
	Library

How To Cite References

Murdoch University Library Publications

2004

The Four Steps to Referencing

Record
Organise

Cite

List

Record

At the time of reading a document, record all of the information (descriptive elements) necessary to create a citation. The data you record should include the page numbers for direct quotations and for journal articles or book chapters.

The descriptive elements for a variety of document types are listed below. These lists will help you to keep the information necessary to create your references. Be careful with photocopied articles from journals or chaptersfrom books. You must keep a record of the journal where the article was published or the book where you found the chapter.

Please note: you may not need to use all of these elements for every citation.

Whole Book

author’s surname and initials or given name
title of publication
title of series, if applicable
volume number or number of volumes, if applicable
edition, if not the first
editor, reviser, compiler or translator, if other than the author
publisher
place of publication (first named)
year of publication
page number/s, if applicable

Parts of books (Chapters, sections, conference papers, etc.)

In addition to the details for the Whole Book (see above) record the following information specific to the part.

Author's surname and initials or given name (of the part)
Title of the part
Inclusive page numbers of the part

Journal articles

Author’s surname and initials or given name
Title of the article
Title of the journal
Volume and issue number
Year of publication
Inclusive page numbers

Electronic documents

Some examples of electronic format documents are web pages, emails, documents from a cdrom, journal articles published on the internet or journal articles retrieved from a fulltext database.

For electronic journal articles record the descriptive elements specified above for journal articles. In addition, record relevant data from the following list.

Not all electronic documents have an obvious author or title so you will sometimes need to use your own judgment to determine these details. Be aware that pagination may not be present or appropriate for many electronic publications.

Some documents are published in both paper and electronic formats, for example, government reports and journal articles. Please cite according to the format you have accessed.

The following is a list of common descriptive elements you may need to record for citation of an electronic document. This list is comprehensive. The elements you record will depend upon the type of electronic document you are describing.

Authors surname and initials or given name if present
Title of the document
Title of the webpage
Database name
Page or section numbers if given
Format (online or cdrom or electronic if you are not sure)
Year of publication or latest update date
Web address
Email address
Access date (the date you looked at the document)

Please Note
Do not create a citation using electronic format guidelines if you retrieved ONLY the citation (with or without an abstract) for a journal article or other document from an electronic database. An example of this kind of database is Current Contents which is an electronic database but does not provide the article fulltext.
Use the electronic format guidelines for journal articles or other documents that you accessed in fulltext from an electronic source. For example, journal articles in the SwetsNet database or census statistics from the CDATA cdrom.

Organise

File or store this information, and the source documents if you have them, in a manner and format that is easily accessed at a later date. You may wish to write all details on the print copy of an article you are using; or you may wish to keep a system of filing cards for each reference item you use. Alternatively, you may decide to maintain a master reference list on your computer, which you add details to as required. There are a number of software packages now available, for example, Endnote, which you can use to create databases of your references. These programs can be used to produce reference lists or bibliographies in a specified style. Please enquire at the Library Information Desk for more information about training sessions and software for Endnote.

Cite

Construct your citations within the text of your essay, using the appropriate guidelines for the style of citation you are using.

List

Create either a reference list, or bibliography containing all the works cited, at the end of the work. The usual arrangement for a bibliography or reference list is a single sequence in alphabetical order by author, with the author's surname preceding the initials or given name. Where an item has no author, it is usual to list it alphabetically by title in the reference list or bibliography in sequence by the first significant word of the title. Titles of books and journal titles should be italicised. The use of capitals and punctuation should be consistent and will vary according to the citation style being used. A particularly long list or bibliography may be divided into different sequences, either according to type of material (for example, books and journal articles listed separately) or according to subject category.