National Centre for Vocational Education Research
Referencing guide: author/date style
This guide explains the referencing style used in NCVER publications which is based on the Harvard, or Author–
Date, system and guided by:
Commonwealth of Australia 2002, Style manual for authors, editors and printers, 6th edn, rev. by Snooks & Co.,
John Wiley & Sons Australia, Brisbane.
The Harvard style has many variations in punctuation, capitalisation, abbreviations and the use of italics, and
this is a guide to NCVER’s in-house referencing style.
If you have used the VOCEDplus database for your research, a reference list can be automatically generated
using the ‘Get citation’ tool in VOCEDplus.
In-text references
Standard entries (depending on sense):
. . . (Smith 1990, p.64)
Smith (1990) says . . .
. . . (Smith et al. 1990)
Smith et al. (1990) said . . .
Smith and Jones (1990) agreed that . . .
(Smith, Jones & Brown 1990, pp.21–36)
. . . as described by Smith, Jones and Brown (1990, pp.21–36)
(Smith, Jones & Brown 1990; Smith 1991)
Use et al. only when there are four or more authors to list in text.
The format

The references are listed in alphabetical order according to the authors’ surnames.

Where there are no authors, list by the first significant word in the title (i.e. words such as A, An and The are
ignored).

The title of a book or journal is shown in italics, but titles of chapters, articles and conference papers in a
proceedings book are enclosed in single quotes.

A document within a website can be considered in the same way as a published document or a book.

Commas are used between fields and the reference ends with a full stop.

The second and subsequent lines of a reference are indented as shown in the examples.

If more than one item has been cited by the same author, they should be listed chronologically (from earliest
to latest), using a 2-em rule i.e. a 2-em dash (——) is used instead of the author’s name for the second and
subsequent entries. If more than one item has been published in the same year, add a, b etc. to the date to
differentiate the items.
Example
Misko, J 2004, The role of Community Development Employment Projects in rural and remote communities, NCVER,
Adelaide, viewed October 2005, <www.ncver.edu.au/publications/1505.html>.
——2006a, Vocational education and training in Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany, NCVER, Adelaide, viewed
May 2006, <www.ncver.edu.au/publications/1670.html>.
——2006b, Country background report: Addressing the training and assessment needs of adults with low basic skills in
Australia, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris, viewed September 2006,
<www.oecd.org/dataoecd/60/44/37038515.pdf>.
The order in which the information is to be displayed is as follows:
Books, reports, journals and book chapters
Journal articles
Author(s)
Author(s)
Date (year published)
Date (year published)
Title (of book, report, journal, book chapter)
Article title
Title of book (if chapter is being referenced)
Journal title
Edition (if applicable)
Volume number
Editors (if chapter is being referenced)
Issue number
Series (if applicable)
Pages of article
Publisher
Date viewed and URL (if viewed online)
Place of publication
Page numbers (if applicable)
Date viewed and URL (if viewed online)
Conference papers
Non-book materials
Author(s)
Author(s)
Date (year published)
Date (year published)
Title of paper
Title
Conference name
Publisher
Date viewed and URL (if viewed online)
Place of publication
Note: Some conference papers are published as part of a volume
of proceedings and these are treated as chapters in a book.
Material type
Unpublished documents
Web sites
Author(s)
Author(s)
Date (year created)
Date (year created/updated)
Title
Title (or name and place of sponsor of the source)
Unpublished
Date viewed and URL
The table below shows examples of different document types and how they should be referenced.
Document type
Examples of NCVER house style
Book – no author
WELL Workplace English Language and Literacy: effective communication in the manufacturing industry —
case studies 2003, Manufacturing Learning Victoria, Hawthorn, Vic.
Book – single author
McGivney, V 2006, Adult learning at a glance: the UK context, facts and figures 2006, National Institute of
Adult Continuing Education, Leicester, England.
Book – two authors
Monteiro, H & Gentleman, S 2005, NVQs within FE: an investigation into full-time NVQ provision and uptake
in the FE sector, Learning and Skills Development Agency, London.
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Referencing guide: author/date style
Document type
Examples of NCVER house style
Book –corporate
author
William Angliss Institute of TAFE Council 1997, Ministerial Review for the Provision of Technical and Further
Education in the Melbourne Metropolitan Area, William Angliss Institute of TAFE, Melbourne.
Book – edited by
single editor
Phillips, D (ed.) 2000, The education systems of the United Kingdom, Symposium Books, Oxford, England.
Book – edited by two
editors
McLeish, E & Phillips, D (eds) 1998, Processes of transition in education systems, Symposium Books,
Oxford, England.
Book – different
edition
Australian Qualifications Framework Advisory Board 1998, Australian Qualifications Framework:
implementation handbook, 2nd edn, AQFAB, Carlton, Victoria.
Report – part of a
series
Bunning, F 2006, The transformation of vocational education and training (VET) in the Baltic states: survey
of reforms and developments, Technical and vocational education and training: issues, concerns and
prospects, vol.4, Springer, Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
Documents available
online
New Zealand Tertiary Education Commission 2006, Developing the second Tertiary Education Strategy:
2007/12, Ministry of Education, Wellington, viewed September 2006,
<www.minedu.govt.nz/web/downloadable/dl11445_v1/final-pdf-of-discussion-document.pdf>.
Chapter in an edited
book
Billett, S 2001, ‘Vocational educators: understanding practice at work’, in International perspectives on
competence in the workplace: research policy and practice,
ed. C Velde, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands, pp.41–64.
Chapter in an edited
book – two editors
(and part of a series)
Akyeampong, A 2005, ‘Vocationalisation of secondary education in Ghana’, in Vocationalisation of
secondary education revisited, eds J Lauglo & R Maclean, Technical and vocational education and training,
vol.1, Springer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, pp.149—225.
Journal issue
Adults learning, vol.17, no.5, January 2006, National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, Leicester,
England.
Journal article
Abbot-Chapman, J 2006, ‘Moving from technical and further education to university: an Australian study of
mature students’, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, vol.58, no.1, pp.1–17.
Conference paper
not published in a
volume of
proceedings
Lee, T, Ashton, D, Bishop, D, Felstead, A, Fuller, A, Jewson, N & Unwin, L 2005, 'Cutting it: learning and
work performance in hairdressing salons', paper presented at the 4th International Conference on
Researching Work and Learning, 2005, Sydney, viewed June 2006,
<www.projects.education.uts.edu.au/RWL4/RWL4Papers/.doc>.
Unpublished report
Rushbrook, P 1996, ‘Straws in the wind: the construction of technical and further education in Victoria 19451985’, unpublished.
Web site/web pages
Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs 2006, ‘Stepping forward:
improving pathways for all young people’, viewed March 2006,
<www.mceetya.edu.au/verve/_resources/checklist.pdf>.
Non-book material
Department of Education, Science and Training, TexSkill & Agenda Communication 2006, LMT TCF training
package Cert II & III textile fabrication: WELL resource project, Agenda Communication, Attadale, Western
Australia, [CD ROM].
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Referencing guide: author/date style