Referencing Midwifery Books Properly

Referencing Guidelines

Please note Uni's do differ in reference guidelines but this is a common one.

Referencing is essential to show that you have researched your material, that the ideas that you present have been considered in the light of documented material on the subject, to differentiate between your own opinions and the views of those who have greater knowledge and wider experience of the given subject. References are necessary to substantiate the knowledge, theories and discussions that you present in your papers.

References are necessary to acknowledge the source of your information, ideas and arguments. The reader should be able, from your reference list, quickly to follow up your source of information. References need to be cited in two places – once in abbreviated form when you refer to the document in the text, and then in full at the end of the work.

A reference is a description of a published work that you have referred to either directly or indirectly in your text.

A bibliography lists books and articles which are relevant to a piece of work and have been used in your research as a source of information or inspiration; no direct or indirect reference is made to this work in the text.

There are two common ways of linking abbreviated references in the text to a full description of the published work – either numeric (i.e. a number in the text which is linked either to a footnote or to a numbered list at the end of the paper) or author/date (also known as the Harvard or parenthetical system) where the briefest author/date information appears in parentheses (brackets) in the text and the full description in an alphabetical list at the end of the paper. The Harvard method is in use in the School of Nursing and Midwifery and must be used at all times. The particular interpretation or convention of the Harvard method used in the Institute is the Chicago Manual of Style.

If you look on the library shelves at guides to writing theses, student papers etc., you will find a bewildering array of style conventions (British Standard, APA, MLA etc.). My Institute recommends the use of the Chicago Manual of Style. In the examples that follow, the punctuation and italicisation follows the Chicago style: you should also follow this style, but if you cannot produce italic text, underlining may be substituted.

Under no circumstances should another writer’s material or ideas be presented without acknowledging the source – if you do so it is plagiarism and your work will be penalised.

1. References in the text

In the body of the text the surname of the author(s) is given followed by the year of publication, all in brackets. Only if you are giving a direct quote from your source should you provide the page number as well. If the author’s name appears naturally in your text, only cite the date in brackets.

Examples
a) One author
The Thatcherite bias against the more environmentally benign option of public transport reinforced the institutionalised position of the road lobby (Dudley 1983).
In one study (Coser 1963) it was found that...
Jones (1994) has argued forcefully that…
"Rheumatoid arthritis holds a unique position among the connective tissue diseases" (Hughes 1977, 24).

b) Two authors of one work
Visual deprivation has been found to increase postural sway (Brown and Dickinson 1972).
In the course of this discussion, Cohen and Abrahams (1985) commented that the prison system had nothing to do with turning offenders into honest citizens.

c) Authors of two different works
Note: The references in brackets are in alphabetical order.
Deregulation of bus services and cuts in subsidy to road and rail were accompanied by large increases in road traffic (Dudley 1983; Hamer 1987)

d) More than three authors of one work
In contrast to the present study Panzer et al. (1995) found that lateral sway did not increase with eyes closed.

e) An author with more than one cited publication in the same year
Distinguish these by adding lower case letters (a, b, c, etc.) after the year and within the brackets:
Anthony (1989a) proposed that…
It has been argued by Anthony (1989b) that…

2. Citing secondary sources

Whenever possible, quote from the original source. When this is not possible (e.g. when the original is unpublished, or for some other reason is not readily available) use the term ‘cited by’ followed by the reference for the work in which it is quoted.

Evidence from test results by Johnson and Appleby is cited by Neale (1993) to show that parental attitudes to children's footwear changes.

When you refer to this in the reference list, it should be listed under Neale:

Neale, D. 1993. Neale’s Common Foot Disorders: diagnosis and management. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

3. Reference list

At the very end of the essay or dissertation, references should be given in full in alphabetical order. Do not depend on the cover of a book for accurate bibliographical information. Use the information on the title page (for author, title, volume number if relevant, place of publication and publisher) and its reverse or ‘verso’ (for publication date and edition).

4. A book reference should contain:

1. Author’s surname followed by initials (second and third authors are not inverted and if there are more than three authors, use first author plus ‘et al.’)
2. Year of publication.
3. Title of book in italics (or underlined if italics are not available).
4. Edition of book if not the first.
5. Volume number if there is more than one.
6. Place of publication.
7. Publisher’s name.

Examples: (Please note and follow the punctuation!)
Andrews, A. 1975. Greek society. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Brown, E.L. 1971. Nursing reconsidered. Philadelphia: Lippincott.
Harris, A. and M. Super. 1991 Cystic fibrosis: The facts. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Marsh, D. and R.A.W Rhodes. 1989. Policy networks in British government. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Melzack, R. and P. Wall. 1988. The challenge of pain. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.

When the author and publisher are the same, the name should be repeated e.g.
Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust. 1953. The work of nurses in hospital wards. London: Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust.

Where the book is an edited collection of material with no author listed on the title page, use the abbreviation ‘ed’ or ‘eds’ for editor(s) or ‘comp’ or comps’ for compiler:
Neale, D., ed. 1993. Common foot disorders. 4th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

If, however, the reference is to a specific chapter then it must be put under the name of the author of the chapter:
Jones, G. 1993. Nail conditions. In: Common foot disorders, edited by D. Neale. 4th ed. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone.

Re: Referencing Books Properly

Thanks, thats really helpful

Re: Referencing Books Properly

Does your Uni reference this way? or can you offer alternatives?