When writing essays and dissertations, correct and consistent referencing is an important way to avoid accusations of plagiarism and ensure that people reading your work can locate the item.
The links below provide information and guidance to help you with your references and bibliographies. If you are in any doubt about the style you should adopt, talk to your supervisor for further guidance.
(Chicago Manual of Style)
(Anglia Ruskin University)
(HPS research guide)
How to reference electronic sources
If anything, you should be more careful in referencing electronic sources than in referencing printed sources because websites can change and libraries do not hold copies. The following advice is based on the recommendations of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
Referencing web documents
Author, Editor, Year of Publication (i.e. year when web page was created, if known), Title (in italics or underlined), [Medium – usually 'Online'], Edition, Place of Publication, Publisher (if ascertainable or the organisation responsible for providing and maintaining the information), available URL, and the date source was accessed [in square brackets].
- Example:
British Lawnmower Museum (No date) Lawnmowers of the Rich and Famous [Online] Southport, British Lawnmower Museum. Available: http://www.lawnmowerworld.co.uk/Rich.htm [Accessed 10 March 2004]
NB: If no date is given, write (No date) as shown above.
Referencing electronic journals
Include all the following information in the electronic journal reference, if possible:
Author/Editor, Year of Publication, Article Title, Journal title (in italics or underlined), [Medium - usually 'Online'], Volume Number, Part number (in brackets), available URL, and the date accessed [in square brackets].
- Example:
Hart, K. (1998) The place of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits (CAETS) in the history of British social anthropology. Science as Culture. [Online] 11 (1). Available: http://human-nature.com/science-as-culture/hart.html [Accessed 9 November 2003]
Referencing journal articles from a web-based full-text database
Include all the following information in the electronic journal reference, if possible:
Author, Year (in brackets), Article title, Periodical title (in italics or underlined), [Medium], Volume number, Part number (in brackets), Page numbers if given or indicator of length, available URL, date accessed [in square brackets]
- Example:
Mahoney, R. (2000) Leadership and learning organisations, The Learning Organization. [Online] 7 (5), 241–244. Available: http://www.emerald-library.com/brev/11907ec1.htm [23 October 2000].