Citing & Referencing
Dr Derek Scott
d.scott@abdn.ac.uk
Honours Class in Medical Sciences
MSc Clinical Pharmacology
Why do we need to cite
references?
• Allows others to find the same
information and to trace what we
have said.
• Gives credit to those who came up
with original ideas or who actually
did the work.
• Demonstrates the background
information upon which your work is
based.
Everyone needs guidance
• You will notice that academic staff are just
as bad as students sometimes when it
comes to citing references or listing them
(myself included).
• If we see poor referencing, it rings alarm
bells- what else have you not bothered to
check or do properly in a piece of work?
• Creates a bad impression from the start –
marker is likely to look for further errors
as well as focusing on the good points.
• This is not an exhaustive guide, and
different sources will have variations on
what is contained here, but this should
help you avoid most of the pitfalls.
Plagiarism
• Becoming a major issue in universities.
• Currently, if you are caught cheating or plagiarising
others’ work, then your School does not deal with it –
you go straight to the Senior Vice-Principal!
• He will decide whether it was bad practice or if you
were being deliberately deceptive.
• Two strikes and you’re out!
• If you are not sure what plagiarism is, then find out at
www.abdn.ac.uk/writing
• If you do give information or ideas from textbooks or
other published material, you must give a precise
reference to the source, both at the appropriate point
in the text, and in your list of references at the end of
your work. Direct quotations from published material
should be indicated by quotation marks and
referenced in the text as above.
Citing & referencing
• These are actually two different
things, although many people
(including myself!) use the terms
interchangeably.
• Citing is when you refer in the text to
the source of information used (i.e.
the reference).
• Referencing is where you create a list
of the source used.
Reference Lists &
Bibliographies
• Every piece of work you submit should have a list
of references at the end.
• The reference list includes all of the papers/books
etc. you cited in the text.
• A bibliography tends to list the books etc. you
consulted whilst writing the essay, but you may
not have cited these. These items are more like
background reading.
• We tend not to use bibliographies at level 3 and
4, since you should be focusing mainly on
advanced textbooks, reviews and peer-reviewed
papers for your information and you will already
have a lot of background knowledge.
• You should be able to back all of your statements
up with evidence.
2 main forms of citing –
Harvard & Vancouver
• Both commonly used.
• Pick one and stick to it!
• Do not mix and match throughout a piece of
work.
• These two systems differ in how you cite the
reference in the text, and where the date goes
when you produce your reference list.
• The School of Medical Sciences now demands the
Harvard system because quite often you will
know a paper by the author’s name and not as
reference no. 71.
• Unless told otherwise, it is up to you which you
use – just make sure you do it properly.
• However, for all work for School of Medical
Sciences, you MUST use Harvard!
Harvard Style (Text)
• Cites author and date of publication
Studies by Scott (1976), McEwan (1988) and
Bowser-Riley (2006) have shown….
This has been demonstrated in several studies
(Scott, 1976; McEwan, 1988; Bowser-Riley, 2006).
It has been concluded (Scott, 2006) that the main….
….the findings of this work was controversial (see
Scott, 2006).
• If you quote exact text from a piece of work, you should
give page numbers
Scott (2006, p.173)
• If you have two or more references with the same author
and year, you add letters after the dates
Scott (2006a) and Scott (2006b)
Vancouver Style (numeric)
• Numbers in text which correspond to numerical sequence of
reference at end of piece of work.
• Usual to start with 1 and progress, rather than having the
first citation as number 15 or similar.
Scott4 and McEwan10, or Scott (4) and McEwan (9)
• Can also use numbers on their own
It may be demonstrated4 or
It may be demonstrated (4)
Use the same number for the same reference e.g if Rang et al.
(2003) is number 1, then it is always number 1. Do not
give it another number just because you have turned the
page. If you want to get into this amount of detail, then
you have to start giving chapter and page numbers.
Harvard Style - Ref List
Tchernitchko, D., Bourgeois, M., Martin, M. E., & Beaumont, C. (2002). Expression of the
two mRNA isoforms of the iron transporter Nramp2/DMTI in mice and function of the iron
responsive element. Biochem.J. 363, 449-455.
Teichmann, R. & Stremmel, W. (1990). Iron uptake by human upper small intestine
microvillous membrane vesicles. Indication for a facilitated transport mechanism
mediated by a membrane iron-binding protein. J.Clin.Invest 86, 2145-2153.
