BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATIONS

A guide to recommended practice in referencing sources of

information.

1. Definitions

1.1. References : a list of documents from which direct quotations or examples

have been taken. References are generally used to support points made in the
text of an essay or project and are listed alphabetically at the end of a piece of
work, before any appendices.

1.2. Bibliography : an alphabetical listing of sources used which do not appear

in the references. The bibliography will mainly consist of sources used for
background research. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author and then,
where necessary, by year of publication. The bibliography should appear
directly after the list of references.

2. The Harvard system of citations

2.1. At every point in the text where a reference is made to a particular

document, the original author’s surname and the year of publication are
inserted. If the name occurs naturally in a sentence the year is placed within
parentheses e.g.

“In a recent study (Stansby 2002) the process is described as….”

“Bailey (2000) states that….”

2.2. When the same author has published more than one cited document in the
same year lower case letters are used to differentiate each document e.g.

“Levermore (1998a) discussed the reasons for…”

“In addition it is also stated (Davies 1998b) that…”

2.3. If there are two or three authors of a source the surnames of both should
be given before the date. However, if there are more than three authors then
the surname of the first author should be given followed by the latin term ‘et
al’ (‘and all’) in italics.e.g.

“Hoff and Wilson (1999) take the view that…”

“Winch et al (2000) are of the opinion…”

 2.4. If different parts of a source are cited in your text at different times then
the appropriate page is given e.g.

“Johnson (2001 p.20) states that…”

2.5. If the specific author of a source is unknown (this is common with

electronic resources such as those from the Internet) then the smallest specific
body involved with the document should be cited e.g.

“It has been suggested (Construction Industry Board Working Group 8,

1996)….”

3. Reference lists and bibliographies

The method used for listing a document is dependent on the nature of the
document.

3.1. Books
i) Author’s name and initials – use the abbreviation ‘ed.’ for
editorship. If there is no indication of authorship then the name
of the corporate body should be used e.g. RICS, Health &
Safety Executive etc.
ii) Year of publication (in parentheses)
iii) Title (underlined)
iv) Edition (except for first editions – it is assumed a book is a first
edition unless otherwise stated)
v) Publisher

e.g.
Fenn, F.P. & Gameson, R.N. eds. (1992) Construction conflict : management
and resolution. E & FN Spon.

3.2. Contributions to books.

i) Author’s name & initials
ii) Year of publication (in parentheses)
iii) Chapter title (NOT underlined)
iv) Editor(s) of the book
v) Title of the book (underlined)
vi) Edition (if not the first)
vii) Publisher
viii) Page numbers of the chapter

e.g.
Newey, J. (1992) The construction industry. In: Fenn, F.P. & Gameson, R.N.
eds. Construction conflict : management and resolution. E & FN Spon. p. 21-
24.
3.3. Periodicals/journals
i) Author’s name and initials
ii) Year of publication (in parentheses)
iii) Title of article (NOT underlined)
iv) Journal title (underlined)
v) Volume number (underlined)
vi) Part number (in parentheses)
vii) Date of publication
viii) Page numbers of the article.

e.g.
Davey, C.L., Lowe, D.J. & Duff, A.R. (2001) Generating opportunities for
SMEs to develop partnerships and improve performance. Building Research
and Information. Vol 29(1). January/February 2001. p. 1-11.

Holloway, J. (2001) Heading for the hurdles. Building Vol CCLXVI (9).
Friday 2nd March 2001. p. 64.

3.4. Conference proceedings

Papers within published conference proceedings are cited in a similar manner
to chapters within books.
i) Author’s name and initials.
ii) Year of publication (in parentheses)
iii) Title of paper (NOT underlined)
iv) Editor(s) of the proceedings.
v) Title of the proceedings (underlined)
vi) Location and dates of the conference.
vii) Volume number of the proceedings (if applicable)
viii) Page numbers of the relevant paper.

e.g.
Fenn, F.P. & Speck, C. (1995) the occurrence of disputes on United kingdom
construction projects. In: Thorpe, A. ed. Proceedings of the ARCOM 11th
Annual Conference. University of York, U.K. 18th – 20th September 1995.
Volume 2. p. 581-590
3.5. Theses and dissertations.
i) Author’s name and initials.
ii) Year of publication (in parentheses)
iii) Title of thesis (underlined)
iv) Type of thesis (in parentheses)
v) Educational establishment (with Department if known)

e.g.
Morse, T. (2002) A case study of preliminary cost over-run.
(Undergraduate project) Manchester Centre for Civil & Construction
Engineering, UMIST.

Galanis, D. (2001) CDM Regulations and stability of trusses. (MSc

dissertation) Manchester Centre for Civil & Construction Engineering,
UMIST.

3.5. Electronic sources

There is currently no generally accepted method for citing electronic
sources and most organisations develop ‘house-styles’ for their own
particular uses. With this in mind it is useful to remember that the
purpose of citing references is to allow future researchers to follow
your own sources. The following method is the developed style for this
Department. Use the same method for citing the work within the text
as previously mentioned i.e.
“A recent government paper (DETR 1999) states that…..”

3.5.1. Internet sources

i) Author’s name and initials (if known) or
organisations name.
ii) Year (if known). This is usually difficult to
judge with internet pages. If the page you are
citing has a ‘last updated on..’ message at the
bottom – use this date as it was when you looked
at the page. Do not use the year that you looked
at the page if no date appears on the page.
iii) Title of document/page. Again, this is
sometimes difficult to decide. Think of the
researcher following your citations and how they
would recognise the page. It is sometimes useful
to look at the top coloured bar of your browser.
iv) Medium (in square brackets). It is good practice
to use the term ‘online’ to describe Internet
pages, ftp addresses etc.
v) Location/web address (in full)
vi) The date on which you accessed the site. The
Internet is notoriously ephemeral in nature and
items accessed by you one week may not be
available the following week. Unlike printed
material this is rarely archived and so is totally
unaccessible to future researchers.
The following examples have been taken from actual pages which are shown below.

Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (1999) Combating

cowboy builders : a consultation paper. [online]
http://www.construction.detr.gov.uk/cis/cowboy/index.htm (accessed on 6th march
2001)
 Mark Allen
Manchester Centre for Civil & Construction Engineering
February 2003.