a printed dictionary

...the definition of 'hero' suggests a character should have "superhuman qualities" ( Concise Oxford Dictionary , 1999, p.666)

Concise Oxford Dictionary (1999) 10th edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Encyclopaedia article (online and print)

• Author(s) [Last name, initials]
• Title of encyclopedia (in italics)
• (Accessed: [date])

Kirk, G. S. (2019) 'Homer', Britannica academic . Available at: https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/Homer/106285 (Accessed: 20 August 2019).

For printed encyclopaedias, replace the online publication details with:

Griffin, M.D. (2003) 'Demonology', New catholic encyclopedia. 2nd edn. London: Gale.

If there is no author listed for an article, use the title of the article (in 'single quotation marks') in both in-text citations and as the first part of the reference list entry.

If the article you are referencing comes from a wiki (an online source that can be continuously and anonymously updated by many people), use the separate example in the written sources A-Z.

Government department reports and publications

• Name of government department
• Title of report (in italics )

Department for Education (2018) Information sharing: advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers. Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/721581/Information_sharing_advice_practitioners_safeguarding_services.pdf (Accessed: 9 July 2018).

For printed reports, replace the online publication details with:

Department for Education (2018) Information sharing: advice for practitioners providing safeguarding services to children, young people, parents and carers. London: Department for Education.

Law reports (case law)

Please note: this guidance should be followed by third year (level 6) students studying our Law (LL.B.) programme at Birmingham Newman. It is not the same as the style in Cite them right . If you are a first or second year Law student, or studying a different programme, your tutors may expect your references to law reports to be presented differently. If you need guidance, please check with your module leader.

Law reports before 2002

• Name of case (in italics)
• Title or Initials of Law Report series
• Volume number (if applicable)
• First page number of the report

You do not need a volume number if only one volume of the law report series was published in that year.

Donoghue v Stevenson (1932) AC 562.

R v Ghosh (1982) QB 1 1053.

J Lauritzen AS v Wijsmuller BV (The Super Servant Two) (1990) Lloyd's Law Reports 1 1.

Law reports from 2002 onwards

Law Reports from the United Kingdom since 2002 use a 'neutral citation', which are independent of the printed law report series. Cases are given a citation that includes the year they were heard, the court they were heard in and a case number. You can use these citations to search for cases in our online databases.

For cases after 2002, you must use the neutral citation in your reference list entries. You may use neutral citations for cases before 2002, where they are provided, if you wish.

• Name of case (in italics )
• Initials of court and case number

Chalcot Training Ltd v Ralph (2020) EWHC 1054 (Ch).

R (on the application of Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union (2017) UKSC 5.

In-text citation for law reports

Your in-text citations must be set out as follows:

• at: [page number] OR [[paragraph reference]] (in [square brackets])

If you are just summarising a case or referencing it in passing, you may not need to put a page or paragraph reference to it.

( R v Ghosh , 1982, at 1055)

( Chalcot Training Ltd v Ralph , 2020, [30])

Be careful when using paragraph references that the number you give is from the case you are reading. On LexisNexis, where quotations are made by the judge from other cases, they often have the paragraph number from the quoted case embedded in them.

Saving words in your in-text citations

Case names can quickly become expensive when it comes to your word count. You can save words by using abbreviated case names, but you must follow these rules :

The first time you cite the case, you should write out the citation in full, e.g:

• ( R v Ghosh , 1982)
• ( Donoghue v Stevenson , 1932)
• ( R (on the application of Miller) v Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union , 2017)
• ( J Lauritzen AS v Wijsmuller BV (The Super Servant Two) , 1990)

When you cite the case again, you can just use the first party to the case's name on its own (e.g. ( Donoghue , 1932)), unless:

• The first party is R (i.e the Crown, as in most criminal cases) or another government official (e.g. Attorney General or Director of Public Prosecutions). In this case use the name of the second party, e.g. ( Ghosh , 1982)
• The first party is R (on the application of [name]) (i.e. a judicial review case). In this case, use the applicant's name , e.g. ( Miller , 2017)

Make sure that the abbreviated name is in italics to signal it is a case, rather than the author of another source's name.

Leaflets, flyers and other written ephemera

These types of source are called 'ephemera', as they are short-lived and not scholarly or literary.

Ephemera often don't have all of the details that you would usually need for a reference. You should think carefully about the reasons you want to include these sources in your work.

• Author or organisation name
• [Type of source and where it was found] (in [square brackets])
• Date the source was found

Birmingham City Council (2016) Summer 2016 in Birmingham. [Leaflet obtained at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery]. 4 June 2016.

If there is no author or organisation listed, use the title of the source in your in-text citation and at the start of your reference list entry.

Legal name fraud (2016) [Poster seen in Northfield, Birmingham]. 12 June 2016.

We recommend that you to talk to your Module Leader before you include ephemera in your assignment. They may suggest you include a copy of the material in an appendix to your assignment, rather than giving it a full reference.

***WRITE HERE***

Mobile and computer apps

This style is only used for referencing content in an application. Use the 'computer programming or source code' example if you need to reference the code of an app.

• Author(s) or Developer(s) [Last name, Initials] or Organisation
• Title of App (in italics and Title Case)
• Edition (if given)
• Version number (if given) (in round brackets)
• [(Type of device) app] (in [square brackets])
• Available at: app store name
• (Downloaded: [date])

Shiny Frog Ltd. (2019) Bear . Apple i-phone edition (Version 1.6.15) [Mobile app]. Available at: Apple App Store (Downloaded 12 August 2019).

If there is no developer or organisation listed, use the title of the app in your in-text citations and as the first part of the full reference.

Goodreads (2018) Apple i-phone edition. (Version 3.9.6) [Mobile app]. Available at: Apple App Store (Downloaded: 5 June 2018).

Parliamentary papers and reports

Do not use this guidance for Acts of Parliament (legislation), Bills (draft legislation), Statutory Instruments, speeches or written answers given by members in the Houses of Parliament. There are separate examples in this guide for these sources.

• Parliament. House of [Commons or Lords]
• Title of paper or report (in italics )
• (Paper number) (in round brackets)

Parliament. House of Commons (2019) Road safety: driving while using a mobile phone: twelfth report of the Select Committee on Transport, 2017-2019. (HC2329). Available at: https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmtrans/2329/2329.pdf (Accessed 21 August 2019).

Parliamentary speeches and written answers to questions

Speeches in Parliament are published in Hansard , the official record of Parliamentary proceedings. Before 2014 written questions and answers can also be found in Hansard .

• Author or Speaker [Last name, Initials (or Title for members of the House of Lords)]
• 'Subject of the debate, speech or question' (in 'single quotation marks')
• Hansard: [series] (in italics )
• Volume and column or page number

Debbonaire, T. (2016) 'The government's plan for Brexit', Hansard: House of Commons debates , 7 December, 618, c.298. Available at: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2016-12-07/debates/CA09D9B2-9634-41C8-8979-8B9CD82DBB8F/TheGovernmentSPlanForBrexit (Accessed 12 March 2021).

Since 2014, Parliament has published written questions and answers in the Written questions and answers database, instead of Hansard . Use the following guidance for these sources from 2014 onwards.

• Author [Last name, Initials (or Title for Members of the House of Lords)]
• 'Subject of the question, answer or statement' (in 'single quotation marks')
• Parliament: written questions and written answers (in italics )
• Question number

Williams, Baroness (2019) 'Immigration: written statement', Parliament: written questions and written answers, 23 July, HLWS1766. Available at: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Lords/2019-07-23/HLWS1766/ (Accessed: 21 August 2019).

Personal communication (letters, emails, text messages, conversations)

• Author or Speaker [Last name, Initials]
• Type of communication and name of person communicated with [First name, Last name]

Slater, H. (2016) E-mail to Brian Jones, 10 January.

You must seek permission from the people involved before including personal communication in your assignment, unless it has been published.

We recommend asking your Module Leader for advice and checking the 'special cases' section in this guide for advice on how to cite sources from research anonymously.

Plays published as a single volume

Reference a play published on its own in the same way as a book. If the play is included in an anthology or collection, follow the guidance in the ‘Plays published as part of an anthology or collection’ section of this guide.

• Title of resource (in italics )

If the play has an editor or is a translation, you should add these details to the reference. See the examples 'books translated from a foreign language' and 'books with author(s) and editor(s) named' for full details.

Hare, D. (1995) Skylight. London: Faber and Faber.

Pinter, H. (1993) The caretaker. Edited by Margaret Rose. London: Faber and Faber

Sophocles (1995) Electra. Translated by George Young. Edited by Thomas Crofts. New York: Dover Publications.

Plays published as part of an anthology or collection

Reference a play in an anthology in the same way as a chapter from an edited book.

• Author(s) of chapter or section [Last name, Initials]
• 'Title of play' (in 'single quotation marks')
• pp. [page range of play]

Bond, E. (2018) ‘Dea’, in Bond, E. Plays: 10. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, pp.1-91.

Shakespeare, W. (2005) 'The merry wives of Windsor', in Wells, S. and Taylor, G. (eds.) The Oxford Shakespeare: the complete works. 2nd edn. Oxford: Clarendon Press, pp.511-536.

In-text citations using lines from a play

You must put the Act and Scene number for a play in your in-text citation as well as the page number (or line number in some plays, such as those by Shakespeare).

This means you will set out your in-text citation in the following way:

• Scene number
• p.[page number] or [line number]

'I wanted to say I’m not guilty.' (Hare, 1995, 1.2: p.15).

'I am all the daughters of my father's house,' (Shakespeare, 2010, 2.4: 128).

Poems published in an anthology or collection

Reference a poem in an anthology in the same way as a chapter from an edited book.

• Author [Last name, Initials]
• 'Title of poem' (in 'single quotation marks')
• in Author or Editor(s) names [Last name, Initials] (ed.) or (eds.)
• pp. [page range of poem]

Shelley, P.B. (1998) 'Ode to the West Wind', in Wu, D. (ed.) Romanticism: an anthology. 2nd edn. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 859-861.

Heaney, S. (1975) 'Come to the bower', in Heaney, S. North. London: Faber and Faber, p24.

Poems published online

Reference a poem found online in the same way as a webpage.

• Title of poem (in italics )

Braithwaite, E.K. (2005) Bread. Available at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52763/bread-56d2318008d8f (Accessed: 12 March 2021).

Press releases

• Author [Last name, Initials] or Organisaion
• Title of press release (in italics )
• [Press release] (in [square brackets])
• Accessed: [date]

Birmingham City Council (2019) Council moves forward with effort to rezone site of proposed Sherman Industries concrete facility [Press release], 14 May. Available at: https://www.birminghamalcitycouncil.org/2019/05/14/ (Accessed: 21 August 2019).

If the press release is a printed document, do not include any details after the day and month.

Report from FAME, MarketLine or other databases

• Author(s) (Last name, Initials) or Publishing organisaion
• (Year of latest update) (in round brackets)

Bureau van Dijk (2018) Virgin Atlantic company report . Available at: http://fame.bvdep.com (Accessed: 12 July 2018).

MarketLine (2015) Amazon UK Ltd. Available at: http://web.ebscohost.com (Accessed: 20 October 2015).

Reference book

You reference sections or definitions from a reference book in a similar way to a chapter or section of an edited book.

