Mature Students

Mature Students: Citing & Referencing

Citing & Referencing is a crucial part of any academic essay. Academic writing requires that you read and cite the work of others. Any material that is not your own must be sourced to the original author. Every book, article, thesis and all electronic material that has been consulted and cited should be included in the bibliography.

Only material which is publicly available should be cited so lecture notes, for example, should not be referenced. Wikipedia is not a good source of information, as it can be edited by any user - do not cite from Wikipedia!

The use of quotations and references in the text is followed up by a list of references, alphabetically presented at the end of your essay, which is known as the References or Bibliography. There are specific guidelines that you must follow for referencing in the text of your essay and in the References/Bibliography section.

There are two primary citing and referencing systems in use in DIT: The Harvard System and the APA Style. The full details of each system are below, as well as information on EndNote, DIT's Citing & Referencing Software. You can also click the below links to download guides to these systems from the DIT Library & School of Social Sciences.

(This content has been translated into Romanian at http://webhostinggeeks.com/science/citing-dit-rm)

DIT Referencing Systems & Styles

Links - Click to View	Downloads - Click to Download
Harvard System	Harvard System Of Referencing
APA Style	APA Style Of Referencing
EndNote Software

The Harvard System

The Harvard System, also known as the name/date system, stipulates that, for every source used, you must cite it in two places:

In the body of the text of your essay/document. This is called in-text citation.
In the Reference List or Bibliography at the end of the document.

In-Text Citation

Direct Quotation:

This is where you take the words directly from a source, without changing anything, and where you must use quotation marks. When quoting directly from another author you must give the author, year and page and ensure that the full reference is given in the reference list. Normally quotations should be enclosed in single inverted commas in the text. For example:

Kotler argues that 'reflective marketing is the essential key to lasting success' (1994, p.67).

Use double inverted commas only for quotes within a quote. Quotations over about forty words in length or four lines of text should not be enclosed in inverted commas but should be block indented from the left and typed in single line spacing, for example:

Kotler (1994, pp.290-1) notes:

Sellers can take three approaches to a market. Mass marketing is the decision to mass produce and mass distribute one product and attempt to attract all kinds of buyers. Product variety marketing aims to offer a variety of products to broaden the customer base.

Omissions from the material being quoted should be indicated as follows:

Kotler (1994, pp.290-1) notes that 'Product variety marketing aims . . . to broaden the customer base.'

Paraphrase:

Paraphrasing involves restating the author’s idea in your own words. The ideas are not enclosed in quotation marks but must still be acknowledged. It is not essential to give page numbers when you paraphrase. However, where a paraphrase contains controversial viewpoints or a starting point for a detailed analysis, a page reference may be included following the author and date. For example:

Mass marketing is an approach which aims to attract a wide spectrum of buyers through the mass production and distribution of one product (Kotler 1994, p.290).
OR
Kotler (1994) argues that mass marketing is an approach which aims to attract a wide spectrum of buyers through the mass production and distribution of one product.

In-Text Citation: Work Written by More Than One Author

If there are two or three authors, all are included in the citation. For example:

Ferguson and Clark (1990)

If there are four or more authors, the usual practice is to use et al. (the Latin abbreviation for “and others”), for example:

Murphy et al. (2000)

In-Text Citation: Reference to Several Works

Sometimes a similar argument is made by several authors, so your reference will have to include each of those authors. For example:

Many experts agree that …. (Murphy 2000; Jones 2001)

In-Text Citation: Multiple Works by Same Author in Same Year

If you’re citing several different works by the same author, all published in the same year, the different works are distinguished by the letters a, b, c… after the date. For example:

(Jones 2001a) argues… Several authors believe … (Jones 2001b)

In-Text Citation: Corporate Author

If the author of a work is an organisation rather than an individual, use the organisation’s name in the citation: For example:

Bord Gais (2006) indicated…

In-Text Citation: No Author Given

If no details of the author are provided in the work, use the title of the book or report instead. For example:

Politics in Fiji (1992) is a …

If the work is a newspaper article, the name of the newspaper replaces the author:

It was reported (Irish Times 8th June 2003, p.14)…

Compiling a Reference List or Bibliography

The in-text citations are simply abbreviated references and do not provide your reader with sufficient information to find the sources to which you are referring. For this reason, the Harvard System also requires that, for every source with an in-text citation, you must also provide a complete citation in the Reference List. (If you have simply read something as background, but have not used it in the body of your text then it should not appear in your reference list.)

