Research – References style

Research – References Compiled by V. Magendira Mani Assistant Professor, PG & Research Department of Biochemistry, Islamiah College (Autonomous), Vaniyambadi, Vellore District – 635751, Tamilnadu, India. magendiramani@rediffmail.com Download at: https://tvuni.academia.edu/mvinayagam https://tvuni.academia.edu/mvinayagam, Asst. prof. of Biochem, IC, VNB Page 1 It is a method used to demonstrate to your readers that you have conducted a thorough and appropriate literature search, and reading. Equally, referencing is an acknowledgement that you have used the ideas and written material belonging to other authors in your own work. As with all referencing styles, there are two parts: citing, and the reference list. 1. Accurate referencing is a key component of good academic practice and enhances the presentation of your work: it shows that your writing is based on knowledge and informed by appropriate academic reading. 2. You will ensure that anyone reading your work can trace the sources you have used in the development of your work, and give you credit for your research efforts and quality. 3. If you do not acknowledge another person’s work or ideas, you could be accused of plagiarism. 4. Plus your lecturers are very keen to see good reference lists. Impress them with the quality of the information you use, and your references, and you will get even better marks. 5. You should include a reference for all the sources of information that you use when writing or creating a piece of your own work. 6. When you use another person’s work in your own work, either by referring to their ideas, or by including a direct quotation, you must acknowledge this in the text of your work. This acknowledgement is called a citation. Referencing There are two main methods of referencing articles in journal and book publications. These are known as the Harvard (author-date) and Vancouver (author-number) reference systems. Many professional publications often have their own house styles which introduce specific variations within these general conventions.  Each piece of work which is cited in your text should have a unique number, assigned in the order of citation. If, in your text, you cite a piece of work more than once, the same citation number should be used. You can write the number in brackets or as superscript. https://tvuni.academia.edu/mvinayagam, Asst. prof. of Biochem, IC, VNB Page 2 Eg. Recent research (1) indicates that the number of duplicate papers being published is increasing. or Recent research1 indicates that the number of duplicate papers being published is increasing.  If you want to cite several pieces of work in the same sentence, you will need to include the citation number for each piece of work. A hyphen should be used to link numbers which are inclusive, and a comma used where numbers are not consecutive. The following is an example where works 6, 7, 8, 9, 13 and 15 have been cited in the same place in the text. Several studies (6–9,13,15) have examined the effect of congestion charging in urban areas.  You can use the author’s name in your text, but you must insert the citation number as well. Eg. As emphasized by Watkins (2) careers of diabetes sufferers ‘require perseverance and an understanding of humanity’.  If a work has more than one author and you want to cite author names in your text, use ‘et al.’ after the first author. Eg. Simons et al. (3) state that the principle of effective stress is ‘imperfectly known and understood by many practicing engineers’.  If you cite a new work which has the same author and was written in the same year as an earlier citation, each work will have a different number. Communication of science in the media has increasingly come under focus, particularly where reporting of facts and research is inaccurate.  If you need to cite a piece of work which does not have an obvious author, you should use what is called a ‘corporate’ author. The citation to a work written by a ‘corporate’ author could appear in your text as: The Department of Health (6) advocates a national strategy for creating a framework to drive improvements in dementia services. or A national strategy is creating a framework to drive improvements in dementia services (6). https://tvuni.academia.edu/mvinayagam, Asst. prof. of Biochem, IC, VNB Page 3  If you are unable to find either a named or corporate author, you should use ‘Anon’ as the author name. Be careful: if you cannot find an author for online work, it is not a good idea to use this work as part of your research. It is essential that you know where a piece of work has originated, because you need to be sure of the quality and reliability of any information you use. Some books may contain chapters written by different authors. When citing work from such a book, the author who wrote the chapter should be cited, not the editor of the book.  Secondary references are when an author refers to another author’s work and the primary source is not available. When citing such work the author of the primary source and the author of the work it was cited in should be used. According to Colluzzi and Pappagallo as cited by Holding et al. (7) most patients given opiates do not become addicted to such drugs. You are advised that secondary referencing should be avoided wherever possible and you should always try to find the original work. If it is not possible to obtain the original work please notes that you reference the secondary source not the primary source. Only reference the source that you have used.  If a direct quote from a book, article, etc., is used you must:  Use single quotation marks (double quotation marks are usually used for quoting direct speech)  State the page number Simons et al. (3) state that the principle of effective stress is ‘imperfectly known and understood by many practising engineers’ (p.4).  