• Author(s) or Editor(s) of book
• 'Title of section or definition' (in 'single quotation marks')
• in Title of whole book (in italics )

If you are using an online reference book, replace the printed publication details with:

• Available at: [date]

McLean, I. and McMillan, A. (eds.) (2009) 'Multiculturalism', in The concise Oxford dictionary of politics. Available at: http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t86.e853> (Accessed: 12 December 2011).

Sacred texts (Holy Bible, Holy Qu'ran, Torah, etc.)

In-text citations for sacred texts.

Set out in-text citations for sacred texts like this:

• Name of sacred text (or book/section)
• chapter or surah number
• verse number

"a time to kill and a time to heal" (Ecclesiastes 3: 3)

"And Moses brought Aaron and his sons, and washed them with water. (Vayikra 8: 6)

"Thy Guardian-Lord Hath not forsaken thee, Nor is He displeased. (Qu'ran 93: 2)

Reference list entries for sacred texts

For Theology module assignments, you do not need to provide a reference list entry. However, you must always provide an in-text citation.

For all other modules, reference lists for sacred texts should be set out as follows:

Holy Bible or Torah

• Name of sacred text ( not in italics)
• Version (for Holy Bible)

Holy Bible. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. New International Version.

Torah. Bamidbar 1:1.

The Qu'ran and other sacred texts

• Book (if applicable)
• Chapter or Surah
• Translated by: [First name or Initials Last name] (if applicable)

Qu'ran 47: 5. Translated by Tarif Khalidi. London: Penguin.

Short story

Stories published as part of an anthology or collection.

Reference a short story in an anthology in the same way as a chapter from an edited book.

• Author(s) of story [Last name, Initials]
• 'Title of story' (in 'single quotation marks')
• pp. [page range of story]

Faulkner, W. (1967) 'Pennsylvania Station’, in Faulkner, W. Uncle Willy and other stories. London: Chatto & Windus, pp.203-220.

Conan Doyle, A. (2005) 'Lot no. 249', in Luckhurst, R. (ed.) Late Victorian gothic tales. Oxford: Oxford World's Classics, pp.109-140.

Stories published as a single volume

Reference a short story published on their own in the same way as a book.

• Title of story (in italics )

If the story has an editor or is a translation, add these details to the reference. See the examples 'books translated from a foreign language' and 'books with author(s) and editor(s) named' for full details.

Mansfield, K. (1920) Prelude. London: Hogarth Press.

Andersen, H.C. (2015) The tinder box. Translated by Tiina Nunnally. London: Penguin Little Black Classics.

Social media and instant messaging services

Birmingham Newman does not follow the guidance in Cite them right for social media posts.

Posts on social media sites (including Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc.)

Use this guidance for anything published publicly on a social media site. This can include posts to closed groups on Facebook, or locked accounts on Twitter and Instagram.

To help anyone reading your assignment, you could include screenshots of social media posts and their context in an appendix. We recommend you talk to your Module Leader if you are unsure what to do.

• Author of post [Last name, Initials] OR [Organisation name] OR ['username']
• [Social media platform name] (in [square brackets])
• Available at: [URL of post]

Blackman, M. (2019) [Twitter] 14 August. Available at: https://twitter.com/malorieblackman/status/1161558270735261696?s=20 (Accessed: 28 August 2019).

Extinction Rebellion Birmingham (2019) [Instagram] 27 August. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/B1rKF5anxjD/ (Accessed 28 August 2019).

'jøll' (2019) [TikTok], July. Available at: http://vm.tiktok.com/2r1s3F/ (Accessed: 28 August 2019).

Instant messenger services and private messages on social media sites (including WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc.)

Reference conversations in instant and private messenger services in the same way as personal communication.

We recommend asking your Module Leader for advice and checking the ‘special cases’ section in this referencing guide for advice on how to cite sources from research anonymously. Again, you may decide to include screenshots in an appendix to your assignment.

• Author [Last name, Initials] or ['username']
• Type of communication and name of person communicated with [First name, Last name] or ['username] or ['group name']

Malone, S. (2018) Facebook Messenger chat with Wai Lang, 9th May.

Kolhi, V. (2019) WhatsApp chat with 'Broadbury Neighbourhood Watch', 21 December.

'notrupertgiles' (2019) Direct message on Twitter to Andrew Lovell, 16 March.

Students' own work

We recommend that you check with your tutor before using any of your previous work as a source for a new assignment. Some programmes or modules will have different rules about when it is or is not appropriate to self-reference.

If you use any of your own previous work that you have published or submitted for assessment at Birmingham Newman or elsewhere, you must make sure that you reference yourself. This is so you can avoid self-plagiarism .

Assessed work and assignments

• Your name [Last name, Initials]
• (Year submitted or published) (in round brackets)
• 'Title of work' (in single quotation marks')
• Assignment for [ module code ] [ name of module]italics )
• [Course name] (in italics )
• Name of college or university
• Unpublished assignment

Giles, S. (2014) 'How do Shakespeare's heroes interrogate attitudes towards masculinity?' Assignment for AA306: Shakespeare: Text and Performance, BA (Hons) English Literature , The Open University. Unpublished assignment.

Published work

Reference any work you have had published in the appropriate way for the type of source that it is (e.g. short story, news article, etc.).

Theses and dissertations

• (Year of submission) (in round brackets)
• Title of thesis or dissertation (in italics )
• Degree statement
• Degree awarding body
• Available at: [URL] (if viewed online)
• (Accessed: date) (if viewed online)

Atherton, J. (2012) Rioting, dissent and the church in late eighteenth century Britain . PhD thesis. University of Leicester.

Scott, Z.A.A. (2007) The inquiring sort: ideas and learning in late eighteenth-century Birmingham. PhD thesis. University of Warwick. Available at: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.491507 (Accessed: 14 June 2014).

A wikis is a type of online source where often large groups of users, who may be anonymous, contribute to the content. This means that some information you would usually include in a reference is unavailable or not relevant.

• 'Title of wiki article' (in 'single quotation marks')
• (Year the source was last updated) (in round brackets)
• Title of wiki site
• (Accessed: date)

'Book of numbers' (2018) Wikipedia. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Numbers (Accessed: 12 July 2018).

Audio, video, or images shared online (e.g. Soundcloud, YouTube, Instagram, TED, Vimeo)

You should only use this referencing style for original online content shared by its creator or an official distributor.

You must not reference content found on the Internet that the person who posted it did not have permission to share.

• Creator(s) [Last name, Initials] OR Organisation name OR 'username' (in single quotation marks)
• (Year posted) (in round brackets)
• Day and month (if available)
• (Accessed: [date]) OR (Downloaded: [date]) (in round brackets)

'Porter Brook' (2019) No-one asked vol. 1. 2 August. Available at: https://soundcloud.com/user-325713513/mix-june-19 (Accessed: 30 August 2019).

'How to ADHD' (2019) Why people pleasing doesn't make people happy (and what to do instead). 9 May. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BanqlGZSWiI (Accessed: 30 August 2019).

Wernet, L. (2014) Spring feelings. Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/farbenflut/13546763753/in/gallery-flickr-72157695356899955/ (Downloaded: 13 June 2017).

Book illustration, figure, diagram, table, etc.

Use this guidance if you are referencing an illustration, diagram, table or figure etc. independently of the rest of the source. This means that if, for example, you are citing text from the source as well, there is usually no need to create a separate reference list entry for the illustration, diagram, table or figure, etc.

• Author(s) of book [Last name, Initials]
• p. [page number] (if applicable)
• illustration OR figure OR diagram OR table, etc.

If the item you are referencing is in a chapter of an edited book or another source, such as a journal article, use the guidance for referencing that type of source, adding the page number and description after the publication details.

In-text example

Pinkey's illustration for the first edition cover of Roll of thunder, hear my cry (Watson and Montgomery, 2009, plate 10) deomonstrates...

Reference list example

Montgomery, H. and Watson, N.J. (eds.) (2009) Children's literature: classic texts and contemporary trends Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, plate 10, illustration.

• Artist [Last name, Initials]
• 'Title or caption of cartoon' (in 'single quotation marks')
• Name of publication (in italics )

Pritchett, M. (2019) 'Lunatic' [Cartoon]. The Telegraph , 3 September.

Films and documentaries

Use this guidance for 'feature length' films and documentaries not made for TV. For television broadcasts use the guidance for ‘television and radio programmes’.

• Title of film (in italics )
• (Year of distribution) (in round brackets)
• Directed by [First name Last name]
• [Film] (in square brackets) OR [format] (in [square brackets])

For films streamed from an online service (such as Netflix or Box of Broadcasts) add access details after the distributor's name:

• Available at: [URL] OR Available on: [name of subscription service]

Grey Gardens (1975) Directed by David and Albert Maysles [Film]. United States: Portrait Films.

Rashomon (2001) Directed by Akira Kurosawa [DVD]. London: BFI video.

The birds (1963) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock [Film]. Los Angeles: Universal Pictures. Available on: Netflix UK (Accessed: 20 July 2018).

Chennai express (2011) Directed by Rohit Shetty [Film]. United Kingdom: IG Interactive Entertainment. Available at: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/05F3BF0E?bcast=116695478 (Accessed 10 Mar 2021).

In-text citations for films and documentaries

You do not use writers' or directors' names for your in-text citation for films and documentaries. Instead, use the name of the film or documentary (in italics) and the year:

( Grey Gardens , 1975)

( Rashomon , 2001)

You may also choose to use a 'timestamp' if your reference needs to highlight a particular part of your film or documentary:

( The birds , 1963, 1:03:32)

( Chennai express , 2011, 00:04:52)

Music and spoken word - live performances

• Artist or Composer [Last name, Initials] OR [Group name]
• Title of performance (in italics ) (for Classical music)
• Performers (for Classical music)
• [Venue, day and month] (in [square brackets])

Chic (2017) [Glastonbury Festival, 25 June].

Glass, P. (2012) Einstein on the beach . Philip Glass Ensemble conducted by Michael Riesman; choreography by Lucinda Childs. [Barbican Theatre, London, 12 May].

Music and spoken word - recorded performances

Albums, eps and tracks released as singles.

• (Year of release) (in round brackets)
• Title of album (in italics )
• [format] (in [square brackets])
• Performer (for Classical music)

If you streamed or downloaded the source from an online service (such as Spotify or Apple Music), remove the [format] element and add access details after the distributor's name:

• (Accessed: [date]) (in round brackets) OR (Downloaded: [date]) (in round brackets)

The Beatles (1965) Rubber soul [CD]. London: Parlophone.

Shostakovich, D. (1962) Symphony no. 7 [Vinyl]. New York Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Leonard Bernstein. New York: Columbia Masterworks.

Shah, N. (2013) Love your dum and ma . Apollo. Available on: Spotify UK (Accessed 12 March 2021).

Songs or tracks from an album

• 'Title of track' (in 'single quotation marks')

If you streamed or downloaded the source from an online service (such as Spotify or Apple Music), remove the [format] element, but add access details after the distributor's name:

Tempest, K. (2016) 'Lionmouth door knocker', Let them eat chaos [CD]. London: Fiction Records.

Saint-Saëns, C. (2005) 'The aquarium', Carnival of the animals . London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Barry Wordsworth. London: London Symphony Orchestra. Available on: Spotify UK (Accessed: 2 September 2019).

Photographs - prints or slides

For original digital images shared online, use the guidance for ’audio, video, or images shared online’.

You should reference the photograph only if you are talking about it as a source (for example as a work of art in itself or as a specific view). If you are referring to the subject as a separate source, you should reference the source that you are writing about (for example if you are referring to a sculpture by Hepworth that you have seen in a photograph, reference the sculpture, not the photograph).