Tennant, J., Stansfield, M., Yamaji, S., Srai, S. K., & Sharp, P. (2002). Effects of copper
on the expression of metal transporters in human intestinal Caco-2 cells. FEBS Lett. 527,
239-244.
Thomas, J. A., Buchsbaum, R. N., Zimniak, A., & Racker, E. (1979). Intracellular pH
measurements in Ehrlich ascites tumor cells utilizing spectroscopic probes generated in
situ. Biochemistry 18, 2210-2218.
Thwaites, D. T., McEwan, G. T.A. , Brown, C. D., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L. (1993a).
Na+-independent, H+-coupled transepithelial beta-alanine absorption by human intestinal
Caco-2 cell monolayers. J.Biol.Chem. 268, 18438-18441.
Thwaites, D. T., Brown, C. D., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L. (1993b). H+-coupled
dipeptide (glycylsarcosine) transport across apical and basal borders of human intestinal
Caco-2 cell monolayers displays distinct characteristics. Biochim.Biophys.Acta. 1151,
237-245.
Thwaites, D. T., Brown, C. D., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L. (1993c). Transepithelial
glycylsarcosine transport in intestinal Caco-2 cells mediated by expression of H+-coupled
carriers at both apical and basal membranes. J.Biol.Chem. 268, 7640-7642.
Thwaites, D. T., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L. (1994). Substrate specificity of the
di/tripeptide transporter in human intestinal epithelia (Caco-2): identification of
substrates that undergo H+-coupled absorption. Br.J.Pharmacol. 113, 1050-1056.
Thwaites, D. T., McEwan, G. T. A., & Simmons, N. L. (1995). The role of the proton
electrochemical gradient in the transepithelial absorption of amino acids by human
intestinal Caco-2 cell monolayers. J.Membr.Biol. 145, 245-256.
Thwaites, D. T., Cavet, M., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L. (1995). Angiotensin-converting
enzyme (ACE) inhibitor transport in human intestinal epithelial (Caco-2) cells.
Br.J.Pharmacol. 114, 981-986.
Vancouver style - ref list
1. Tchernitchko, D., Bourgeois, M., Martin, M. E., & Beaumont, C. (2002). Expression of
the two mRNA isoforms of the iron transporter Nramp2/DMTI in mice and function of
the iron responsive element. Biochem.J. 363, 449-455.
2. Teichmann, R. & Stremmel, W. (1990). Iron uptake by human upper small intestine
microvillous membrane vesicles. Indication for a facilitated transport mechanism
mediated by a membrane iron-binding protein. J.Clin.Invest 86, 2145-2153.
3. Tennant, J., Stansfield, M., Yamaji, S., Srai, S. K., & Sharp, P. (2002). Effects of
copper on the expression of metal transporters in human intestinal Caco-2 cells.
FEBS Lett. 527, 239-244.
4. Thomas, J. A., Buchsbaum, R. N., Zimniak, A., & Racker, E. (1979). Intracellular pH
measurements in Ehrlich ascites tumor cells utilizing spectroscopic probes generated
in situ. Biochemistry 18, 2210-2218.
5. Thwaites, D. T., McEwan, G. T.A. , Brown, C. D., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L.
(1993). Na+-independent, H+-coupled transepithelial beta-alanine absorption by
human intestinal Caco-2 cell monolayers. J.Biol.Chem. 268, 18438-18441.
6. Thwaites, D. T., Brown, C. D., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L. (1993). H+-coupled
dipeptide (glycylsarcosine) transport across apical and basal borders of human
intestinal Caco-2 cell monolayers displays distinct characteristics.
Biochim.Biophys.Acta. 1151, 237-245.
7. Thwaites, D. T., Brown, C. D., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L. (1993). Transepithelial
glycylsarcosine transport in intestinal Caco-2 cells mediated by expression of H+coupled carriers at both apical and basal membranes. J.Biol.Chem. 268, 7640-7642.
8. Thwaites, D. T., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L. (1994). Substrate specificity of the
di/tripeptide transporter in human intestinal epithelia (Caco-2): identification of
substrates that undergo H+-coupled absorption. Br.J.Pharmacol. 113, 1050-1056.
9. Thwaites, D. T., McEwan, G. T. A., & Simmons, N. L. (1995). The role of the proton
electrochemical gradient in the transepithelial absorption of amino acids by human
intestinal Caco-2 cell monolayers. J.Membr.Biol. 145, 245-256.
10. Thwaites, D. T., Cavet, M., Hirst, B. H., & Simmons, N. L. (1995). Angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor transport in human intestinal epithelial (Caco-2)
cells. Br.J.Pharmacol. 114, 981-986.
