What is Referencing?

Referencing is providing information on the sources that you have used. You should provide enough
information so that anyone reading your work can quickly and easily find the source(s) you have used.

You need to reference your sources in the text of your assignment; this is called in-text citation, and
provide a reference list at the end of your assignment.

In the Harvard (Northumbria) referencing style, in-text citations appear in an Author (Date) format e.g.
Fowkes (1995) and the full reference details are then listed in alphabetical order at the end of the piece of
work.

In the numbered system of referencing the in-text citations appear in number format e.g. [1] with the
reference list giving the full bibliographic details in ascending numerical order at the end of the work.

What is a Bibliography?
A bibliography includes all the material used in the preparation of your work. It will therefore include your
entire reference list as well as any other material you have read or used but have not referred to directly. It
is written in the same format as your reference list. A bibliography may also be required for your
assignments but check with your tutors.

Referencing styles
There are many different referencing styles in use within Northumbria University. You are advised to
check with your academic staff for their preferred referencing style. If you require specific help the
Library holds copies of various referencing style manuals - please check the library catalogue. In this guide
we will look at referencing information sources using 3 referencing styles: Harvard (Northumbria), APA
and Numbered. We will show examples of how to reference a book, a printed and electronic journal
article, an online encyclopaedia and a personal or organisational website.

Referencing a book
When writing a book reference the order in which your bibliographic information appears depends on the
referencing style. The following information should be included in your book reference entry:
Name(s) of Author(s) (or originator/s)
Year of publication
Main title of book
Title of a chapter (in an edited collection)
Name(s) of editor(s)
Edition (only if not the first edition e.g. 2
nd
edition, international edition)
Place of publication and publisher

Harvard (Northumbria)



APA


Fowkes, B. (1995) The rise and fall of communism in Eastern Europe. 2
nd
edn. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Author(s) Year of publication Title Edition Place of publication Publisher
Comma Full stop Brackets Italics Full stop Colon Full stop
Fowkes, B. (1995). The rise and fall of communism in Eastern Europe. (2
nd
ed.), Basingstoke: Macmillan.
Author(s) Year of publication Title Edition Place of publication Publisher
Comma Full stop Brackets Italics Full stop Colon Full stop Comma
Quick guide to
Referencing styles

Numbered


FOWKES, B. The rise and fall of communism in Eastern Europe. 2
nd
ed. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1995.
Author(s)
Title Edition Place of publication Publisher Year of publication
Comma Full stop Full stop Colon Comma Full stop

Referencing a printed journal article
For journal articles you will need to include:
Name(s) of Author(s) (originator/s)
Date of publication
Title of article
Title of journal
Volume, issue and page numbers

Harvard (Northumbria)
For a journal reference use the order shown below. Issue information is made up of the volume of the
journal followed by the part number in brackets, then the page numbers. The accepted abbreviation for
pages is pp.


APA
The title of the journal AND the volume number should be shown in italics.



Numbered
In the numbered style of referencing the abbreviations vol., no. and pp. can be omitted.
To avoid having a mass of consecutive numbers which may confuse the reader, they can be included.




Referencing an electronic journal article
If you read an article from an electronic source you can reference it as you would a print article, but include
the collection, the website and the most recent date you accessed it. If an article has a DOI (Digital Object
Identifier) you would use this unique reference number. A DOI is a permanent way of keeping track of items
on the web and remains the same even if the publishers change the name of the journal or amends its
website.


Bremmer, I. & Zakaria, F. (2006) Hedging political risk in China, Harvard Business Review, 84(11), pp. 22-25.
Author(s) Year of publication Article title Page numbers Journal title Issue information
Comma Full stop Brackets Quotation marks Italics Comma Comma Brackets Full stop Comma
BREMMER, I. & F. ZAKARIA. Hedging political risk in China. Harvard Business Review 2006, vol. 84, no. 11, pp. 22-25.
Author(s) Year of publication Article title
Page numbers Journal title
Comma Full stop Italics Comma Full stop Full stop Full stop Comma Full stop Comma
Volume & Issue
Bremmer, I. & Zakaria, F. (2006). Hedging political risk in China. Harvard Business Review, 84(11), 22-25.
Author(s) Year of publication Article title Page numbers Journal title Issue information
Comma Full stop Brackets Italics Comma Full stop Brackets Full stop Comma Full stop

Harvard (Northumbria)
When referencing an electronic article use the homepage URL wherever possible rather than the full and
extended URL, for example:
Homepage URL - http://search.ebscohost.com
Full URL - http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?irect=true&db=buh&AN=32842031&site=ehost-live






APA
You will note in this style you use the phrase Retrieved from rather than [Online] and Available at as you
would if you were using the Harvard (Northumbria) or Numbered style of referencing.





