last update jas 09 November 2018

The School of Education Referencing Guide

Introduction
In your University writing you will sometimes need to refer to materials produced by other people.
Please use this guide to help you to cite, quote from and list sources appropriately.
The Learning and Teaching Committee of the School of Education has specified that you should use
an ‘Author Date’ system for your referencing. There are several author-date systems, including
Harvard (University of Sheffield Library, 2010), APA (Purdue University Online Writing Lab, 2013) and
Chicago (The Chicago Manual Of Style Online, 2010). You can use any author-date system as long as
you are consistent and accurate when citing and listing your references. The same system should be
used every time you cite and list a reference.

Contents

This guide contains these main sections:

Citations in your text

Using quotations in your text
Your reference list
Using electronic sources

Each section contains examples. If you come across a case that is not addressed in the guide please
email Jon Scaife at [email protected]

1
 last update jas 09 November 2018

Citations in your text

Citations in your text, normally the author’s family name and year of publication, should match the
references listed at the end of your document. If, for instance, you cite Wenger (2009) in your text
there should be a reference in your list that starts with Wenger. If there is a corporate author use its
name. If, for instance, you cite Ministry of Education (2009) there should be a reference in your list
that starts with Ministry of Education (not MoE). The references should be listed with the authors’
names in alphabetical order. All statements, opinions, conclusions etc. taken from another writer's
work should be acknowledged, whether the work is directly quoted, paraphrased or summarised.

Single author:-
Any of the following citation styles may be used:
In a study by Seedhouse (1997) coping with illness was investigated ....
In a study (Seedhouse,1997) coping with illness was investigated ....
A study was carried out on how university students cope with illness (Seedhouse, 1997).
The corresponding entry in the reference list should appear as follows:
Seedhouse, D. (1997) Health promotion: philosophy, prejudice and practice. Chichester, John
Wiley.
When an author has published more than one cited document in the same year these are
distinguished by adding lower case letters after the year within the brackets.
Burnard (1992a) wrote about communication for health professionals that ....

Citing yourself

If you use work and ideas that you have previously written about you need to cite yourself in exactly
the same way as you would cite any other author. This applies whether your previous work was
published (available publicly) or unpublished (written up but not publicly available, such as an
assignment, a dissertation or a thesis). (For information on listing unpublished sources later in this
guide.)

Two authors :-
In the book by Burns and Grove (1997) .....
This appears in the reference list as:
Burns, Nancy and Grove, Susan K. (1997) The practice of nursing research: conduct, critique
& utilization. 3rd edition. London, Saunders.
You can use authors’ given names, as in the above example, or initials.

More than two authors:-

Mares et al. (1985) conclude that ....
Note that there is a full stop after ‘al’ but not after ‘et’.
All of the authors should be listed in the reference list, as follows:
Mares, P., Henley, A., and Baxter, C. (1985) Health care in multiracial Britain. Cambridge,
Health Education Council.

2
 last update jas 09 November 2018

More than one citation

If more than one citation is referred to within a sentence, list them all in the following form, by date
and then alphabetically:-
There are indications that passive smoking is potentially threatening to health (Francome
and Marks, 1996; Bunton, 1995; Lupton, 1995).

Anonymous work
If the work is anonymous then Anon. should be used:-
In a recent article (Anon. 1998) it was stated that ….
This should appear in your reference list as follows;
Anon (1998) Schemes to boost dental care. Guardian, Monday May 18 1998, p.8.

Secondary referencing
If you refer to a source that is directly quoted in another source (this is known as ‘secondary
referencing’) you should cite both in your text:
A study by Smith (1960 cited in Jones 1994) showed that…
Include in your reference list only the work you have read, i.e. Jones in the above example.
Where possible avoid secondary referencing by accessing the primary source (Smith, 1960) in the
example).

3
 last update jas 09 November 2018

Using quotations in your text

When quoting directly in the text acknowledge the author's name, year of publication and page
number of the quote in brackets. When you add these things they become part of your text and
should fit normal grammatical conventions, as in the examples below.
Short quotations, e.g. up to 2 lines, can be included in the body of the text between quotation
marks:-
Weir (1995) states that "defining roles and their remits is not simple" (p.10).
Learners may believe they understand all there is to know about a topic but this can be
deceptive, because “knowing little makes it easier to fit everything you know into a coherent
pattern.” (Kahneman, 2011, p.87).
Note that for in-text quotations like those above a full-stop follows the citation information in
brackets.
Longer quotations should be indented in a separate paragraph and do not require quotation marks
or a full-stop after the brackets:
Thomas and Ingham (1995) in discussing staff development state that:
Development is infectious, and staff who previously have recoiled from undertaking
a degree or conversion course have been encouraged by the success of others.
(p.33)
If part of the quotation is omitted then this can be indicated using three dots:-
Weir and Kendrick (1995) state clearly that "networking is no longer solely within the male
domain . . ." (p.88).

