Dissertation Referencing Styles

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Dissertation Referencing Styles

Throughout your life in the academic arena, you will be required to provide a proof of your writing. One such useful technique is to provide references for the other people’s work from which you have borrowed their ideas.

What is referencing

Referencing is a system that allows you to acknowledge the sources of information you use in your writing. If you do not reference your sources you are plagiarizing. Direct quotations, facts and figures, as well as ideas and theories, from both published and unpublished works must be referenced.

When to Reference

You must provide a reference whenever you quote, paraphrase or summaries someone else’s ideas, theories or data. You must also reference any graphic information you use. Some of the sources you will need to reference include:

  • books or chapters in books
  • journal or newspaper articles
  • conference papers
  • films or television programs
  • personal communications like emails, interviews or letters
  • electronic sources such as web pages, journal articles from online databases, or usenet groups.

The importance of accurate citation and dissertation referencing

  • To prevent plagiarism-If you draw upon other people’s work in your writing and research and do not acknowledge those sources, you can be accused of plagiarism.
  • To enable you quickly locate information you have already cited
  • To enable your supervisor or instructor to check the veracity of the information quoted
  • Correct citations allow others to follow up sources you have referred to, so citing is in the interests of scholarly investigation and the sharing of ideas.
  • Moral Rights – The Copyright Act includes a section called “Moral Rights” which applies when you reproduce works such as text or images that are subject to copyright. This section protects the moral rights of an author to have their work accurately acknowledged and treated with respect.
  • An author/artist/creator can take legal action if their work is copied without due acknowledgement or if it is incorrectly attributed to someone else. Furthermore their work must be treated with respect and not subjected to any prejudicial treatment. Hence due acknowledgement of an author’s work can now be seen as a legal requirement as well as good academic practice.

Which dissertation referencing style should I use?

There are number of referencing styles available for use. Your college or instructor will provide you with guide on which referencing style you need to adapt. Some of these referencing styles are listed below:

  • Harvard (also called the Author-date style)
  • Numeric (also called the Numbered List or Vancouver style)
  • MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) for literature and the Humanities
  • APA (American Psychological Association) for Psychology
  • AIP (American Institute of Physics) for Physics.

Whatever style you use, it is very important to be clear, consistent and correct, making sure you include all the relevant details.

When do I need to give references?

You need to give a reference if

  • you quote the exact words of another author
  • you paraphrase or summarize a passage by another author
  • you use an idea or material based directly on the work of another author

The Harvard style of referencing

As pointed earlier, Harvard style of referencing is just of the many styles available. However, this style is the most common used in the arts and social sciences. One might find other systems in other disciplines because the things they reference have different requirements (e.g. legal or political documents). Some of these referencing systems use footnotes. However, the

Harvard System does not use footnotes. Again, in the Harvard system, there are varying versions of it. You might find other that this manual provides a slight different version from the one you have been taught in class. We are not looking for something perfect, but a real attempt in using the system. Kindly check with your supervisor or institution you are studying to confirm the acceptable version of the Harvard style of referencing.

How does it work?

The Harvard system consists of two parts:

In-text citation

This is done within the body of your work. In making reference within the body of your text, you generally provide the name of the author(s) and the year of publication in the text.

References (List of references)

This involves providing the name of the author(s), the year of publication in the text and giving the full details of where to find the reference at the end of your report. This section is called references or list of references. Only those sources you have used in preparing your work and cited directly in the text need to be included at the end of your report.

In-text citation

As pointed earlier, in-text citation is accomplished by providing the name of the author(s) and the year of publication the main body of your text.  As a result the general rule is to give the surname of the author or organization name in the case of the companies followed by the year in which the source was produced.

Below are different variations of in-text citation

Referring to an author’s viewpoint in your text

Author(s) for books and reports

Again there different cases, but the basic format is Author (Date).

If the author’s name occurs naturally in the sentence

If the author’s name can be incorporated sensibly into the text, the year is followed in parentheses

e.g. suppose you have read a book written by Adisai Jones in year 2008, then you have to cite inside your main body of the research document as follows:

Jones (2008) argued that all organizations need to adapt the new accounting standard for their final reports to make sense.