Quotations
• I try to avoid these wherever possible.
• Try to put things into your own words so that you can
show the reader that you understand what is being
said and that you have interpreted it correctly.
• Also decreases the chance of you plagiarising work.
• If you must do it, then put quotation marks around
the phrase or sentence.
Scott (1990, p.19) has proposed “…it is
possible that babies are created by means of
magic dust gathered from under
cabbages…[but] it might be that this has yet to
be proven beyond doubt.”
• The quotation is part of the text and is surrounded by
quotation marks.
• The three full stops … indicate an omission, whilst the
square brackets [] show that you have added your
own words to the original quotation.
Books
• AUTHOR (Date). Title. Edition. Place:
Publisher.
• SCOTT, D.A.(2006). The physiology
of metal transport. 2nd Ed. London:
Churchill-Livingstone.
• Check the inside pages of the book
for this information – do not just
copy what is on the cover.
Books with multiple authors
• 3 or less:
• SCOTT, D.A., MCEWAN, G.T.A. & PAGE, K. (1999).
A History of Aberdeen Bars. London: Longman
Educational Publishers.
• 4 or more:
• SCOTT, D.A., et al. (2006). My Secret Life As a
Fighter Pilot. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• HOWEVER, whilst many people will find this
acceptable, it is more professional to give all
authors in your reference list.
• School of Medical Sciences demands the full list
in submitted work.
Books with editors
• SCOTT, D.A., ed. (2004). How to
Bluff Your Way as a University
Lecturer. Aberdeen: Aberdeen
University Press.
• Scott is not the author here, he is
just the editor of a publication that
contains contributions from many
authors.
Anonymous Works
• If you cannot find an author (but
please try hard to find one), then use
“Anon.”.
• ANON. (2004) Famous Scandals in
the Institute of Medical Sciences.
London: Penguin Books.
• However, this is exceptionally rare.
Editions & Dates
• Always be sure to include the year of
publication.
• If you are citing a book, then you
must include the edition number if
there has been more than one.
• This is important as new editions
contain major revisions to the text
and images.
Referencing Journals
Based upon Journal of Physiology and University of Aberdeen
standard format:
AUTHORS (YEAR). Title. Journal. Volume, Pages.
Note that Journal title is in italics and volume is in bold to make them
stand out. All authors are also listed, as is title of paper.
TENNANT, J., STANSFIELD, M., YAMAJI, S., SRAI, S. K., & SHARP, P.
(2002). Effects of copper on the expression of metal transporters in
human intestinal Caco-2 cells. FEBS Lett. 527, 239-244.
SCOTT, D.A., MCARDLE, H.J. & MCEWAN, G.T.A. (2002). Electrogenic
divalent cation transport in cultured human intestinal Caco-2
epithelia. J.Physiol. 539P, S076.
SCOTT, D.A., MCARDLE, H.J. & MCEWAN, G.T.A. (2003). Identification
of two pH-dependent, Zn2+-induced electrogenic transport pathways
in human intestinal Caco-2 epithelia. J.Physiol. 547P, PC61.
Biomedical Sciences
Recommended Styles
•
•
Journal of Physiology
British Journal of Pharmacology
•
These are the recommended journal styles to follow since they cover most of the
disciplines followed by BMS degree schemes, and they have an exceptionally rigorous
peer-review process.
•
The School of Medical Science approved format is based upon J. Physiol. And
the University Library’s Guide to Referencing & Citing.
•
Journal of Physiology, in particular, is ruthless when it comes to citing references
properly.
Look at these journals if you want to see examples of good practice or if you are
unsure.
Different departments/journals have slightly different citation/referencing styles, so
you may see different layouts. i.e. whether they include all authors or the title of the
paper etc.
If you use a package like Refworks, you must be sure you set it up correctly and you
define what referencing style you want – double-check though, because the packages
can still get it wrong!
•
•
•
•
•
If you are studying in a department/field which has specialist journals or referencing
conventions, your supervisor will have told you about this.
If you are not sure, then ask!
Authors’ initials
• Authors’ initials come after their
surnames.
• Do not give some authors their full
names, and others just initials – it is
sloppy and looks silly.
• When citing authors names in text,
you do not give names, initials,
qualifications or titles, just surname
and year e.g. Scott et al. (2006)
Example of how to cite in a
piece of text
The following passage was copied from my PhD thesis. Note
how I back up major findings or statements at appropriate
points in the text.