• Photographer [Last name, Initials] (if known)
• Title or subject of photograph (in italics )
• [Photograph] (in [square brackets])
• Place of publication (if known)
• Publisher (if known)

Martin, P. (1907) Tram accident in Carver Street [Photograph].Winson Green: Midland History Resource Centre.

Podcasts in a series with named episodes

• 'Title of episode' (in single quotation marks)
• Title of podcast (in italics)
• [Podcast] (in [square brackets])
• Series [number] (if available)
• episode [number] (if available)
• Day and month of release (if available)

'Headlines and trendlines' (2022) Think with Pinker [Podcast]. 27 January. Available on: BBC Sounds (Accessed 22 February 2022).

'Reaction offices and the future of work' (2022) 99% Invisible [Podcast], episode 476. Available at: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/reaction-offices-and-the-future-of-work/ (Accessed: 22 February 2022).

Podcasts by individuals or organisations not linked as a series

• Presenter's name [Surname, Initials] OR Organisation name
• Title or subject of podcast

Barton, L. (2017) When women wore the trousers [Podcast], 13 June. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p055slc5 (Accessed: 22 February 2022).

Unicef Office of Research - Innocenti (2021) Special focus on sub-Saharan Africa [Podcast]. Available at: https://www.unicef-irc.org/podcasts/?id=59 (Accessed 22 February 2022).

In-text citations for podcasts

When citing podcasts in-text, you must use the information that is in the position before the date in your reference list entry. This means that for podcasts in a series with named episodes, the in-text citation will be the name of the episode (in 'single quotation marks') and the date, for example:

('Headlines and trendlines', 2022)

For other podasts, you will use the presenter or organisation's name and the date, which means they will look the same as in-text citations for written sources, for example:

(Barton, 2017)

You may also choose to use a 'timestamp' if your reference needs to highlight a particular part of a podcast:

(Unicef Office of Research - Innocenti, 2021, 0:56:16)

Public lectures, seminars, speeches, presentations, etc. (including online and videoconferencing)

For teaching and learning content from your course, including items uploaded to Moodle, use the guidance on 'Teaching and learning resources from Birmingham Newman modules'.

Use this guidance to reference the spoken content of a public lecture, seminar, presentation, etc.

• Speaker(s) [Last name, Initials]
• Title of communication (in italics )
• [medium] [in square brackets]
• Institution (if appropriate)

Extinction Rebellion Hackney (2019) NVDA training [Seminar]. Extinction Rebellion Hackney, London. 23 October.

Cannon, J. (2019) An evening with Joanna Cannon [Lecture]. Waterstones Booksellers, Birmingham. 24 October.

Radio and television programmes

• Title of programme (in italics )
• Name of channel
• Day and month of transmission (if available)

For programmes streamed from an online service (such as Netflix or Box of Broadcasts), add access details after the day and month of transmission:

Scotland decides: Salmond versus Darling (2014) BBC Two Television, 25 August.

Prince Albert: a Victorian hero revealed (2019) Channel 4, 24 August. Available at: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/145118BE?bcast=129988335 (Accessed: 3 Sep 2019).

What happened, Miss Simone? (2015) Available on: Netflix UK (Accessed: 15 June 2015).

In-text citations for radio and television programmes

You do not use writers' or directors' names for your in-text citation for radio and television programmes. Instead, use the name of the programme (in italics) and the year:

( Scotland decides: Salmond versus Darling , 2014)

( Prince Albert: a Victorian hero revealed , 2019)

You may also choose to use a 'timestamp' if your reference needs to highlight a particular part of your programme:

( What happened, Miss Simone? , 2015, 0:32:43)

Radio and television programmes - episodes from a series

This guidance was updated on 21 February 2022. Advice on programmes without named episodes has been updated. This will affect both reference list entries and in-text citations.

Programmes with named episodes

• Title of programme (in italics)
• Series [number] (if required)
• episode [number]

'That was fun' (2020) I may destroy you , episode 4. BBC1, 16 June. Available at: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/164081D2?bcast=132155513 (Accessed 11 March 2021).

'I wasn't ready' (2013) Orange is the new black , Series 1, episode1. Available on Netflix UK (Accessed: 4 June 2014).

Programmes without named episodes

• Day and month of transmission

The Office (2013) Series 1, episode 5. BBC Two Television, 13 August.

EastEnders (2022) Episode 6437. BBC One Television, 18 February.

In-text citations for episodes of radio and television programmes

You do not use writers' or directors' names for your in-text citation for radio or television programmes. Instead, use the episode name (in 'inverted commas') and the year (for programmes with named episodes), or the name of the programme (in italics ) and the year (for programmes without named episodes):

('That was fun', 2020)

( EastEnders , 2022)

You may also choose to use a 'timestamp' if your reference needs to highlight a particular part of an episode:

('I wasn't ready', 2015, 0:10:16)

Theatrical Performances (plays, musicals, opera, etc.)

Use this guidance for performances watched live only. For filmed performances available online (e.g. from Drama Online) use the guidance for 'Films and documentaries' or 'Audio, video and images shared online', as appropriate.

• Title of theatrical performance (in italics )
• by [Author/Composer Initials/First name Family name]
• (Year of production) (in round brackets)
• Directed by [First name Family name]
• [Venue, day and month] in [square brackets]

Turandot by G. Puccini, G. Adami and R. Simoni (2023) Directed by Andrei Serban. [Royal Opera House, London, 22 March].

Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe (2011) Directed by Matthew Dunster. [Globe Theatre, London, 16 October].

In-text citations for theatrical productions

You do not use writers' or directors' names for your in-text citation for theatrical performances. Instead, use the name of the play, musical, or production (in italics) and the year:

( Turandot , 2023)

( Doctor Faustus , 2011)

Visual art - paintings, drawings, sculpture, etc.

• Artist(s) [Last name, Initials]
• (Year created) (in round brackets)
• Title or subject of work (in italics )
• [medium of work] (in [square brackets])
• Name of gallery or collection (if applicable)

Bruegel the Elder, P. (1566) St. John the Baptist preaching [Oil on oak panel]. Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.

Hepworth, B. (1970) Ancestor I [Sculpture]. University of Birmingham, Edgbaston campus, Birmingham.

This guide and referencing examples show you how to reference most of the sources you’re likely to use in your work.

If there isn’t an example that fits what you’re trying to use, try 3 things:

1. Use the book

Our referencing style is based on the principles in Cite them right by Richard Pears and Graham Shields. This book is available from the Library, and we have both print copies that you can borrow as well as an e-book.

CIte them right also contains examples for APA 7th Edition and OSCOLA referencing.

You may find yourself using this book enough over your time with us that it is worth buying your own copy. If you wish to do this, the details are:

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2022)  Cite them right: the essential referencing guide . 12th edn. London: Bloomsbury Study Skills. ISBN: 9781350933446.

2. Ask an Academic Service Librarian

You can ask Academic Service Librarians for advice on referencing by:

• using our live online chat service during our advertised chat hours
• emailing [email protected].

3. Ask your Module Leader

If a particular reference is causing you trouble, your Module Leader should be able to tell you how they would like you to present it.

Last reviewed: 14 August 2024

• << Previous: In-text citations: guide and examples
• Next: Help with other referencing styles >>

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Harvard - writing a reference list

A reference list gathers all sources that have been used in an academic text. Here you will find examples of how to write references for different types of sources according to the Harvard style.

The examples on this page are based on Umeå University Library's version of the Harvard style.

Collect all sources in a reference list 

According to the Harvard style, in-text references to sources are placed in parentheses. At the end of your document, you should have a reference list in which you collect all the sources you have used and referred to in your text. The reference list should be sorted alphabetically by the first author's surname or equivalent.  

Examples of different types of sources

The reference list should include detailed information about the sources so that a reader can find the exact source you have referred to. Here you can see examples of how to write references for different types of sources in the Harvard style. For each source type, we first show a template of how to write the reference and what information to include. Then we show a real example. Note that not all the information in the template is always available and, therefore, can’t be included.

Books and reports

Books with one author

Author’s last name, initial(s). (Year of publication). Title . Edition (if not 1st). Publisher.

Bryman, A. (2008). Social research methods . 3rd ed. Oxford University Press.

Books with two or more authors

Author’s last name, initial(s), Author’s last name, initial(s). & Author’s last name, initial(s). (Year of publication). Title . Edition (if not 1st). Publisher.

Blocher, E., Stout, D.E., Juras, P.E. & Cokins, G. (2013). Cost management: a strategic emphasis . 6th ed. McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Books which are edited (anthologies)

Editor’s last name, initial(s). (ed.). (Year of publication). Title . Edition (if not 1st). Publisher.

Allen, J. & Young, I.M. (eds.). (1989). The thinking muse: feminism and modern French philosophy . Indiana University Press.

More information

For edited books, include (ed.) or (eds.) if multiple editors between the name of the editor/editors and the year of publication.

Author’s last name, initial(s). (Year of publication). Title . Edition (if not 1st). Publisher. Permanent link or complete URL (Access date).

Example – book with a permanent link (DOI, URN, Handle or equivalent)

Swinnen, J.F.M. & Rozelle, S. (2006). From Marx and Mao to the market: the economics and politics of agricultural transition . Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/0199288917.001.0001

Example – book with a complete URL and access date

Strindberg, A. (1912). Three plays: Countess Julie; the Outlaw; the Stronger . International pocket library. https://archive.org/details/threeplayscounte00striuoft (Accessed 2012-05-21).

• The same information should be provided as for printed books (see example: Books with one author). Provide the permanent link (DOI, Handle, URN or equivalent) if available, without a full stop at the end.
• For books that are (legally and) freely available on the internet, include the same information as for printed books (see example above). In those cases, you should add the complete URL (http://....) or the link provided by the publisher, and the date you downloaded/read the book. Include a full stop at the end.

Book chapters

Author’s last name, initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of the book chapter. In Editor(s) last name, initial(s). (eds.). Title of book . Edition (if not 1:st). Publisher, page numbers of chapter.

Malmberg, A. (2003). Beyond the cluster: local milieus and global connections. In Peck, J. & Wai-chung Yeung, H. (eds.). Remaking the Global Economy . Sage Publications, pp. 145-162.

Organisation or author. (Year of publication). Title of report . Publisher. Permanent link or complete URL (Access date).

Example – report with a permanent link (DOI, URN, Handle or equivalent)

Aronsson, T. & Blomquist, S. (2018). Uncertain length of life, retirement age, and optimal pension design . Department of Economics, Umeå University. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-145736

Example – report with a complete URL and access date

Transparency International. (2020). Corruption perceptions index 2019 . https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/2019_CPI_Report_EN.pdf (Accessed 2020-10-19).

The publisher can be excluded if it is the same as the organisation writing the report.

Journal articles (scholarly articles)

Author’s last name(s), initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of article. Journal name Volume(issue): Page numbers of article. Permanent link or complete URL (Access date).

Example – article with a permanent link (DOI, URN, Handle or equivalent)

Lundmark, L. (2005). Economic restructuring into tourism in the Swedish mountain range. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 5(1): pp. 23-45. doi:10.1080/15022250510014273

Example – article with a complete URL and access date

Larsen, J.E. & Blair, J.P. (2009). The importance of police performance as a determinant of satisfaction with police. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration 1(1): pp. 1-10. http://scipub.org/ajeba/article/view/5217/5214 (Accessed 2019-12-10).