Quoting yourself

If you want to quote from work that you have previously written up you need to quote yourself in
exactly the same way as you would quote any other author. This applies whether your previous work
was published (available publicly) or unpublished (written up but not publicly available, such as an
assignment, a dissertation or a thesis). (For information on listing unpublished sources later in this
guide.)

Quoting from a webpage

• Cite the author’s last name or, in the absence of a named author, the name of the
organization responsible for the website; then
• cite the year of the source or, in the absence of a named year, use n.d. (no date); then
• cite the page number or, in the absence of a page number, the heading of the section or the
title of the web page and then the number of the paragraph. When online headings or titles
are long, provide a short version.

Example: if you quoted text from a section entitled Magna Carta from the National Archives
webpages you would cite it as follows: National Archives (n.d.) Magna Carta. The source would be
listed as:
National Archives (n.d.) The National Archives. Accessed 29-06-2017 from:
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/humanrights/1215-1500/?hr-link=1215

4
 last update jas 09 November 2018

Your reference list

References should be listed in alphabetical order by author's name and then by date (earliest first),
and then if more than one item has been published during a specific year by letter (1995a, 1995b
etc.). Whenever possible details should be taken from the title page of a publication and not from
the front cover, which may be different. Authors' given names can be included if shown on the title
page but they are not required to be. The title of the publication should either be in italics or
underlined. Every listed item should contain an italicised or underlined part.
A book by one, two and more than two authors
See the examples above.
A book by a corporate author (e.g. a government department or other organisation):
Health Visitors' Association (1992) Principles into practice : an HVA position statement on
health visiting and school nursing. London, Health Visitors' Association.
To cite this in your text treat the corporate author as an author who is a named person, e.g.:
According to the Health Visitors’ Association (1993) …
An edited book:
Basford, Lynn and Slevin, Oliver (eds) (1995) Theory and practice of nursing: an integrated
approach to patient care. Edinburgh, Campion.
A chapter in a book:
Weir, Pauline (1995) Clinical practice development role: a personal reflection. In: K. Kendrick
et al. (eds) Innovations in nursing practice. London, Edward Arnold. p. 5- 22.
An article in a journal:
Allen, A. (1993) Changing theory in nursing practice. Senior Nurse, 13(1), 43-5.
An article in a newspaper:
White, M. (1998) £68m to cut NHS waiting lists. Guardian, Monday May 18 1998, p.8
Unpublished sources

Materials that are not made available for general distribution or sale electronically or in print are
described as ‘unpublished’. An example is a thesis that is lodged in a university library and has not
been made available online. If you use unpublished material in your writing you should cite the
author and date in the normal way, e.g. (Koufetta, 2000). The entry in your reference list should
include the word ‘unpublished’. Example:

Koufetta, C (2000) Teaching thinking in schools : an investigation into the teaching of CASE
and its contribution to student learning. Unpublished PhD thesis. University of Sheffield

Translated text

1. Translated by you. If you include text that has been translated by yourself you should treat it in
the same way as text that you have paraphrased. In your text cite the author and date of the
source and list the original source in your references, adding an English translation of the title in
square brackets after the original title. Example:

Piaget, J (1937) La construction du réel chez l'enfant [The construction of reality in the child].
Paris: Delachaux & Niestlé.

5
 last update jas 09 November 2018

2. Translated by someone else. If you use a quote from translated text that has been translated by
someone other than yourself you should treat it in the same way as any other quote (see section
on quotations below). Put it inside quotation marks and cite the page number of your source.
List the translated source in your references and include the name of the translator. Example:

Piaget, J (1972) Sagesse et illusions de la philosophie. [Insights and illusions of philosophy]

Translated by Wolfe Mays. London : Routledge and K. Paul

Lecture notes

1. Paraphrased. If you make a statement or claim that you have paraphrased from your teacher’s
materials or from a lecture, cite the teacher’s name and the year in your text. In your reference
list include the teacher’s name, year, title of the lecture (in italics or underlined), the context of
the teaching (such as a Masters course), the university’s name, the full date and the type of
teaching session. Example:

Rosowsky, A (2017) Language and learning. MA Psychology and Education, University of

Sheffield. March 1st 2017. Lecture.

2. Quotes. If you quote from the lecturer’s notes treat the text in the same way as for any other
quote (including a page or slide number if it is available). (See section on quotations below).

