Referencing Styles for Academic Writing

Posted on Jan 30, 2025 in Primary Education

Books: Single Author

Information needed:

  • Author (surname and name initials)
  • Date of publication (in brackets)
  • Title of the book (in italics)
  • Place of publication
  • Publisher

Punctuation conventions:

  • Author’s surname,
  • Initial.
  • (Date).
  • Title.
  • City of publication*: Publisher.

*Two letters for the state if published in the USA

Articles in an Academic Journal: Single Author

Information needed:

  • Author of the article (surname and name initials)
  • Date of publication (in brackets)
  • Title of the article
  • Name of the journal (in italics)
  • Volume (in italics)(issue number) *No space left between volume and issue number
  • Pages (first and last pages)

Chapters in Edited Collections

Information needed (no specific chapter):

  1. Editor’s name (surname and name initials)
  2. Editor abbreviation: (Ed.)
  3. Date of publication (in brackets)
  4. Name of the collection/book (in italics)
  5. Place of publication
  6. Publisher

Example: Kroll, B. (Ed.). (2012). Second Language Writing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Information needed (specific chapter):

  1. Author of the chapter (surname and name initial)
  2. Date of publication (in brackets)
  3. Title of the chapter
  4. In
  5. Editor (name initial and surname)
  6. (Ed.)
  7. Name of the collection (in italics)
  8. Pages occupied by the chapter
  9. Place of publication
  10. Publisher

Example: Leki, M. (2011). Coaching from the margins: Issues in written response. In B. Kroll (Ed.), Second Language Writing (pp. 57-68). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Two editors, example: In B. Kroll & A. Rolland (Eds.)

Article from an Online Newspaper

  • Information needed
  1. Author (surname and name initials)
  2. Date of publication (in brackets: year, month, and day)
  3. Title of the article
  4. Title of the online newspaper (in italics)
  5. Complete URL (no full stop at the end)
  6. (Date of access) (in brackets with a full stop after the last bracket)

Example: Ingle, S. (2017, March 13). Russia faces ‘real struggle’ to clean up in time for 2018 Winter Olympics. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/mar/13/russia-anti-doping-mclaren-drugs-in-sportathletics (Date of access: 13 March 2017).

*(Missing information)

If the name of the author is not given…

Example: Russia faces ‘real struggle’ to clean up in time for 2018 Winter Olympics. (2017, March 13). The Guardian. Retrieved from link (Date of access: 13 March 2017).

Institutions as Authors

  • Information needed
  1. Name of the institution (no abbreviations)
  2. Date of publication (in brackets: year, month, day)
  3. Title of work (in italics)
  4. Complete URL (no full stop at the end)
  5. (Date of access) (in brackets with a full stop after the last bracket)

Online Dictionaries

  • Information needed
  1. Author’s name → Dictionary
  2. Date of publication → No date of publication? USE: (n.d.) = no date
  3. Entry (word that you looked up in that dictionary)
  4. In
  5. Dictionary (in italics)
  6. Complete URL (no full stop at the end)
  7. (Date of access) (in brackets with a full stop after the last bracket)

Videos from YouTube

  • Information needed
  1. Author’s name (surname and initials) [username] → No author? Use the username → no square brackets
  2. Date of publication (in brackets: year, month, and day)
  3. Title of the video (in italics)
  4. [Video file]
  5. Complete URL
  6. Date of access

Tweets

  1. Handle
  2. Date
  3. Tweet
  4. [Tweet]
  5. URL
  6. Date of access

Example: jtimberlake. (2014, June 16). USA! USA!! [Tweet]. Retrieved from https://twitter.com/jtimberlake/status/478689830667186176 (Date of access: 17 June 2014).