Referencing for Reports and Essays
Objective
When you write a report or essay and include someone else’s ideas you should immediately
acknowledge this original source.
This is called referencing (or citing) and the description of the source you provide is
called a reference (or a citation).
Knowledge of the correct way to describe the sources of information you have used to
prepare written material is essential in many occupations.
We are going to focus on how to cite your sources of information using the Harvard or
author-date system, one of the more commonly used systems in Australia.
You will learn how to briefly acknowledge each source within your text, then build a
reference list at the end of your document, giving the full details of the sources.
There are some variations in the application of the author-date system, depending on the authority
consulted. The information provided here is based on Style manual for authors, editors and printers 2002,
6th edn, John Wiley & Sons, Australia.
Why should you reference?
 Referencing provides evidence that you have researched your topic thoroughly and
have found sources that support your argument or the information you are providing
in your document. Your document appears more authoritative.
 Referencing is an acknowledgement of another person’s intellectual work, which
rightfully belongs to that person.
 If you use another person’s work without acknowledgement it is called plagiarism.
Plagiarism is the taking, using, and passing off as your own the ideas or words of
another.
When to reference
You should reference if you:
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quote (use their exact words)
copy (use their figures, tables or structure)
paraphrase (use their idea in your own words)
summarise (give a brief account of their ideas)
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How to reference
You identify your source of information by making reference to it:
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in the text of your report or essay (called in-text referencing)
in a list at the end of your report or essay (called a reference list or citation list).
In-Text Referencing
When you cite (identify) references in the text of your report or essay using the Harvard
Style, you should include the following pieces of information.
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Surname(s) of the author or authors
Year of publication
Pages numbers if appropriate
Include page numbers when you quote, paraphrase, summarise or copy from a particular
page or group of pages. If including page numbers, put a comma after the year and the
letter p. (or pp.) before the numbers.
Example: A table in a recent study shows the weekly totals for road accidents in 2003 (Smith &
Brown 2003, p. 123).
This peculiar species was first described in 1980 (Young 1981, pp. 76-78).
Do not include page numbers when the information comes from a larger proportion of the
author’s work than can easily be identified by a page number or page range.
Example: A recent study has shown that more road accidents occur during the school holidays
(Smith & Brown 2003).
If there is more than one publication by that author cited for that year, include a lower
case letter after the year to distinguish them.
Example: (Smith 2001a), (Smith 2001b, p. 71).
If there is more than one author with that surname, include their initials as well. Example:
(Smith, A. B. 2002), (Smith, L. 1999),
If you are including the author's name as part of you sentence, then put the initial in front
of it. Example: L. Smith (1999) argues that ...
If you are citing two or more sources in the same place in your text, separate the
references with semicolons. Example: (Smith 1999; Brown 2000).
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Two ways of citing your reference
There are two ways in which you can put your reference into your text.
1. Give prominence to the information
Example:
It has been argued that the relative seriousness of the two kinds of compilation error
differs from situation to situation (Smith & Jones 2001, p. 45).
2. Give prominence to the author
Example:
Smith and Jones (2001, p. 45) have argued that the relative seriousness of the two
kinds of compilation error differs from situation to situation.
Either way is acceptable and will depend on how you want to structure your sentences.
What if there is no author or the author is not known?
If the document was published or sponsored by a corporate body, government agency or
some other organisation, then use the name of that organisation.
 For example: (The Examiner 10 Jul. 2004, p. 7), (UNESCO 1999).
If the document has an editor rather than an author, then put the abbreviation 'ed.' in
front of the name.
 For example: (ed. Smith 2004), or: edited by Smith (2004).
If none of these are known, then use the title of the document.
 For example: (The Yeti is real 2004).
What if there are lots of authors?
For two or three authors, enter all the surnames.
 For example: (Dark, Maclean & Weatherhead 2003).
If there are more than three authors, enter the first surname only, followed by the
expression et al. which means and others.
 For example, a book with authors K. Adams, R. Grose, D. Leeson and H. Hamilton,
published in 2003 would be cited as: (Adams et al. 2003).
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What if there is no date?
If you know roughly when the document was published, put a 'c.' (an abbreviation for circa
or about) before the date.
 Example: (Peal c.1860).
If you think you know the year but are not sure and have no way of checking, put a '?' in
front of it.
 Example: (Swift ?1922).
Lastly, if there is no way you can establish the publication date, then use 'n.d.' (no date).
 Example: (Frederick n.d.).
Your Reference List
The reference list is arranged alphabetically and placed at the end of your report or
essay.
It includes full details of all the sources that you cited in your text. It does not include
any sources you consulted but did not cite in your text.
The list will be alphabetical by author's surname, except where the author is unknown. In
this case the entry is by title, with the titles interfiled between the author entries and
with any leading 'A', 'An' or 'The' ignored in the filing.
Separate each piece of information in the citation with a comma, except title and subtitle.
If there is a subtitle, separate this from the title with a colon. End each citation with a
full stop.
All entries will include a title and most will have an author and a publication date, along
with other information.
The other information will vary, depending on whether your source is a book, journal, video,
web page or something else. Details for the more common media are listed on the following
pages.
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References to Books
For a book, you should include the following pieces of information in the order given below.
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author’s surname(s) and initials
year of publication
title of book, in italics or underlined. Only use upper case for the first letter of the
title and for proper names in the title
series title and volume number, if any
edition, if not the first, e.g. 2nd edn, 3rd edn
publisher
place of publication
page numbers, if applicable, preceded by p. or pp.
