A guide to
MHRA Referencing
November 2015
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Contents
The purpose of referencing ....................................................................................................... 3
MHRA Referencing Style ............................................................................................................ 3
Citations/Quotes ........................................................................................................................ 3
Footnotes ................................................................................................................................... 4
Components of a footnote (first time of referencing)............................................................... 4
Subsequent references to the source per text .......................................................................... 4
Example of a Direct Quotation & Footnote (first time of referencing) ..................................... 4
Multiple authors or editors ........................................................................................................ 5
When there is an edition ........................................................................................................... 5
Print chapter – in an edited book, first reference ..................................................................... 6
Indirect source ........................................................................................................................... 7
Journal articles ........................................................................................................................... 8
Journal article – single author.................................................................................................... 8
Journals by one of more authors – first reference .................................................................... 8
Websites .................................................................................................................................... 9
Other sources ........................................................................................................................... 10
Archival Sources ....................................................................................................................... 10
Newspapers ............................................................................................................................. 11
Parliamentary papers ............................................................................................................... 11
Bibliographies........................................................................................................................... 11
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The purpose of referencing
The purpose of referencing is to help those who read or mark your work to identify, locate
and read the sources you have used.
Within your assignment your references should be mentioned twice. Firstly the point at
which the source is referred to in your text (known as a citation) and secondly in strict
alphabetical order at the end of your assignment.
Referencing is also extremely important to avoid any claims of plagiarism (passing off other
people’s work and ideas as your own). Plagiarism is an academic crime.
MHRA Referencing Style
MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) is a referencing style that is used in the
Humanities.
It is a style that requires you to use both footnotes and bibliographic citations which vary in
the way they are written.
The same format should be used even if you read or download an article from an online
database. You do not need to include the URL.
The only exception is the referencing of webpages where you do need to include the URL.
Citations/Quotations
When you refer to, or quote, someone else’s work, you are citing someone else’s ideas in
the body of your text.
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Every citation should be labelled in your text using a superscript (raised) number ¹ so
that the source can be identified
This number¹ refers to a footnote and should always come after punctuation, except
a dash – which it should precede
The footnotes contain the full citation information for your sources and appear at
the bottom of the page
Each number in the text will have a corresponding footnote
It will usually contain detail on the particular part of the work to which you are
referring, for example a specific page number or range
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Footnotes
BOOKS
Components of a footnote (first time of referencing)
The components of a footnote should be as follows:
1. Author/Editor name(s), as it appears in the text e.g. Initial. Surname
2. Title of the book or journal – Book titles are Italicised and journal titles in single
quotes
3. Each letter of the title should be capitalised throughout the title and after the colon
if there is a subtitle
4. Edition of the book
5. Place of publication, Publisher, Year of publication (all in round brackets) n.b. the
place of publication is always a town or city, never a county or country. If there is an
edition, indicate the date of the edition used and then add the date of the first
edition after this [first edition date], see footnote⁴ for an example of this.
6. Include specific page numbers e.g. p. 1 or pp. 1-3.
Subsequent references to the book
If you refer to the same book in a later footnote, cite it in the shortest most understandable
form. Use the first significant word of a phrase from the title (leaving out ‘the’ or ‘A’) giving
enough to distinguish the text from any other sources you may be citing.
Example of a Direct Quotation & Footnote (first time of referencing)
Quotation/Citation
‘Several factors have an important bearing on the health of individuals and consequently an
overall population health.’ ⁴
Footnote
⁴R. Baggott, Health and Health Care in Britain, third edition, (Basingstoke: Palgrave
2004), p. 5.
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Subsequent footnote
⁴Baggott, Health and Health Care, p. 69.
(Only give title if more than one work by the same author is in the bibliography).
N.B The term ‘ibid’ may be used sparingly and where there is no possibility of
confusion, e.g where a subsequent reference is separated by its predecessor by no
more than 4 lines of text.
The term ‘op. cit.’ should not be used.
Multiple authors or editors
For 2 authors/editors – separate the authors/editors using ‘and’
For more than 2 authors/editors – list all the authors and separate using a comma, except
for the last author which should be separated using ‘and’.
⁴J. Oko and J. Reid, Study Skills for Health and Social Care Students: a Guide for
Students on Foundation Degree and Access Courses. (Sage: London, 2012), p. 25.
⁶I.Marsh, M. Keating, S. Punch and J. Harden (eds.), Sociology: Making Sense of
Society, fourth edition, (Harlow: Pearson 2009), p. 51.
Subsequent footnote
⁴Oko and Reid, Study Skills, p. 29.
(Only give title if more than one work by the same author is in the bibliography).
N.B The term ‘ibid’ may be used sparingly and where there is no possibility of
confusion, e.g where a subsequent reference is separated by its predecessor by no
more than 4 lines of text.
The term ‘op. cit.’ should not be used.
An edition of a book
If there is an edition of the book (Indicate the date of the edition used, after the place and
publisher, then add the date of the first edition [first edition date]) e.g.
