Guidelines for Referencing:

Literature, Philosophy,Psychology,
Sociology Assignments

O S C A I L

Oscail BA Programme

Oscail 2000, Athlone 29/30th March

Introduction
In writing assignments you will draw on a range of sources course units, textbooks,
the Internet, journal articles, newspapers, databases to develop and inform your
ideas. It is essential that yo u provide references to the ideas, facts, quotations or any
other material you have used in writing your assignment.
There are a number of reasons for this:

To avoid plagiarism: It is a serious academic offence to present the work of others

as your own. Any fact, idea, or quotation taken from another source must be
acknowledged by giving a reference to the source which can be independently
checked by the reader. Where you quote the direct words from a source, it is not
enough to provide the reference to the source; you must also enclose all quoted
sentences or paragraphs in quotation marks to acknowledge to the reader that
these are not your own original words.

To assist your reader/tutor in locating the material you have consulted

To assist your reader/tutor in assessing the quality of the work you have put into
the assignment and the reliability of the information you are using. For example, if
you base your assignment on information gleaned only from tabloid newspapers
and magazines, or school textbooks, or outdated sources, you are less likely to
produce good academic work, than if you use books and articles written by
recognised academic experts.

In your assignments you may be asked to produce both a Reference List and a
Bibliography

The Reference list is a list of all works referred to in the assignment

The Bibliography lists any additional sources consulted but not specifically
referred to in the assignment

How to reference?
There are many referencing systems which have been developed by journals and
professional societies. Systems also vary between subjects. The most important rule is
not to mix the styles and to stick to one system in your assignment. With the
exception of assignments for history, where the referencing style used is that set by
the journal Irish Historical Studies, Oscail students should use the Harvard
Referencing System since this is one of the most widely used systems.

Oscail BA Referencing Guidelines

The Harvard Referencing System

The Harvard System is a system in which names and dates are given in the body of
the text and the references alphabetically at the end of the paper. (Royal Society,
1965: 8)
You will find a number of references to the Harvard System on the Internet (e.g.
http://www.wlv.ac.uk/lib/system/gt- harvard.htm). This note is intended to provide a
brief overview of the main elements of the system.

Referring to, or summarising from a book

When you are referring to, or summarising the viewpoints of an author, but not
quoting the exact words, you give the source at the either in the body or the end of the
sentence using the following format:
Open bracket
Surname
comma
Date of Publication
colon
page in which the specific information is located if relevant
Close bracket
Example:
In general, most sociologists use occupational structures when categorising social
class (Giddens, 1991: 287).
Or
Giddens (1991: 287) discusses the way in which sociologists use occupational
structures when categorising social class.

The reference at the end of the assignment will appear in the following format:
Last name [comma]
Firstname
Date of publication
Title of book (always in italics, or underlined)
Edition (if relevant)
Place of publication
Publisher
Example
Giddens, Anthony 2001 Sociology 4th Edition Cambridge: Polity Press

Referring to, or summarising from a journal article

When you are referring to, or summarising the viewpoints of an author in a journal
article, but not quoting the exact words, you give the source at the end of the sentence
using the following format (using the same format as that for books):
Examples:
Liberal education is a very important component in developing different and
enriching perspectives in scientific and technological disciplines (Goodlad, 2000: 7).
Or

Oscail BA Referencing Guidelines

Goodlad (2000: 7) points out that liberal education is a very important component in
developing different and enriching perspectives in scientific and technological
disciplines.

The reference at the end of the assignment will appear in the following format:
Last name [comma]
First name
Date of publication
Title of article
Title of journal (in italics)
Volume
Issue Number
Pages (number of first and last page of the article)
Example:
Goodlad, Sinclair 2000 The search for synthesis: constraints on the development of
the humanities in liberal science-based education in Studies in Higher Education Vol
25 No 1 pp 7-23

Using quotations
If you use more that a couple of words from a text, you must put these in quotation
marks to show your reader that these are not your words. It is not enough just to put
the reference at the end of the sentence or paragraph; using quotations in this way
could constitute plagiarism. Generally it is best not to use lengthy quotations; rather
you should try to paraphrase or summarise the ideas in your own words, giving the
source at the end of the sentence or paragraph. For example, you might read the
following paragraph when researching an essay on crime:
Preventing crime, and reducing fear of crime, are both closely related to rebuilding strong
communities. As we saw in our earlier discussions of the broken windows theory, one of the
most significant innovations in criminology in recent years has been the discovery that the
decay of day-to-day civility relates directly to criminality. For a long time attention was
focused almost exclusively on serious crime robbery, assault or violence. More minor crimes
and forms of public disorder, however, tend to have a cumulative effect. (Giddens, 2001:
223)

However, rather than using the full quotation, it would be preferable to paraphrase and
summarise the content using your own words, as this will demonstrate your
understanding of the content. You could write for example:
Giddens points out that it is important to pay attention to the cumulative effect of minor
crimes and the loss of civility in leading to more serious crimes of robbery, violence or
assault (Giddens, 2001: 223).

Referencing from electronic sources

You will increasingly find information on the Internet from a range of sources.
Electronic journals
If the source is from a print journal which is available in full text format from the
library database, you can use the normal conventions for referencing journals. If the
journal is only available in electronic format use:

Oscail BA Referencing Guidelines

Surname
Firstname
Year of publication
Title of article
Title of Journal
Issue identification if available (Volume Number, Issue Number)
URL
Date you accessed the article (always provide this date since sometimes links
are removed or disappear)
Example
Burniske, R.W. 2002 Pedagogy of the impressed: introducing teachers in developing
countries to educational technology Techknowlogia Vol 4 Issue 4 Oct-Dec 2002
http://www.techknowlogica.org accessed 6 February 2003.