Your reference list should be in alphabetical order by surname of the author, followed by the first name or initials as given in the work cited. The rules are outlined below along with a number of examples.

No punctuation after initials or date
Multiple authors are joined by and as opposed to &
Book and Journal names are in title case (i.e. Capitals are used for the first letters of the Key words of the title)
Book and Journal names are given in italics
Commas separate publishing elements
Edition is given without brackets or punctuation
Publisher is followed by place of publication

Referencing a Book:

Kotler, P (1994) Marketing Planning Management: Analysis Planning and Control, 8th ed, Prentice Hall, New York.

Where first edition, or none specified:

Tiernan, S (1996) Modern Management: Theory and Practice for Irish Students, Gill and Macmillan, Dublin.

Referencing a Book with Multiple Authors:

Blattberg, R C, Glazer, R and Little, J D C (1994) The Marketing Information Revolution, Harvard Business Press, Boston.

Referencing a Chapter or Article within an Edited Work

The reference to a chapter or article in a book has three components:

name(s) and initials of author(s) together with date of edited work
title of chapter or article
name(s) of editor(s), title of edited work, publisher and place of publication - this component is preceded by the word 'In.'

For example:

McCann, J M (1994) Generating, Managing and Communicating Insights. In Blattberg, R C, Glazer, R and Little, J D C (Eds) The Marketing Information Revolution, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

Referencing a particular chapter in a book by the same author:

Blattberg, R C (1994) Modelling Market Responses. In Blattberg, R C, Glazer, R and Little, J D C (Eds) The Marketing Information Revolution, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

Note: The date cited in the list of references is the date of the edited work (not necessarily the date of the original article) since the edited work is listed as the source of information, in this case 1994.

Referencing two publications by the same author from one year:

Kotler, P (1994a) Marketing for Schools and Colleges, Prentice Hall, New York.

Kotler, P (1994b) Marketing Planning Management: Analysis Planning and Control, 8th ed, Prentice Hall, New York.

Note: If in different years arrange by date of publication; if in same year arrange alphabetically.

Referencing a forthcoming publication:

Blattberg, R C, Glazer, R and Little, J D C (forthcoming) The Marketing Information Revolution, Harvard Business School Press, Boston.

Referencing an Article - Referencing an Article from a Print Journal:

An article reference should include the volume number, issue number and page numbers of the article. For example:

Marcus, A and Gould, E W (2000) Crosscurrents: Cultural Dimensions and Global Web User-Interface Design. ACM Interactions, 7(4), 33-46.

Note: when referencing page numbers of the article it is important to provide the least amount of information e.g. 332-40 not 332-340. Page numbers are specified without accompanying abbreviations (p.) or (pp.)

Referencing an Article Retrieved Electronically:

Schoenberger, C H (2006) Trading Places. Forbes, 178(12), 174-76. Available from Business Source Premier [Accessed 7 December 2007].

Referencing a Market Research Report Retrieved Electronically:

Euromonitor International (2007) Beer: Ireland, Euromonitor International, London. Available from Global Market Information Database [Accessed 14 February 2008].

Referencing a Newspaper Article:

Newspaper or magazine articles are treated similarly to periodicals except that it is normal to precede the page numbers with the abbreviation p. or pp. as appropriate. For example:

Myers, K (2000) The Youth of Today. Irish Times, 11th March, p.14.

Referencing Unpublished Works - Referencing a Dissertation:

Titles of unpublished materials are not italicised or underlined. For example:

McNally, N (1991) Sales Promotion and Consumer Franchise Building, B.Sc. (Mgmt) unpublished dissertation, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin.

