Academic Writing:Conventions:Notation

While the examples above highlight the main ways of referencing, issues such as a texts' number of authors or repeated references to the same author complicate the conventions of referencing. Some of these are explained below.

Different referencing conventions dictate different orders of presentation for the bibliographic information included in a reference. The conventions outlined below are widely followed, your faculty or department may use a slightly modified version of these. You must check the convention used by your Faculty or Department.

There are two systems for capitalising book titles: maximal capitalisation and minimal capitalisation. Either system can be used for book titles, however, it is important that the same system be used throughout a text.

The first letters of all the words in a title are capitalised except articles (unless these articles are the first word of a title) such as the, a, in, of. Subtitles (after a colon) are similarly treated.

Apart from the first letter of the first word, no words in the title are capitalised unless those words would normally bare a capital. Only the first letter of the first word in a sub title is capitalised.

The titles and subtitles of articles in journals or chapter titles from books are given minimal capitalisation and are enclosed in single quotation marks.

The titles and subtitles of articles in journals or chapter titles from books are given maximal capitalisation (apart from any proceeding articles).

No Page Numbers: When you wish to use an author's central idea or argument, for example, you must cite the author's name and the year of publication but you may leave out page numbers as the original text will have referred to that central idea many times within the text.

Page Numbers: When you refer to just one idea of many in a publication, however, you must include page numbers. This allows your reader in follow-up reading to find what might be a quite small piece of information inside what could be a large article or book.

Look at the paragraph below to see how a writer has referenced source material of different kinds.

The work of Esdante¹⁴ shows that present-day chimpanzees, orang-utans and macaque monkeys are capable of using simple tools and bipedal locomotion. Loudge¹⁵ concluded after tool using experiments with a captive orang-utan, that manipulative disability is not a factor that would have prevented Australopithecines from mastering the fundamentals of tool technology. However, while there is an unquestionable validity in comparing the behaviour of present-day apes with early hominids, it is important to note that, as Gateric says, "a Pantroglodyte is not and cannot be the ancestor of man. He cannot be an ancestor of anything but future chimpanzees".¹⁶ However, the modern chimpanzee shows a type of intelligence closer to that of man than is found in any other present-day mammal. Indeed:
	... the chimpanzee is, nevertheless, a creature of immense significance to the understanding of man ... He has the ability to solve quite complex problems, he can use and make tools for a variety of purposes.¹⁷

¹⁴Esdante, E.S. 1989, Tool Use in Apes. New York: Columbia University Press.
The name and year only are included here as the reference refers to the main idea of the work
¹⁵Loudgue, C.O. 1973, "The origin of man", Science, vol. 211: 340-350. p.348.
The page number has been included in this reference as it refers to one specific idea from the source.
¹⁶Gateric, S.J. 1980, Ontogeny and Phylogeny. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press. p.254
A page number MUST be included as a direct quote has been used.
¹⁷Esdante, op. cit., p. 3 A quote longer than three lines is indented (quotation marks are not included but the page number is).

After your initial reference to a work with three or more authors, you may just include the name of the first author followed by the abbreviation 'et al.', which is a Latin term meaning 'and others'.

Where references are made to more than one work by the same author, after the first reference where full bibliographic details are provided, the work should be identified by the author's name and the title of the work (which may be shortened if required).

If there are two authors with the same surname, include the author's initials in references and the reference list to avoid confusion.

When referring to an author's idea which was presented in the work of another author, give the name of the original presenter of the idea, and a full reference to this work followed by 'cited in' and all bibliographic details of the work in which the original was quoted. A secondary citation looks and is less credible than a primary citation, but if access to the primary resource is not available you may need to use it. Include both a reference to the cited work and the primary source in your reference list, so that your readers have the ability to follow up the source.

When referring to an idea presented to you personally in a formal (eg. lecture) or informal (eg. conversation, email) context, use the abbreviation for 'personal communication' as in the example below. Personal communications are not listed in the reference list.

¹Reference: Australian Government Publishing Service, 1995, Style Manual: For Authors, Editors and Printers, 5th edn., Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

The Notation System: Other conventions in referencing1

The Notation System: Other conventions in referencing¹