GUIDELINES FOR WRITING REFERENCES

There are several acceptable but slightly different academic styles for referencing sources when you present your bibliography. Books, journal articles, online materials and other sources have slightly different referencing conventions. One way to obtain guidelines for referencing in your own subject area is to study the Style Guide given in academic journals. Select a journal related to your own particular subject and refer to its style guide.

For your FYP, it is important to check with your own department, course leader or supervisor to find out if any internal guidelines exist. If so, these should be followed.

The most common referencing styles are Harvard, American Psychological Association (APA), and Modern Language Association (MLA).

1. Harvard

Book

Include the following information. The order is:
1) Author(s), editor(s) or the institution responsible for writing the book.
2) Year of publication (in brackets).
3) Title and subtitle (if any)
Underlined or Highlighted or in Italics (be consistent throughout the bibliography).
4) Series and individual volume number (if any).
5) Edition if not the first.
6) Place of publication if known.
7) Publisher.

e.g. Mohr, L.B. (1996) Impact analysis for program evaluation. 2nd ed. London, Sage.

Journal, newspaper
Include the following information. The order is:
1) Author of the article.
2) Year of publication (in brackets).
3) Title of the article.
4) Title of the journal,
Underlined or Highlighted or in Italics (be consistent throughout the bibliography).
5) Volume and part number, month or season of the year.
6) Page numbers of article.

e.g. Clarke, T.J. (1995) Freud's Cezanne. Representations, No 52, Summer, pp.94-122.

Online materials
Include the following information. The order is:
1) Author/Editor.
2) Year of publication (in brackets).
3) Title.
Underlined or Highlighted or in Italics (be consistent throughout the bibliography).
4) [Internet]
5) Edition.
6) Place of publication
7) Publisher (if available).
8) Available from: <URL> [date accessed].

e.g. Griffith, A.I. 1995, Coordinating family and school: Mothering for schooling, Education Policy Analysis Archives [Online], vol. 3, no. 1. Available: http://olam.ed.asu.edu/epaa/ (Accessed 7 February 2003).

For more details of the Harvard Referencing system, check out the ELC Harvard Referencing Guide:
https://elc.polyu.edu.hk/referencing/harvard.aspx


2. American Psychological Association (APA)


The style is similar to that of Harvard but the following specific conventions apply.

Hanging Indents are required for citations in the reference list or bibliography, as shown below. The first line starts at the left margin. All subsequent lines are indented one Tab space.

Italicising is preferred for titles of books, journals and videos, although underlining is also acceptable.

Book
Title is italicised.

e.g.
Jayasuria, K. (2002). Capitalism and power in Asia. Hong Kong: Routledge
  and Keegan Paul.
 
Harlow, H. F. (1958). Biological and biochemical basis of behavior. In D. C.
  Spencer Symposium on interdisciplinary research (pp. 239-252). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Journal, newspaper
Journal title and volume are italicised.

e.g.
Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles.
  Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

Online materials
Author. (Year). Article title. Journal Title, volume, paging.
Accessed [month day, year] from [database name].

e.g.
American Psychological Association. (n.d.) APAStyle.org: Electronic
  References. Accessed January 15, 2003, from http://www.apastyle.org

For more details of the APA Referencing system, check out the ELC Harvard Referencing Guide:
https://elc.polyu.edu.hk/referencing/APA.aspx

 

3. Modern Language Association (MLA)

Book
Use a full stop followed by two spaces to separate the author's name, the title (underlined or in italics) and the publication details, like this:
Author(s). Title of Book. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

e.g. Henley, Patricia. The Hummingbird House. Denver: MacMurray, 1999.
Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of criticism: four essays. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1957.


Journal, newspaper, magazine
Include the volume, issue, year, and pages, as appropriate. Place the article title (in italics OR normal font, followed by a full stop), in quotation marks. Underline the journal title. Separate the volume and issue by a full stop. Place the year in parentheses, and use a colon to separate the year from any page numbers, like this:
Author(s). "Title of Article." Title of Journal. Vol (Year): pages.

e.g. Poniewozik, James. "TV Makes a Too-Close Call." Time. 20 Nov. (2000): 70-71.

Craner, Paul M. "New tool for an ancient art: computers and music". Computers and the Humanities 25 (1991): 303-313.

Online materials
Author/editor (if given). Title of database/project/website/webpage (in italics or not). Electronic publication information (e.g. version, date of electronic publication, name of resposible body). Date of access <URL>

e.g. Felluga, Dino. Undergraduate Guide to Literary Theory. 17 December 1999. Purdue University. 7 February 2003 <http://omni.cc.purdue.edu%7Efelluga/theory2.html>.


The History Channel online. 1998. History Channel. 7 February 2003.
<http://historychannel.com/>

This website shows you how to write references using the MLA style:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/ (accessed June 16, 2017)


4. Additional Links

This website is the PolyU ELC's referencing site, telling you in detail how to reference.
https://elc.polyu.edu.hk/referencing/

This website, also from the ELC, automatically makes quotation references for you.
https://elc.polyu.edu.hk/CILL/referenceMachine.aspx