Citation/Acknowledgements Standard

1. Introduction

Whenever you use another person’s work (a fact, a data set, an idea, a model, a theory, an algorithm, an argument, etc) in any of your assignments you must acknowledge your source. The Harvard Author-Date System is one of the most commonly used methods for acknowledgment (Australian Government Publishing Service, 1994, pp.148–168). A subset of this system is mandatory in the Department and this subset meets the requirements of the complete Harvard Author-Date System.

The correct acknowledgment of the work of others involves two parts:

• a citation, and

• a corresponding entry in a list of references

A citation is a textual reference (in the body of your assignment) to the source of the material you wish to use. The list of references contains complete information with respect to the source (so that it could be found by another person) in the form of an alphabetically ascending– on author(s) name(s) –and chronologically ascending– on year of publication – (where necessary) ordered list of all such sources cited in your assignment.

Failure to acknowledge your sources is considered to be a serious academic offence which is called plagiarism. At the University of Wollongong, such behaviour has led to students being excluded from the University! Further details on the Department of Business Systems’ policy for dealing with plagiarism in student assignments can be found in the document A Student Guide to some of the University Regulations and Codes of Practice, Faculty and Departmental Policies which is attached to all Department Subject Outline documents, including the BUSS906 Subject Outline, as well as the entry in the current University of Wollongong Calendar.

2. Rules for Citation

The purpose of a citation is to acknowledge the work of others that you use in your assignments. It does this by providing a unique link to a specific entry in your list of references which is a component of the back-matter of an essay, report, thesis or any other kind of assignment (it must follow appendices, if any, but appear before the index, if one is included; see, for example, Campbell, Ballou and Slade (1982)).

The following are the Department’s rules for the format of citations:

2.1 Simple citations

A simple citation must include the author(s) family name(s) and the year of publication. Where use of this format is not sufficient to provide a unique link to a specific entry in the list of references, further information will be required in the citation. See rules 2.1.1 to 2.1.5 and 2.2 (below) which deal with the most common situations where this simple citation format must be extended, or where it must or can be modified/simplified.

2.1.1 If the work has two or three authors then all author’s family names must appear in the citation. But, if the work to be cited has four or more authors it is permissible (and common practice) to use a shortened list of author family names plus the year of publication, provided this still gives a unique link to the correct entry in the reference list. The purpose is to shorten and thus to lessen the disruptive effect of the citation details on the flow of your prose. For example:

where ‘et. al.’ literally means ‘and others.’ The second and/or third author’s names may be used too if this is necessary to provide a unique identifier to the work’s entry in the list of references. Note that the entry in the reference list must always be complete; in this case it is as follows:

2.1.2 If two or more pieces of work by the same author(s) are published in the same year and are to be cited in your assignment then a unique, distinguishing character is added immediately following the year of publication. Conventionally this is a lower case letter, starting with ‘a,’ then ‘b,’ then ‘c,’ etc. For example:

2.1.3 If two or more authors with the same surname and year of publication are to be cited in your assignment, use as many of the authors’ initials as are necessary to uniquely identify each one of them. For Example:

2.1.4 In cases where there is a ‘corporate author,’ give the name of the group responsible (if there is one) as well as the name of the company. For example:

and in the list of references:

2.1.5 In some cases one cannot attribute authorship, and thus the first element for a citation is missing. In this case the title of the article, report or document becomes the first element of the citation (as well as the first element in the actual reference). For example:

2.2 Citation context

A citation may be directly embedded in the context or may be parenthesised to the context. While direct citation is generally to be preferred, you should use whatever method seems to fit the situation best.

• A direct citation example:

• A parenthesised citation example:

Note the extension here of the basic citation information to include the page number. This is necessary where the citation is a monograph, or any other large (ie, greater than about 30 pages) document. It assists the reader to find the argument, idea, algorithm, diagram, etc, without having to waste a lot of time searching the monograph or document for it! Note too that this simple extension to the basic citation information allows you to refer to the same monograph or document a number of times (probably referring to different pages in the monograph or document each time) without having to repeat the reference in the reference list!

