Academic Writing:Conventions:Referencing conventions

Referencing conventions for different information types

General conventions:

the author's initials proceed his or her surname
the year of publication follows the place of publication
commas are used to separate each item of the citation

For books:

Include author's initial/s, author's surname, title (italics or underlined). volume number/ edition (if applicable), publisher, place of publication, year.

1. M. Cutler-Stuart, How to write essays: a practical guide for students. Hale and Ironmonger, Sydney, 1985

For chapters in books:

Include author's initial/s, author's surname, title of article (in quotation marks), 'in', title of book (italics or underlined), 'ed/s' editor's initials, editor's surname, publisher, place of publication, year, pages,

2. L. Timberlake, 'The Politics of Food Aid' in The Earth Report: Monitoring the Battle for our Environment, eds G. Goldsmith, and N. Hildyard, Mitchell Beazley, London, 1988, pp.22 - 32.

For articles in journals:

Include author's initial/s, author's surname, title of article (in quotation marks), title of journal (italics or underlined), volume and issue, year, pages.

3. B. Graetz, 'The Potential of Mail Surveys', Australian and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 21, 3, 1985, 445-455.

For theses:

Include author's initial/s, author's surname, title of thesis (in quotation marks), 'PhD/Masters/Honours thesis', name of university, year.

4. J. Gorman, 'The effects of increased urbanisation on the owl population on the New South Wales central coast', PhD thesis, University of Wollongong, 1976.

For papers presented at conferences:

Include author's initial/s, author's surname, title of paper (in quotation marks), 'paper presented to', name of conference, location, month, year.

5. R.R. Williams, and A. M. Taji, 'Factors affecting vitrification - cytokinin and shoot growth', paper presented to the International Congress on Plant Cell and Organ Culture, Amsterdam, June, 1990.

For works with no author's name:

Include sponsor, title (in italics), publisher, place of publication, year.

6. National Women's Advisory Council, Migrant Women Speak: A Report to the Commonwealth Government. Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra,1979.

For films, television programs and videos:

Include the director's name, '(dir.)', the name of the film/television program/video (in italics), studio/channel, place of production, the year, a statement of the medium.

7. W. Allen, dir., Manhattan, United Artists, New York, 1979, film.

For Online (electronic) material:

(File Transfer Protocol (ftp),World Wide Web, disk, CD-ROM)

Include the Primary responsibility (for example, the author's surname and given name or initials), the title of article, the title of the complete work and other details such as the title of the series , the editor or the volume number as applicable. The title is enclosed in single quotation marks. Italicise the title of the complete work, then include the date of publication, the date of last revision, the date you cited or accessed the material, a statement of the medium.

K.M. Savetz & A. Seers, 'FAO: How can I use the Internet as a telephone?' Kevin Savetz's Page of Stuff, http://www.northcoast.cam/savetz/voice-faq.html, 1996, updated 23 Feb 1996, cited 10 Oct 1996, website.