Example – article with an article number

Abramowicz, K., Sjöstedt de Luna, S. & Strandberg, J. (2022). Nonparametric bagging clustering methods to identify latent structures from a sequence of dependent categorical data. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis 177: 107583. doi:10.1016/j.csda.2022.107583

• Articles in scholarly journals often have a permanent link (DOI, URN, Handle or equivalent) that you should use. You can use the URL if there is no permanent link.
• For articles without a permanent link and articles freely available on the web, the access date should also be specified.

Newspaper articles

Template – article with a complete URL and access date

Author’s last name, initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of newspaper . Day and month of the article. Complete URL (Access date).

Jowit, J. (2010). Corporate lobbying is blocking food reforms, senior UN official warns. Guardian . 22 September. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/22/food-firms-lobbying-samuel-jutzi (Accessed 2019-09-30).

Template – article in a printed newspaper or a database (such as PressReader)

Author’s last name, initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of newspaper . Day and month of the article, page number(s).

Example – article in a printed newspaper or a database (such as PressReader)

Jowit, J. (2010). Corporate lobbying is blocking food reforms, senior UN official warns. Guardian . 22 September, pp. 8-9.

Internet sources

Author, organisation, authority or company. (Year when the web page was updated). Title of document or page . Complete URL (Access date).

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2010). Health: OECD says governments must fight fat . http://www.oecd.org/document/35/0,3343,en_21571361_44315115_46064099_1_1_1_1,00.html (Accessed 2010-10-10).

• Use the web pages category only if no other reference category fits (e.g. book or journal article).
• If you can’t find information on when the webpage was updated, you can indicate as (n.d.). N.d. means no date.

Author, organisation, authority, or company. (Year when the blog post was updated). Title of blog post. Name of the blog . [Blog]. Day and month of the blog post. Complete URL (Access date).

Enever, J. (2015). A tentative view on primary language education policy in India. Forskarbloggen . [Blog]. 7 March. http://blogg.umu.se/forskarbloggen/2015/03/a-tentative-view-on-primary-language-education-policy-in-india/ (Accessed 2015-08-14).

Author, organisation, authority or company. (Year when the tweet was updated). Title of tweet . [Twitter]. Day and month of the tweet. Complete URL (Access date).

Fällström, A. (2015). Fewer topics in greater depth. #mathematics #Math Singapore math skills add up in the West http://cnb.cx/1M3BgPX . [Twitter]. 15 July. https://twitter.com/hyperconvex/status/621212215006392320 (Accessed 2015-08-14).

Encyclopaedias, dictionaries or Wikipedia

Author of article. (Year of publication). Title of article. Name of encyclopaedia. Permanent link or complete URL (Access date).

Lovari, S. (2008). Chamois. Encyclopaedia Britannica . https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/chamois/22341 (Accessed 2023-07-25).

Example – no personal author

Encyclopaedia Britannica . (2020). Sestina. https://www.britannica.com/art/sestina-poetic-form (Accessed 2023-06-28).

Example – Wikipedia

Wikipedia . (2020). Zadie Smith. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zadie_Smith&oldid=981120030 (Accessed 2020-10-20).

• If you can’t find the year of publication, you can write (n.d.). N.d. means no date.
• If there is no personal author, write the name of the encyclopaedia as author.
• Use Wikipedia's permanent link as URL, which is available under tools.

Organisation or creator (Year of publication). Title of dataset [Dataset]. Organisation/database. Permanent link or complete URL (Access date).

Eurostat (2023). Healthy life years at birth by sex [Dataset]. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/TPS00150/default/table?lang=en (Accessed 2023-07-25).

Edlund, J., & Svallfors, S. (2009). ISSP 2004 - Citizenship I: Sweden (1.1) [Data set, documentation:ISSP2004_questions]. Umeå University. doi:10.5878/001613

• If the organisation/creator is the same as the organisation/database, the latter can be excluded.
• A dataset is often statistical data compiled by an authority or statistical provider.
• Datasets may contain many files that you may not use. In such cases, you can add, in square brackets, the name of the specific folder and file that you have used. Separate the folder name from the file name with a comma.

Theses and conference proceedings

Doctoral thesis

Author’s last name, initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of thesis . Doctoral thesis, University of graduation. Permanent link (URN, Handle or DOI)

Abramowicz, K. (2011). Numerical analysis for random processes and fields and related design problems . Doctoral thesis, Umeå University. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-46156

Licentiate thesis

Author’s last name, initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of thesis . Licentiate thesis, University of graduation. Permanent link (URN, Handle or DOI)

Landström, M. (2009). Two essays on Central Bank independence reforms . Licentiate thesis, Umeå University.

Conference proceedings

Author’s last name, initial(s). (Year of publication). Title of conference paper. In: Title of conference publication (proceeding): name of the conference . City of conference, country date of the conference, page numbers of the conference paper. Permanent link (DOI, URN or Handle) or URL (Access date).

Witkowski, E., Hutchins, B. & Carter, M. (2013). E-sports on the rise?: Critical considerations on the growth and erosion of organized digital gaming competitions. In: IE´13: Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death . Melbourne, Australia 30 September -1 October, pp. 1-2. doi:10.1145/2513002.2513008

• Papers presented at conferences are often published in a type of publication called conference proceedings (also known as symposiums or meetings).
• If conference papers are published as journal articles or book chapters, use the corresponding reference category outlined in this guide.

Sounds and images

Illustrations (photographs, figures, diagrams, tables etc.)

Last name and initial(s) of the creator. (Year). Title of illustration [Format, for instance, Photography]. Complete URL (Access date).

Lennver, A. (2012). Night against procrastination [Photography]. http://www.ub.umu.se/nightagainstprocrastion/ (Accessed 2016-04-05).

Example – photography in a book

State the illustrator's name if different from the book's author.

Hazel, E. (2015). Prague by day [Photography]. In Johnson, S. Czech photography in the twenty-first century . Autumn Publishing.

Example – work of art on the internet

If you use an image of a work of art online, you should reference it as an online image, regardless of the original medium. If possible, state the name of the artist and the collection:

Turner, J. (1839). The Fighting Temeraire [Photography]. The National Gallery [online]. www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/josephmallord-william-turner-the-fightingtemeraire (Accessed 2016-04-05).

Illustrations created by others are often protected by copyright. In those cases, you will need permission from the copyright owner before using the illustrations in your text.

Podcasts, radio and TV programmes

Name of series (Year). Title of episode [Podcast/Radio program/Tv programme]. Transmitting organisation/channel. Day and month of transmission. Complete URL (Access date).

Example – podcast

Vetenskapspodden (2023). Så söker man efter liv på Jupiters månar [Podcast]. Sveriges Radio. 13 April. https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/sa-soker-man-efter-liv-pa-jupiters-manar (Accessed 2023-05-30).

Soul Music (2022). Purple rain [Podcast]. BBC. 21 May. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017k0j (Accessed 2023-07-24).

Example – radio programmes

P3 Soul (2023). Teena Marie [Radio program]. Sveriges Radio. 21 May. https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/teena-marie (Accessed 2023-05-30).

Living planet (2023). The world on fire: how to deal with wildfires [Radio program]. Deutsche Welle. 29 May. https://www.dw.com/en/the-world-on-fire-how-to-deal-with-wildfires/audio-66072858 (Accessed 2023-07-24).

Example – TV programmes

Trädgårdstider (2023). Avsked och lökplantering [TV programme]. SVT. 23 May. https://www.svtplay.se/video/82DLdbP/tradgardstider/avsked-och-lokplantering?id=82DLdbP (Accessed 2023-05-30).

Blue lights (2023). The code [TV programme]. BBC Player. 1 July. https://player.bbc.com/en/brand/blue-lights/blue-lights-s1 (Accessed 2023-07-25).

For older programmes that are still accessible but lack some information (such as the date of transmission) there is no need to search for it. Create the reference with the help of the available information where you found the programme.

Recorded lectures, presentations, speeches and interviews

Name of the speaker/equivalent. (Year). Title of lecture/speech . [Format]. Publisher/organisation. Complete URL (Access date).

Satyarthi, K. (2015). How to make peace? Get angry . [Video]. TED talks. http://www.ted.com/talks/kailash_satyarthi_how_to_make_peace_get_angry (Accessed 2015-05-03).

If the speaker/equivalent is the same as the publisher/organisation, exclude the latter.

Other sources

Personal communication

A reference to personal communication should include as much information as possible: Name, profession/position, (year), details of personal communication, and date (day and month).

Personal communication is sometimes not included in the reference list as the sources are usually untraceable. In those cases, provide information about personal communication only in the footnotes. Check with your teacher/supervisor if you are uncertain.

Svensson, A., student at Umeå University (2010). Interview 11 May.

Informant 1: Grammar school, Umeå (2010). 12 boys and 12 girls, individual interviews 9 May.

Smith, V., Professor at the Department of Physics, Umeå University (2010). Northern Lights, lecture 12 March.

Please note that e-mail addresses belonging to individuals should only be provided if the owner has given permission.

Lee, O. (2008). E-mail 13 May. < [email protected] >.

Personal communication includes information received through, for example, emails, phone calls, interviews, or lectures. You should always obtain permission from the person in question before referring to them. If anonymity has been assured, it must be maintained. If possible, keep a copy of the communication. More information on ethical rules for research can be found at CODEX - the collection of rules and guidelines for research.

Secondary sources

Citing a source from a secondary source is generally to be avoided since you are expected to have read the works you cite. However, if a primary source (original source) is unavailable, you may use secondary sources. Only information about the secondary source should be included in the reference list.

If you are writing about Bob Smith's book "Democracy" (published in 1981), where he cites Tom Small's book "Civil Rights", published in 1832, on page 72, you should only include Smith’s book in the reference list:

Smith, B. (1981). Democracy . Herbst Verlag.

Generative AI

Normally, generative AI should not be used as a source in papers. However, the rules for generative AI may vary between courses, programmes and faculties. Therefore, ask your teacher or supervisor about when and how you can use generative AI for your work.

Programme developer (Year). AI model name, version . URL

OpenAI (2024). Chat-GPT, 4o. https://chatgpt.com/

Microsoft (2024). Microsoft Copilot . https://copilot.microsoft.com/

• Examples of generative AI programmes are Chat GPT, Microsoft Copilot and Gemini.
• In this Harvard template the text generated by AI is considered the product of a software developer, therefore you refer to the creator of the software.

Harvard - references in text

See examples of how to write references to different types of sources with parentheses in the Harvard style.

Writing references

Are you up to speed on references? Find tips on guides and features that simplify your reference management.

Avoiding plagiarism

Make sure that it is clear which words and ideas are your own.

Software for writing references

A reference management program helps you to manage your references throughout the whole research process.

A video about the Harvard reference style.

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Do you have questions about how to write a reference list or cite sources? Visit our drop-in sessions or schedule a tutoring appointment if you need help from a librarian. You can also submit short questions via chat and the contact form or ask the staff at the information desk.

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Quick guide to Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right)

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There are different versions of the Harvard referencing style. This guide is a quick introduction to the commonly-used Cite Them Right version. You will find further guidance available through the OU Library on the Cite Them Right Database .

For help and support with referencing and the full Cite Them Right guide, have a look at the Library’s page on referencing and plagiarism . If you need guidance referencing OU module material you can check out which sections of Cite Them Right are recommended when referencing physical and online module material .

