Citations
When you refer to an idea or source of information in your work you need to acknowledge it at the point where the information is being used. This is called a citation. Citations contain the author’s last name, the year of publication and page number(s) where appropriate and link to the corresponding reference in your bibliography or reference list.
When using the words, thoughts or images of others, summarising, paraphrasing or using quotations you must acknowledge everything that you use.
Why it’s important:
- to support your ideas and arguments
- to show the variety and breadth of your research
- to help the reader trace your source material
- to acknowledge your sources and avoid plagiarism
- to meet the assessment criteria – done correctly, it can get you a higher mark!
Examples of how to reference in your bibliography or reference list are listed below. Please ask if the format you need is not shown and we will add it for you.
Short quotations
Use quotation marks and state the author, date and page number(s):
“Despite equal pay laws, women still earn, on average, only about 80 per cent per hour of what men earn.” (Walsh, 2011, p. 119)
You can also use…
According to Walsh “Despite equal pay laws, women still earn, on average, only about 80 per cent per hour of what men earn.” (2011, p. 119)
When using online material, use only the author and date if a page number is not available.
Longer quotations
Quotation marks are not used for longer quotations. Instead, indent the quote from the body of your text:
On the surface, it is easy to see celebrity charitable endorsements as acts of altruism. However, as Kapoor states:
…it is deeply invested in self-interest and promotion, backed by a massive marketing machine that includes management and talent agencies, entertainment lawyers, and advertising and public relations firms, each often tied to larger entertainment interests. The integration of celebrity philanthropy and branding has enabled the creation of brand identity (the ‘humanitarian celebrity’). (2013, p. 19)
As such, the perception of consumers can be seen
Inserting your own words in a quotation
You can insert your own words in a quotation by using ‘{}’ to give clarification to a quote;
“The direct cost of obesity [to the NHS] is estimated to be £4.2 billion a year” (Byfield, 2012).
Omitting words from quotations
You can use ‘…’ to omit sections within a continuing quote:
“Since 2008 … the rich in both the US and UK manoeuvred to become much richer” (Dorling, 2014, p. 89).
More than three authors
When there are more than three authors, you only need to state the name of the first author followed by ‘et al.’ (this means ‘and others’):
Longhurst et al. (2008) argues that…
Multiple sources by the same author in the same year
When you are using multiple sources from the same author in the same year you need to include lower case letters (e.g. ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ etc.) to differentiate them:
Ronson (2015b) argues that…
No Date
Use ‘no date’ if there is no date of publication available:
One view (Johnston, no date) can be seen to…
No Author
Use the title of the source when there is no author. This should be italicized:
Current research (World Development Report, 2013) documents…
Thanks to the work of T. Wild at Swanshurst School for the above information, Birmingham 2016.
