History at Huddersfield Style Guide for Referencing
What is a reference?
When you have included information from published sources in academic work, you
must acknowledge this information fully and accurately.
References using the Oxford System are indicated by a number in the text (placed
after punctuation, as at the end of this sentence) and a correspondingly numbered
footnote at the foot of the page or endnote at the end of the essay. 1 To place a
footnote number like this2, for example, is incorrect. It should fall after the comma, or
more likely at the end of the sentence. You should also include a separate
bibliography, in alphabetical order by author’s surname.
Footnotes are specifically for items which have been cited (specifically mentioned) in
the main body of your work. Material you have read, but have not cited, should be
similarly listed in a separate bibliography.
Why include references?
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They show that you have done some research and have found relevant information.
They show that you have supported your points properly
They enable readers to trace the primary sources and draw their own conclusions
from the original works which you have cited.
They are part of the marking criteria.
When do you need to supply a reference?
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You should acknowledge your source with a reference whenever you include:
Mention of a particular theory, fact, argument of viewpoint (attributable to a
specific person, that is not common knowledge)
Statistics, examples and case studies
Direct quotations from another source
Paraphrase of any of the above.
References should be
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CORRECT
COMPLETE
CONSISTENT
in every detail given
giving all the necessary information to trace an item
in layout with other references you list
Inaccurate or incomplete referencing means that
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It is difficult for a reader to locate the required sources
Time will be wasted trying to find the correct reference
You are recommended to note down the details of material you use while you are doing
your research, rather than to wait until you have finished. It may be difficult to
remember the details or find the material later on.
Be very precise in recording page numbers.
Quotation, paraphrase and plagiarism
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Quotation is the direct transcription in your work of words from the original text.
Quoted passages should be made obvious by enclosing them in single quotation
marks and double quotation marks to indicate quotation within a quotation. (American
practice is the other way round). It is occasionally acceptable to use italics (without
quotation marks) to indicate a quotation, but this is usually only for short phrases (no
more than three or four words) and is often reserved for languages other than English
– in general, quotation marks are preferred for such cases.
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Paraphrase is rewriting the original text to suit the style of your piece of work, but
still essentially using the ideas of the original writer. Quotation marks are not used,
but there should still be a citation to show that the ideas are not original.
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Plagiarism is using someone else's work as your own without acknowledging it.
Whether you are quoting word for word, or paraphrasing a written passage, if you do
not acknowledge it you are cheating and guilty of plagiarism. Whether this is done
deliberately or unintentionally, the university’s regulations are very strict.
Citing your references in your work
As mentioned above, you need to provide a footnote if you put an author’s idea or
opinion into your own words (paraphrase) or if you quote the author word for word
(direct quotation).
Paraphrase
You can present a paraphrase reference:
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By specifically mentioning the author’s name(s) within your own text, followed by
a number in the text and a correspondingly numbered foot note at the foot of the
page or endnote at the end of the essay. For example:
It may be, as Loades points out, that they have no assistants.1
The footnote would look like this:
1 David Loades, The Reign of Mary Tudor (Harlow, 1991), p. 4.
[pp. refers to more than one page, p. refers to just one page]
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Loades, D. The Reign of Mary Tudor (Harlow, 1991)
Direct quotations
If you wish to quote directly from a book, it is necessary to cite the author, date and
appropriate page number in your footnote
According to Waller, ‘many authors’ names are interspersed in the text like
stones in a cherry pie’.2
The footnote would look like this:
2 Gary Waller, English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century (Harlow, 1993), p. 78.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Waller, G. English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century (Harlow, 1993)
You can introduce quotations into your text in various ways. Some useful
introductory words and phrases may include:
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As X states, “________” (or believes/suggests/points
out/observes/indicates/ argues/outlines/proposes/contradicts etc.)
For example, X has argued “_____________” (or alternative, as above)
According to X, “________________”
X suggests that (or alternative, as above).
Referencing different sources of information
Books
All the detail you will need for referencing a book will normally be obtained from the
title page of the book or the reverse of the title page (but not the front cover, which
may have a shortened or different form of the title). Books may be primary or
secondary sources.