This guide does not apply to OU Law undergraduate students . If you are studying a module beginning with W1xx, W2xx or W3xx, you should refer to the Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules .

Table of contents

In-text citations and full references.

• Secondary referencing
• Page numbers
• Citing multiple sources published in the same year by the same author

Full reference examples

Referencing consists of two elements:

• in-text citations, which are inserted in the body of your text and are included in the word count. An in-text citation gives the author(s) and publication date of a source you are referring to. If the publication date is not given, the phrase 'no date' is used instead of a date. If using direct quotations or if you paraphrase a specific section in the source you also need the page number/s if available, or paragraph number for web pages.
• full references, which are given in alphabetical order in a  reference list at the end of your work and are not included in the word count. Full references give full bibliographical information for all the sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

To see a reference list and intext citations check out this example assignment on Cite Them Right .

Difference between reference list and bibliography

a reference list only includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

a bibliography includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text AND sources that were part of your background reading that you did not use in your assignment.

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Examples of in-text citations

You need to include an in-text citation wherever you quote or paraphrase from a source. An in-text citation consists of the last name of the author(s), the year of publication, and a page number if relevant. There are a number of ways of incorporating in-text citations into your work - some examples are provided below. Alternatively you can see examples of setting out in-text citations in Cite Them Right .

Example with one author:

Almeroth-Williams, T. (2019) City of Beasts: How Animals Shaped Georgian London . Manchester: Manchester University Press.

RSPCA (2024) Caring for cats and kittens . Available at: https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/cats (Accessed: 1 August 2024).

Example with two or three authors:

Grayling, A. and Ball, B. (2024) ' Philosophy is crucial in the age of AI', The Conversation , 1 August. Available at: https://theconversation.com/philosophy-is-crucial-in-the-age-of-ai-235907 (Accessed: 1 August 2024).

Chu, M., Leonard, P. and Stevenson, F. (2012) ' Growing the Base for Citizen Science: Recruiting and Engaging Participants', in J.L. Dickinson and R. Bonney (eds.) Citizen Science: Public Participation in Environmental Research . Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 69-81.

Example with four or more authors:

Young, H.D. et al. (2015) Sears and Zemansky's university physics . San Francisco, CA: Addison-Wesley.

Note: You can choose one or other method to reference four or more authors (unless your School requires you to name all authors in your reference list) and your approach should be consistent.

Online module materials

(Includes written online module activities, audio-visual material such as online tutorials, recordings or videos).

When referencing material from module websites, the date of publication is the year you started studying the module.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

OR, if there is no named author:

The Open University (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Rietdorf, K. and Bootman, M. (2022) 'Topic 3: Rare diseases'. S290: Investigating human health and disease . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1967195 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

The Open University (2022) ‘3.1 The purposes of childhood and youth research’. EK313: Issues in research with children and young people . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1949633&section=1.3 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

You can also use this template to reference videos and audio that are hosted on your module website:

The Open University (2022) ‘Video 2.7 An example of a Frith-Happé animation’. SK298: Brain, mind and mental health . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2013014&section=4.9.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

The Open University (2022) ‘Audio 2 Interview with Richard Sorabji (Part 2)’. A113: Revolutions . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1960941&section=5.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

Note: if a complete journal article has been uploaded to a module website, or if you have seen an article referred to on the website and then accessed the original version, reference the original journal article, and do not mention the module materials. If only an extract from an article is included in your module materials that you want to reference, you should use secondary referencing, with the module materials as the 'cited in' source, as described above.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of message', Title of discussion board , in Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Fitzpatrick, M. (2022) ‘A215 - presentation of TMAs', Tutor group discussion & Workbook activities , in A215: Creative writing . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=4209566 (Accessed: 24 January 2022).

Note: When an ebook looks like a printed book, with publication details and pagination, reference as a printed book.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title . Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.

For ebooks that do not contain print publication details

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title of book . Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).

Bell, J. (2014) Doing your research project . Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy . Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-ebooks (Accessed: 23 June 2021).

Note: Books that have an editor, or editors, where each chapter is written by a different author or authors.

Surname of chapter author, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of chapter or section', in Initial. Surname of book editor (ed.) Title of book . Place of publication: publisher, Page reference.

Franklin, A.W. (2012) 'Management of the problem', in S.M. Smith (ed.) The maltreatment of children . Lancaster: MTP, pp. 83–95.

Note: When referencing a chapter of an edited book, your in-text citation should give the author(s) of the chapter.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference.

If accessed online:

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference. Available at: DOI or URL (if required) (Accessed: date).

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326.

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326. Available at: https://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/log... (Accessed: 27 January 2023).

Barke, M. and Mowl, G. (2016) 'Málaga – a failed resort of the early twentieth century?', Journal of Tourism History , 2(3), pp. 187–212. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2010.523145

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference if available. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Mansell, W. and Bloom, A. (2012) ‘£10,000 carrot to tempt physics experts’, The Guardian , 20 June, p. 5.

Roberts, D. and Ackerman, S. (2013) 'US draft resolution allows Obama 90 days for military action against Syria', The Guardian , 4 September. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/04/syria-strikes-draft-resolut... (Accessed: 9 September 2015).

Surname, Initial. (Year that the site was published/last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Robinson, J. (2007) Social variation across the UK . Available at: https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/social-variation... (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

The British Psychological Society (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct . Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct (Accessed: 22 March 2019).

Note: Cite Them Right Online offers guidance for referencing webpages that do not include authors' names and dates. However, be extra vigilant about the suitability of such webpages.

Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of photograph . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Kitton, J. (2013) Golden sunset . Available at: https://www.jameskittophotography.co.uk/photo_8692150.html (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

stanitsa_dance (2021) Cossack dance ensemble . Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/COI_slphWJ_/ (Accessed: 13 June 2023).

Note: If no title can be found then replace it with a short description.

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• Free Tools for Students
• Harvard Referencing Generator

Free Harvard Referencing Generator

Generate accurate Harvard reference lists quickly and for FREE, with MyBib!

🤔 What is a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator is a tool that automatically generates formatted academic references in the Harvard style.

It takes in relevant details about a source -- usually critical information like author names, article titles, publish dates, and URLs -- and adds the correct punctuation and formatting required by the Harvard referencing style.

The generated references can be copied into a reference list or bibliography, and then collectively appended to the end of an academic assignment. This is the standard way to give credit to sources used in the main body of an assignment.

👩‍🎓 Who uses a Harvard Referencing Generator?

Harvard is the main referencing style at colleges and universities in the United Kingdom and Australia. It is also very popular in other English-speaking countries such as South Africa, Hong Kong, and New Zealand. University-level students in these countries are most likely to use a Harvard generator to aid them with their undergraduate assignments (and often post-graduate too).

🙌 Why should I use a Harvard Referencing Generator?

A Harvard Referencing Generator solves two problems:

• It provides a way to organise and keep track of the sources referenced in the content of an academic paper.
• It ensures that references are formatted correctly -- inline with the Harvard referencing style -- and it does so considerably faster than writing them out manually.

A well-formatted and broad bibliography can account for up to 20% of the total grade for an undergraduate-level project, and using a generator tool can contribute significantly towards earning them.

⚙️ How do I use MyBib's Harvard Referencing Generator?

Here's how to use our reference generator:

• If citing a book, website, journal, or video: enter the URL or title into the search bar at the top of the page and press the search button.
• Choose the most relevant results from the list of search results.
• Our generator will automatically locate the source details and format them in the correct Harvard format. You can make further changes if required.
• Then either copy the formatted reference directly into your reference list by clicking the 'copy' button, or save it to your MyBib account for later.

MyBib supports the following for Harvard style:

🍏 What other versions of Harvard referencing exist?

There isn't "one true way" to do Harvard referencing, and many universities have their own slightly different guidelines for the style. Our generator can adapt to handle the following list of different Harvard styles:

• Cite Them Right
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• University of the West of England (UWE)

Daniel is a qualified librarian, former teacher, and citation expert. He has been contributing to MyBib since 2018.

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Citing Your Sources Guide

Apa reference list - the basics.

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Get Research Help

This page gives basic guidelines for formatting the reference list at the end of a standard APA research paper. Most sources follow fairly straightforward rules. However, because  sources obtained from academic journals  carry special weight in research writing, these sources  are subject to special rules . Thus, this page presents basic guidelines for citing academic journals separate from its "ordinary" basic guidelines. This distinction is made clear below.

Formatting a Reference list using APA

Your reference list should be included at the end of your paper. The whole point of the reference list is to provide the information necessary for any reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page "References" in bold, centered at the top of the page (do NOT underline or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.

The Basics for Most Sources

• All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation. (This is a key attribute of APA format)
• All authors' names should be inverted (i.e., last names should be provided first).
• For example, the reference entry for a source written by Jane Marie Smith would begin with "Smith, J. M."
• If a middle name isn't available, just initialize the author's first name: "Smith, J."
• Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work up to and including 20 authors ( this is a new rule, as APA 6 only required the first six authors ). Separate each author’s initials from the next author in the list with a comma. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name. If there are 21 or more authors, use an ellipsis (but no ampersand) after the 19th author, and then add the final author’s name.
• Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.
• For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
• Note again that the titles of academic journals are subject to special rules. See that section below.
• Italicize titles of longer works (e.g., books, edited collections, names of newspapers, and so on).
• Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as chapters in books or essays in edited collections.

The Basics for Academic Journal Citations using APA

• Include journal titles in full, such as " Hawai'i Journal of Medicine & Public Health " instead of an abbreviation.
• Italicize journal titles.
• For example, you should use  Past & Present  instead of  Past and Present.
• This distinction is based on the type of source being cited. Academic journal titles have all major words capitalized, while other sources' titles do not.
• Capitalize  the first word of the titles and subtitles of   journal articles , as well as the  first word after a colon or a dash  in the title, and  any proper nouns .
• Do not italicize or underline the article title.
• Deep blue: The mysteries of the Marianas Trench.
• Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication
• << Previous: APA In-text Citations - The Basics
• Next: APA Reference List - Examples >>
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Harvard: Reference List and Bibliography

A version of the Harvard (author-date) System of referencing has been adopted as the standard for the presentation of academic text at the University of Birmingham.  The examples on this page refer to this version, as found on the  Cite Them Right Online  website.  For detailed guides on how to reference and cite different sources see the right-hand side panel. 

How to list your references

In the Harvard (author-date) System the list of references is arranged alphabetically by author's surname, year (and letter, if necessary) and is placed at the end of the work.

A reference list is the detailed list of references that are cited in your work.   A bibliography is a detailed list of references cited in your work, plus the background readings or other material that you may have read, but not actually cited.  Different courses may require just a reference list, just a bibliography, or even both.  It is better to check with your tutor first.

Example of a reference list

Banerjee, A. and Watson, T.F. (2011)  Pickard’s manual of operative dentistry.  9th edn. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 

Davidson, A. (2013) ‘The Saudi Marathon Man’,  The New Yorker,  16 April. Available at: http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-saudi-marathon-man (Accessed: 22 June 2015).

Guy, J. (2001)  The view across the river: Harriette Colenso and the Zulu struggle against imperialism.  Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia.

Hislop, V. (2014)  The sunrise.  Available at  http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindlestore  (Downloaded: 17 June 2015).

Homer (1997)  The Iliad.  Translated by J. Davies. Introduction and notes by D. Wright. London: Dover Publications.

