Student Referencing Guide

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THE MANAGEMENT COLLEGE OF SOUTHERN AFRICA
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Contents
Referencing Guidelines ........................................................................................................... 12
What is referencing? ......................................................................................................... 12
How referencing is done? ................................................................................................. 12
In-text references ............................................................................................................. 13
Harvard Referencing (Adapted for Mancosa) .................................................................. 13
In-text references ............................................................................................................. 13
References (list at the end of the text) ............................................................................. 16
Books............................................................................................................................... 16
Journal/ Periodical articles ............................................................................................... 17
Newspaper article ............................................................................................................ 18
Government publications ................................................................................................. 18
A thesis or dissertation ..................................................................................................... 18
A secondary reference ..................................................................................................... 18
Referencing electronic sources ........................................................................................ 19
Reference to an electronic journal.................................................................................... 19
Example of a typical bibliography .................................................................................... 20
Reference List.................................................................................................................... 23

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 Referencing Guidelines
What is referencing?
Referencing is the practice of letting the reader of any written work know the source of any
idea, opinion or information included in the text. It is an acknowledgement of a piece of writing
by another author which has been referred to or quoted directly in a written piece of work.
Referencing enables the student to identify whose ideas or arguments they are using. There
are three specific reasons for using referencing:

• To let the reader, know whose ideas are being used. In the academic system, ideas are a
kind of property of those who develop them. To not acknowledge the source of information,
opens the student to accusations of plagiarism.

• To enable the reader to check the information. The reader might want to go back to that
author’s original work for her/ himself and check the accuracy of the information.

• To provide information to the reader. The current research into a topic might produce an
interesting book or journal article which may be unfamiliar to the reader. If referenced
accurately, the reader will be able to find that book or article to get a fuller grasp of the
original material.

How referencing is done?

Different institutions and publications have different ways of citing references. MANCOSA
suggests that all students use the Harvard System of Referencing described here.

Some advantages of this style are:

• It ensures one alphabetical list of all references in the text, facilitating easy identification of
sources.

• Last minute additions and deletions can be made without having to renumber all
references.

• Only one entry is necessary in the list even though the work may have been referred to
more than once.

There are two parts to the Harvard System, one relates to the in-text references and the
other to the reference list at the end of the text.

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In-text references

The general requirement for in-text references is that the writer must insert the surname of the
author whose idea/ information/ argument is being used, the year in which the work was
published, and the page number/s where the information is located. The underlying principle
here is that ideas and words of others must be formally acknowledged. The reader can obtain
the full source citation from the list of references that is supplied at the end of the text.

Harvard Referencing (Adapted for Mancosa)

In-text references

General requirement for in-text references is that the writer must insert the surname of the
author whose idea/ information/ argument is being used, the year in which the work was
published, and the page number/s where the information is located. The underlying
principle here is that ideas and words of others must be formally acknowledged. The reader
can obtain the full source citation from the list of references that is supplied at the end of
the text.

Be mindful of using sources older than 10 years, as this raises issues regarding academic
relevancy, unless it is an original source that impacted the related field in a significant
manner.

The source is part of the sentence

When the names of the author/s of a source are part of the formal structure of the
sentence, the year of the publication and the page number/s with a colon separating the
two, appear within brackets following the identification of the author/s. Below are some
examples:

(a) As Smith (1990:25) points out, the ….

(b) Mitchell and Smith (2000:72-73) found that ….

(c) Smith, Jones, Sherwin and Pearson (1997:45) maintain that ….

(d) …. (Smith, Jones, Sherwin and Pearson, 1997:45) …

When there are two authors, the names of both authors occur in every in-text reference.
For multiple author citations (three to five authors), the names of all authors must be noted

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with the first reference, and then the reference is shortened to the name of the first author
with et al.

Thus, in the case of example (c) above, all later uses in the text would be:

(e) Smith et al. (1997:56-57) argue that mergers and acquisitions …

(Note: A full stop must be placed after al.)

For references with six or more authors, students must use et al. with the first reference
and provide the final citation in the references list:

(f) Jones et al. (1996:101-102) state that work stoppages often reflect ….

