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How is referencing done?

There are many styles of referencing used in academic publishing, but all have at least two components:

  1. An indication in the main text when the words or ideas of another have been used.
  2. A list of references, giving complete publication details of the sources of borrowed information.

There are basically two systems of referencing: Author–date systems and Note systems.

Author–date systems

  • give the name of the author(s), the year of publication, and page numbers if necessary, after the relevant text in the main body of the document
  • provide a reference list with full publication details of every source cited in the document.

Example using Commonwealth of Australia’s author-date system (Harvard):

In-text
Collins (2002, p. 2) refers to this as ‘the inevitable conflict’. OR
This has been referred to as ‘the inevitable conflict’ (Collins 2002, p. 2).

Reference list
Collins, P 2002, The cost of war, Prentice Hall, New York.

Note systems:

  • use a superscript number in the main text to indicate where information has been used from another source
  • provide footnotes at the bottom of each page, or a list of endnotes at the end of the document, giving full publication details of every source cited in the document
  • often also include a bibliography in alphabetical order according to the author's family name.

Example using Turabian (notes-bibliography) system:

In-text
Collins refers to this as ‘the inevitable conflict’.1

Footnote or endnote
1P. Collins, The Cost of War (Sydney: Prentice Hall, 2002), 2.

Bibliography
Collins, P. The Cost of War. Sydney: Prentice Hall, 2002.