The footnote would look like this:
3 Christopher Hill, The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English
Revolution (London, 1975), p. 163.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Hill, C. The World Turned Upside Down: Radical Ideas During the English Revolution
(London, 1975).
Electronic Book
The footnote would look like this:
4 David Gordon Newcombe, Henry VIII and the English Reformation (London, 1995),
pp. 3-12.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Newcombe. D. G. Henry VIII and the English Reformation (London, 1995).
<http://site.ebrary.com/lib/uoh> [Accessed 3 May 2008].
Chapter in a book
Reference using the author of the chapter or contribution and not the editor of the
book, followed by the word ‘in’ and the details of the book where the item can be
found.
If you make this reference correctly, your reader will immediately know what is the
book to look for (i.e. McDonald) and not waste time searching for a non-existent (or
a different) work with the title, The twin demons of aristocratic society in Sir Gower.
The footnote would look like this:
5 Alcuin Blamires, ‘The twin demons of aristocratic society in Sir Gowther’ in N.
McDonald (ed.), Pulp Fictions of Medieval England: Essays in Popular Romance
(Manchester, 2004), pp. 54-55.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Blamires, A. ‘The twin demons of aristocratic society in Sir Gowther’ in N. McDonald
(ed.), Pulp Fictions of Medieval England: Essays in Popular Romance (Manchester,
2004)
Multiple authors (book)
If there is more than one author, the surnames of all should be given.
The main involvement has been at the stage of the production of reading
lists. 6
The footnote would look like this:
6 Sue Drew & Rosie Bingham, The Student Skills Guide (Aldershot, 2001) pp.34-37.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Drew, S. & Bingham, R. The Student Study Guide (Aldershot, 2001)
Journal Article
The footnote would look like this:
7 Roger Howard, ‘Britain, Persia and Petroleum’, History Today, 58, 5, (2008), pp. 4453.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Howard, R. ‘Britain, Persia and Petroleum’, History Today, 58, 5, (2008), pp. 44-53.
Where an article in a journal (or newspaper) has no obvious author (either a
person or an organization) use Anon.
Electronic Journal Article
The footnote would look like this:
8 Gwilym Dodds, ‘A parliament full of rats? Piers Plowman and the Good Parliament of
1376’, Historical Research, 79, 203, (2006), pp. 21-49.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Dodds, G. ‘A parliament full of rats? Piers Plowman and the Good Parliament of 1376’,
Historial Research, 79, 203, (2006), pp. 21-49,
<http://ejournals.ebsco.com/Article.asp?ContributionID=8267991> [Accessed 6 May
2006].
Sometimes an article has been given a date of revision at the end of the text;
however, you need to cite the original details at the top of the article. By giving the
date of access, the reader will be clear which version you are identifying.
Multiple authors (journal article)
The footnote would look like this:9 Nancy Rose Hunt & Troy Bickham, ‘Rewriting the Soul in a Flemish Congo’, Past &
Present, 198 (2008), pp. 187-188.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Hunt, N. R. & Bickham, T. ‘Rewriting the Soul in a Flemish Congo’, Past & Present, 198
(2008), pp. 187-188.
Website
The footnote would look like this:
10Andrew Robertshaw, ‘The Somme: its place in British history’, BBC News, (22 June
2006).
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Robertshaw, A. ‘The Somme: its place in British history’, BBC News, (22 June 2006).
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/5083196.stm > [Accessed 12 May 2008].
Newspaper Article
The footnote would look like this:
11 Hannah Duguid, ‘Russian Revolution’, The Independent Extra, (7 May 2008), pp. 1213.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Duguid, H. ‘Russian Revolution’, The Independent Extra, (7 May 2008), pp. 12-13.
Electronic Newspaper Article
The footnote would look like this:
12Jeanette Winterson, ‘Going back to the roots’, The Guardian, (16 March 2008).
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Winterson, J. ‘Going back to the roots’. The Guardian, (16 March 2008).
http://books.guardian.co.uk/greatpoets/story/0,,2262149,00.html [Accessed 7 May
2008].
Television Programme
The footnote would look like this:
13A history of Britain by Simon Schama. Television programme, BBC2, (London,
broadcast 11 June 2002).
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
A history of Britain by Simon Schama. Television programme, BBC2, (London,
broadcast 11 June 2002).