The initial characterisation of Divalent Metal Transporter 1
(DMT1) in 1997 by Gunshin et al. (1997) generated much
interest in the field of metal biology since this protein was
expressed in a variety of tissues, and was reported as carrying
a multitude of divalent metal ions. The discovery of
transporters like DMT1 has led to a better understanding of
certain genetic disorders such as hereditary
haemochromatosis (Rolfs et al., 2002) and acrodermatitis
enteropathica (Kury et al., 2002) (disorders of iron and zinc
transport, respectively) and animal disease models such as
the microcytic anaemia (mk) mouse (Fleming et al., 1997),
the lethal milk (lm) mouse (Huang & Gitschier, 1997) and the
Belgrade (b) rat (Fleming et al., 1998).
If you have a paragraph or piece of text with no references in
it, double-check it to make sure you it is just basic information
and that you have not missed anything out.
Application of phorbol esters has been reported to
cause a Na+-dependent alkalinisation of rat jejunum
microclimate pH (McSwine et al., 1998). This was
thought to be mediated via PKC. It was also
demonstrated that Na+ absorption via NHE3 might
be inhibited by increased levels of cytosolic Ca2+,
possibly mediated by Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent
kinases (Shimada & Hoshi, 1988). McSwine et al.
(1998) also studied the intestinal cell line C2, and
showed that elevated levels of cGMP caused
inhibition of NHE3 activity. These increased levels of
cGMP may occur pathophysiologically during
exposure to the heat-stable E. coli STa enterotoxin.
Inhibition of NHE3 by cGMP (Semrad et al., 1990)
has been demonstrated to cause an elevation of the
microclimate pH when studied in vivo in rat
(McEwan et al., 1988; McKie et al., 1988; Shimada
& Hoshi, 1988) and pig (McEwan et al., 1990b).
Websites
• Be VERY careful when using a website as a
reference.
• They can be useful, but how can you tell that the
information is updated, accurate or peerreviewed?
• Some sites are more reliable than others e.g.
government sites or universities, but again, you
should really try to stick to papers or books that
have been reviewed by experts to make sure that
the info is correct.
• Websites are great for pictures etc., but you still
have to give the authors credit.
Citing websites
• To refer to a specific web document in your text,
you must cite either the author name as usual
and year (if available), or the name of the
organisation responsible for the website and the
year.
• Three different Honours specialties are
available on the BSc BiomedSci degree at
the University of Aberdeen (School of
Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen,
2005).
• I would list this in the references as:
• School of Medical Sciences, University of
Aberdeen. [online]. Available from:
http://www.abdn.ac.uk/sms/documents/bi
o_sci.doc [Accessed 21 Mar 2006]
Referencing websites
• The standard form is:
• AUTHOR or EDITOR (year). Title [online]. Place of
publication: Publisher. Available at: <URL>
[Accessed date].
• Some of these identifiers are not always
available.
• Publisher is usually the organisation that hosts
the site, but the place of publication and
publisher are optional.
• You need to provide the date accessed since web
pages may be updated frequently, so can change.
• If a web page does not have an author, then
reference it by title.
Examples of referencing
websites
• For a specific website
• School of Medical Sciences, University of Aberdeen.
[online]. Available from: www.abdn.ac.uk/sms [Accessed
21 Mar 2006]
• For a document on a website
• SCOTT, D.A. & MCEWAN, G.T.A. (2004) A history of
biomedical sciences. [online]. Available from:
www.abdn.ac.uk/sms/history [Accessed 21 Mar 2006]
• For a specific web page
• DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT (2000).
Student loans: guidance on terms and conditions from April
2000. [online]. Available from:
http://www.dfee.gov.uk/loan2000/index.html [Accessed
23rd March 2006]
Epubs/online access
• This is a curious one because it is an article that has been
released electronically before it has been published in paper
form. You can tell this because it either says that it is an
"epub ahead of print" or "online first". This happens when
they want to get an important article out into the public
domain quickly.
• If we follow the same referencing style used by Journal of
Physiology, it should be written (note that the initials of an
author come after their surnames when referencing):
• SASSI, A., MARCORA, S.M., RAMPININI, E., MOGNONI, P.
& IMPELLIZZERI, F.M. (2006) Prediction of time to
exhaustion from blood lactate response during submaximal
exercise in competitive cyclists. European Journal of Applied
Physiology. March. 1 - 7 (Epub ahead of print).
• Usually you would have a volume number instead of the
March in the reference, but that has to wait until the paper
volume is published.