If two or more multiple author references shorten to the same et al form, making it
ambiguous, the student must give as many authors as necessary to make them distinct
before et al. Below is an example:

(g) Marketing, as Smith, Jones, et al. (1990:36) observe, is pivotal to …

Occasionally the student may want to write about one author’s research (primary reference)
which is mentioned by another author (secondary reference). Both need to be identified:

(h) Smith’s research in 1982 (cited in Hanson, 1998:55) found that ……; or (h)
Hanson (1998:55) in reporting Smith’s 1982 research maintains that ….

If the author that the student wants to reference has published more than one text in a
particular year and he/ she wants to reference more than one item from the same year in
the dissertation, then he/ she must add a, b or c after the date to distinguish the
publications both in the text and the reference list at the end:

(i) Drucker (1999a:75) argues that managers ….

(j) Strategic planning, as Robertson (1998c:210) observes, is often not a systematic

process.

When the author/s of a source are NOT part of the formal structure of the sentence, the
author/s, year of publication, and page number/s must appear within brackets at the end of
the sentence / paragraph. For the exact format see the example below:

(k) Strategic planning…. and is often not a systematic process (Robertson, 1998:210).

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If the student is citing multiple works by the same author at the same time, they should be
arranged in date order:

(l) Several studies (Johnson, 1988; 1990a; 1990b; 1995) came to a similar conclusion
about the impact of management styles.

In example (l) there are no page references. This suggests that the writer is referring to
each publication in its entirety. Where several writers are referred to in the same context,
they should be listed by date and then alphabetically by first authors’ surnames, each
citation being separated from the next by a semi-colon:

(m) Reviews of research on religion and health have concluded that at least some type of
religious behaviours are related to higher levels of physical and mental health (Ronald
and Smith, 1992; Gortner, Larson and Allen, 1991; Levin and Vanderpool, 1991;
Palomarana and Pendleton, 1991; Payne et al., 1991; Benner et al., 1987; Appleton,
Smith and Jones, 1984).

References with multiple authors cited in full imply that this is the first reference to those
citations in the study.

Online references
Referencing is as per text referencing.

Quotations

When a direct quotation is used in the text, the student must always include author/s, year
and page number within the brackets, exactly in the manner noted above.

Short quotes of up to two lines

Short quotations of up to two lines should be incorporated into the formal structure of the
sentence and enclosed in quotation marks. Consider the following example:

(o) Weir (1995:10) states that “defining roles and their remits is not simple.” A similar
view is expressed by Holmes and Arthur (1996:210) who argue that “role definitions
must be precise to avoid a blurring of functions.”

Larger quotations

Larger quotations should be indented in a separate paragraph in block format:

(p) Thomas and Ingham (1995:33) in discussing staff development state:

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 Development is infectious, and staff who previously have recoiled from undertaking a
degree or conversion course have been encouraged by the success of others. (Note: The
quotation should be in italics and indented)

If part of the quotation has been omitted, then this can be indicated by using three dots:

(q) Weir and Kendrick (1995:88) state that “networking is no longer solely within the
male domain … but is part of general staff interaction.”

It needs to be stressed that the student must use only three dots when omitting material
from quotations, four if the omitted material includes the end of the sentence.

References (list at the end of the text)

References should be listed in alphabetical order by authors/ first author’s surname and
then, if the writer has several works that have been cited in the text, by date (earliest first),
and then if more than one item has been published during a specific year by letter (1995a,
1995b, etc.). Details must be taken from the title page of a publication and not from the
front cover, which may be different. Each reference should include the elements and
punctuations given in the examples below. The title of the publication should be underlined
and NOT in bold font or in italics.

Books

A book with one or two authors

Smith, D. (1990) Elements of Management. London: McMillan.

Mitchell, J. and Smith, D. (2000) Decision theory: conduct, critique and utilization. 3rd
Edition. New York: Bantam Books.

Book with three or more authors

Deighton, J., Horsley, R., Stewart, S. and Cain, C. (1983) Sweet ramparts: women in
revolutionary Nicaragua. London: War or Want and the Nicaraguan Solidarity Campaign.

