Any in-text reference should include the authorship and the year of the work. Depending on the nature of the sentence/paragraph that is being written, references to sources may be cited in the text as described below:
Author's name cited in the text
When making reference to an author's work in your text, their name is followed by the year of publication of their work:
In general, when writing for a professional publication, it is good practice to make reference to other relevant published work. This view has been supported in the work of Cormack (1994).
Where you are mentioning a particular part of the work, and making direct reference to this, a page reference should be included:
Cormack (1994, pp.32-33) states that "when writing for a professional readership, writers invariably make reference to already published works".
Author's name not cited directly in the text
If you make reference to a work or piece of research without mentioning the author in the text then both the author's name and publication year are placed at the relevant point in the sentence or at the end of the sentence in brackets:
Making reference to published work appears to be characteristic of writing for a professional audience (Cormack, 1994).
More than one author cited in text
Where reference is made to more than one author in a sentence, and they are referred to directly, they are both cited:
Smith (1946) and Jones (1948) have both shown ...
Two or three authors for a work
When there are two or three authors for a work, they should be noted in the text
Directly using an and
White and Brown (2004) in their recent research paper found...
Or indirectly
Recent research (White and Brown, 2004) suggests that...
Other examples using two or three authors........
During the mid nineties research undertaken in Luton (Slater and Jones, 1996) showed that...
Further research (Green, Harris and Dunne, 1969) showed
When there are two or three authors for a work they should all be listed (in the order in which their names appear in the original publication), with the name listed last preceded by an and.
Four or more authors for a work
Where there are several authors (four or more), only the first author should be used, followed by et al. meaning and others:
Green, et al. (1995) found that the majority ...
or indirectly:
Recent research (Green, et al., 1995) has found that the majority of ...
More than one author not cited directly in the text
List these at the relevant point in the sentence or at the end of the sentence, putting the author’s name, followed by the date of publication and separated by a semi-colon and within brackets.
Where several publications from a number of authors are referred to, then the references should be cited in chronological order (i.e. earliest first):
Further research in the late forties (Smith, 1946; Jones, 1948) led to major developments......
Recent research (Collins, 1998; Brown, 2001; Davies, 2008) shows that
Several works by one author in different years
If more than one publication from an author illustrates the same point and the works are published in different years, then the references should be cited in chronological order (i.e. earliest first):
as suggested by Patel (1992; 1994) who found that...
or indirectly:
research in the nineties (Patel, 1992; 1994) found that...
Several works by one author in the same year
If you are quoting several works published by the same author in the same year, they should be differentiated by adding a lower case letter directly, with no space, after the year for each item:
Earlier research by Dunn (1993a) found that...but later research suggested again by Dunn (1993b) that ...
If several works published in the same year are referred to on a single occasion, or an author has made the same point in several publications, they can all be referred to by using lower case letters (as above):
Bloggs (1993a; 1993b) has stated on more than one occasion that ...
Chapter authors in edited works
References to the work of an author that appears as a chapter, or part of a larger work, that is edited by someone else, should be cited within your text using the name of the contributory author not the editor of the whole work.
In his work on health information, Smith (1975) states ...
In the reference list at the end of your document, you should include details of both the chapter author and the editor of the entire work
Smith, J., 1975. A source of information. In: W. Jones, ed. 2000. One hundred and one ways to find information about health. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ch.2
Corporate authors
If the work is by a recognised organisation and has no personal author then it is usually cited under the body that commissioned the work. This applies to publications by associations, companies, government departments etc. such as Department of the Environment or Royal College of Nursing.
It is acceptable to use standard abbreviations for these bodies, e.g. RCN, in your text, providing that the full name is given at the first citing with the abbreviation in brackets:
1st citation:
... following major pioneering research in 2006 undertaken by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) it has been shown that ...
2nd citation:
More recently the RCN (2007) has issued guidelines for...
Note that the full name is the preferred format in the reference list. These should provide the full name...
