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LECTURE 6

REFERENCING STYLES

There are various standard methods used for citing the source of work. These methods are called as
referencing styles or citation styles. Some widely used citation styles are:
• Harvard
• Vancouver
• APA (American Psychological Association) Referencing Style
• MLA ((Modern Language Association) Referencing Style
• Chicago/ Turabian Referencing Style
Other styles that are not that common but are still required at some places:
• ACS (American Chemical Society)
• AGLC (Australian Guide to Legal Citation)
• AMA (American Medical Association)
• CSE/ CBE (Council of Science Editors/ Council of Biology Editors)
• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
Various referencing styles differ in terms of formatting, use of punctuation and the order of information;
such differences occur at both the levels of referencing i.e. in-text citation, and reference list. The citation
style to use in your write-up often depends on the discipline you are writing for.
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Three very common referencing styles

Commonly used referencing styles for academic writing consist of the:
• Harvard style
• APA (American Psychological Association) Style
• Numbered note style
Many institutional departments differ in their preferred styles
• The Harvard style is generally applied in Education, Business &
Economics, Architecture & Building, Engineering, Humanities, Social
Sciences and Information Technology disciplines
• The APA style is commonly used in Nursing, Midwifery and Health
disciplines
• The Numbered note style is commonly applied in Law

The Harvard Referencing Style

• Harvard is actually a generic term refers to all the referencing styles
that are “author-date” based
• It is important to note that for this type of formatting there exists a
great variation in the use of punctuation and other formatting such
as indentation, line spacing etc. from institution to institution.
• E.g. Many institutions and departments that use this style
recommend the inclusion of a page number of the document where
the information being cited has been obtained. The page number is
included after the year of publication,
e.g. Coleman and Briggs (2003:77) observed that …….
(The 77 in the citation refers to the actual page in the document authored by
Coleman and Briggs)
• Other Harvard styles variations do not insist on this page number
inclusion
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WRITING REFERENCES FOR YOUR

REFERENCE LIST: THE HARVARD STYLE

• NOTE Again: - there exists a great variation in the use of

punctuation and other formatting such as indentation, line
spacing etc. for the Harvard referencing style
• The punctuation and other formatting styles presented in the
following slides are recommended for your write ups.

Book: print
Biographical information required include:
• Author/Editor – Family/Surname and initial(s), (if it is an editor always put (ed.)
after the name)
• Year of publication.
• Title (this should be in italics)
• Series title and number (if the book is part of a series)
• Edition (if not the first edition)
• Place of publication (if there is more than one place listed, use the first named)
• Publisher

Example
• Smith, G. N., & Smith, I. G. N. 1998. Elements of Soil Mechanics. 7th ed.
Cambridge, Blackwell Science.
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Book: online/electronic
• Author/Editor - Family/Surname and initial(s), (if it is an editor always put (ed.) after the
name)
• Year of publication
• Title (this should be in italics)
• Edition (if not the first edition)
• [Online]
• Place of publication (if there is more than one place listed, use the first named)
• Publisher
• Available from: URL
• [Date of access]

Example
• Simons, N. E., Menzies, B. & Matthews, M. 2001. A Short Course in Soil and Rock Slope
Engineering. [Online] London, Thomas Telford Publishing. Available from:
http://www.myilibrary.com?ID=93941 [Accessed 18th June 2008].
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Book: chapter in an edited book

• Author of the chapter
• Year of publication
• Title of chapter followed by In:
• Editor (always put (ed.) after the name)
• Title (this should be in italics)
• Series title and number (if part of a series)
• Edition (if not the first edition)
• Place of publication (if there is more than one place listed, use the first named)
• Publisher
• Page numbers (use ‘p.’ before a single page number and ‘pp.’ where there are multiple pages)

Example
• Kupolati, W. K., Sadiku R. E., Ibrahim, I. D., Adeboje, A. O., Kambole, C., Ojo, O. O. S., Eze, A. A., Paige-Green, P.,
Ndambuki, J. M. 2017. The use of polyolefins in geotextiles and engineering applications. In: Ugbolue, S. C. O, (ed.)
Polyolefin Fibres: Structure, properties and Industrial applications, 2nd Ed. Cambridge, USA, Woodhead publishing, pp 497 -
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Journal article: print

• Author - Family/Surname and initial(s),
• Year of publication
• Title of journal article
• Title of journal (this should be in italics)
• Volume number
• Issue number
• Page numbers of the article

Example
• Pasetto, M. & Baldo, N. 2016. Recycling of waste aggregate in cement bound mixtures for
road pavement bases and sub-bases. Construction and Building Materials.108, pp.112-118.
• NOTE: This reference has only a volume number and no issue number
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Journal article: online/electronic

• If an electronic journal article has a DOI (digital object identifier), you
can use this instead of the URL. The DOI is a permanent identifier
provided by publishers so that the article can always be found online. It is
therefore better to include the DOI, rather than a direct URL, in your written
references.
• To find the DOI, when you read an article online, check the article details
as you will usually find the DOI at the start of the article.
• If you read the article in a full-text database service, e.g. EBSCO, Listserv,
etc, and do not have a DOI or direct URL to the article you should use the
database URL.