Knapik, J. J., Cosio-Lima, L. M., and Reynolds, K. L. (2015) ‘Efficacy of functional movement screening for predicting injuries in coast guard cadets’,  The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research , 29 (5), pp. 1157-1162.  EDUC 1028: E-learning.  Available at:  http://intranet.bir.ac.uk  (Accessed: 25 June 2015).

Lucas, G. (2004)  The wonders of the Universe.  2nd edn. Edited by Frederick Jones, James Smith and Tony Bradley. London: Smiths.

Medicine in old age  (1985) 2nd edn. London: British Medical Association.

‘Rush (band)’ (2015)  Wikipedia.  Available at  https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=Rush_(band)  (Accessed: 18 June 2015).

Example of a bibliography

Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (1994)  Epi Info  (Version 6) [Computer program]. Available at  http://www.cdcp.com/download.html  (Accessed: 23 June 2015).

Gregory, S. (1970)  English military intervention in the Dutch revolt.  B.A. Thesis. University of Birmingham. Available at:  http://findit.bham.ac.uk/  (Accessed: 18 June 2015).

Jones, B., (1997) Methods in tumour research.  National Agency for Tumour Research,  volume. 7.

Peart, N. (1976)  Something for Nothing.  Toronto: Toronto Sound Studios.

Rush (2015) [Bishopthorpe Social Club. 29 March].

The University of Birmingham (2010)  The University of Birmingham experience.  Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLxV5L6IaFA  (Accessed: 18 June 2015).

Style notes

• The date of publication always follows the author(s) name(s).
• All authors’/editors’ names are given in the reference list (not matter how many there are).
• If submitting a manuscript for publication, formatting conventions may be stipulated by the publisher. Always check with the publisher before submitting your work. 

Further help

• If in doubt, consult the  Cite Them Right Online  website.

 Style guides

• Harvard Referencing Quick Guide 
• Harvard Referencing Glossary 
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How to Write an Academic Essay with References and Citations

#scribendiinc

Written by  Scribendi

If you're wondering how to write an academic essay with references, look no further. In this article, we'll discuss how to use in-text citations and references, including how to cite a website, how to cite a book, and how to cite a Tweet, according to various style guides.

You might need to cite sources when writing a paper that references other sources. For example, when writing an essay, you may use information from other works, such as books, articles, or websites. You must then inform readers where this information came from. Failure to do so, even accidentally, is plagiarism—passing off another person's work as your own.

You can avoid plagiarism and show readers where to find information by using citations and references. 

Citations tell readers where a piece of information came from. They take the form of footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical elements, depending on your style guide. In-text citations are usually placed at the end of a sentence containing the relevant information. 

A reference list , bibliography, or works cited list at the end of a text provides additional details about these cited sources. This list includes enough publication information allowing readers to look up these sources themselves.

Referencing is important for more than simply avoiding plagiarism. Referring to a trustworthy source shows that the information is reliable. Referring to reliable information can also support your major points and back up your argument. 

Learning how to write an academic essay with references and how to use in-text citations will allow you to cite authors who have made similar arguments. This helps show that your argument is objective and not entirely based on personal biases.

How Do You Determine Which Style Guide to Use?

Often, a professor will assign a style guide. The purpose of a style guide is to provide writers with formatting instructions. If your professor has not assigned a style guide, they should still be able to recommend one. 

If you are entirely free to choose, pick one that aligns with your field (for example, APA is frequently used for scientific writing). 

Some of the most common style guides are as follows:

AP style for journalism

Chicago style for publishing

APA style for scholarly writing (commonly used in scientific fields)

MLA style for scholarly citations (commonly used in English literature fields)

Some journals have their own style guides, so if you plan to publish, check which guide your target journal uses. You can do this by locating your target journal's website and searching for author guidelines.

How Do You Pick Your Sources?

When learning how to write an academic essay with references, you must identify reliable sources that support your argument. 

As you read, think critically and evaluate sources for:

Objectivity

Keep detailed notes on the sources so that you can easily find them again, if needed.

Tip: Record these notes in the format of your style guide—your reference list will then be ready to go.

How to Use In-Text Citations in MLA

An in-text citation in MLA includes the author's last name and the relevant page number: 

(Author 123)

How to Cite a Website in MLA

Here's how to cite a website in MLA:

Author's last name, First name. "Title of page."

Website. Website Publisher, date. Web. Date

retrieved. <URL>

With information from a real website, this looks like:

Morris, Nancy. "How to Cite a Tweet in APA,

Chicago, and MLA." Scribendi. Scribendi

Inc., n.d. Web. 22 Dec. 2021.

<https://www.scribendi.com/academy/articles/how_to_cite_a_website.en.html>

How Do You Cite a Tweet in MLA ?

MLA uses the full text of a short Tweet (under 140 characters) as its title. Longer Tweets can be shortened using ellipses. 

MLA Tweet references should be formatted as follows:

@twitterhandle (Author Name). "Text of Tweet." Twitter, Date Month, Year, time of

publication, URL.

With information from an actual Tweet, this looks like:

@neiltyson (Neil deGrasse Tyson). "You can't use reason to convince anyone out of an

argument that they didn't use reason to get into." Twitter, 29 Sept. 2020, 10:15 p.m.,

https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/1311127369785192449 .

How to Cite a Book in MLA

Here's how to cite a book in MLA:

Author's last name, First name. Book Title. Publisher, Year.

With publication information from a real book, this looks like:

Montgomery, L.M. Rainbow Valley. Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919.

How to Cite a Chapter in a Book in MLA

Author's last name, First name. "Title of Chapter." Book Title , edited by Editor Name,

Publisher, Year, pp. page range.

With publication information from an actual book, this looks like:

Ezell, Margaret J.M. "The Social Author: Manuscript Culture, Writers, and Readers." The

Broadview Reader in Book History , edited by Michelle Levy and Tom Mole, Broadview

Press, 2015,pp. 375–394.

How to  Cite a Paraphrase in MLA

You can cite a paraphrase in MLA exactly the same way as you would cite a direct quotation. 

Make sure to include the author's name (either in the text or in the parenthetical citation) and the relevant page number.

How to Use In-Text Citations in APA

In APA, in-text citations include the author's last name and the year of publication; a page number is included only if a direct quotation is used: 

(Author, 2021, p. 123)

How to Cite a Website in APA

Here's how to cite a website in APA:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year, Month. date of publication). Title of page. https://URL

Morris, N. (n.d.). How to cite a Tweet in APA, Chicago, and MLA. 

https://www.scribendi.com/academy/articles/how_to_cite_a_website.en.html       

Tip: Learn more about how to write an academic essay with  references to websites .

How Do You  Cite a Tweet in APA ?

APA refers to Tweets using their first 20 words. 

Tweet references should be formatted as follows:

Author, A. A. [@twitterhandle). (Year, Month. date of publication). First 20 words of the

Tweet. [Tweet] Twitter. URL

When we input information from a real Tweet, this looks like:

deGrasse Tyson, N. [@neiltyson]. (2020, Sept. 29). You can't use reason to convince anyone

out of an argument that they didn't use reason to get into. [Tweet] Twitter.

https://twitter.com/neiltyson/status/1311127369785192449

How to Cite a Book in APA

Here's how to cite a book in APA:   

Author, A. A. (Year). Book title. Publisher.

For a real book, this looks like:

Montgomery, L. M. (1919). Rainbow valley.

Frederick A. Stokes Company.

How to Cite a Chapter in a Book in APA

Author, A. A. (Year). Chapter title. In Editor Name (Ed.), Book Title (pp. page range).

With information from a real book, this looks like:

Ezell, M. J. M. (2014). The social author: Manuscript culture, writers, and readers. In

Michelle Levy and Tom Mole (Eds.), The Broadview Reader in Book History (pp. 375–

394). Broadview Press.

Knowing how to cite a book and how to cite a chapter in a book correctly will take you a long way in creating an effective reference list.

How to Cite a Paraphrase in APA

You can cite a paraphrase in APA the same way as you would cite a direct quotation, including the author's name and year of publication. 

In APA, you may also choose to pinpoint the page from which the information is taken.

Referencing is an essential part of academic integrity. Learning how to write an academic essay with references and how to use in-text citations shows readers that you did your research and helps them locate your sources.

Learning how to cite a website, how to cite a book, and how to cite a paraphrase can also help you avoid plagiarism —an academic offense with serious consequences for your education or professional reputation.

Scribendi can help format your citations or review your whole paper with our Academic Editing services .

Take Your Essay from Good to Great

Hire an expert academic editor , or get a free sample, about the author.

Scribendi's in-house editors work with writers from all over the globe to perfect their writing. They know that no piece of writing is complete without a professional edit, and they love to see a good piece of writing transformed into a great one. Scribendi's in-house editors are unrivaled in both experience and education, having collectively edited millions of words and obtained numerous degrees. They love consuming caffeinated beverages, reading books of various genres, and relaxing in quiet, dimly lit spaces.

Have You Read?

"The Complete Beginner's Guide to Academic Writing"

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How to reference in a university essay

Knowing how to reference correctly in your university essays is very important. Doing it wrong, or not at all, could affect the grade you are given. Here's how to get your referencing right...

We all know referencing isn’t the most exciting thing on the planet but it’s easy to do once you know how and can also make a difference to the grades you’re getting on your essays.

Here are our tips on referencing to make sure you nail it every time!

Referencing styles

There are many different styles of referencing such as Harvard, Chicago, APA etc. so you want to make sure you’re using the right style as some courses or universities may differ.

Whilst there are useful websites such as Cite This For me and tools on Microsoft Word itself which can pretty much do all the work for you, it’s still good to know how to do it yourself and use resources like these to double check afterwards. These tools are useful, but often don't get it totally right. You can find guidance on how to cite in the correct style online, or you may be able to buy a handbook for your referencing style that explains all the nuances.

How to reference in an essay

Any time you mention the work of someone else – whether this is a direct quote or if you’re rewording a theory of theirs –  you need to reference!

Most essays you write will usually end up being knowledge built up from other authors or theorists and so citations in your work are absolutely necessary. When mentioning the work of others throughout your essay, your citation will usually be the source and date it was published in brackets somewhere in the sentence. Depending on the style of referencing, you may also have to include page numbers too.

For example:

“…..transgressive performances of gender (Baym 2015)" – Harvard Style

“Where there is power there is resistance” (Foucault 95) – APA Style

Your actual list of references at the end of your essay needs to correspond to the citations you have in your essay. To make this easier and ensure you haven’t forgotten any, always do your references as you go along.

A Harvard Style reference may look something like this:

“Baym, N. (2015) Personal Connections in the Digital Age. 2nd ed. Malden, MA: Polity Press”

Referencing is not only useful to your readers if they are left wanting more information about the topic you’ve written about, it also shows that you have done some wider reading and have actually understood what you have read.

As well as giving readers other related texts to explore and proving your own understanding of the discussions around your topic, referencing properly also prevents you from getting into trouble for plagiarism. While unis won't expel you for making a small referencing error, presenting someone else's ideas and words as your own is against the code of conduct for students and can lead to disciplinary action. And yes – that includes the use of AI-written text. Universities use plagiarism software to detect unattributed quotes or ideas, and there are now also softwares that can detect AI-produced work, so make sure you've correctly referenced and all your work is actually your ow n to avoid getting in trouble.