Royal College of Nursing, 2006.Children in the Community. London: RCN.
Royal College of Nursing, 2007.Administering intravenous therapy to children in the community setting: Guidance for nursing staff. London: RCN.
Some reports are written by specially convened groups or committees and can be cited by the name of the committee:
Committee on Nursing (1972)
Select Committee on Stem Cell Research (2002)
Note there are some exceptions to this such as:
BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
BBC News
where the abbreviations or initials form part of the official name.
No author
If the author cannot be identified use 'Anonymous' or 'Anon' and the title of the work and date of publication. The title should be written in italics.
Marketing strategy (Anon., 1999)
No date
The abbreviation n.d. is used to denote this:
Smith (n.d.) has written and demonstrated......
or indirectly:
Earlier research (Smith, n.d.) demonstrated that......
Every effort should be made to establish the year of publication if you intend to use this work as supporting evidence in an academic submission.
Page Numbers
Including the page numbers of a reference will help readers trace your sources. This is particularly important for quotations and for paraphrasing specific paragraphs in the texts:
Lawrence (1966, p.124) states "we should expect ..."
or indirectly:
This is to be expected (Lawrence, 1966, p.124)...
Please note page numbers: preceded with p. for a single page and pp. for a range of pages.
Quoting portions of published text
If you want to include text from a published work in your essay then the sentence(s) must be included within quotation marks, and may be introduced by such phrases as:
the author states that "............"
or
the author writes that "............"
On the topic of professional writing and referencing Cormack and Brown (1994, p.32) have stated...
"When writing for a professional readership, writers invariably make reference to already published works..."
In order for a reader to trace the quoted section it is good practice to give the number of the page where the quotation was found. The quotation should also be emphasized (where it is 50 words or more) by indenting it and enclosed in quotation marks. This clearly identifies the quotation as the work of someone else:
"Outside the UK, the BBC World Service has provided services by direct broadcasting and re-transmission contracts by sound radio since the inauguration of the BBC Empire Service in December 1932, and more recently by television and online. Though sharing some of the facilities of the domestic services, particularly for news and current affairs output, the World Service has a separate Managing Director, and its operating costs have historically been funded mainly by direct grants from the UK government. These grants were determined independently of the domestic licence fee. A recent spending review has announced plans for the funding for the world service to be drawn from the domestic licence fee". (Jones, 1967, p.27)
Secondary sources (second-hand references)
You may come across a summary of another author's work in the source you are reading, which you would like to make reference to in your own document; this is called secondary referencing.
A direct reference:
Research recently carried out in the Greater Manchester area by Brown (1966 cited in Bassett, 1986, p.142) found that ...
In this example, Brown is the work which you wish to refer to, but have not read directly for yourself. Bassett is the secondary source, where you found the summary of Brown's work.
Or indirectly:
(Brown, 1966 cited in Bassett, 1986, p.142)
It is important to realise that Bassett may have taken Brown's ideas forward, and altered their original meaning. If you need to cite a secondary reference it is recommended that, where possible, you read the original source for yourself rather than rely on someone else's interpretation of a work. For this reason it is best to avoid using secondary referencing.
The reference list at the end of your document should only contain works that you have read.
Tables and diagrams
When reproducing selected data, or copying an entire table or diagram, a reference must be made to the source. A reference within the text to a table taken from someone else's work, should include the author, date and page (Smith, 2005, p.33) to enable the reader to identify the data. If the source of the data is not the author's own, but obtained from another source, it becomes a secondary reference and needs to be cited as such:
(United Nations, 1975 cited in Smith, 2005, p.33)
If the table is reproduced in its entirety, place the citation below the table. Be particularly careful to note the original source of data, as well as the authorship of the document you are using. Full details should be included in the reference list.
Websites
When citing material found on a website, you should identify the authorship of the website. This may be a corporate author, an organisation or a company; a guide to this can be found by looking at the URL or web address. To find the date of publication, reference to this might be found at the bottom of a web page relating to copyright, or from a date headline.