Referencing a Working Paper:

McNally, N (1991) Sales Promotion and Consumer Franchise Building, Working Paper, Department of Business and Management, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin.

Referencing Lecture Notes:

Many lecturers believe that you should not cite references from your lecture notes – you should instead consult sources such as textbooks, etc. However, if you are citing something from your lecture notes:

Kavanagh, A (2006) Organising Information. Information Studies (DT366), Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin, on 4 December 2006.

Referencing Electronic Works - Referencing a Page on a Website:

Cao, L (2001) Designing for Overseas Chinese Readers: Some Guidelines [Online]. Available: http://eserver.org/courses/s01/tc510/adaptivity/cao/cao1.html [Accessed 29 November 2007]

Referencing an Email:

Bloggs, J (joe.bloggs@dit.ie), 8 December 2007. Re: Referencing and Citing. Email to M Bloggs (mary.bloggs@dit.ie).

The APA Style

The referencing system used by the Department of Social Sciences is the American Psychological Association Style, or APA Style. What follows is a summary outline of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition. You can also view an online tutorial by clicking here: http://flash1r.apa.org/apastyle/basics/index.htm

In-Text Citation

After a summary of an author’s work, or a reference to his/her work you must insert the author’s surname and the date of publication. For example:

(Murphy, 2004).

In the case of two authors, both are listed:

(Wilson & Thomas, 2009).

In the case of three to five authors, all authors should be listed the first time the work is cited:

(O’Brien, Smith, Horgan, White & Dunphy, 2009).

As listing five authors would become quite cumbersome, after the first citation you need only name the first author, followed by et al. (from the Latin, meaning ‘and others’), for example:

(O’Brien et al., 2009).

When citing an author who has published two or more works in the same year, use lower case letters (a, b, c) with the year to distinguish them, for example:

The Department of Education and Science (2007a) has reported that …

If you are including the author’s name as part of your sentence you can put the date in brackets after it as follows:

Murphy (2004) has argued that …

Direct quotation:

However, it has been noted that “this is a phenomenon which is not unique to Ireland” (Murphy, 2004, p. 12).

When you are summarising someone else’s ideas or paraphrasing:

Murphy (2004) has argued that it is not just Ireland that has experienced such difficulties; other countries including Finland have also faced similar economic problems.

If you are citing a number of works to support an argument or position, they should be listed alphabetically, separated by a semi-colon, for example:

A considerable number of researchers have reported similar findings (Barry, 1996; Doyle, 1998; Zacchus, 2004).

Say you are reading a book by Smith, and in Smith’s book there is a quote from another book by Jones. You decide that you would like to include the quote by Jones in your essay, but you haven’t read Jones’ original source. You present this kind of material as follows:

More evidence to support this assertion has been presented by research in North America, which concluded that 23% of women are likely to choose not to have children for a variety of reasons (Jones, as cited in Smith, 2005, pp. 254-256).

The page number given is the page number from the book by Smith from where you got the quotation from Jones. Your bibliography will contain the book by Smith.

If referencing from a newspaper, follow the same format as above. If there is no identifiable author, use the name of the newspaper, the date and page number if required, for example:

(The Irish Times, 19th January, 2005, p. 6)

Quotations:

A short quotation of less than a line may be included in the body of the text in quotation marks but if it is longer (typically, 40 words) start a new line and indent it. All direct quotes must be single spaced and indented. This makes it easier for the reader to establish what is sourced work and what is your own work. Include the page number if using a direct quote, for example:

Russell’s (1997) work on incest in South Africa confines itself to white incest survivors. She notes:

a few women have made valiant efforts to bring this problem to public attention over the past decade, but the handling of this crime [incest] is still in the dark ages in South Africa compared with most Western nations … [and] no adequate studies of the prevalence of incestuous abuse have been conducted in South Africa (1997, p. 9).