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• Author
• Year of publication
• Title of journal article
• Title of journal (this should be in italics)
• [Online]
• Volume number
• Issue number
• Page numbers of the article
• Available from: URL or DOI
• [Date of access]

Examples:
• Arrami, M. & Garner, H. 2008. A tale of two citations. Nature. [Online] 451 (7177), pp. 397-
399. Available from: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v451/n7177/full/451397a.html
[Accessed 20th January 2008].
• Biswal, D. R., Sahoo, U. C. and Dash, S. R. 2018. 'Mechanical characteristics of cement stabilised 11
granular lateritic soils for use as structural layer of pavement', Road Materials and Pavement
Design, pp. 1-23.

or
• Adeboje, A.O., Kupolati, W. K., Sadiku, E. R., Ndambuki, J. M., Owolabi, A.
O., Kambole, C. 2020. Stabilisation of lateritic soil with pulverised
ceramic waste for road construction. Int. J. Environmental Engineering.
[Online] 10(3), pp. 221-242. DOI: 10.1504/IJEE.2020.107425 [Accessed:
22/06/2020].
or
• Read, B. 2008. Anti-cheating crusader vexes some professors. Chronicle of
Higher Education. [Online] 54 (25). Available from: http://global.factiva.com/
[Accessed 18th June 2009].

• Note: articles published online may not have page numbers.

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Conference proceeding (published) paper

• Author
• Year of publication
• Title of conference paper followed by, In:
• Editor/Organisation (if it is an editor always put (ed.) after the name)
• Title of conference proceeding (this should be in italics)
• Place of publication
• Publisher
• Page numbers (use ‘p.’ before a single page number and ‘pp.’ where there are multiple pages)

Example
• Wittke, M. 2006. Design, construction, supervision and long-term behaviour of tunnels in swelling
rock. In: Van Cotthem, A., Charlier, R., Thimus, J.-F. and Tshibangu, J.-P. (eds.) Eurock 2006:
Multiphysics coupling and long term behaviour in rock mechanics: Proceedings of the International
Symposium of the International Society for Rock Mechanics, EUROCK 2006, 9-12 May 2006,
Liège, Belgium. London, Taylor & Francis. pp. 211-216.
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Conference proceeding (published online)

• Noval, D. & Oberholster, R. 2011. Further processing and

granulation of slags with entrained metal and high metal
compound content, with specific reference to present
manganese slag dumps as well as additions due to daily
production. In: Jones, R.T. & Den Hoed, P. (eds.). Southern
African Pyrometallurgy 2011, 6-9 March, Johanesburg, [Online].
Available from:
http://www.saimm.co.za/Conferences/Pyro2011/129-Norval.pdf
[Accessed: 13/10/2016].

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Conference paper (unpublished)

• Author
• Year when paper was presented/read
• Title of conference paper
• Name of the conference, date, place and country
• Indicate ‘Unpublished’ at the end

Example:
• Lockwood, A. 1992. Applying service quality concepts to tourism
and hospitality education. (Paper read at the Conference on
Tourism Education, April 10, Valencia, Spain). Unpublished

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Standard
• Name of Standard Body/Institution
• Year of publication
• Standard number
• Title (this should be in italics)
• Place of publication
• Publisher

Example
• British Standards Institution. 2003. BS 5950-8:2003. Structural use of steelwork
in building: code of practice for fire resistant design. London, BSI.

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Report
• Author/Editor (if it is an editor always put (ed.) after the name)
• Year of publication
• Title (this should be in italics)
• Organisation
• Report number: followed by the number of the report (if part of a
report series)

Example
• Saesd, A., Hall, Jr, J. & Baker, W. 2001. Performance-related tests
of aggregates for use in unbound pavement layers. Transportation
Research Board (No. NCHRP Report 453).

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Map
• Author (usually the organisation responsible for publishing the map)
• Year of publication
• Title (this should be in italics)
• Scale
• Series title and number (if part of a series)
• Place of publication

Example
• Surveyor General. 1989. Copperbelt Towns. 1: 250 000. Lusaka,
Zambia.

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Web page/website
• Author/Editor (use the corporate author if no individual author or editor is
named)
• Year of publication (if available; if there is no date, use the abbreviation n.d.)
• Title (this should be in italics)
• [Online]
• Available from: URL
• [Date of access]

Example
• National Slag Association. nd. Blast furnace slag: the aggregate choice for portland
cement concrete. [Online]. Available from: http://www.nationalslag.org/documents-
of-interest [Accessed: 25/08/2015].