If the name does not occur naturally in the sentence

In this case, both the author’s name and year are given in parentheses e.g.  Following a study on new accounting principles auditing focus has also shifted (Jones 2008), from…

If there are two or more authors

In this case the surnames of both authors are given.  e.g. In a study of auditing and investigation, Jones and Evans (2008) established… e.g. In a study of auditing and investigation (Jones and Evans 2008), the results showed that…

If there are more than two authors

If there are more than two authors the surname of the first author is given, followed by et al. This is a terminology meaning and others. e.g. Smith et al (2007) concluded that marketing research … e.g. Marketing research is core to the existence of the business (Smith et al 2007) such that….

If you have two authors with the same surname </DIV>

When you have two authors with the same surname, then Initials are included to distinguish. <DIV align=left>e.g. The ERP model was suggested  by B.A. Morgan (2003), with some modification later by C.H. Morgan (2006).

If the author(s) has more work published in the same year

When a author has published more than one cited document in the same year these are distinguished by adding lower case letters after the year within the brackets. e.g. Jones (2008a) argue that… However, Jones (2008b)….

If you refer to an author of a chapter in an edited book

Suppose you refer just to one chapter in a book within a collection of chapters coming from different authors, provide an in-text citation fro the author of the chapter you want to cite, but give the date of the book. e.g. David (2003) provides a general model for portal organisation in a higher learning institution.

If you are citing a series of reference at the same place in the text

In this case the references should be listed in chronological date order, with the earliest first. e.g. Morgan (2008), Jenkinson (2006) and Smith et al. (2004) argued that…

Summary, paraphrasing and quotation

If you are summarizing or paraphrasing a specific page or section, then you start with the author, year of publication, colon followed by page number(s). e.g. Smith (2007:37) showed that… e.g. Marketing research is core to the business (Smith et al 2007:89) such that…. If you are summarizing the entire book, you do not need to provide the page numbers. For quoting work of a given author(s), the same technique is applied. However the exact words are placed between double quotes. e.g. “The number of users determines whether the database is classified as single-user or mult-user” (Rob and Coronel 2007:8).

When Author is an organisation

Some sources may be produced by organizations and not individuals. In this case you should use the name of the organization in the author’s place omitting  any leading article (e.g. A, The). In the same manner, if a publication is produced by an organisation and no individual is credited as the author, treat the organisation as the author. e.g. IAA runs postgraduate diploma in accountancy and finance as well as certificates programs in accountancy, information technology and computer science (IAA 2006).

Author’s name not given

When the author name is not given, use Anon in place of the author. The number of entrepreneurs is increasing in Tanzania (Anon 2003) Note: the keyword Anon stands for anonymous author.

If there is no date on the publication

If you do not know the date of publication, use “n.d.” (which stands for “not dated”) in place of the year. e.g. VfM Steering Group report (n.d.) identifies a number of challenges facing management of student record systems in higher education.

Secondary referencing – Authors quoting other authors

Coventry (2007) refers secondary sources as “second hand sources”. Therefore, try to find the original source before you make us of the secondary sources. If you find the original source, cite it as explain above. However, if you do not find the original source, cite it by giving the author’s name, then write ‘cited in’ and give the author of the book or article you have actually read.

e.g. (Smith 2007: 65 cited in Jenkinson 2008: 89).

Citing a journal article

In citing a journal article follows the same procedure by providing the author(s) of the article and the year in which the journal was published.

e.g. Zastrocky and Yanosky (2002) proposed integrated…

Referencing figures, diagrams, tables and graphs

Tables, diagrams, graphs and figures should be referenced if they are based on another’s work. The reference would normally be given after the title of the diagram or table. These references for diagrams etc. must also be included in the list of references.

Example

reference-example
reference-example

  Figure XXX ERP architecture (Zastrocky and Yanosky 2015)

Electronic Sources

Information taken from the Internet should be cited in a similar fashion to its printed counterparts. Therefore, for any source accessed online including electronic journal, electronic book, e-mails, electronic figures, tables, pictures just to mention a few; give the author’s surname or the corporate author and the data in brackets.

Note:  For website and other electronic sources, do not give the full web address as this will be included in your list of references.

e.g. Tzonline (2015)

e.g. (IFM 2015).

e.g. IAA (2015)

Compiling List of References

Harvard style of referencing requires each source cited inside your text to be full referenced at the end of your work. This is well placed in a section called the List of References or simply References. Normally this section is after conclusion and recommendation chapter. The full references should be in alphabetical order arranged by surname.If you do not have an author then list the item alphabetically by title. If an author has more than one publication, list the publications chronologically with the earliest first. It is important to remember a list of references contains details only those works cited in the text and not everything you have read for your work. On the other side, a bibliography includes all sources you have read and which are relevant to the subject. Harvard style of referencing requires one to use List of References and not bibliography.  Kindly check with your supervisor to see which one you should use.