Referencing Internet sites or online journals:

The suggested format for WWW page entries in the text is Constructor (person or organisation), year, page no. [if given]:

Department of Health and Children (2006, p. 8).

Many webpages do not contain page numbers. Try to include a marker to help your reader find the relevant passage, for example a paragraph number: Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform (2009, para 121).

Compiling A Reference List

‘References’ is a list of all the sources you quoted or paraphrased to prepare your paper. You should arrange entries in alphabetical order by the author’s last name or, if there is no author, by the first main word of the title. It should start on a separate page at the end of your essay; label the page ‘References’, centred at the top of the page.

Use hanging indent paragraph style (align the first line with the left margin, and indent all subsequent lines one tab space from the left margin). Type all authors’ names with the surname first, separated by a comma. Use only initials for the first and middle names, and an ‘and’ before the last author's name.

Referencing a Book:

The title of the publication should be italicised, for example:

Green, G.D. (1991). Industrial Relations. (3rd ed.). London: Pitman.

Kessler, S. & Bayliss, F. (1985). Contemporary British Industrial Relations. London: Macmillan.

Referencing a book written by an organisation (no author):

Department of Education and Science. (1999). Etc.

Referencing Edited Books:

Where a book has been edited you must insert (ed.) (if there is only one editor) or (eds.) (for two or more editors) after their names, for example:

O’Connor, T. & Murphy, M. (Eds.). (2006). Social Care in Ireland: Theory, Policy and Practice.
Cork: CIT Press.

Note the hanging indent on the second line of the reference.

Referencing contributions in edited books:

When quoting the work of a contributor to an edited book the following format should be used:

Fuller, M. (1981). Young, Female and Black. In E. Cashmore & B. Troyna (Eds.), Black Youth
in Crises (pp. 47-72). London: Allen and Unwin.

Referencing Journal Articles:

Labbé, J. (2005). Ambroise Tardieu: The man and his work on child maltreatment a century
before Kempe. Child Abuse and Neglect, 29(4), 311-324.

Referencing Newspapers:

Bloggs, J. (2008, September 1). Government at crossroads. Irish Times, p. 1.

Referencing Web-based Material:

Websites:

American Public Health Association. (n. d.). Some thoughts on the future of public health.
Retrieved August 24, 2009, from http://www.apha.org

Online Journals:

As with any published reference, the goals of an electronic reference are to credit the author and to enable the reader to find the material. Where possible, cite the DOI (digital object identifier). If there is no DOI, use the webpage URL.

Using a DOI, for example:

Murphy, J. (2006). Tips to remember about allergy, asthma and immunology [Online].
American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, 24, 25-229.
doi: 10.1037/0728-6133.24.2.225

Where there is no DOI available, use the URL address, for example:

Hemingway, E. (2007). The future of Irish social policy. Irish Journal of Social Policy,
99, 423-455. Retrieved from http://www.imaginarywebsite.ie

Referencing Theses:

Eyre, J. (2004). The marketing of tulips in 17th Century Holland. PhD Thesis. Utrecht
University.

EndNote Citing, Referencing & Bibliographic Software

EndNote is a bibliographic software package that allows you to record and organise personal files of searchable references to books, journals articles, conference papers, images, websites and any other kind of publication. An Endnote file known as a Library can be used continuously to produce bibliographies for your academic essays.

You can also use EndNote to create and automatically format citations and bibliographies for your publications and essays. EndNote contains over a thousand bibliographic styles that can be applied to your material. You can also cite while you write, (i.e. insert citations from your library into a word document) and then Endnote will format your bibliography in whatever style you choose.

EndNote is available for free on DIT PCs, or you can purchase your own personal copy - details are available here

More information on EndNote - how to purchase the software, tutorials on how to use it and Frequently Asked Questions is available from the DIT Library Services - just click here.

Contact Us:

Our Mature Student Support Officer is here to help you and will be happy to answer any questions you have. Just contact Bob O Mhurcu at ms.info@dit.ie or (01) 402 7658.