References and bibliographies for theses

Managing your references/bibliography

Principles	You need to be clear as to whether you need to include a list of references or a bibliography. Your tutors will probably tell you this. For a bibliography, all books, periodicals and other materials which have been referred to in your text, either quoted directly or mentioned indirectly, must be listed. You should also include materials which provided you with information or helped you to formulate your ideas, even if they are not directly referred to in the text. When compiling your bibliography, citations should be consistent, with the same style of punctuation, capitalisation etc. used throughout. Individual departments or supervisors may have requirements or preferences, and you should consult with them as appropriate. Should you have a free choice, the key requirement is consistency, regardless of the style chosen. It is also important to be accurate in all aspects, from the content of the reference to the punctuation. Most citation styles have specific layouts for different types of source such as books, journal articles, conference proceedings. These should also be adhered to consistently and accurately. The key principles for bibliographies and references: Be consistent Be accurate Include as much information as you can Remember the object of good citation is to allow others to find all the sources you used
Citation styles	The most significant choice in citation styles is between numbered systems, such as the British Standard system, and the 'Harvard' system, of which there are a number of variants. Numbered systems are more difficult to use, as any changes in sequence of the text may upset the order of the references and lead to complete renumbering. They may be useful in some situations however, for instance where you wish to refer to materials which do not have firm dates ascribed to them, for instance historical materials, or where the author cannot be correctly or non-controversially ascertained. Citing electronic sources such as CD-ROMs, web-sites and computer programs is a new area where styles are still being developed, in particular by the International Organization for Standards (ISO) . The links below offer more detailed information about a range of citation styles: 'Cite them right!' provides a good introduction to referencing using British Standard and Harvard systems. It also has a useful section covering citation of specialist materials such as government publications, maps and multimedia materials. Monash University Library has a tutorial on the Harvard and Vancouver systems
Where to put your references	Citations can be listed as footnotes at the end of each chapter, or as a bibliography, list of references or list of works at the end of the whole work. The order in which they are listed depends on which system has been chosen for citing them in the text. There are two orders possible: alphabetically by the author's name, or numerically, in order of appearance in the text.
Main Contents Beginning of this Module Module 2: Under construction.	This concludes this module on how to search for information. You can now either go back to the Contents listing or continue to practice your search skills.

GAELS is a collaborative project run jointly by Strathclyde University and Glasgow University, and funded by a SHEFC Strategic Change Initiative grant. © University of Glasgow/University of Strathclyde 1999.
Last updated: 27 January 2004
Please address comments and queries to: Richard German, email: richard.german@strath.ac.uk