DVD/Video
The footnote would look like this:
14 A taste of honey. DVD, BFI, (London, 1998).
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
A taste of honey. DVD, BFI, (London, 1998).
You should only reference a film if you have watched it. If you have viewed a clip from a
website:
Excerpt of Lawrence of Arabia (1962), at ‘Screenonline,’
<http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/477570/index.html>, 9 February 2009.
You should always make it clear in what year the film/TV programme was made.
Oral History Interviews
It can be quite complicated to reference an oral history interview. As with any reference,
the key point is to allow your readers to locate the original source, so you must give a
location. You must also make it clear whether you have used a transcript or listened to
the interview.
Oral history interview (transcript) with name of interviewee, date of interview, collection,
location of interview.
Oral history interview with Helen Gilroy, 14 August 1985, Cinema in Britain collection,
University of Huddersfield Archives.
For an interview you have undertaken:
Oral history interview with Tony Mason, 12 January 2009, conducted by author,
submitted to Blackboard, AFH1004 Twentieth Century Britain.
For an interview on a website:
Oral history interview with Jamil Akhtar, 2008, ‘Asian Voices,’
http://www.asianvoices.org.uk/subjects/view/coming-to-england, 14 November 2008.
Use a short title for second and subsequent references, e.g.:
Oral history interview with Helen Gilroy.
Archival Sources
Again referencing archival sources can be complicated and you must be careful not to
give the impression that you have read a source in the original if you have not. If you
have looked at the original source, archives often provide guidance on how they wish to
be referenced and, if they do, you should follow these.
You need to provide enough information for your readers to locate the exact source you
are using. The following are some examples.
Huw T. Edwards Papers, Huw T. Edwards to Ieuan Jones, 22 September 1949, A2/38.
National Library of Wales.
London County Council Minutes of Proceedings, 24 Jan. 1936, London Metropolitan
Archives.
E.F.M. Durbin Papers, ‘The English Political Scene/British Political Tradition’ (lecture),
British Library of Political and Economic Science, 1/3.
If you used the archival source from a website, you must say so e.g.
Anne Lister's Journal 30th May 1828 - 15th April 1829, From History to Her Story,
http://www.historytoherstory.org.uk/index.php?targetid=29 [Accessed 22 June 2009].
The rule for referencing archival sources is to be consistent, and provide sufficient
information for the reader to find the exact item to which you are referring.
Work Cited in Another Work
The footnote would look like this:
15 John Morton, ‘Diet’, cited in William Riechman, Use and abuse of statistics, (London,
1964), p. 92.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Riechman, W. Use and abuse of statistics, (London, 1964).
Conference Papers
The footnote would look like this:
16 Gianni Scollen, ‘Penetrating the silence: shame, peers and the community’ in
Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Victimology, 24-26 August, Institute
of Criminology, (London, 2002), pp. 202-228.
The full reference in your bibliography would look like this:
Scollen, G. ‘Penetrating the silence: shame, peers and the community’ in Proceedings
of the 4th International Symposium on Victimology, 24-26 August, Institute of
Criminology, (London, 2002).
Subsequent references
In the Oxford System subsequent references to a text (referring to the same text more
than once at different stages in your work) are given via a short title as follows:
Book: first citation: Sarah Bastow, The Catholic Gentry of Yorkshire, 1536-1642:
Resistance and Accommodation (Lampeter, 2007), pp. 45-52.
Short title for subsequent citation: Bastow, The Catholic Gentry of Yorkshire, p. 35.
Journal Article: first citation: Malcolm Gaskill, ‘Witchcraft and Evidence in Early
Modern England’, Past & Present, 198 (2008), p. 65.
Short title for subsequent citation: Gaskill, ‘Witchcraft and Evidence in Early Modern
England’, p. 62.
Identical footnotes
Where a reference (with the exception of the page reference) is exactly the same as the
note that immediately precedes it use ibid . ibid means ibidem, ‘in the same place’. For
example:
1
David Loades, The Reign of Mary Tudor (Harlow, 1991), pp. 1-4.
Waller, English Poetry of the Sixteenth Century (Harlow, 1993), p. 78.
3 ibid., p. 54.
[meaning in the same book at page 54.]
2 Gary