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⁷R. Pears and G. Shields, Cite Them Right: the Essential Referencing Guide, ninth
edition, (London: Palgrave, 2013), p. 93.
Subsequent footnote
⁸Pears and Shields, Cite Them Right, p. 25.
(Only give title if more than one work by the same author is in the bibliography).
N.B The term ‘ibid’ may be used sparingly and where there is no possibility of
confusion, e.g where a subsequent reference is separated by its predecessor by no
more than 4 lines of text.
The term ‘op. cit.’ should not be used.
Print chapter – in an edited book, first reference
When creating a footnote from a chapter in an edited book it must be in the following
order:
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Author of the chapter: Initial, Surname,
'Chapter full title', (in single quotation marks)
in
Editor: Initial. Surname (ed.),
Book full title (in italics),
Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication (all in round brackets),
Page numbers (p. or pp.)
⁴K. Downey, ‘Technical Services: Aspects of Demand-Driven E-Book Acquisitions’, in
K. Bridges (ed.), Customer-Based Collection Development: an Overview, (London:
Facet Publishing, 2014), p. 103.
Subsequent footnote
⁵Downey, ‘Technical Services: Aspects of Demand-Driven E-Book Acquisitions’, p.
103.
(Only give title if more than one work by the same author is in the bibliography).
N.B The term ‘ibid’ may be used sparingly and where there is no possibility of
confusion, e.g where a subsequent reference is separated by its predecessor by no
more than 4 lines of text.
The term ‘op. cit.’ should not be used.
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Indirect source
An indirect source is where a quotation is taken from another source. When creating a
footnote from an indirect source it must be in the following order:
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Author of quotation: Initial. Surname
Title of the quoted book, (in italics)
Edition (if not the first edition)
Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication, (all in round brackets)
Page numbers, (p. or pp.)
Cited in
Author of the full source: Initial. Surname.
Title of the source book, (in italics)
Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication, [first edition date] (all in round
brackets)
Page numbers, (p. or pp.)
Quotation
James’s definition of psychology [is] ‘the Science of Mental Life, both of its
phenomena and of their conditions….’ ⁶
⁶ W. James, The Principles of Psychology. (New York: Henry Holt & Company,
1890), p. 53. cited in R. Gross, Psychology: the Science of Mind and Behaviour,
Sixth Edition (London: Hodder, 2010), p. 2.
Subsequent footnote
⁸Gross, Psychology: the Science of Mind and Behaviour. p. 2.
(Only give title if more than one work by the same author is in the bibliography).
N.B The term ‘ibid’ may be used sparingly and where there is no possibility of
confusion, e.g where a subsequent reference is separated by its predecessor by no
more than 4 lines of text.
The term ‘op. cit.’ should not be used.
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JOURNAL ARTICLES
As with book referencing, full information should only be given the first time a source is
referenced in a particular piece of work.
Journal article – single author
When creating a footnote from a Journal article with a single author it must be in the
following order:
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Author / Editor: Initial. Surname,
Title of the journal article, (in single quotation marks, with the initial letter of each
noun, verb or adjective capitalised, and where it is the first word in a subtitle, after a
colon.)
Journal Title, (in italics)
Volume number, part (part or issue no. only needed if every issue starts from p.1)
Year,
Page numbers.(p. or pp.)
⁴C. Huyard, ‘Who Rules Rare Disease Associations? a Framework to Understand Their
Action’, Sociology of Health & Illness, 31 (2009), 978-990 (p. 980)
Subsequent footnote
⁵Huyard, ‘Who Rules Rare Disease Associations?’, p. 985.
Journals by one of more authors – first reference
When creating a footnote from a Journal article with one or more author it must be in the
following order:
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Author / Editor: Initial. Surname,
Title of the journal article, (in single quotation marks, with the initial letter of each
noun, verb or adjective capitalised, and where it is the first word in a subtitle, after a
colon.)
Journal Title, (in italics)
Volume number. issue (part or issue no. only needed if every issue starts from p.1)
Year,
Page numbers.(p. or pp.)
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⁴L. Locock, S. Ziebland and C. Dumelow, ‘Biographical Disruption, Abruption and
Repair in the Context of Motor Neurone Disease’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 31
(2009), 1043-1058 (p.1045)
Online Journal Article
As above but add
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URL
Accessed date (in square brackets)
⁴L. Locock, S. Ziebland and C. Dumelow, ‘Biographical Disruption, Abruption and
Repair in the Context of Motor Neurone Disease’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 31
(2009), 1043-1058 (p.1045)
<http://ucs.summon.serialssolutions.com/#!/search?ho=t&l=enUK&q=locock%20biographical%20disruption> [accessed 28 October 2014].
Subsequent footnote
⁵Locock, Ziebland and Dumelow, ‘Biographical Disruption’, p. 1047.
(Only give title if more than one work by the same author is in the bibliography).
N.B The term ‘ibid’ may be used sparingly and where there is no possibility of
confusion, e.g where a subsequent reference is separated by its predecessor by no
more than 4 lines of text.
The term ‘op. cit.’ should not be used.