Tables, graphs, diagrams and figures copied from another source should also be referenced with the author’s name, year of publication, page number, and Table, Figure or Diagram number (where so labelled in the source). This must be done in the caption that must be ‘attached’ to any table or graphic that you include in your assignment. If you use a diagram or graphic from any source, but you alter it any way (eg, by drawing it yourself, but to a different scale) then you must still acknowledge the source, usually by saying, for example: After Hawryszkiewycz (1991, Fig.9.5, p.163) in the caption. Note the further extension here to the required basic citation information, to include the figure number– necessary since p.163 may have more than one Figure on it! You should dis-cuss in your assignment any material presented in this way. Do not assume that these types of materials, because of their graphic nature, speak for themselves!

2.3 Quotation vs. paraphrasing

Where you wish to use someone else’s ideas in your assignment as part of your explanation, description, or argument, you should paraphrase their ideas ie, take someone’s ideas and re-write them in your own words.

While direct quotation can be used, it should be used sparingly and infrequently, and only where you feel you could not improve on the choice of words used, or where you wish to convey a feeling of how the source expresses their ideas. You should discuss any quotations used. Remember, quotations often disrupt the rhythm and style of your prose.

2.3.1 Short (ie, less than about 30 words) direct quotations in the assignment, ie, direct copying of a phrase, clause, or sentence from the source prose, must be enclosed by single quotation marks (ie, ‘ ... ’) and reference details (author(s) name(s), year of publication, and page number where appropriate) must be given close by in the text. For example:

Direct speech contained in both short and long quotations, as well as quotations within short or long quotations, should be set-off by the use of double quota-tion marks (ie, " "):

• Note the use of an ellipses ( ... ) with surrounding spaces to indicate the omission of material from the original prose being quoted. Note also that the use of ellipses to omit large passages of prose is a misuse of this convention– the components of the quotation separated by an ellipses should normally be contained in the same paragraph of the source prose.

• If capitalisation in the quotation is changed then the letter so changed should be enclosed in square brackets "[ ]".

• If emphasis is added to words or phrases in the quotation, eg, via the use of bold or italic type style (as shown in the example immediately above via the use of italic style), you should note this at the end of (but outside) the quo-tation via insertion of "[emphasis added]" or "[emphasis is mine]" or similar statement.

• If some words are added to the original, eg, to make clear the meaning of a pronoun (as in the example immediately above), such words should also be enclosed in square brackets.

• In the event that the quoted material contains a spelling or other grammatical error, such error should be immediately followed by the insertion of "[sic]" (in the quotation itself, as shown in the example immediately above).

These comments are also applicable to long quotations, which are dealt with next.

2.3.2 Long (about 30 words or longer) quotations must be indented (by at least 1 cm, on both sides, from the surrounding text) and the enclosing quotation marks are omitted:

2.4 Placement of citation details

In making textual references within the prose of your assignment it is sometimes difficult to determine where the ‘appropriate point’ is within the prose to insert the citation(s). Generally, where you have an extended discussion that continues over two or more paragraphs, it is best to include the citation(s) in an introductory clause or sentence and indicate the scope of applicability explicitly, as shown in the following example.

Where the scope of applicability is more limited (eg, a sentence or two) then the appropriate point for inserting the textual reference is really a matter of personal writing style– pick the point you think best and which you think is least disruptive to your prose.

3 Rules for Entries in the List of References

As noted above, the list of references contains complete information with respect to the source (so that it could be found by another person) in the form of an ordered list of all such sources cited in your assignment.

Entries in the reference list or bibliography must contain the following information, in the order shown and using the type styles indicated. Since this can become somewhat complicated for various types of sources, only the main principles are spelt out here and you are referred to §4 below for more detailed examples of the variations that are required for certain types of sources. Unless otherwise noted explicitly below, each of these components of the entry is typed or printed in what is referred to as ‘plain’ style. Have the second and subse-quent lines (if any) of an entry indented from the first line by 0.5–1.0 cm, depending on the line length. (Such a paragraph style is referred to as a hanging indent.) This assists the reader to locate the reference associated with a given citation more quickly since the identifying component of the reference details is able to be quickly discriminated visually from the rest of the details.

3.1 Names of all authors, in the order given on the title page of a monograph (ie, a text-book) or following the title of a journal article, conference paper, newspaper article, etc. They should be spelt as they appear (even if you know that a mistake has been made!). Each author’s surname or family name appears first followed by a comma and then their initials only (even where Christian or given names are given in full). Titles (eg, Professor, Dr., Ms, Sir, etc) and other distinguishing notations (such as Junior (Jr.), Senior (Snr.), numbering such as John Bunyon III, etc) are to be omitted. Where there are three or more authors their names are separated by commas except for the last two which are separated by the use of an ampersand (‘&’).