Numbered




Referencing a web page
When referencing something you have found on the web you need to distinguish what you are referring to
as the internet is made up of a vast range of material from journal articles to personal and organisational
websites. Below is a list of information you can include if you are referencing information you have found on
the internet:

Author/Editor or Organisation
Year the site was published or last updated
Title of work - main title and subtitle (screen heading/sub-heading)
Type of medium - for example cd-rom, online database, online bulletin board
Publisher and place of publication - for example documents on portable databases, which organisation has
prepared the materials and where they are located
Online address or location within database - full address (URL or DOI).
Name of database (if applicable)
You can also include other identifying features such as a page or screen reference, paragraph or line
number or perhaps a labelled section or part of a table or graph
Date you looked at the information.

We have 2 examples showing how to reference a webpage, one is taken from an online encyclopaedia and
the other example is either a personal or organisational website.
Mustard, S. (2007) Communications conundrum, Computing & Control Engineering, 18(2), pp.16-17.
EBSCO [Online]. Available at: http://search.ebscohost.com (Accessed: 12 June 2007).
Access date
Year of publication Article title Page numbers Journal title
URL Name of collection
Author(s) Issue information
Square brackets Colon Full stop Brackets
Brackets Italics
Quotation marks
Mustard, S. (2007). Communications conundrum. Computing & Control Engineering, 18(2), 16-18.
Retrieved from EBSCO http://www.ebsco.com.
Year of publication Article title Page numbers Journal title
URL Name of collection
Author(s) Issue information
Full stop
Brackets Italics
MUSTARD, S. Communication conundrum. Computing & Control Engineering. vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 16-18.
[Online] EBSCO. Available at http://www.ebsco.com [Accessed 12 June 2010].
Access date
Article title Page numbers Journal title
URL Name of collection
Author(s) Issue information
Square brackets
Full stop
Italics
Square brackets

Nielsen, J. (2007) Jakob Nielsen's website. Available at: http://www.useit.com/ (Accessed: 12 May 2008).
Author(s) Year of publication Website title Website URL Access date
Comma Full stop Brackets Italics Full stop Colon Brackets Colon Full stop
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (2009) Definition of Research. Available at: http://www.britannica.com/
(Accessed: 30 July 2010).
Author(s) Year of publication Website title Website URL
Access date Full stop Brackets Full stop
Colon
Brackets
Harvard (Northumbria)

Online Encyclopaedia:










Personal website









APA

Online Encyclopaedia:





Organisational website:






Numbered

Online Encyclopaedia:






Organisational website:



Encyclopaedia Britannica Online (2009). Definition of Research. Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/
Author(s) Website title Website URL
Brackets Italics
British Standards Institute (2009). BSI Group News Room. Retrieved from http://www.bsigroup.com/
Author(s)
Full stop Brackets Italics
Year of publication
Full stop
Year of publication Website title Website URL
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. Definition of Research. Available at http://www.britannica.com/
[Accessed: 30 July 2010].
Author(s) Website title Website URL
Access date Full stop
Italics
Full stop Brackets
British Standards Institute. BSI Group News Room, 2009. Available at http://www.bsigroup.com/
[Accessed: 12 June 2010].
Author(s) Website title Website URL
Access date Full stop
Italics
Full stop Brackets Comma
Full stop
For help with different referencing styles, see the relevant text books. For example:
Cite them right - mainly covers Harvard (Northumbria) but it also briefly covers APA (Psychology); MLA
(Languages) and OSCOLA (Law).
Concise rules of the APA style guidance on the rules of the style compiled from the sixth edition of the
"Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
Alternatively you can ask at the library enquiry desk or email your enquiry to ask4help@northumbria.ac.uk.
Italics