Citations and bibliographies | lightcolourvision.org

CITATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES: A PRACTICAL GUIDE

An in-text citation is where we reference the originating author and the publication details for the quote or image we use in the body of our essay.

A bibliographic reference is where we provide full information on the originating author and publication at the end of an essay etc. Each reference in a bibliography corresponds with an in-text citation and is listed alphabetically.

The previous post Credit Where Credit’s Due! explained how we deal with copyright and respect the creative efforts of other authors and artists at lightcolourvision.org. The issue that affects anyone who is submitting work to a school, college or university or preparing work for publication. This post provides a practical guide to citations and bibliographies and covers the question of how they should be styled.

Referencing, as it is called, deals with three important issues that have to be addressed when writing an essay or preparing work that is going to be submitted for academic assessment or published.

The first is to avoid plagiarism.
The second is to let readers know that a section of text (or other content like a diagram or data table) contains material that is not our own original work.
The third is to let them know where the material or ideas come from and provide details about the source using in-text citations and references.

PLAGIARISM

According to page 23 of the Bachelor’s Degree Handbook of the University of Washington “plagiarism occurs whenever someone uses the ideas or writings of another as their own without giving due credit”. Copy this quote into a search engine and it will take you to https://depts.washington.edu/pswrite/plag.html.

IN-TEXT CITATIONS AND REFERENCES

So what is the best way to reference other people’s work in our own writing? The fact is, many academic institutions would not be happy with the style used above to credit the work of the University of Washington’s Committee on Academic Conduct. It’s too random!

CHOOSING A STYLE

So when an academic institution or publisher asks for references and bibliography to be in APA Style, they are talking about using a consistent and recognisable style. Other commonly used styles that might be required include MLA (Modern Language Association) and Chicago/Turabian.

APA STYLING

The APA Style covers everything from punctuation, abbreviations, tables, statistics, to citations and references. The style was developed by the American Psychological Association but is now used by writers, editors and publishers around the world.

The APA’s style guidelines are set out in a reference book called The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.

At lightcolourvision.org we consistently use the APA style for formatting all in-text citations and bibliographic references. This allows visitors to quickly and efficiently find credits and, where relevant, to paste citations and references into their own work in a consistent format. Please note however that when cutting and pasting the spacing and indents need to be applied manually.

Remember to check on which style your school, college or university uses.

How to style short quotations using APA style

The APA style for short quotations of fewer than 40 words should be enclosed by double quotation marks.

- Provide the author, year, and specific page on which the quote was found in your citation, and include a complete reference in the reference list.
- Question and exclamation marks should appear within the quotation marks if they are part of the quotation.
- Don’t use quotation marks when paraphrasing a quote. But when paraphrasing the in-line citation should still be included. Paraphrasing is generally preferred over rambling quotes or content which is off-point.

How to style longer quotations

The APA style for longer quotations of more than 40 words should be presented in a freestanding block of type. In this case quotation marks are not required.

- This style of quotation starts on a new line and the whole block is indented five spaces from the left margin and lines are double spaced.
- The first line of new paragraphs within the quotation is indented five more spaces.
- The citation comes immediately after the closing punctuation mark.

What in-text citations look like

Here are two examples of what in-text citations might look like:

Example: “Quoted material from a book or journal goes in quotation marks. Then the citation follows and finally the full stop” (Author, 2006, p. 52).

Example: “Quoted material from a website goes in quotation marks. Then the citation follows and finally the full stop” (Name of website, 2006).

APA styling requires a shortened version of the relevant information to appear in the in-line citation and the complete reference to be added to the reference list which appears at the end of the document or as an appendix.

The citation appears at the end of the sentence before the full stop. The following examples illustrate how this first instance of a citation should be formatted in the case of books and are shown with the correct punctuation:Example: (Author, 2000, p. 200). – One author

Example: (1st Author & 2nd, 2000, p. – 200). – Two authors

Example: (1st Author, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th Author, 2000, p. 200). – Three to five authors

Example: (1st Author, et al. 2000, p. 200). – Six and more authors

If you quote again from the same work then subsequent instances of the citation appear as shown by the following examples:
Author (2000) compared editing styles . . .