Below are the different styles for writing list of references

A book by a single author

For a book with a single author, the format is Author’s Surname, first name initials. (Year of publication) Title.  Edition (if not the first), Place of publication: Publisher. The following example shows how this format works:

Morgan, B. (2007) Managing IT for Information Age. Arusha: Oxford

The explanation for the above citation is as follows:

Morgan, B. (2007) Managing IT for Information Age. Arusha: Oxford

[Author] [Year] [TITLE (Italicized or underlined)] [Place of Publication] [Publisher]

Some more examples are given below:

Munguatosha, G. (2007) MS Word 2007 for beginners. London: Macmillan.

Mwaitete, C. (2005) Economics for beginners. 3rd ed. Nairobi: Towson

A book by two authors

In this case follow the format given below:

1st Author’s Surname, first name initials. & 2nd Author’s Surname, first name initials. (Year of publication) Title. Edition (if not the first) Place of publication: Publisher.

Examples for two authors are as follows:

  • Bird, P. (2002) Understanding Company Accounts. 3rd London : Pitman Publishing
  • Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R. (2004) Exploring Corporate Strategy: texts and cases 7th London: FT Prentice Hall
  • Shirima, L. & Shasha, S. (1998) A first course in accounting. Arusha: Levi Press.

A book by more than two authors

All authors need to be listed in your list of reference. A common mistake by most of the writers is to use “et al.” in the list of references.  The keyword et al should only be used in the in-text citation and not the list of references.

The suggested format is:

1st Author’s Surname, first name initials, 2nd Author’s Surname, first name initials. and nth Author’s Surname, first name initials. (Year of publication) Title. Edition (if not the first) Place of publication: Publisher.

Examples

  • Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2003) Research Methods for Business Students.3rd London: FT Prentice Hall
  • Tessa, M., Ruzegera, L. & Hansi, W. (2006) Tanzania Election 2005 Dar Es Salaam: UDSM Press.

Multiple works of the same author

Where there are several works by one author published in the same year they should be differentiated by adding a lower case letter after the date. Remember that this must also be consistent with the citations in the text.

For multiple works the required format is:

Author, first name initials. (Yeara) Title of book . Place of publication: Publisher

Author, first name initials. (Yearb) Title of book . Place of publication: Publisher

Author, first name initials. (Yearc) Title of book . Place of publication: Publisher

And so on, depending on the number of sources taken from the same author

Examples

Deshler, C., and Lincoln, Y. (2006a) A framework for human resource management 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall

Deshler, C., and Lincoln, Y. (ed.) (2006b) The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research 3rd ed. Thousands Oak, CA: Sage

When you have both an editor and author

If the book you are referring to has both editor and author(s), then give the author’s surname as usual and the date in brackets, then write éd. by’ and give the editor’s surname and initials, followed by the title in italics then full stop. Finally give the place of publication followed by colon then the publisher.

Some examples include:

Denzin, N. (2005) ed. by Lincoln, Y. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. 3rd ed. Thousands Oak, CA: Sage

A chapter from an edited book

Sometimes you need to reference only one chapter from a book which contains many chapters which are written by different authors. In this case adapt the following format:

Chapter author’s Surname, initials. (Year of publication) ‘Title of the chapter.’ followed by In Title of book.  ‘ed. by’ Surname, Initials of editor(s) of publication Place of publication: Publisher: Page number(s) of the chapter.

Examples

  • David, E. (2003) ‘Campus portal strategies.’ In Designing Portals: opportunities and challenges. by Jafari, A. and Sheehan, M. London: Information Science Publishing: 68-88
  • Bantz, C. (1995) ‘Social dimensions of software development’ In Annual review of software management and development by Anderson, J. CA: Sage: 502-510.
  • Weir, P. (1995) ‘Clinical practice development role: a personal reflection’ In Innovations in nursing practice by Kendrick, K., Weir, P. and Rosser, E. London: Edward Arnold: 5-22.

A book produced by an organization (a corporate author)

For a book with a corporate author, the format is Corporate name (Year of publication) Title.  Edition (if not the first), Place of publication: Publisher e.g.