3.2 If the source involves an editor, compiler, translator, etc, such detail is normally given next, enclosed in square brackets (‘[ ]’):

3.3 Then follows the year of publication, annotated with a lower case letter immediately following the last digit of the year (with no space between) where that author or those authors have published more than one source item, in a particular calendar year, that you refer to in your assignment and thus need to be distinguished from one another. The convention is to start with ‘a’ and follow with ‘b’, ‘c’, etc.

3.4 The title of the journal article, book chapter (in an edited set of readings published as a monograph), conference or seminar paper, enclosed in single quotation marks (‘ ’), or the title of the monograph, typed in italic style, appears next in the entry.

3.5 If the entry is for a monograph, then follows:

3.5.1 details of the edition or printing, where necessary, for example, 6th edn., revised edn., 6th printing, etc; and finally

3.5.2 the publishers name and the name of the city in which it was published. If the city of publication is not clear, use the first named city on the title page (usually found at the bottom of the page, under the name of the publisher).

3.6 If the entry is for a journal article, conference or seminar paper, then follows:

3.6.1 the name of the journal or conference printed in italic style;

3.6.2 the volume number (in bold style) and part number (in plain style, and usually enclosed in parentheses), eg 14(6), which is a widely used and acceptable ‘short-hand,’ or some part identifier such as, for example, an issue number, a month of publication (for monthly publications), the season (for quarterly publications), etc; and finally

3.6.3 the inclusive page numbers (eg, pp.11–24) containing the article or paper (provided that the source contains page numbers).

3.7 If the entry is for an electronic document the title is followed by the type of medium, enclosed in square brackets and then an Available: entry in which details sufficient to retrieve the article, etc. are given. The following examples (taken directly from Li & Crane (1993)) should make this clearer:

• The inclusion of the month, in parentheses, following the year of publication is usually needed in cases where the source is being regularly updated. In some instances it is also appropriate to add the day number, usually following the month.

• If a review is untitled, supply a title, and place it in square brackets to show that this information is supplied by you.

• If a message in a discussion group does not contain the authors name, use their access/username, in all capitals, to distinguish it from their ‘real’ name.

• Give the original message title rather than forwarded message title, where it is known.

• Include the address of the distributor in parentheses for items of limited circulation. It is extremely important that the information given after the Available: keyword is typed exactly as required to gain access to the material being cited. Computer systems regularly distinguish between upper- and lower-case letters these days and ‘BITNET’ is not the same as ‘bitnet’! Also note the lack of the usual punctation in the information provided following the Available: keyword– use of punctuation here is deliberately avoided since it might be considered to be part of the ‘address’ when it is not.

4. Harvard Author-Date System: Some Examples

The following examples address both the formats of the textual citation and the entry in the reference list and/or bibliography and thus cover most of your common referencing needs. For further detailed information, please refer to the book Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers (1994) or the book by Li & Crane (1993) if your source is electronic.

4.1 for a journal article:

• textual reference eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.2 for a journal article ‘in press’ (ie, the article has been accepted but has not yet been printed):

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.3 for a paper presented at a conference:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.4 for a paper presented at a meeting or seminar:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.5 for a newspaper article which has an author:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.6 for a newspaper article which has no clearly identified author:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.7 for a monograph without an author or editor, use the title of the monograph:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.8 for a paper or chapter in an edited monograph:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.9 for a monograph with a corporate author:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.10 for a report with a clearly identified author:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

4.11 for the citation of a work discussed or referred to in a secondary source:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry:

The practice of using secondary rather than primary sources is generally not encouraged in academic writing: you should always make every effort to obtain a copy of the primary source since you cannot know whether the secondary source author has either deliberately or inadvertently misinterpreted or misrepresented the ideas of the primary author.

4.12 for information gathered via a ‘personal’ or ‘private’ communication such as face-to-face or telephone interview, or an e-mail message, or a letter:

• textual reference: eg,

• reference/bibliography entry (generally not required):

5. References/Bibliography

Campbell, W.G., Ballou, S.V. & Slade, C., 1982 Form and Style: Theses, Reports, Term Papers, 6th edn. Houghton Mifflin, Boston.

Li, X. & Crane, N.B., 1993 Electronic Style. A Guide to Citing Electronic Information, Meckler Publishing, Wesport.

Style Manual for Authors, Editors and Printers, 1994 5th edn. AGPS, Canberra.