Library Tutorial for Nursing
Section 2. Deciphering references in a reading list or bibliography
Before you search our catalogue you need to know what you're looking for. This sounds basic - until you're confronted with a list of references, or a bibliography. Remember Alice's dilemma!
Books and journal articles are two of the commonest types of resources in nursing. Journals (also called periodicals, serials or magazines) are publications like BMJ, International Nursing Review, Journal of Gerontological Nursing which are published frequently (eg. weekly, monthly, quarterly, annually) and contain articles by different authors.
When a lecturer gives you a list of citations to useful books or journal articles you'll need to be able to decipher these in order to look them up in the catalogue.
Book Citations
Book citations will have a format like the example below, although the elements may sometimes be in a slightly different order.
Hart, Christopher (2004) Nurses and politics : the impact of power and practice. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan.
where Hart, Christopher is the author, 2004 is the date the book was published, Nurses and politics : the impact of power and practice is the book title, Basingstoke is the place of publication, and Palgrave Macmillan is the publisher. |
Distinguishing references to book chapters and journal articles is a bit more of a challenge.
What do they have in common?
| They both have page numbers to identify the individual chapter or journal article. |
How are they different?
Journal Citations
Citations to journal articles typically also show a volume number/issue number e.g. 26(3) and no publisher. (Many journals have one volume per year and, for example, 12 monthly issues per volume. The March issue of volume 26 is then issue 3 and is cited as 26(3).) |
Citations to Chapters in Books
Citations to book chapters have both a chapter title and a book title and the word In before the book title. |
For a simple demonstration of the three different citations click here. There is an interactive question and answer section which you can try if you like.
Questions
Below are 3 citations (references) . Are they for books, book chapters, or journal articles?
How do you know?
A. Hoskins SA.(2005) Nurses and national socialism--a moral dilemma: one historical example of a route to euthanasia. Nursing Ethics 12(1):79-91.
B. Traynor, Michael (2003) Discourse analysis, ideology and professional practice In Advanced qualitative research for nursing, edited by Joanna Latimer, 137-154. Oxford : Blackwell Science.
C. Cramer, Jennifer (2005) Sounding the alarm : remote area nurses and Aboriginals at risk. Crawley, W.A. : University of Western Australia Press.
ANSWERS
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Different publications use different citation styles e.g. they may use italics or bold type or underlining, put the date at the end or omit the article title.
You may also come across the terms ibid and op. cit. in a bibliography.
ibid., p. 101 - means page 101 of the work cited immediately above,
Williams, op. cit., p.104 - means page 104 of the work by Williams cited earlier in the list of references.
Answers
A. The first reference is for a journal article - the name of the journal is Nursing Ethics, and the article was published in 2005 in volume number 12, issue number 1, on page 79-91. There is no publisher listed.
B. The second reference is to a book chapter where the chapter title is Discourse analysis, ideology and professional practice, and the book title is Advanced qualitative research for nursing. Notice the word In before the book title. The book is edited by Joanna Latimer, but the author of the chapter is Michael Traynor, and the chapter is on pages 137-154. The book was published in 2003, in Oxford, by the publisher Blackwell Science.
C. The third reference is to a book where Jennifer Cramer is the author, 2005 is the date the book was published, Sounding the alarm : remote area nurses and Aboriginals at risk is the book title, Crawley, W.A. is the place of publication, and University of Western Australia Press is the publisher. |
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