NBAA (2007) Financial Accounting Manual Dar Es Salaam: NBAA

A printed journal article

When citing a printed journal article in the list of references, use the following format:

Author’s Surname, Initials. (Year of periodical issue in which article appeared) ‘Full title of article.’  Full Title of Journal  volume, (issue if available) page numbers of whole article including its notes and references

However, some journals do not specify an issue number. In these cases use the Volume followed by the date shown on the journal. Here are the examples on how to cite an article on the printed journal:

  • McClea, M. and Yen, D. (2005) ‘A framework for the utilization of information technology in higher education admission department.’ International Journal of educational Management 19, (2) 87-101
  • Morgan, N. (2001) How to overcome ‘change fatigue.’ Harvard Business Review 79(7) 1-3
  • Pearce, L. (2003) ‘Our stakeholders: requirements for institutional portals.’ The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems 33, (1) 11-16

A Report

For a report follow the format below:

Surname, Initials or Corporate author (Year of publication) Title of publication Report Number (where relevant) Place of publication: Publisher.

Example

Ministry of Health (2005) Choice and opportunity: primary care: the future no.245. Dar ES Salaam: Government Printing

Wangwe, S.(1988) Industrial Property Protection and Technological Innovation: A Case Study of Tanzania  Geneva: UNCTAD

Newspaper articles

For newspaper articles the required format is as follows:

Author, Initials. (Year) ‘Title of article.’ Full Title of Newspaper,

Day and month: page numbers

Example of how to cite the newspaper in the list of references is given below:

Danda, K. (2008) ‘Forensic audit unit must be effective.’  Daily News 16 March: 7,9

Dissertation-Referencing
Dissertation-Referencing

A conference paper within conference proceedings

For a conference paper within conference proceedings, the format is as follows:

Author, Initials. (Year) ‘Title of the paper.’ In Surname, Initials. (ed.) Title of the Conference Proceedings, ‘Title of the Conference.’  Held Full Date at Location of the Conference. Published location: Publisher: Page numbers

Example

Brown, J. (2005) ‘Evaluating surveys of transparent governance.’ In Smith, A. (ed.) Proceedings of the UNDESA Conference on transparent government,     ‘ 6th Global forum on reinventing government: towards participatory and transparent governance.’ Held 24-27 May 2005 at Seoul, Republic of Korea. New York: United Nations: 67-72

Conference proceedings

Here, give the organization as the author then the date in brackets. Put the title of the conference followed by the full stop within single quotations marks. Give the conference location and then the title of the conference proceedings in italics then a full stop. Give the surname and initials of the editor or organizer followed by ‘ed.’ in brackets. Finally, give the place of publication followed by a colon then the publisher.

Example

ACM (2007) ‘Conference on Network design and analysis.’  Durban(2007) Use of IPVer6 in network design.  Lawton, D. (ed.) Nairobi: Moi University Press

Thesis, dissertation or research report

The required format is:

Author, Initials. (Year of publication) Title of dissertation. Unpublished Level thesis or dissertation or report, Name of the higher learning Institution

Example

Morgan, B. (2007) Analysis of the Network traffic of IAA LAN. Unpublished MSc dissertation, IAA

Annual report

The required format is:

Corporate author  (Year of Publication) Full title of annual report Place of publication: Publisher

Example

Shoprite (2007) The annual report 2006-2007 Johannesburg: Shoprite

List of references for electronic sources

The principles of referencing information found on the internet and electronic sources are basically the same as for other material. However, for the web based sources, you will also need to include the uniform resource locator (URL), or web address. Make sure you write down the URL exactly as even the smallest mistake in the punctuation can mean that it is not possible to retrieve the site.

It is also important to include the exact date on which you accessed the web site to find the information you are using to support your work. This is because, unlike books and journal articles etc, web sites are updated or change frequently and you need to indicate which version you used.

This section presents different forms of electronic sources and how to write the list of references at the end of your report.

CD-ROM, DVD or video

The required format for referencing is given below:

Corporate Author (Year of publication) Full title of DVD or video. [Medium e.g. CD-ROM] Place of publication: Publisher [Accessed Date of Access]

Example: Mwananchi Films (2008) Great films from the 90s. [DVD]. Dar Es Salaam: Mwananchi Films [Accessed 4 March 2008]

Journal articles from an electronic source

For journal articles from an electronic source the format is as follows:

Author, Initials. (Year) ‘Title of article.‘ Full Title of Journal  [online] Volume number, (Issue/Part number) Page numbers if available.