Government Publications
• GREAT BRITAIN. OFFICE OF SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY (2001).
Assessment of renewable energy
technologies. London: The Stationery
Office.
Theses
SCOTT, D.A. (2004). Characterisation
and regulation of iron- and zincevoked electrogenic transport in
human intestinal epithelial cells. Ph.D.
thesis, University of Aberdeen.
Things you haven’t actually
read
• Sometimes you cannot get hold of an article that someone
else has cited, but is interesting enough to mention in your
work.
• If you really cannot get a hold of this article and read it for
yourself, you can cite what another author said about it.
• Let’s say that Scott had an article which McEwan and Smith
referred to in their paper. You have not actually read what
Scott said, only what the other two authors wrote about it.
• You would include McEwan and Smith in the reference list,
not Scott.
• The findings of Scott (see McEwan & Smith, 2004)
was controversial in light of…
• If you are using the numerical style, it would be:
• The findings of Scott (see McEwan & Smith15) was
controversial in light of…
Et al.
• When you have 4 or more authors, it is
sometimes acceptable to use “et al.” as an
abbreviation, rather than listing all of the authors’
names.
• et al. should always be in italics since it is the
short form of the Latin phrase, “et alia” (and
others)
• (Scott et al., 2004) or …it was shown by
Scott et al. (2004) that…
• Note the comma when the author and date are in
the same brackets, but not when they are
separated.
• ALL Latin terms e.g. in vivo, in utero etc. should
be in italics.
• Some people will not insist upon this, but it is the
correct way to format Latin words in text.
All authors or et al. in the
reference list?
•
•
•
•
•
Many people list up to 3 authors.
Scott (2006)
Scott & Bloggs (2006)
Scott, McEwan & Bloggs (2006)
Past this, and then a lot of people will use “et al.”
(“and others”).
• I (and J.Physiol. And the School of Medical
Sciences) tend to still give a complete author list
in my reference list just for completeness.
• Particularly common in large multi-centre studies
where publications have many contributors i.e.
identification of genes, large-scale physics
experiments etc.
Journal abbreviations
• Journals have approved abbreviations for their names that
may be used in referencing.
• There are the odd exceptions to this rule e.g. Gut
• J.Physiol. for Journal of Physiology.
• Br. J. Pharmacol.
• J. Biol. Chem.
• Biochim. Biophys. Acta
• PubMed has a list of these.
• If you can’t find this, then try and find the homepage of the
journal you are interested in, and see if it has it there.
• If all else fails, just use the full name.
• Whatever you use – full titles or abbreviations – stick to it
throughout your reference list if you can.
• If you are being very conscientious, you should really give
the full title of the journal as it avoids confusion.
Images - referencing
•If you obtain a picture or graph from the internet
or publication, then you need to cite where it
came from, usually in the legend for that figure.
•By legend, I mean the small bit of text that is
usually under a figure, explaining what it shows.
•This is just as important as citing references in the
text.
UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY (1999).
Major volcanoes in Ecuador. [online image].
Available from:
http://vulcan.wr.usgs.gov/Volcanoes/Ecuador/may
s/map ecuado volcanoes.htmi [Accessed 30 Jan
2001]
Example of referencing a figure
Figure 1.7.1 (a) – Immunohistochemical localisation of DMT1 in the
small intestine of rats fed an iron-deficient diet. The intense black
staining in the apical membranes of enterocytes at the villus tips
denotes where DMT1 is expressed. Image taken from Oates et al.
(2000).
Consistency
• Use one citation system and stick to
it.
• If you use authors initials, rather
than complete names, then do this
for every reference.
• Use either “&” or “and”, but not both.
Take-home messages
• If you are not sure, ask your supervisor.
• FOLLOW THE RULES LAID DOWN BY THE SCHOOL DEPARTMENT
THAT THE WORK IS BEING SUBMITTED TO!!!
• Look at a journal and see how they do it.
• Look at the end of chapters in textbooks because many of them
have reference lists that you can model your own on.
• Always include references and a list at the end of the piece of
work.
• Buy a simple referencing guide for a quid from the University
bookshop.
• At level 3: Advanced textbooks, reviews and peer-reviewed
papers (lecture notes for basic info, but don’t cite lecture notes as
a reference!).
• Level 4 & 5; Mostly reviews and papers (sometimes advanced
textbooks for basic info).
• Remember with reviews – do not cite them, try and read the
original article they reviewed and cite that instead. Relying heavily
on reviews for the majority of your information is bad practice and
looks as if you don’t know the topic that well.