You should provide an in-text citation for any images, illustrations, photographs, diagrams, tables, figures or pictures that you reproduce in your work, and provide a full reference as with any other type of work. They should be treated as direct quotes in that the author(s) should be acknowledged and page numbers shown; both in your text where the diagram is discussed or introduced, and in the caption you write for it. In-text citation: Table illustrating checklist of information for common sources (8: p.22). or ‘Geological map of the easternmost region of São Nicolau’ (9: p.532). https://tvuni.academia.edu/mvinayagam, Asst. prof. of Biochem, IC, VNB Page 4  If you need to cite a multimedia work, you would usually use the title of the TV programme (including online broadcasts) or video recording, or title of the film (whether on DVD, online, or video) as the author. If a video is posted on YouTube or other videostreaming web services then you should reference the person that uploaded the video  (note this might be a username). Using the Vancouver style, you don’t have to include the author in your citation in the text of your work, but you still need to include the author of the work in your reference list at the end of your work. HOW DO I WRITE A REFERENCE?  To write your own references you need different bits of information about each item that you read when you are researching a piece of work. These bits of information are called  ‘bibliographic’ information. For all types of references the key bits of information you need to start with are: 1. Author or editor 2. Date of publication / broadcast / recording 3. Title of the item This will form the basis of each reference you have to write. You may find that some items are not as straightforward as others, so be aware of the following: 1. Author or editor: This means the primary (main) person who produced the item you are using.  If you are using a website or web page, and there isn’t an author, you can use what is called a ‘corporate author’. This will usually be the name of the organisation or company to whom the website or web page belongs. 2. Date of publication / broadcast / recording: This means the date the item was produced.  It is usually a year, but if you are using a newspaper article, an email, or a television recording, you will have to include a full date (day / month / year) in your reference. 3. Title of the item: This means the primary (main) title of the item you are using.  That sounds very obvious, but has a look at a web page and tries to work out what the main title is. We would advise common sense in this situation – you have to identify the key piece of information that describes what you have used, and will allow the reader of your work to identify that information. https://tvuni.academia.edu/mvinayagam, Asst. prof. of Biochem, IC, VNB Page 5 Depending on the type of material you want to reference you will also need other bits of information, such as: • Name of publisher • Place of publication • Page numbers • Volume number • Issue number • URL (website or web page address) • DOI (link for journal articles) • Title of conference proceedings • Report number • Book or conference editor (if not your primary author) • Book or conference title (if not your primary title) • Journal title (the journal article title will be your primary title) • Date of access (for online material) The more references you have to write, the more familiar you will be with what you need to know. But the best advice we can give is to check our guides, ask us, or check with your lecturers. Harvard (author-date) style This system uses the author's name and date of publication in the body of the text, and the bibliography is given alphabetically by author. There are many variations on the style - examples are below: The full citation is listed at the end of the article, which is arranged in alphabetical order by author. Journal names are given in full and are italicised, as are book names. References would be cited as follows:   Annas, G.J. (1997a), 'New drugs for acute respiratory distress syndrome', New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 337, no. 6, pp. 435-439. Grinspoon, L. & Bakalar, J.B. (1993), Marijuana: the forbidden medicine, Yale University Press, London. https://tvuni.academia.edu/mvinayagam, Asst. prof. of Biochem, IC, VNB Page 6 Vancouver (author-number) style The Vancouver system differs from Harvard by using a number series to indicate references. Bibliographies list these in numerical order as they appear in the text. The main advantage of the Vancouver style is that the main text reads more easily, and some editors consider this to be less obtrusive. Additionally, references in the bibliography are directly correlated to numbers, saving the reader time in searching alphabetically for the first author of a reference. Vancouver style is so named as it is based on the work of a group, first meeting in Vancouver in 1978, which became the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE). The style was developed by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) and adopted by the ICMJE as part of their 'uniform requirements for manuscripts submitted to biomedical journals'. The NLM's annual publication 'list of journals indexed in Index Medicus' lists journals and their accepted abbreviations. The NLM abbreviation for a journal title is commonly required by medical journals. References in the Vancouver style would be cited in numerical order as below. This is a more economical style than Harvard, and excessive punctuation, spacing and formatting is absent. Journal names are abbreviated. (1) Annas GJ. New drugs for acute respiratory distress syndrome. N Engl J Med. 1997;337:4359. (2) Grinspoon L, Bakalar JB. Marijuana: the forbidden medicine. London: Yale University Press; 1993. Variations frequently include:       In many publications the in-text numbers used to cite references are often in superscript, like this: Lane ³ Capitalization, particularly in book titles Place of publication and publisher may be reversed from the order given above Page numbers sometimes elided as 805-9 or in full as 805-809 Abbreviations for journal titles or full titles Punctuation conventions vary considerably between publications. https://tvuni.academia.edu/mvinayagam, Asst. prof. of Biochem, IC, VNB Page 7