Academic Writing:Conventions:What to include

What to include in a reference¹

General rules:

all the elements (except the author's initials and the year) are separated by commas

the author's surname appears first followed by the author's initials, separated by a comma

authors initials are followed by a full stop but no spacing

the citation ends in a full stop

if a work has more than one author, their names should be separated by commas, except the final name, which is linked by an ampersand

Anderson, R.C., Reynolds, R.E., Schallert, D.L. & Goetz, E.T.

Anzai, Y. & Simon, H. A.

Expect to find variations in the format of a reference in areas such as:

the placing of commas

the placing of brackets around the year of publication

order the place of publication and the publisher's name occur

the use of abbreviations such as vol. or pp.

the use of a semi colon to separate publisher and place of publication

capitalisation of titles

hanging indents.

These formatting conventions will differ between different disciplines and faculties.

Given these variations, it is important to find out information on referencing standards used by your department and faculty and not to ignore these sorts of details. Most importantly, aim for consistency and accuracy in your reference list.

Regardless of the minor differences in the format of references, the minimum information for each reference entry is:

Book

Martin, C. 1988, An Introduction to Accounting, 2^nd edn., McGraw-Hill, Sydney.

name of the author(s), followed by their initial/s.

year of publication

title of the book (in italics)

edition of the book if it is a reprint

publisher's name and place of publication.

Article in a book

Engen, T. Lipsitt, L.P. and Kaye, H. 1967. 'Olfaction in the Human Neonate', in Readings in the Psychology of childhood and Adolescence, ed W.J. Meyer, Blaisdell, Massachusetts, pp. 87-92.

Rollover the book reference to see the minimum information required.

Engen, T. Lipsitt, L.P. and Kaye, H. 1967. 'Olfaction in the Human Neonate' , in Readings in the psychology of childhood and adolescence, ed W.J. Meyer, Blaisdell, Massachusetts, pp. 87-92.

Name of the author(s), followed by their initial/s.

Year of publication

Title of the chapter (in single quotation marks)

Title of the Book (in italics)

ed. Or eds. Is the abbreviated form of Editor/s

Editor of the book. Notice the initials of the editor come before his or her family name

Publisher's name and Place of publication

Page numbers of the chapter

Journal article

Boer, G. 1984, 'Solutions in search of a problem: The case of budget variance investigation models', Journal of Accounting Literature, vol. 3, pp. 47-69.

the author's name

the year of publication

the title of the publication (in plain text enclosed within single quotation marks)

the title of the journal (in italics)

the volume number or month of publication

the page numbers of the article

NOTE: the issue number or an identifier such as month of publication is required if each issue of the journal is paginated separately rather than consecutively. If required, this information would be included after the volume number and separated from it by a comma.

Online (electronic) material

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

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

Primary responsibility (for example, the author's surname and initials)

Date of publication

Date of last revision

Date of citation (date the material accessed)

Title of article

Title of complete work

Type of medium and location details (for example: WWW address or ftp)

Getty, Victoria M. 1996, (updated 1 Aug 1996, cited 14 Oct 1996) 'Planning for Pregnancy: The Importance of Multivitamins with Folic Acid', International Food and Nutrition Database, ftp, telnet, psupen.psu.edu,press 9.

Edited Work

Goodnow, J. & Pateman, C. (eds.) 1985, Women, Social Science and Public Policy, Allen & Unwin, Sydney.

A sponsored work with no author's name

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

A sponsored work with an author's name

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

Work other than a first edition

Bailey, R.F. 1990, A Survival Kit for Writing English, 2nd edn, Sydney: Longman.

Translated, revised or compiled work

Galileo 1960, On Motion and On Mechanics, translated by S. Drake. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Wesson, G. (comp.) 1975, Brian's Wife, Jenny's Mum, East Malvern, Victoria: Dove Communications Pty Ltd.

A reprinted classic

Darwin, C. 1968 (1859), The origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, Penguin, Harmondsworth.

[Place the original publication date in parentheses after the publication date of the reprint.]

Work with no publication date

Anderson, K. n.d., Outback Tucker in Australia, Melbourne: Bushwhackers Press,.

Work with a dubious publication date

Hawkins, H. ?1987, 'The Rights of Small Business', Economic Bulletin, Canberra.

Work is in the process of publication but the date of publication is uncertain

Rolf, L.H. , in press, 'A Revised View of the War of the Roses', Historical Review.

An anonymous work

The Far Eastern Economic Review , 1997, 23/2/97, pp.8-12.

An pseudonymous work

Sand, George (pseud. Of A. L. O. Dupin) 1856, The story of my life (in French), 20 vols, Paris, Lecou & Cadot.

A thesis

As the thesis is unpublished the title is either italicised or placed in quotation marks. Include the institution.

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

Paper presented at a conference, seminar or meeting

As the paper is unpublished, the title is italicised or placed in quotation marks. Capitalise only the first word and any other words that would normally have capitals.

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

Paper presented at a conference, seminar or meeting and subsequently published

Ballcock, C.V. & Goodrick, D. 1984, 'Women's participation in the development process', Proceedings of the Women's Studies Section, ANZAAS Congress, May 1983, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA.

Encyclopedia

Mark, Herman F. 1974, "Polymers." Encyclopedia Britannica: Macropaedia..

Newspaper

Greenwood, Ross. 1996. 'Plain English returns to fund land'. The Age. 1995, p.3.

Newspaper (no author given)

'Hard times for Farmers'. 1997. Silver Creek Herald. 21/12/1997, p. 4.

Newspaper (editorial)

"Bodily Intrusions." Editorial. New York Times 29 August 1990: A20

Publication from an organisation eg. government publication

Department of Employment, Education and Training. 1996. Report on Review of Computer Studies and Information Sciences. 6/5/96. 5. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Parliamentary publication

House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal & Constitutional Affairs 1992, Half Way to Equal: Report of the Inquiry into Equal Opportunity and Equal Status for Women in Australia, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, April.

Film / Videotape

Allen, Woody, dir. Manhattan. With Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Meryl Streep, and Anne Byrne. United Artists, 1979.

Australia's Geological History (video recording) 1986, Sydney, Outback Films.

The Future of the Australian Communist Party (video recording) 19 October 1983, ABC Television.

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

What to include in a reference1