- Three reasons for acknowledging
sources in reports;
- To distinguish honestly between your ideas and someone else's.
- To let readers see the range and quality of your reading for a particular topic.
- To direct readers to particular sources for further information.
One common style used to reference
sources has been developed by the American Psychological
Association (APA).
Others exist (such as the Harvard style), so when submitting a paper for publication you should always check the style of referencing required.
| The following style guide has been developed from |
|
Electronic reference formats recommended by the American Psychological Association. (1999, November 19). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Retrieved February 9, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html |
Journals and periodicals
| Format: <authors> (<date>).<title>.<periodical>, <p or pp> <# or #,#> |
| Monthly periodical example: |
|
Desmond, M. (1999, Mar), Your PC in the New Millenium, NZ PC World 114. pp 50-62 |
| Weekly/daily periodical article example: |
|
Law, G. (1999, Mar 29) Bus-fare smartcards on the way, Computerworld NZ 590. |
|
Teens use internet for credit-card fraud (1998, Jun 9), The Hawke's Bay Herald Tribune p3 |
| Referencing: Auckland bus companies will be introducing bus-fare smartcards into most of their runs in 1999. (Law 1999) |
Books
| Format: <authors> (<publication date>).<title>.<publication info> where <publication info> includes ; (edition) <city>: <publisher>. Where there is more than 6 authors, cite the first authors last name and add "et al". |
| Entire book reference |
| Example |
|
McFadden,F., Hoffer, A. & Prescott, M. (1999). Modern database management 5th Ed. Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, ISBN 0-201-47432-8. |
| Referencing: The tools like laptops and off-line email, actually do have an impact. (McFadden, Hoffer, Prescott 1999). (Add the page number if this is relevant) |
Electronic information
| This includes; Internet, CD-ROM, floppy & hard disk,
magnetic tapes. Pagination is often unavailable so is not included. |
| Internet reference |
| Whole web site Microsoft (http://www.microsoft.com) |
| Email (note that the
source of email may be disguised) M.Verhaart (personal communication, Feburary 9, 2000) |
| Specific documents |
|
Verhaart, M (2000). V/2-Knowledgebase2000. Retrieved February 9, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.voyager.co.nz/~verhaart, |
|
Dewstow, Ross & Young, Stuart. (1999), 06.532: Internet and Web Page Design, Retrieved June 22, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~niwrad/532.htm |
| Referencing: A users main interaction with a PC is via a device that enters data into a computer, or displays that data. (Verhaart, 2000) |
| CD-ROM reference |
| Example |
|
Verhaart, M (1999). V/2-Knowledgebase2000. Retrieved November 11, 1999 from EIT Hawke's Bay library, Taradale, New Zealand, CD-ROM |
| Database reference |
| CD-ROM database Retrieved from [source] database ([name of database], CD-ROM, [release date], [item no.--if applicable]) |
| On-line database Retrieved [month day, year] from [source] on-line database ([name of database], [item no.--if applicable]) |
| Databases accessed via the web Retrieved [month day, year] from [source] database ([name of database], [item no.--if applicable]) on the World Wide Web: [URL] |
| Example |
|
Schneiderman, R. A. (1997). Librarians can make sense of the Net. San Antonio Business Journal, 11(31), pp. 58+. Retrieved January 27, 1999 from EBSCO database (Masterfile) on the World Wide Web: http://www.ebsco.com |