A book by a corporate author (e.g. a Government department)

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (1989) Office of the Status of Women: an
introduction. Melbourne: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Australian Nursing Federation (1989) Standards for nursing practice. Melbourne: Australian
Nursing Federation.

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 An edited book
Swanepoel, B.J., Slabbert, J.A., Erasmus, B.J. and Nel, P.S. (eds.) (1999) The
management of employment relations: organizational level perspectives. Special student
edition. Durban: Butterworths.

Wellington, J.J. (ed.) (1986) Controversial issues in the curriculum. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

Basford, L. and Slevin, O. (eds.) (1995) Theory and practice of nursing: an integrated
approach to patient care. Edinburgh: Campion.

Books with no publisher, place of publication or date of publication given

Saulwick Weller and Associates (1995) Sex role portrayal of women in advertising: a
content analysis. Canberra: [publisher unknown].

Kelly, F. (1996) Will trees survive? [place of publication unknown]: Western Publications.

Wolverton, H. [date unknown] Management issues for reservation Indians. Wilmington,

South Dakota: Prairie Press.

A chapter in a book
Capra, F. (1983) The systems view of life. In: Kendrick, K. and Jonathan, Y. (eds.) (1983)
The turning point: science, society and the rising culture. London: Fontana Press, pp. 285-
322.

Weir, P. (1995) Clinical practice development role: a personal reflection. In: Smith, A. (ed.)
(1995) Innovations in nursing management. London: Edward Arnold, pp. 5-22.

Journal/ Periodical articles

An article in a periodical/ journal

Boydell, D. (1975) Pupil behaviour in junior classrooms. British Journal of Educational
Psychology, 45(1), pp. 122-129.

NB 45(1) signifies Volume 45, Number 1.

Phillips, E. R. (1957) The South African labour market. South African Journal of industrial
relations, May, 1(3), pp. 25-39.

Please not that for journal articles, the name of the journal is underlined, NOT the title.

Review or interview when titled

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 Cormond, T.P. (1982) A new look at medicine from the social perspective. [review of Social
contexts of health care management by Carol Senn]. Contemporary society, 27(1), p 208.

Newspaper article

An article in a newspaper
White, M. (1998) £68m to cut NHS waiting lists. Guardian, Manchester, Monday, 18 May,
p.8.

Chopra, R (1998) Frustration and despair [letter to the editor]. The Daily News, Durban,
Monday, 21 June, p. 21.

A newspaper article with no obvious author

[Author unknown] (1999) Recruitment: lessons in leadership. Sunday Times,
Johannesburg, 11 March, p. 32.

Government publications

Department of Health (1996) Choice and opportunity: Primary care: The future. CM 3390.
London: Stationery Office.

A thesis or dissertation

Ngubane, M.E. (2000) An investigation of the impact of affirmative action policy as a

strategy for removing discrimination in the workplace. Unpublished MBA dissertation. High
Wycombe, Buckinghamshire: Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College.

Rameshur, H. (1996) Education policy implementation in a system in transition: A

multivariate systems approach. Unpublished doctoral thesis. Pretoria: University of South
Africa.

A secondary reference

Fidler, F. and Chemers, M. (1974) Leadership and effective management. Glenview,

Illinois: Scott Foresman and Co. Cited in: Lawrence, D. (1996) Leadership and
management. New York: Wiley.

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Referencing electronic sources

References must be correct, complete and consistent.

Reference to an Internet source

Basically, the information required are author’s name, year, title [online], edition, place of
publication, publisher (if ascertainable), where available and date on which it was
accessed.

Barnett, M. (1996) Management issues for the contemporary office [online]. London:
Eastern Highlands University. Available from:
http//easternhigh.ac.uk/busfac/resources/mico.html [Accessed 27 September 2000].

The term [online] indicates the type of medium and is used for all Internet resources.
[Accessed Date] is the date on which the document was viewed. This allows for any
subsequent modifications to the document. The term publisher can cover both publishers or
printed sources as well as organizations responsible for maintaining sites on the Internet,
such as the University of the Witwatersrand. If no specific author is cited ascribe authorship
to the smaller organizational unit:

Library Services (1995) Internet user’s guide [online]. Johannesburg: University of

Johannesburg. Available from: http://joburgun.co.za/library/guides/ [Accessed 30
September 2000].

