Library

When you have included information from published sources in your work, you must acknowledge this information fully and accurately. The inclusion of such information is called citation, and the details about the information are known as a reference, since you are referring to the book, journal article, website or other source.

At SAC we use the Harvard system, some examples are outlined below.

Standard method of citing references according to the Harvard system

Author’s names and date of publication are given in the body of the text. Full references are collected alphabetically at the end of the paper.

Journal articles

In the text, references are cited by giving the author’s surnames and date of publication:
e.g. “... intake of dry matter in increased feeding (Castle, Drysdale & Weston, 1966)”.

In the list of references at the end (bibliography) they are cited as follows:
e.g. CASTLE, M.E., DRYSDALE, A.D. & WESTON, J.N. (1966): The effect of feeding dried sugar-beet pulp on the intake and production of dairy cows. J. Dairy Res. 33, 123-128.

Always include:

• Author or authors  - give surname followed by initials
• Year of publication  - in brackets
• Title of article  - give in full
• Title of journal or source - use abbreviations according to the World List of Scientific Periodicals, 4th ed. - available in the Library’s reference collection
• Volume number of journal - use Arabic numerals and underline
• Part of volume   - this is optional, but put in brackets if used
• Page numbers   - first and last pages in Arabic numerals

Books

In the text, author’s surnames and date of publication are cited as for papers
e.g. “... (Cochran & Cox, 1974) ...”

In the bibliography at the end, they are cited as follows:
e.g. COCHRAN, W.G. & COX, G.M. (1974):  Experimental designs. 2nd ed. New York, Wiley.

Always include:

• Author or authors  - give surname followed by initials
• Year of publication  - in brackets
• Title    - give in full
• Edition    - if later than the first edition
• Place of publication  - see title page
• Publisher   - see title page

Electronic material

Websites
Surname, Initials (if known). Title [online]. Place of publication (if known). Available from: internet address. [Accessed Day Month Year].

e.g. Swine Flu: Advice to pig keepers. Available from: http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/farmanimal/diseases/atoz/swine-flu/pig-keepers.htm. [Accessed: 9th October 2009].

Electronic journal article
Surname, Initials. (Year). Title of paper. Title of journal. [online], volume. Available from: address of website. [Accessed Day Month Year].

e.g. Henson, S.M., Dennis, B.,  Hayward, J.L., Cushing,J.M., Galusha, J.G. (2007). Predicting the dynamics of animal behaviour in field populations. Animal Behaviour [online], volume 74, issue 1. Available from:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00033472.  [Accessed: 9th October 2009].

For more detailed examples and practical support & guidance on citing references, use related internet links on the right-hand side of this page.