6
 last update jas 09 November 2018

Listing electronic sources

Reference to a book located in a database
Author's /Editor's Surname, INITIALS. (Year) Title. (Edition). Place of publication: Publisher (if
ascertainable). Available from: URL [Accessed Date].
Moloney, K. (2000) Rethinking public relations: the spin and the substance. London:
Routledge. Available from: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/bournemouth [Accessed 22 May
2006].
An alternative to ‘Available from: URL [Accessed Date].’ is ‘Retrieved [Accessed date] from: URL’, as
in the following example:
Moloney, K. (2000) Rethinking public relations: the spin and the substance. London:
Routledge. Retrieved 22 May 2006 from: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/bournemouth

Reference to a journal article located in a database

Author's Surname, INITIALS. (Year) Title. Journal Title, volume (issue), page numbers (if available).
Available from: URL [Accessed Date].
Mcfall, R. (2005) Electronic textbooks that transform how textbooks are used. Electronic
Library, 6 (15). Available from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com [Accessed 20 May 2006].
If you are certain that the copy you found on the electronic database is identical to the printed
version you can omit the URL and accessed date, and list it as a printed article.

Reference to web pages

Author's /Editor's Surname, INITIALS. (Year) Title. (Edition). Place of publication: Publisher (if
ascertainable). Available from: URL [Accessed Date].
National Centre for Social Research (2006) Qualitative research. London: National Centre
for Social Research. Available from:
http://www.natcen.ac.uk/natcen/pages/hw_qualitative.htm [Accessed 14 August 2006].

University of Sheffield School of Education (2009) School of Education Ethical Review Policy.
Sheffield: University of Sheffield School of Education. Available from:
http://www.shef.ac.uk/education/ethics/index.html [Accessed 18th August 2009]
To cite this in your text treat the corporate author in the same way as an author who is a named
person, e.g.:
In its ethical review policy the University of Sheffield School of Education (2009) states …
If no date is given on a website use the abbreviation n.d. instead of the year of publication.

Reference to an online dictionary

Some online dictionaries include a link that will show you how to list the reference for the definition
that you have accessed. For example, the definition of the word education given by the Oxford
English Dictionary online (available from: http://www.oed.com.eresources.shef.ac.uk/ ) should be
listed as follows:
"education, n.". OED Online. September 2014. Oxford University Press.
http://www.oed.com.eresources.shef.ac.uk/view/Entry/59584?redirectedFrom=education
(accessed December 05, 2014).
The citation should contain these terms: (“education”, OED online, 2014)

7
 last update jas 09 November 2018

Reference to e-books, including Kindle books

For ebooks, an electronic retrieval statement is given in place of the publisher location and name. If
the book has been assigned a DOI (Digital Object Identifier) include it in the reference. If assigned,
DOIs are usually displayed prominently on the first page of the ebook. If a DOI is assigned, no URL or
database name is needed. If there is no DOI, provide the home page URL for the book.

Examples:

Anand, P. (2009). The handbook of rational and social choice.

doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199290420.001.0001

Marsh, J., & Millard, E. (2000). Literacy and popular culture: using
children's culture in the classroom. Retrieved from http://books.google.com

Where there are no page numbers, the chapter or entry title is sufficient.

Source: APA website: http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2009/09/how-do-i-cite-a-kindle.html

Reference to a conference paper from the Internet

Contributing author’s Surname, INITIALS. (Year of publication) Title of contribution. Followed by In:
Surname, INITIALS., of editor of proceedings (if applicable) followed by ed or eds if relevant. Title of
conference including date and place of conference. Place of publication: Publisher (if ascertainable).
Available from: URL [Accessed Date].
Wilde, E. (2006) Merging trees: file system and content integration. In: 15th international
conference on World Wide Web, WWW 2006, May 23-26, 2006, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
Available from: http://dret.net/netdret/docs/wilde-www2006-fsx.pdf [Accessed 29 June
2007].

Reference to a Blog
Author's Surname, INITIALS. (Day Month Year) Subject of message. Blog Title. Available from: list e-
mail address [Accessed Date].
Schofield, J. (20 May 2006) Yahoo is winning in the portal wars. GU technologyblog.
Available from: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/ [Accessed 22 May 2006].

Reference to JISCmail/listserv e-mail lists

Author's Surname, INITIALS. (Day Month Year) Subject of message. Discussion List. Available from:
list e-mail address [Accessed Date].
Brack, E.V. (2 May 2004) Re: Computing short courses. Lis-link. Available from:
[email protected] [Accessed 17 Jun 2004].
Jensen, L.R. (12 Dec 1999) Recommendation of student radio/tv in English. IASTAR.
Available from: [email protected] [Accessed 29 Apr 2004].
It should be noted that items may only be kept on discussion group servers for a short time and
hence may not be suitable for referencing. A local copy could be kept by the author who is giving the
citation, with a note to this effect.