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PLEASE NOTE:- Wikipedia Sources

• The content of Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wipipedia)
is compiled and edited by volunteers (i.e., anyone with a web
browser and an Internet connection).
• The content is generally not verified through a process of peer
review and therefore should be used with extreme caution as
a source of information for an academic assignment.
• External examiners usually react negatively to references to
Wikipedia.

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Email: (personal)
Personal emails should be referenced as personal communication, unless
you have permission from the sender and receiver to include their details in
your reference list. Biographical information in the reference should include:
• Sender
• Year of communication
• Email sent to
• Name of receiver
• Date and month of communication

Example
• Kuminda, R. 2019. Email sent to Kandolo Chumbu, 12th July.

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Personal communication
• Name of practitioner
• Occupation
• (Personal communication, followed by the date when the
information was provided)

Example
• Law, James. Engineering consultant. (Personal communication,
26th April 2004).

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Lecture/presentation
• Name of lecturer/presenter
• Year of lecture/presentation
• Title of lecture/presentation (this should be in italics)
• [Lecture/Presentation]
• Title of module/degree course (if appropriate)
• Name of institution or location
• Date of lecture/presentation (day month)

Example
• Wagner, G. 2006. Structural and functional studies of protein interactions in
gene expression. [Lecture] Imperial College London, 12th December.

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Videos, DVDs, Sound recordings

Biographical information for videos, DVDs & recordings is organised exactly as for printed formats, with format in square
brackets directly after the title. If there is no publisher, provide the name of the manufacturer or distributor. The generic
biographical format is:
• Author (if known)
• Date
• Title (in Italics)
• [Format]
• Place of publication
• Name of publisher/manufacturer/distributor

Examples:
• Petty, N. (developer). Not dated. Hypothesis testing (difference of two means). [Video presentation]. [Online] Available from:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX9iMIC6mcg [Accessed: 2010-01-20].
• Farrar, L., Stern, N. & Goralnick, J. 2008. How to read and understand a research study. New York, NY: Insight Media. [DVD].
• Robinson, F. (presenter). 2009. Focus. [Television broadcast]. (2009-06-20). Auckland Park, Johannesburg: SABC.
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THESES AND DISSERTATIONS

• Family name, INITIAL(S).

• Year.
• Title.

• Type of qualification,

• Name of academic institution.

• Place where the Institution is situated

Examples:
• Sampa, C. 2019. Investigating the Alkali Silica Reactions in Concrete. Unpublished BEng (Hons) thesis.
Copperbelt University, Kitwe, Zambia.

• Hebst, F.J. 2001. An investigation of the product life cycle concept as an instrument in marketing decision-
making for selected small organisations in Africa. Unpublished doctoral thesis. Pretoria: University of
Pretoria. [Online] Available from UPeTD: http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06132002-085415
[Accessed: 2004-12-14]. 25

Publications by international organisations

• In text citation: Debt is an important inhibitor of growth in the
developing world (World Bank, 2008:13).
Hard copy Reference format:
• World Bank. 2008. World development report 2008: agriculture
for development. Washington: Word Bank.
Electronic source reference format:
• World Bank. 2008. World development report 2008: agriculture
for development. [Online] Available from:
http://go.worldbank.org/ZJIAOSUFU0 [Accessed: 2008-10-07].

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Government Department Publications

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Publications by semi-government institutions,

councils and commissions

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Some examples of bad/careless referencing

1. STANDARD, B., 1990. BS 4729. s.l.:s.n.
(The abbreviations S.l.:s.n. (s.l. = sine loco - without place [of publication] and s.n. = sine nomine
(without name [of publisher] are mentioned where no place of publication or publisher is mentioned on
the title page – but this should really not apply to well known standards)
2. Jie Gong, Y. Y. R. K. A. R., 2014. Real-time tracking of concrete vibration effort for intelligent
concrete consolidation. Elsevier, Issue 2, pp. 1-13.
3. Reid, Gavin & Smith, Julia. 2000. What Makes a New Business Start-Up Successful?
4. Ms. Arpitha , K. R., Ms. Sneha, M. & Ms. Kavya, P. S., 2020. Mineral Admixtures and Lime
as Stabilizer in the Manufacture of Soil Cement Blocks, s.l.: www.seminarsonly.com.
5. The Asphalt Institute. The Asphalt Handbook.
6. (2020, April 15). Retrieved from National Geographic:
https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/geographic-information-system-gis/
7. Ed McLaughlin, Wyn Lydecker, Paul McLaughlin. 2015. The Startup Roadmap. s.l. : Blue
Sunsets, 2015. 978-0-9863043-2-3.

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