Available from <full website address> [Accessed date]

Example

Feld, C. and Stoddard, D. (2004) ‘Getting IT right’ Harvard Business Review 82, (2) 72-79 [online] available from

<http://search.epnet.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=buh&an=12109042> [Accessed 27th July 2006]

E-version of annual reports

For an e-version of an annual report (or other document) the required elements for a reference are:

Author or corporate author (Year) Title of document or page [online]

Available from <full website address> [Accessed date]

e.g. Marks & Spencer (2004) Annual report 2003-2004. [Online]  Available from: <http://www-marks-and-spencer.co.uk/corporate/annual2003/> [accessed 4 June 2005]

Online newspaper articles

For newspaper articles found on line newspapers the required format for a reference is:

For newspaper articles the required format is as follows:

Author, Initials. (Year) ‘Title of article.’ Full Title of Newspaper,

Day and month: page numbers [online]

Available from <full website address> [Accessed date]

Example of how to cite the online newspaper in the list of references is given below:

Danda, K. (2008) ‘Forensic audit unit must be effective.’  Daily News 16 March: 7,9 [online] Available from <http://dailynews.habarileo.co.tz/editorial/?id=3556> [Accessed March 24, 2008]

For websites the required elements for a reference are:

For a normal website, whether belonging to the individual or corporate, the following format is adopted:

Author or corporate author (Year) Title of document. [online] Available from <full website address> [Accessed date]

Example

Oracle (2015) PeopleSoft Enterprise Portal [online] available from <http://www.oracle.com/applications/portals/enterprise/enterprise-portal.html [5th September 2015]

IAA (2006) About IAA [online] available from <http://www.iaa.ac.tz/pages/iaa/about_iaa.html>[13th July 2015]

E-book

For e-books the required format is as follows:

Author (Year) title of the book [online] Place of publication: Publisher

Available from <full website address> [Accessed date]

Example

Shaman, R. (2005) Commuting in the dark [online] Chester: Castle Press. Available from <http://www.freeebooks.com / E-books> [Accessed 5 June 2005]

An online conference paper within conference proceedings

For an online conference paper within conference proceedings, the format is as follows:

Author, Initials. (Year) ‘Title of the paper.’ In Surname, Initials. (ed.) Title of the Conference Proceedings, ‘Title of the Conference.’  Held Full Date at Location of the Conference. Published location: Publisher: Page numbers [online]

Available from <full website address> [Accessed date]

Example

Brown, J. (2005) ‘Evaluating surveys of transparent governance.’ In Smith, A. (ed.) Proceedings of the UNDESA Conference on transparent government,     ‘ 6th Global forum on reinventing government: towards participatory and transparent governance.’ Held 24-27 May 2005 at Seoul, Republic of Korea. New York: United Nations: 67-72 [online]

Available from <http://webapps01.un.org/pubsCatalogue/browse.do?by=category&code=9 > [Accessed March 24, 2008]

Online information for Conference proceedings

Here, give the organization as the author then the date in brackets. Put the title of the conference followed by the full stop within single quotations marks. Give the conference location and then the title of the conference proceedings in italics then a full stop. Give the surname and initials of the editor or organizer followed by ‘ed.’ in brackets. Finally, give the place of publication followed by a colon then the publisher. Then provide information for the online source as shown on the previous cases.

Example

ACM (2007) ‘Conference on Network design and analysis.’  Durban(2007) Use of IPVer6 in network design.  Lawton, D. (ed.) Nairobi: Moi University Press [online] Available from <http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1027802.1027891> [Accessed March 24, 2008]

Online thesis, dissertation or research report

The required format is:

Author, Initials. (Year of publication) Title of dissertation. Unpublished Level thesis or dissertation or report, Name of the higher learning Institution numbers [online] Available from <full website address> [Accessed date]

Example

Morgan, B. (2007) Analysis of the Network traffic of IAA LAN. Unpublished MSc dissertation, IAA numbers [online]

Available from < http://myweb.polyu.edu.hk/~lbaho/Library/Writing.pdf> [Accessed March 24, 2008]

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Steve Jones

My name is Steve Jones and I’m the creator and administrator of the dissertation topics blog. I’m a senior writer at study-aids.co.uk and hold a BA (hons) Business degree and MBA, I live in Birmingham (just moved here from London), I’m a keen writer, always glued to a book and have an interest in economics theory.

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