Documents from the Internet

You will find a wide range of documents on the Internet. The details you need to
provide are:
Author (this could be a company, organisation, individual or group of
individuals)
Year of publication
Title of document
Place of publication if included
Publisher if included
URL
Date you accessed the document
Example
Hayden, John 2001 Opening remarks by John L. Hayden, Secretary/Chief Executive
at the HEEU Seminar on Research into Mature Students in Higher Education at
University of Limerick on 29 June 2001, Dublin: Higher Education Authority
http://www.hea.ie/pub_rep/index.htm accessed 6 February 2003

References from a CD-ROM

To reference an item from a CD-Rom you will need to provide the following details:
Author (if none given, use ANON)
Year of publication
Title of Item
Title of CD-ROM
Place of publication
Publisher
CD-ROM
Example
ANON 1998 Introduction to Philosophy in Microsoft Encarta 99 Encyclopedia: The
Best Way to Learn and Explore US: Microsoft Corporation CD-ROM

Oscail BA Referencing Guidelines

Other Issues
More than one author?
In the text up to three authors may be cited as (Brown and Smith, 1999) or (Brown,
Jones and Smith, 1999). If there are more than three authors use the first named author
only, followed by et al.
For example, if the authors are Breen, Duff, Given, Keane, Quinn and Staunton use the form
(Breen et al).

Citing more than one work from the same author(s) published in the same year?
Distinguish the works by putting letters after the date.
For example, Murphy (1998a) stated that black can sometimes seem not-black. Murphy
(1998b) continuing his analysis of colour found that white can also sometimes seem notwhite. Make sure that the same letters are used to distinguish the works in the
reference/bibliography.

Citing an edited collection?

Works consisting of articles written by different authors are referenced under the
editor(s) name.
For example: Clancy, Patrick et al (eds) 1992 Ireland and Poland: Comparative Perspectives
Dublin: University College Dublin.

Citing an article from an edited collection?

An article from an edited collection should be cited under the author(s) name. The
number of the first and last page of the article should be included.
For example: Peillon,Michel 1992 State and society in the republic of Ireland in Clancy,
Patrick et al (eds) 1992 Ireland and Poland: Comparative Perspectives Dublin: University
College Dublin. Pp14-23.

Citing a work published by an organisation or corporation?

Reports which are not the responsibility of individuals should be listed under the
name of the body responsible for publication.
For example: HEA 2002 First destination of award recipients in higher education (2000): A
report on the initial employment; further study and training patterns of certificants, diplomats
and graduates Dublin: The Higher Education Authority.

Citing a second hand source?

Sometimes you will read a reference in a book or article to the work of another author.
Whenever possible, if you wish to cite this second hand source you should try to
check the original source, since it is possible that the second author has
misrepresented the original. If its not possible to check the original, you should use
the term cited by followed by the reference for the work in which it is quoted.
For example: Surveys show that students can learn many things (Hughes, cited in Goodlad,
2000: 17). In the reference list you give the reference to the Goodlad article as follows:
Goodlad, Sinclair 2000 The search for synthesis: constraints on the development of
the humanities in liberal science-based education in Studies in Higher Education Vol
25 No 1 pp 7-23

Oscail BA Referencing Guidelines

Citing Oscail Course units?

If you are quoting from or summarising parts of Oscail course material, you should
check the name of the writer of the unit you are quoting from and cite the source as
follows:
A number of sociologists have looked at the exercise of power in the search for an
explanation of inequality (Peillon, 2001: 1-23)

The source will be cited in the reference list as:

Peillon,Michel 2001 Unit 1: Stratification and Mobility in Oscail (eds) Sociology 4: Social
Inequality and Intergroup Relations Dublin: Oscail.

The final reference list and bibliography

At the end of the assignment, all references are listed alphabetically under the
author(s) surname giving full bibliographical details for each item.
Ensure that the letters used to distinguish works by the same author with the same
publication date are also included.
Works by the same author should be arranged chronologically in order of date of
publication.

How to find bibliographical details for the reference/bibliography?

Books
Different publishers vary in the way they present bibliographic details. For most
books you will have to check a number of pages to compile all the information
needed. Normally, the title page inside the cover gives the title of the book, the name
of the author and the publisher. The next page gives the place and date of publication
and the edition if relevant. Sometimes publishers neglect to give all information (such
as date of publication) and in this case you have to record the date as N.D. (no date).
You can always check the details on the online OPAC library cataloguing system.
Always write these details down when you are taking notes it is often very difficult
to locate the details later on.
Journals
You will find the title of the journal, the volume and number and date of publication
on the front cover or inside the cover. Most journals now also include this information
as a header or footer to all articles. You do not need to cite the publisher and place of
publication for journal articles.
Internet sources
All documents on the Internet have a unique address called the URL (Uniform
Resource Locators). These are always case sensitive (i.e. it matters if lower case or
upper case letters are used) so the URL must be copied exactly. You can find the URL
in the bar at the top of the screen beside the word location or alternatively, yo u can
check the footer on the printed document.

References
Royal Society 1965 General notes on the preparation of scientific papers 2nd ed
London: The Royal Society

Oscail BA Referencing Guidelines