Finally, here's a quick checklist of everything your citations and reference lists should include (this list will vary depending on the referencing style you're using):

• Name of the author, usually formatted as Last name, First name or Last name, First initial
• Date of publication
• Title of the text, if you have used a journal then you need the title of the journal itself along with the page numbers as well as the title of the individual essay
• If you have cited a website then you need to include the URL in your reference list along with the date you accessed it
• If you have cited a book then the place of publication and publisher should be included

Happy referencing!

- More advice for coping with uni life

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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Reference List: Electronic Sources

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

Note:  This page reflects the latest version of the APA Publication Manual (i.e., APA 7), which released in October 2019. The equivalent resource for the older APA 6 style  can be found here .

Important Note: Some electronic citations necessitate the use of brackets. APA style dictates that brackets should directly surround their content without spaces (e.g., [bracketed content] should look like this). When possible, include the year, month, and date in references. If the month and date are not available, use the year of publication. Additionally, APA 7 th  edition no longer requires the use of “Retrieved from” before URLs or DOIs; special exceptions, however, are made for resources that are unarchived. Including the retrieval date for these sources indicates to readers that the version of the work they retrieve may be different than what was originally used. 

Please note: the following contains a list of the most commonly cited electronic sources. For a complete list of how to cite electronic sources, please refer to the 7 th edition of the APA Publication Manual.

Webpage or Piece of Online Content

If the page names an individual author, cite their name first:

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of page . Site name. URL

Price, D. (2018, March 23). Laziness does not exist . Medium. https://humanparts.medium.com/laziness-does-not-exist-3af27e312d01

If the resource was written by a group or organization, use the name of the group/organization as the author. Additionally, if the author and site name are the same, omit the site name from the citation.

Group name. (Year, Month Date). Title of page . Site name. URL

American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. (2019, November 21). Justice served: Case closed for over 40 dogfighting victims . https://www.aspca.org/news/justice-served-case-closed-over-40-dogfighting-victims

If the page's author is not listed, start with the title instead. Additionally, include a retrieval date when the page's content is likely to change over time (like, for instance, if you're citing a wiki that is publicly edited).

Title of page . (Year, Month Date). Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

Tuscan white bean pasta.  (2018, February 25). Budgetbytes. Retrieved March 18, 2020, from  https://www.budgetbytes.com/tuscan-white-bean-pasta/

If the date of publication is not listed, use the abbreviation (n.d.). 

Author or Group name. (n.d.).  Title of page . Site name (if applicable). URL

National Alliance on Mental Illness. (n.d.). Mental health conditions . https://www.nami.org/Learn-More/Mental-Health-Conditions

Wikipedia Article

APA 7 treats Wikipedia articles as special instances of entries in reference works. Thus, there are a few differences between reference entries for pages on Wikipedia and those for generic webpages.

Title of article. (Year, Month Date). In  Wikipedia.  URL of archived version of page

Quantum mechanics. (2019, November 19). In Wikipedia . https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quantum_mechanics&oldid=948476810

Wikipedia articles often update frequently. For this reason, the date refers to the date that the cited version of the page was published. Note also that the manual recommends linking to the archived version of the page, rather than the current version of the page on the site, since the latter can change over time. Access the archived version by clicking "View History," then clicking the date/timestamp of the version you'd like to cite.

Online Scholarly Journal Article: Citing DOIs

Please note: Because online materials can potentially change URLs, APA recommends providing a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), when it is available, as opposed to the URL. DOIs are an attempt to provide stable, long-lasting links for online articles. They are unique to their documents and consist of a long alphanumeric code. Many—but not all—publishers will provide an article's DOI on the first page of the document.

Note also that some online bibliographies provide an article's DOI but may "hide" the code under a button which may read "Article" or may be an abbreviation of a vendor's name like "CrossRef" or "PubMed." This button will usually lead the user to the full article which will include the DOI. Find DOIs from print publications or ones that go to dead links with doi.org's "Resolve a DOI" function, available on the site's home page .

APA 7 also advises writers to include a DOI (if available), even when using the print source.

Article from an Online Periodical with DOI Assigned

Lastname, F. M., & Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, Vol.( Issue), page numbers. DOI

Drollinger, T., Comer, L. B., & Warrington, P. T. (2006). Development and validation of the active empathetic listening scale. Psychology & Marketing, 23 (2), 161-180. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.20105

Article from an Online Periodical with no DOI Assigned

If an online scholarly journal article has no DOI and is published on a website, include the URL. If an online scholarly article has no DOI and is published on a database, do not include a URL or any database information. The only exception is for databases that publish articles that are in limited circulation (like ERIC) or that are only available on that particular database (like UpToDate). Note that retrieval dates are required for unarchived sources that are likely, or intended, to change over time. 

Perreault, L. (2019). Obesity in adults: Role of physical activity and exercise. UpToDate . Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/obesity-in-adults-role-of-physical-activity-and-exercise

APA 7 th edition does not provide guidance on how to cite abstracts. However, if you only use information from the abstract but the full text of the article is also available, we advise you to add "[Abstract]" after the article or source name. If the full text is not available, you may use an abstract that is available through an abstracts database as a secondary source.

Online News Article

Note:  The format for this type of source depends on whether your source comes from a site with an associated newspaper.

If the source  does  come from a site with an associated newspaper, leave the title of the article unformatted, but italicize the title of the newspaper.

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article. Title of Publication . URL

Richards, C. (2019, December 9). Best music of 2019: Lana Del Rey sings lullabies about the end of America. Washington Post . https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/music/best-music-of-2019-lana-del-rey-sings-lullabies-about-the-end-of-america/2019/12/06/6e82c5ec-15d8-11ea-a659-7d69641c6ff7_story.html

On the other hand, if the source  doesn't  come from a site with an associated newspaper, italicize the title of the article, but leave the name of the site unformatted.

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of article . Name of publishing website. URL

Jones, J. (2020, May 10). Why flats dominate Spain's housing market . BBC. https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200506-why-do-flats-dominate-spains-housing-market

Electronic or Kindle Books

It is not necessary to note that you have used an eBook or audiobook when the content is the same as a physical book. However, you should distinguish between the eBook or audiobook and the print version if the content is different or abridged, or if you would like to cite the narrator of an audiobook.

Lastname, F. M. (Year).  Title of book . Publisher. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year).  Title of book [eBook edition]. Publisher. URL

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of book (N. Narrator, Narr.) [Audiobook]. Publisher. URL (if applicable)

Dissertation/Thesis from a Database

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of dissertation or thesis (Publication No.) [Doctoral dissertation or master’s thesis, Name of Institution Awarding Degree]. Database Name.

Duis, J. M. (2008). Acid/base chemistry and related organic chemistry conceptions of undergraduate organic chemistry students  (Publication No. 3348786) [Doctoral dissertation, University of Northern Colorado]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Entry in an Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Encyclopedia with a Group Author

Note:  An online dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia may be continuously updated and therefore not include a publication date (like in the example below). If that’s the case, use “n.d.” for the date and include the retrieval date in the citation.

Institution or organization name. (Year). Title of entry. In Title of reference work . URL

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Braggadocio. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary . Retrieved January 13, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/braggadocio

Entry in an Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, or Encyclopedia with an Individual Author

Lastname, F. M. (Year). Title of entry. In F. M. Lastname (Ed.), Title of reference work (edition). Publisher. URL or DOI

Martin, M. (2018). Animals. In L. A. Schintler & C. L. McNeely (Eds.), Encyclopedia of big data . SpringerLink. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32001-4_7-1

Note: If the dictionary, thesaurus, or encyclopedia does not include an edition, simply skip that step.

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group (Year). Title of dataset (Version No.) [Data set]. Publisher. DOI or URL

Grantmakers in the Arts. (2019). Arts funding trends, United States, 1994-present (ICPSR 37337) [Data set]. National Archive of Data on Arts & Culture. https://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/NADAC/studies/37337

Graphic Data (e.g. Interactive Maps, Infographics, and Other Graphic Representations of Data)

Give the name of the organization or individual followed by the date and the title. If there is no title, in brackets, you should provide a brief explanation of what type of data is there and in what form it appears. Include the URL and the retrieval date if there is no publication date.

HatchMed. (2017). 8 ways to improve patient satisfaction [Infographic]. HatchMed.com. https://www.hatchmed.com/blog/2017/1/30/8-ways-to-improve-patient-satisfaction

Google. (n.d.). [Google Map of Purdue University]. Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://www.google.com/maps/@40.4237095,-86.9233886,17z

Qualitative Data and Online Interviews

If an interview is not retrievable in audio or print form, cite the interview only in the text (not in the reference list) and provide the month, day, and year in the text. If the interview transcript is published in an online periodical, like a magazine, cite the interview the same way you would cite the medium where it is published, as shown below:

Schulman, M. (2019, December 8). Peter Dinklage is still punk rock. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/peter-dinklage-is-still-punk-rock

If it is an audio file or transcript published in a database, credit the interviewee as the author and use the following model:

Paynter, W. (1970, September 17). Interview with Will Paynter [Interview]. Studs Terkel Radio Archive; The Chicago History Museum. https://studsterkel.wfmt.com/programs/interview-will-paynter

Online Lecture Notes and Presentation Slides

When citing online lecture notes, be sure to provide the file format in brackets after the lecture title (e.g. PowerPoint slides, Word document).

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of presentation [Lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, etc]. Publisher. URL

Smith, C. (2017, October 13). AI and machine learning demystified [PowerPoint slides]. SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/carologic/ai-and-machine-learning-demystified-by-carol-smith-at-midwest-ux-2017

Computer Software/Downloaded Software

Do not cite standard office software (e.g. Word, Excel) or programming languages. Provide references only for specialized software.

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group. (Year). Title of software (Version No.). Publisher. URL

Maplesoft. (2019). Maple companion (Version 2.1.0). Cybernet Systems Co. https://www.maplesoft.com/products/MapleCompanion/

E-mails are not included in the list of references, though you should parenthetically cite them in your main text:

(E. Robbins, personal communication, January 4, 2001).

Online Forum or Discussion Posting

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [username]. (Year, Month Date). Title of post [Online forum post]. Publisher. URL

Stine, R. L. [RL__Stine]. (2013, October 23). I’m R.L. Stine and it’s my job to terrify kids. Ask me anything! [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1p32dl/

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Tweet]. Site Name. URL

Note : If the tweet includes images, videos, or links to other sources, indicate that information in brackets after the content description. Also attempt to replicate emojis if possible.

National Geographic [@NatGeo]. (2020, January 12). Scientists knew African grays are clever, but now they’ve been documented assisting other members of their species—even strangers [Tweet; thumbnail link to article]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/NatGeo/status/1216346352063537154

Twitter Profile

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

MLA Style [@mlastyle]. (n.d.). Tweets [Twitter profile]. Retrieved January 12, 2020, from https://twitter.com/mlastyle

Facebook Post

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Type of post]. Site Name. URL

Note: If the Facebook post includes images, videos, or links to other sources, indicate that information in brackets after the content description. Also attempt to replicate emojis if possible.

