Academic references
The logic
- The provision of sources which can be checked is the distinguishing mark of scholarly work. References should be given in a standard format, which can be instantly comprehended by any scholar and makes it easy to trace the source.
- The most important distinction is between published and unpublished material.
- A publication is a work made available to the public through multiple copies, usually in printed form.
- It is assumed that publications will be traced through library catalogues.
- A book is catalogued by author and title, so this information is given priority in citations. Italics are used to pick out the title. The date of publication and location of the publisher may assist (in distinguishing between editions, for example), so this information is added.
- Published records are generally identified by title, so this is given first in citations, followed by the editor.
- An article is traced through the title of the journal or newspaper in
which it appears. So it is the journal title which is picked out in
italic type. The article title may be given in
inverted commas
. - Give page numbers. The reader will not want to search an entire book for the information you quote.
- Unpublished sources are either unique or rare. Manuscripts, paintings, architect's plans, unpublished reports or theses are found by going to the place where they are stored. So the location is of primary importance and is given first, followed by its catalogue reference or description.
- Titles of unpublished works may be given in
inverted commas
. They should never be given in italics, which suggests a publication and could cause the reader to search fruitlessly in library catalogues for it. - Online material presents particular problems. The Internet is a flexible medium. Pages can change both location and content. Therefore if you cite an internet page, give both the url and the date on which you accessed it. So if the content later changes or is removed, the version that you saw may be traced via the Internet Archive.
- However if the work you are citing is a digital version of a printed publication, give the details of the print publication. Only refer to the Internet location if the digital edition differs from the print edition.
- Common confusions. Do not give the location in which you personally perused a published work or its catalogue number in your favourite library. Either creates the impression that this is an unpublished work (a thesis perhaps), which can only be found at that location. Unless...
- If the copy you used has unpublished material added, to which you wish to refer, it should be cited as an unpublished work. For instance a single copy of a book may have marginal notes added by the author. Grangerised or extra-illustrated copies were specially bound with blank pages for collectors to paste in additional pictures, cuttings and other material. Each such copy will be unique.
The systems
Academic references follow two main systems: footnotes or the Harvard system.
The Harvard system
This was designed for references to published sources. The author's surname, the date of the publication quoted and the page numbers are given in brackets in the text. Full bibliographic information is given in a bibliography.
Footnotes
A series of numbers in the text, placed either superscript or in brackets, leads the reader to corresponding numbers at the foot of the page or the end of the text, with the reference(s). These references can be given in abbreviated form if they follow full information in an earlier note OR full information is supplied in a bibliography. Where a number of unpublished sources cited are in the same archive, it is simplest to abbreviate its name to initials. Abbreviations should be explained in some convenient place (either at the start of the report or the head of the notes.)
Examples of footnotes
DRO = Devon Record Office
RIBA = Royal Institute of British Architects
- Christopher Hussey, English Country Houses: Early Georgian (London 1955), p.197.
- DRO L1258/Maps: Road 3.
- Lord Hervey's Memoirs, ed Romney Sedgwick (London 1952), pp.46-7.
- Hussey, Country Houses: Early Georgian, pp.244-52.
- National Archives MPHH 223/2.
- G.R.Gibbard,
The Country House Poem of the Seventeenth Century
, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, vol. 109 (1956), pp.159-74. - British Library King's MS 43 f.127.
- Plymouth City Council Planning Office, planning application for change of use of 34 Southside St 12.3.95.
- The Exeter Flying Post 12.3.1795, p.2.
- RIBA Drawings collection K4/30/8.
- British Sporting Painting, 1650-1850 (Arts Council Catalogue, London 1975), p.63.
- Plymouth Building Accounts of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Devon and Cornwall Record Society New Series vol. 12, p.34.
Bibliographies
A bibliography is essential with the Harvard system and may be helpful if footnotes run into large numbers. Readers can then easily locate the full reference from a shortened form given in a footnote. A bibliography is a list of published works only. It should be organised alphabetically by author (or title for published records.) It should not be regarded as a substitute for footnotes.