WEBSITES
When creating a footnote from a website it must be in the following order:
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Author, (if there is one) Initial. Surname
'Title of article or page,' (in single quotation marks)
Website title, (follow with website)
URL of article, (in angled brackets)
Date article or page was published or last updated,
Accessed date. (in square brackets)
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Any notes on the source.
Web page where an author is identifiable
⁴H. Schofield, ‘Scandalous Tales from the British Embassy in Paris’, BBC News
Magazine, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29643065> , 20 October 2014,
[accessed 28 October 2014].
Subsequent footnote
⁵Schofield, ‘Scandalous Tales’.
Webpage where there is no author
⁷How Do We Remember World War One?’, BBC History Website,
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z8tgq6f> , no date, [accessed 28 October 2014].
Subsequent footnote
⁸ ‘How Do We Remember World War One?’.
N.B The term ‘ibid’ may be used sparingly and where there is no possibility of
confusion, e.g where a subsequent reference is separated by its predecessor by no
more than 4 lines of text.
The term ‘op. cit.’ should not be used.
OTHER SOURCES
Archival Sources
If you use archival sources in your writing e.g. items from County Records Offices or
other archive collections you will need to present your references as follows:
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Name of Records Office of Archive, (abbreviated) and including location
details (e.g. specific office)
Reference number,
Description of document. (including any given dates)
Document from Suffolk Records Office – Ipswich. SRO (1)
⁵SRO (I), HD1689/1, Needham Market War Diary of Mr. E.W. Platten, 3 September
1939-30 March 1945.
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Document from Cumbria Records Office – Carlisle. CRO ©
⁶CRO (C), DWM 419/372, Derwent Conservancy Board Minute Books. 1880-1891.
Newspapers
When creating a footnote from a newspaper it must be in the following order. If a
newspaper is sourced online it is not necessary to give the URL.
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Author / Editor: Initial. Surname,
'Title of the article', (in single quotation marks)
Title of newspaper (in italics),
Date,
Section if applicable,
Page number (p. or pp.)
⁷M. Hookham, ‘HS2 Will Save Green Belt’, The Sunday Times, 26th October 2014, UK
News, p. 24.
Parliamentary papers
When creating a footnote from a Parliamentary paper it must be in the following
order. This may include items from the operation of select committees, and royal
commissions of enquiry.
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Type of paper, E.g. British Parliamentary Paper (or BPP)
Year,
Reference number,
Title of the paper or document, (in italics)
Description of document,
Page number (p. or pp.)
⁸House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 2007/08, Bill 12, Education and Skills Bill, Bill To
Make Provision About Education and Training: and for Connected Purposes, pp. 4 – 6.
Bibliographies
The bibliography is presented at the end of your work, listing alphabetically, all materials
used in the writing of the work. Below are a list of all the resources used in this guide, laid
out in the format of a bibliography. N.B You may be required to have separate headings
for books, articles etc, please check with the person marking your work.
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Baggott, R. Health and Health Care in Britain, third edition, (Basingstoke: Palgrave 2004)
CRO (C), DWM 419/372, Derwent Conservancy Board Minute Books. 1880-1891
Downey, K. ‘Technical Services: Aspects of Demand-Driven E-Book Acquisitions’, in K.
Bridges (ed.), Customer-Based Collection Development: an Overview, (London: Facet
Publishing, 2014)
Hookham, M. ‘HS2 Will Save Green Belt’, The Sunday Times, 26th October 2014, UK News
House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 2007/08, Bill 12, Education and Skills Bill, Bill to
Make Provision About Education and Training: and for Connected Purposes
How Do We Remember World War One?’, BBC History Website,
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z8tgq6f> , no date, [accessed 28 October 2014]
Huyard, C. ‘Who Rules Rare Disease Associations? A Framework to Understand Their
Action’, Sociology of Health & Illness, 31, 7, 2009
James, W. The Principles of Psychology. (New York: Henry Holt & Company, 1890), Quoted
in R. Gross, Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behaviour, Sixth Edition (London: Hodder,
2010)
Locock, L., S. Ziebland and C. Dumelow ‘Biographical Disruption, Abruption and Repair in
the Context of Motor Neurone Disease’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 31 (2009) pp10431058
Marsh, I., M. Keating, S. Punch and J. Harden (eds.), Sociology: Making Sense of Society,
Fourth edition, (Harlow: Pearson, 2009)
Oko. J. and J. Reid Study Skills for Health and Social Care Students: A Guide for Students on
Foundation Degree and Access Courses. (London: Sage, 2012)
Pears, R. and G. Shields Cite Them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide, Ninth edition,
(London: Palgrave, 2013)
Schofield, H. ‘Scandalous Tales from the British Embassy in Paris’, BBC News Magazine,
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-29643065> , 20 October 2014, [accessed 28
October 2014]
SRO (I), HD1689/1, Needham Market War Diary of Mr. E.W. Platten, 3 September 1939-30
March 1945
Some courses may also have additional guidance notes – please refer to your UCS Course
pages.