Library tutorial for Humanities and Social Sciences

Section 2. Referencing Styles

Deciphering references in a reading list or bibliography
Citing (referencing) in your own essays
Questions

Deciphering references in a reading list or bibliography

You will often be given a list of citations or a reference list, suggesting readings for an essay or tutorial topic. You need to be able to recognise the differences between citations which refer to books, those which refer to book chapters, and those which refer to journal articles.

You also need to be able to recognise the parts of a citation (such as author, title, journal title) so you know how to search in the catalogue for each of the items in your reading list.

Book citations look something like this:

Davis, M 2008, The land of plenty: Australia in the 2000s, Melbourne University Press, Carlton,Vic.

where Davis, M is the author; 2008 is the date the book was published; The land of plenty: Australia in the 2000s is the book title; Melbourne University Press is the publisher, and Carlton, Vic. is the place of publication.

Book chapters include both a chapter title and a book title and the word in before the book title. They will also have page numbers to identify the chapter in the book, e.g.

Rose, B 1996, 'Feminism, women and the French Revolution', in The French Revolution in social and political perspective, ed P Jones, Arnold, London, pp. 253-268.

Journal articles will have a volume number/issue number and no publisher. They will also have page numbers to identify the article in the journal, e.g.

Sneyder-Hall, RC 2008, 'The ideology of wifely submission: a challenge for feminism?', Politics & Gender, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 563-586

Different publications use different citation styles e.g. they may use italics or bold type or underlining, or put the date at the end.

You may also come across the terms ibid or op. cit. in a bibliography.

ibid., p.101 - means page 101 of the work cited immediately above
Davis, op. cit., p.104 - means page 104 of the work by Davis cited earlier in the list of references.

For further information on how to interpret citations you can view a brief video on either the Harvard style or the MLA style.

Citing (referencing) in your own essays

When you cite books, journal articles and other sources in your own essays, follow the citation style recommended by your lecturer. The Library website has a list of essay and thesis writing style guides which can help you with citing and with essay writing techniques. This site includes information about the Harvard and MLA styles.

Questions

Below are 3 citations (references) . Are they for a book, a book chapter, or a journal article?

How do you know?

1. Shalev, M 2008, 'Class divisions among women', Politics & Society, vol. 36, no. 3, pp. 421-444.

2. Remington, T 2008, Politics in Russia, 5th edn, Pearson Longman, New York.

3. Haley, A 2006, 'Black history, oral history and genealogy', in The oral history reader, ed R Perks and A Thomson, Routledge, Philadelphia, Pa, pp. 12-26

ANSWERS

Answers

1. The first reference is for a journal article - the name of the journal is Politics & Society, and the article was published in 2008 in volume number 36, issue number 3, on pages 421-444. There is no publisher listed.

2. The second reference is to a book where T Remington is the author, 2008 is the date the book was published, Politics in Russia is the book title, Pearson Longman is the publisher, and New York. is the place of publication

3. The third reference is to a book chapter where the chapter title is Black history, oral history and genealogy, and the book title is The oral history reader. Notice the word In before the book title. The book is edited by R. Perks and A Thomson, but the author of the chapter is A Haley, and the chapter is on pages 12-26. The book was published in 2006, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, by the publisher Routledge.

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