Examples:
Smith, J. & Brown, F. 2002, Road kill: the modern epidemic, 2nd edn, Angus & Robertson, Sydney.
De Rosa, C., Dempsey, L. & Wilson, A. 2004, The 2003 OCLC environment scan: pattern
recognition, OCLC, Dublin, Ohio.
Samuels, W. 1994, 'The War of the Roses', Encyclopedia Britannica, 16th edn, vol. 9, Encyclopedia
Britannica Inc., Chicago, p. 687.
Richardson, S. 2002, 'The Linux challenge' in R. Flannigan (ed.) The business impact of operating
systems, O'Reilly, Cambridge.
In the last two examples we have cases where the author is responsible for only a part of
the book being cited. Samuels has written an article for an encyclopaedia and Richardson
one chapter in a book. In these cases we put the article or chapter title in single quotes, to
distinguish it from the title of the book, which is in italics.
References to Periodical Articles
For a periodical (journal, magazine or newspaper) article, include the following pieces of
information in this order:
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author’s surname(s) and initials (or full given name)
year of publication
title of article (in single quotation marks)
title of journal or periodical (in italics or underlined)
volume number (if applicable)
issue number or dates or other identifier (if applicable)
page number(s), preceded by p. or pp.
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Examples
Smyer, T. 1999, 'A typology of consumers of institutional respite care', Clinical Nursing Research,
vol. 8, pp.26-51.
Houde, S. C. 2002, 'Methodological issues in male caregiver research : an integrative review of the
literature', Journal of Advanced Nursing, vol. 40, no. 6, pp. 626-640.
'Out of the shadows, into the world' 2004, The Economist, June 19-25, pp. 26-28
Oakes, L. 2004, 'Campbell's scoop', The Bulletin, 9 March, p. 18.
Sutherland, L. 2004, 'Staunch republican ever controversial', The Advocate, 10 Aug. 2004.
References to CD-ROMs, videos and other media
The references for video recordings, films, sound recordings, broadcasts, electronic media
and so on are very similar to those for books, but with the addition of medium (e.g:
videorecording).
In most cases there will not be a clearly identifiable author for these media.
Citations of broadcast material should also include the date of broadcast after the place.
Examples
Dolphins and the environment 2002, videorecording, BBC, London.
Learning to Live 1964, motion picture, Fine Films Inc., London.
The search for truth 1999, radio program, ABC Radio, Sydney, 16 June.
World War II 2001, CD-ROM, World Book, New York.
References to pamphlets and unpublished material
References to pamphlets and brochures will usually include title, year, place of publication
and publisher.
Unpublished material covers papers presented at conferences, seminars and meetings
where the proceedings are not published, theses, personal writings and personal
communications.
Examples
Libraries to help you with your work and study 2004, Institute of TAFE Tasmania, Hobart.
Boyd, G. 1998, Developing an information literacy program for international students, paper
presented to TAFE Librarians Conference, Hobart.
Graeme, H. 1990, Pulsar behaviour of the Ariadne-D binary system, M. Sc. thesis, University of
Tasmania, Hobart.
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Do not include personal communications such as conversations, letters and personal emails
in your list of references. Instead incorporate the information in the text of your
document.
Examples
In an interview I conducted on 27 April 1987, Mr J. Murphy said …
Mrs Alexander confirmed this by email on 21 July 2004
References to World Wide Web pages
For Web pages the following pieces of information should be present.
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author – the person or organisation
responsible for the source
year of publication
title - in italics or underlined
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name and place of the sponsor of the
source (if available)
date of viewing
URL (Internet address) in angle
brackets < >
If the document title is hard to identify then the title appearing in the title bar at the
top of the screen may be used.
If there is no date on the document then it may be that the date is present in the
document metadata. You can see the metadata in Internet Explorer by going to the View
menu and selecting Source. In Firefox you can often find the page file date in Tools menu,
Page Info.
Examples
Lee, I. 2004, A research guide for students, viewed 16 July 2004,
<http://www.aresearchguide.com>.
Bournemouth University 2004, Guide to citing Internet sources, viewed 30 Feb. 2004,
<http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library/using/guide_to_citing_internet_sourc.html>.
Terraforming Mars n.d., viewed 12 Jan. 2004,
<http://www.geocities.com/~/1885/Terraforming.html>.
SUDftw 2004, The Jackalope conspiracy, viewed 18 July 2004,
<http://www.sudftw.com/jackcon.htm>.
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References to articles on databases accessed via the Web
These are usually periodical articles that have been published electronically. They should
be cited in the same way as conventional periodical articles, but with the addition of the
date viewed and the name of the database they were viewed in.
If the article is identified in the database by a unique document or article number, it may
be useful to include this also.
Examples
Hensiak, K 2002, ‘Abuse in nursing homes : consumers are being left in the dark’, Elder’s Advisor,
vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 73-80, viewed 10 Feb. 2003, available from InfoTrac OneFile, A93454297.
Haig, J. & Fitzgerald, A. 2001, 'It's birthday time', Taxation in Australia, vol. 36, no. 1, pp. 6-14,
viewed 10 Feb. 2003, available from Informit Search, 200112626.
Bush, S. 1998, 'The digital picture', Electronics Weekly, July 15, pp. 20-21., viewed 11 Aug. 2004,
available from InfoTrac OneFile, A21034934.
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