Reference to personal electronic communications (e-mail)

8
 last update jas 09 November 2018

Sender's Surname, INITIALS. (Sender’s e-mail address) (Day Month Year) Subject of Message. e-Mail
to Recipient's SURNAME, INITIALS., (Recipient’s e-mail address).
Lowman, D. ([email protected]) (4 Apr 2000) RE: ProCite and Internet
Reference. e-mail to Cross, P., ([email protected]).

Reference to CD-ROMs and DVDs

This example refers to CD-ROMs and DVDs which are works in their own right and not a video, film,
or bibliographic database.
Author's Surname, INITIALS. (Year) Title [type of medium, e.g. CD-ROM]. (Edition). Place of
publication: Publisher (if ascertainable). Available from: Supplier/Database identifier or number
(optional) [Accessed Date] (optional).
Hawking, S.W. (1994) A brief history of time: an interactive adventure. [CD-ROM]. London:
Crunch Media

Reference to online videos

Cite the name of the person who posted the video and the year it was posted. If the person who
posted the video is not named cite the most appropriate identifier, e.g. University of Sheffield School
of Education, or Department for Education, UK. If the year of posting is not given use ‘n.d.’ (meaning
no date). In your reference list, list the video in the usual way for electronic sources: Name (year),
Title, Available at <URL> (Retrieved <date>)

What is a digital object identifier, or DOI?

The information in this sub-section was retrieved on 8-9-2015 from:

http://www.apastyle.org/learn/faqs/what-is-doi.aspx

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned by a registration agency (the
International DOI Foundation) to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the
Internet. The publisher assigns a DOI when your article is published and made available
electronically.

All DOI numbers begin with a 10 and contain a prefix and a suffix separated by a slash. The prefix is a
unique number of four or more digits assigned to organizations; the suffix is assigned by the
publisher and was designed to be flexible with publisher identification standards.

We recommend that when DOIs are available, you include them for both print and electronic
sources. The DOI is typically located on the first page of the electronic journal article, near the
copyright notice. The DOI can also be found on the database landing page for the article.

Further cases and examples

For further cases and examples see University of Sheffield Library (2010), Bournemouth University
Academic Services (2008) and Pears and Shields (2013). Pears and Shields (2013) is available in paper
version from Sheffield University library.

9
 last update jas 09 November 2018

History of ‘author-date’ referencing

‘Everything is the way it is because it got that way’. This quote has been attributed to the Scottish
polymath D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson (see, e.g., Bloom 2012). So how did author-date referencing
get the way it is today? If you are curious about this an article by Bazerman (1987) should be
informative.

References and bibliography

APA Style. Lost in Translation: Citing Your Own Translations in APA Style (2014). Accessed 21-04-2018
from http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2014/11/lost-in-translation-citing-your-own-translations-in-
apa-style.html

Bazerman, C. (1987) Codifying the social scientific style: The APA publication manual as a behaviorist
rhetoric. In Nelson et al. (Eds.) The rhetoric of the human sciences. (pp. 125-144) Madison: University
of Wisconsin Press

Bloom P (2012) 2012 : What is your favorite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation? Accessed 21-
04-2018 from https://www.edge.org/response-detail/11184

Bournemouth University Academic Services (2008) Bournemouth University guide to citations in the
Harvard style. Bournemouth, Bournemouth University. Available from:
https://www1.bournemouth.ac.uk/students/library/using-library/how-guides/how-cite-references
[Accessed 20-05-2018]

Landmark College Library (n.d.) Landmark College Citation Guides. Available from:
http://www.landmark.edu/library/citation-guides/landmark-college-citation-guides/ [Accessed 21-
04-2018]

MLA Lecture Citation How to cite a lecture in a bibliography using MLA (n.d.) Accessed 21-04-2018
from http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/mla/lecture/

Pears R and Shields G (2013) Cite them right. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (9th edn.)

Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) (Last Edited: 2013-03-01) APA Formatting and Style
Guide. Available from: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ [Accessed 21-04-2018]

The Chicago Manual Of Style Online (16th edn.) (2010) Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide. Available
from: http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/tools_citationguide.html [Accessed 21-04-2018]

University of Sheffield Library (2010) Harvard referencing guide HSL-DVC1. Sheffield, University of
Sheffield. Available from: http://librarysupport.shef.ac.uk/hsl-dvc1.pdf [Accessed 21-04-2018]

***************

10