Example: In a recent study of editing styles (Author, 2000) . . .

Example: In 2000, Author compared editing styles . . .

As you can see in-line citations don’t use an author’s initials.
When citing in-text, if the author’s names are in brackets, use the & symbol. Otherwise, use and before the last author’s name.
If a quote by another author appears within a book that you have already cited then this is described as being a secondary source.

Example: . . . as cited in Author, 2000, p. 200.

Copyright statements for images

APA styling requires a copyright statement for tables and other kinds of images. If the image is a table, the copyright statement goes at the end of the table note (in the bottom row) or caption where the purpose of the table is explained. If the image is anything else, it is considered to be a figure and the copyright statement goes at the end of the figure caption. In the case of PowerPoint presentations, the statement goes at the bottom of the slide in which the image appears.

Templates for bibliographic reference lists

References to quotes
Book, report, brochure, or audiovisual media	Author, A. A. (Year of Publication). Title of work: Capital letter also for subtitle. Location: Publisher. For “Location,” you should always list the city, but you should also include the state or country if the city is unfamiliar could be confused with another
Article in a periodical	Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year of Publication, add month and day of publication for daily, weekly, or monthly publications). Title of article. Title of periodical, Volume Number, pages. Periodicals include journals, newspapers, or magazines. You need list only the volume number if the periodical uses continuous pagination throughout a particular volume. If each issue begins with page 1, then you should list the issue number as well: Title of Periodical, Volume (Issue), pages
Webpage	Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of Publication or Revision). Title of full work [online]. Retrieved month, day, year, from source Web site: URL.
Online journal or magazine	Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of Publication). Title of article. Title of periodical, xx, xxx-xxx. Retrieved month, day, year, from URL.

References to images
Image found in a book	From [or Adapted from/Data in column 1 are from] Title of Book (any edition or volume information, p. xxx), by A. N. Author and C. O. Author, year, Place of Publication: Publisher. Copyright [year] by Name of Copyright Holder. Reprinted [or Adapted] with permission. The words “Reprinted [or Adapted] with permission” are only included where permission has been granted.
Image found in a journal	From [or Adapted from/Data in column 1 are from] “Title of Article,” by A. N. Author and C. O. Author, year, Title of Journal, Volume, p. xx. Copyright [year] by Name of Copyright Holder. Reprinted [or Adapted] with permission.
Image found in an edited chapter of a book	From [or Adapted from/Data in column 1 are from] “Title of Chapter,” by A. N. Author and C. O. Author, in A. N. Editor (Ed.), Title of Book (any edition or volume information, p. xxx), year, Place of Publication: Publisher. Copyright [year] by Name of Copyright Holder. Reprinted [or Adapted] with permission.
Image found on a website	From [or Adapted from/Data in column 1 are from] “Title of Web Document,” by A. N. Author and C. O. Author, year (http://URL). Copyright [year] by Name of Copyright Holder. Reprinted [or Adapted] with permission.
Image found in a journal	From [or Adapted from/Data in column 1 are from] “Title of Article,” by A. N. Author and C. O. Author, year, Title of Journal, Volume, p. xx. Copyright [year] by Name of Copyright Holder. Reprinted [or Adapted] with permission.

About bibliographic reference lists

The first line of each entry in a reference list should be on the left margin. Subsequent lines should be indented five spaces from the margin.
All references should be double-spaced and each entry should be separated from the next by a double space.
Capitalize only the first word of a title or subtitle of a work. Italicize titles of books and journals.
Authors’ names are inverted (last name first); Provide the last name and initials for all authors of a particular work.
Your reference list should be alphabetized by authors’ last names. If no author is given for a particular source, alphabetize by the title of the piece.

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