Reference to an electronic journal

The reader needs to know the author’s or editor’s surname and initials, year of publication,
title of article, journal title, volume number, issue number in brackets, location within the list
available from, URL, and [accessed date].

Church, K.B. (1995) People machines: on robot-consciousness. Psychology [online], 6 (15).

Available from: gopher://wwachaw.ai.univie.ac/Psychology/1654/ [Accessed 17 June 2000].

The location within the host is the equivalent of pagination used with printed sources. It
should be given if the format of the document includes page numbers or an equivalent
internal referencing system. The specification of location should be chosen according to the
following order of preference:

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 • Page, screen, paragraph or line number where the features are a fixed feature of the
online source. (e.g. 5-21 indicating that it is page 5 of 21 pages; lines 100-150)
Labelled part, section, table, etc.
• Any host-specific designation.

If the document does not include pagination or internal referencing system, the extent of the
item may be indicated in such terms as the total number of lines, screens, etc. (e.g. [35
lines] or [approx. 12 screens])

Example of a typical bibliography

Allen, A. (1993) Changing theory in nursing practice. Senior Nurse, 13(1), 43-5.

Basford, L. and Slevin, O. (eds) (1995) Theory and practice of nursing: an integrated
approach to patient care. Edinburgh: Campion.

Burns, N. and Grove, S.K. (1997) The practice of nursing research: conduct, critique &
utilization. 3rd edition. London: Saunders.

Canetti, E. (2000) Crowds and power. Translated from German by C. Stewart. London:
Phoenix.

Department of Health (1996) Choice and opportunity: primary care: the future. Cm.3390.
London: Stationery Office.

Department of National Health (1990) National Health Service and Community Care Act
1990. pp. 20-37. London: HMSO.

Fiedler, F. and Chemers, M. (1974) Leadership and effective management. Glenview,

Illinois, Scott Foresman and Co. Cited in: Douglass, L.M. (1996) The effective nurse: leader
and manager. 5th Edition. St. Louis, Missouri: Mosby.

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Marieb, E. (2000) Essentials of Human anatomy and Physiology: AWL Companion Web
Site [online]. 6th Edition. San Francisco: Benjamin Cummings. Available from:
http://occ.awlonline.com/bookbind/pubbooks/mariebessentials/ [Accessed 4th July 2001].

McConnell, D. ([email protected]) (28th November 1997) Follow up to your

interview. Personal email to L. Parker ([email protected]).

Osman, S. (1998) R68m to cut NHS waiting lists. Guardian, Monday May 18 1998, p.8.

Proctor, P. (1998) The tutorial: combining asynchronous and synchronous learning. In:
Banks, S. et al.

Networked Lifelong Learning: innovative approaches to education and training through the
Internet: Proceedings of the 1998 International Conference held at the University of
Sheffield. Sheffield, University of Sheffield. pp. 3.1 - 3.7.

Redman, G. M. (1997) LPN-BSN: education for a reformed healthcare system. Journal of

Nursing Education 36 (3), 121-7. Abstract [online]. Available from:
http://www.mancosa.co.za. [Accessed 28th May 1998].

Sandall, J. (2001) Free web-based virtual midwifery library. Midwifery-research [online].

Available from: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/midwifery-research.html [Accessed 5th July
2001].

Leedhouse, D. (1997) Health promotion: philosophy, prejudice and practice. Chichester:

John Wiley.

Stones, M. (1995) Women, nurses, education: an oral history taking technique.

Unpublished M.Ed. dissertation, University of Sheffield.

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Weir, P. (1995) Clinical practice development role: a personal reflection. In: K. Kendrick et
al. (eds) Innovations in nursing practice. London: Edward Arnold, pp. 5- 22.

NOTE:

Comprehensive MANCOSA RESEARCH REFERENCING

GUIDE available at www.mymancosa.com

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Reference List

Anon. (2019) Openploytechnic. [Online] Available at: https://www.openpolytechnic.ac.nz

[Accessed 19 October 2019].

Citethisforme, H. (2019) Harvard Referencing. [Online] Available at:

https://citethisforme.com/harvard-referencing [Accessed 25 October 2019].

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