Library Tutorial for Psychology
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 psychology. Journals (also called periodicals, serials or magazines) are publications like Psychological Review, American Journal of Psychology, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 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 look something like:
Findlay, B (2003) How to write psychology laboratory reports and essays. 3rd ed., Prentice Hall, Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.
where Findlay, B is the author, 2003 is the date the book was published, How to write psychology laboratory reports... is the book title, Prentice Hall is the publisher, and Frenchs Forest in New South Wales is the place of publication. |
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. |
| 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 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?
1. Kotler, S. (2005) The perils of higher education. Psychology Today, 38(2): 64-70.
2. Gerrig, R. J., & Zimbardo, P. G. (2005) Psychology and life. 17th ed.,
Pearson/Allen and Bacon, Boston.
3. Brewer M. B. (2001)The social self: on being the same and different at the same time In Intergroup relations: essential readings, ed. M. A. Hogg and D. Abrams, 245-253. Psychology Press, Philadelphia, Pa.
ANSWERS |
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,
Findlay, op. cit., p.104 - means page 104 of the work by Findlay cited earlier in the list of references.
Answers
1. The first reference is for a journal article - the name of the journal is Psychology Today, and the article was published in 2005 in volume number 38, issue number 2, on pages 64-70. There is no publisher listed.
2. The second reference is to a book where R. J. Gerrig, and P. G. Zimbardo are the editors, 2005 is the date the book was published, Psychology and life is the book title, Pearson/Allen and Bacon is the publisher, and Boston. is the place of publication
3. The third reference is to a book chapter where the chapter title is The social self: on being the same and different at the same time, and the book title is Intergroup relations...Notice the word In before the book title. The book is edited by M A Hogg and D Abrams, but the author of the chapter is M B Brewer, and the chapter is on pages 245-253. The book was published in 2001, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania, by the publisher Psychology Press.
|
|