U.S. Department of the Interior. (2020, January 10). Like frosting on a cake, snow coats and clings to the hoodoos at Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah [Image attached] [Status update]. Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/USInterior/photos/a.155163054537384/2586475451406120/?type=3&theater

Facebook Page

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group. (n.d.). Home [Facebook page]. Site name. Retrieved Month Date, Year, from URL

Little River Canyon National Preserve (n.d.). Home [Facebook page]. Facebook. Retrieved January 12, 2020 from https://www.facebook.com/lirinps/

Instagram Photo or Video

Lastname, F. M. or Name of Group [@username]. (Year, Month Date). Content of the post up to the first 20 words [Type of post]. Site Name. URL

BBC [@bbc]. (2020, January 12). Skywatchers have been treated to the first full moon of 2020-known as a “wolf moon”-at the same time as a [Photograph]. Instagram. https://www.instagram.com/p/B7OkWqbBwcf/

Blog Post  

Lastname, F. M. (Year, Month Date). Title of post. Publisher . URL

Axelrod, A. (2019, August 11). A century later: The Treaty of Versailles and its rejection of racial equality. Code Switch, NPR . https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2019/08/11/742293305/a-century-later-the-treaty-of-versailles-and-its-rejection-of-racial-equality

YouTube or other Streaming Video

Last Name, F. M. [Username]. (Year, Month Date). Title of video [Video]. Streaming Service. URL

Lushi, K. [Korab Lushi]. (2016, July 3). Albatross culture 1 [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AMrJRQDPjk&t=148s

Note : The person or group who uploaded the video is considered the author. If the author’s name is the same as the username, you can omit the [Username].

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Date). Title of talk [Video]. TED. URL

Al-Mutawa, N. (2010, July). Superheroes inspired by Islam [Video]. TED. https://www.ted.com/talks/naif_al_mutawa_superheroes_inspired_by_islam#t-4909

Or (if on YouTube)

Username. (Year, Month Date). Title of talk [Video]. YouTube. URL

Tedx Talks. (2011, Nov. 15). TEDxHampshireCollege - Jay Smooth - How I learned to stop worrying and love discussing race [Video]. YouTube.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbdxeFcQtaU

Podcast Episode

Host, A. A. (Host). (Year, Month Date). Title of episode (No. if provided) [Audio podcast episode]. In Name of podcast . Publisher. URL

Prime, K. (Host). (2019, March 29). For whom the cowbell tolls [Audio podcast episode]. In Radiolab . WNYC Studios. https://www.wnycstudios.org/story/whom-cowbell-tolls

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A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

• The Honor Code
• Sample Reference List

Below you’ll find a Reference list adapted from the references from an essay that was written by Vanessa Roser for the Expos class   The Science of Emotion.

• Citation Management Tools
• In-Text Citations
• Reference List Format
• Examples of Commonly Cited Sources
• Frequently Asked Questions About Cite Sources in APA Format

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• Citing Sources
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• Knowledge Base
• Citing sources

How to Cite Sources | Citation Generator & Quick Guide

Citing your sources is essential in  academic writing . Whenever you quote or paraphrase a source (such as a book, article, or webpage), you have to include a  citation crediting the original author.

Failing to properly cite your sources counts as plagiarism , since you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

The most commonly used citation styles are APA and MLA. The free Scribbr Citation Generator is the quickest way to cite sources in these styles. Simply enter the URL, DOI, or title, and we’ll generate an accurate, correctly formatted citation.

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Table of contents

When do you need to cite sources, which citation style should you use, in-text citations, reference lists and bibliographies.

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Other useful citation tools

Citation examples and full guides, frequently asked questions about citing sources.

Citations are required in all types of academic texts. They are needed for several reasons:

• To avoid plagiarism by indicating when you’re taking information from another source
• To give proper credit to the author of that source
• To allow the reader to consult your sources for themselves

A citation is needed whenever you integrate a source into your writing. This usually means quoting or paraphrasing:

• To quote a source , copy a short piece of text word for word and put it inside quotation marks .
• To paraphrase a source , put the text into your own words. It’s important that the paraphrase is not too close to the original wording. You can use the paraphrasing tool if you don’t want to do this manually.

Citations are needed whether you quote or paraphrase, and whatever type of source you use. As well as citing scholarly sources like books and journal articles, don’t forget to include citations for any other sources you use for ideas, examples, or evidence. That includes websites, YouTube videos , and lectures .

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Usually, your institution (or the journal you’re submitting to) will require you to follow a specific citation style, so check your guidelines or ask your instructor.

In some cases, you may have to choose a citation style for yourself. Make sure to pick one style and use it consistently:

• APA Style is widely used in the social sciences and beyond.
• MLA style is common in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography , common in the humanities
• Chicago author-date , used in the (social) sciences
• There are many other citation styles for different disciplines.

If in doubt, check with your instructor or read other papers from your field of study to see what style they follow.

In most styles, your citations consist of:

• Brief in-text citations at the relevant points in the text
• A reference list or bibliography containing full information on all the sources you’ve cited

In-text citations most commonly take the form of parenthetical citations featuring the last name of the source’s author and its year of publication (aka author-date citations).

An alternative to this type of in-text citation is the system used in numerical citation styles , where a number is inserted into the text, corresponding to an entry in a numbered reference list.

There are also note citation styles , where you place your citations in either footnotes or endnotes . Since they’re not embedded in the text itself, these citations can provide more detail and sometimes aren’t accompanied by a full reference list or bibliography.

A reference list (aka “Bibliography” or “Works Cited,” depending on the style) is where you provide full information on each of the sources you’ve cited in the text. It appears at the end of your paper, usually with a hanging indent applied to each entry.

The information included in reference entries is broadly similar, whatever citation style you’re using. For each source, you’ll typically include the:

• Author name
• Publication date
• Container (e.g., the book an essay was published in, the journal an article appeared in)
• Location (e.g., a URL or DOI , or sometimes a physical location)

The exact information included varies depending on the source type and the citation style. The order in which the information appears, and how you format it (e.g., capitalization, use of italics) also varies.

Most commonly, the entries in your reference list are alphabetized by author name. This allows the reader to easily find the relevant entry based on the author name in your in-text citation.

In numerical citation styles, the entries in your reference list are numbered, usually based on the order in which you cite them. The reader finds the right entry based on the number that appears in the text.

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The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

• Missing commas and periods
• Incorrect usage of “et al.”
• Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
• Missing reference entries

Because each style has many small differences regarding things like italicization, capitalization , and punctuation , it can be difficult to get every detail right. Using a citation generator can save you a lot of time and effort.

Scribbr offers citation generators for both APA and MLA style. Both are quick, easy to use, and 100% free, with no ads and no registration required.

Just input a URL or DOI or add the source details manually, and the generator will automatically produce an in-text citation and reference entry in the correct format. You can save your reference list as you go and download it when you’re done, and even add annotations for an annotated bibliography .

Once you’ve prepared your citations, you might still be unsure if they’re correct and if you’ve used them appropriately in your text. This is where Scribbr’s other citation tools and services may come in handy:

Plagiarism Checker

Citation Checker

Citation Editing

Plagiarism means passing off someone else’s words or ideas as your own. It’s a serious offense in academia. Universities use plagiarism checking software to scan your paper and identify any similarities to other texts.

When you’re dealing with a lot of sources, it’s easy to make mistakes that could constitute accidental plagiarism. For example, you might forget to add a citation after a quote, or paraphrase a source in a way that’s too close to the original text.

Using a plagiarism checker yourself before you submit your work can help you spot these mistakes before they get you in trouble. Based on the results, you can add any missing citations and rephrase your text where necessary.

Try out the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker for free, or check out our detailed comparison of the best plagiarism checkers available online.

Scribbr Plagiarism Checker

Scribbr’s Citation Checker is a unique AI-powered tool that automatically detects stylistic errors and inconsistencies in your in-text citations. It also suggests a correction for every mistake.

Currently available for APA Style, this is the fastest and easiest way to make sure you’ve formatted your citations correctly. You can try out the tool for free below.

If you need extra help with your reference list, we also offer a more in-depth Citation Editing Service.

Our experts cross-check your in-text citations and reference entries, make sure you’ve included the correct information for each source, and improve the formatting of your reference page.

If you want to handle your citations yourself, Scribbr’s free Knowledge Base provides clear, accurate guidance on every aspect of citation. You can see citation examples for a variety of common source types below:

And you can check out our comprehensive guides to the most popular citation styles:

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (Latin for “and others”) is used to shorten citations of sources with multiple authors.

“Et al.” is used in APA in-text citations of sources with 3+ authors, e.g. (Smith et al., 2019). It is not used in APA reference entries .

Use “et al.” for 3+ authors in MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries.

Use “et al.” for 4+ authors in a Chicago in-text citation , and for 10+ authors in a Chicago bibliography entry.

The Scribbr Citation Generator is developed using the open-source Citation Style Language (CSL) project and Frank Bennett’s citeproc-js . It’s the same technology used by dozens of other popular citation tools, including Mendeley and Zotero.

You can find all the citation styles and locales used in the Scribbr Citation Generator in our publicly accessible repository on Github .

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

MLA Style  is the second most used citation style (after APA ). It is mainly used by students and researchers in humanities fields such as literature, languages, and philosophy.

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• Et Al. | Meaning & Use in APA, MLA & Chicago
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• Parenthetical Citation | APA, MLA & Chicago Examples
• What Are Endnotes? | Guide with Examples
• What Are Footnotes? | Guide with Word Instructions
• What Does Ibid. Mean? | Definition & Examples
• What is a DOI? | Finding and Using Digital Object Identifiers
• What Is an Annotated Bibliography? | Examples & Format

Scribbr APA Citation Checker

An innovative new tool that checks your APA citations with AI software. Say goodbye to inaccurate citations!

Example essay extract with citations and references list: Home

Example essay extract with citations and references list.

Below is an example essay, complete with citations and references.

Please remember this is a fictional essay purely designed to demonstrate how and when to reference. 

Embedding experiences and voices in research can “challenge [the] studied ignorance” around race (Arday and Mirza, 2018, p.v) and the academy’s role as gatekeeper of what is considered “relevant knowledge” (Lillis, 2003). Academic conventions around skills such as writing can be excluding, forming “constructions of difference […] that deepen misrecognitions and inequalities” (Burke, 2018, p.366). Lillis (2003) and Arday et al. (2021) both use narrative to listen to the ways in which black students’ experiences are ignored and the marginalising effect of a refusal to validate multiple ways of knowing.

References:

Arday, J., Belluigi, D. Z. and Thomas, D. (2021) Attempting to break the chain: reimaging inclusive pedagogy and decolonising the curriculum within the academy.  Educational Philosophy and Theory .  53 (3), pp.298-313.

Arday, J. and Mirza, H. S. (eds.) (2018) Dismantling race in higher education:  racism, whiteness and decolonising the academy . London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Burke, P. J. (2018) Trans/forming pedagogical spaces: race, belonging and recognition in higher education. In: Arday, J. and Mirza, H. S. (eds.) Dismantling race in higher education: racism, whiteness and decolonising the academy . London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp.365-382.

Lillis, T. (2003) Student writing as ‘academic literacies’: drawing on Bakhtin to move from critique to design. Language and Education. 17 (5), pp.192-207.

• Last Updated: Sep 22, 2023 12:51 PM
• URL: https://libguides.northampton.ac.uk/harvard/exampleessay

References provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text .

Check each reference carefully against the original publication to ensure information is accurate and complete. Accurately prepared references help establish your credibility as a careful researcher and writer.

Consistency in reference formatting allows readers to focus on the content of your reference list, discerning both the types of works you consulted and the important reference elements (who, when, what, and where) with ease. When you present each reference in a consistent fashion, readers do not need to spend time determining how you organized the information. And when searching the literature yourself, you also save time and effort when reading reference lists in the works of others that are written in APA Style.

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