LibGuides: Academic Integrity Toolkit: Compiling a bibliography

Bibliographies and reference lists

A bibliography is…

a list of all the materials you consulted in your research for your assignment.

A reference list is…

a list only of the materials you refer to in your assignment (whether by direct quotation, paraphrase, direct or indirect mention).

You may be asked to provide either one or both with your assignment – check the instructions. If you find that you have a lot of materials in your bibliography which are not cited in your text, read over your work again and check that you haven’t forgotten to include a citation where your ideas have been influenced by reading those materials.

How do I compile a bibliography?

Three principles to follow:

Put your materials in order in a single list (all materials in one list unless you are told to do otherwise for your discipline) so that your reader can find them and associate them with the relevant in-text citation. (Depending on the style, that may be in alphabetical order of author's surname, or by number.)
Give full bibliographic details in the correct order and with the correct punctuation and layout for the referencing style you’ve been asked to use.
Be consistent!

An example bibliography using the Cite Them Right Harvard style referencing:

'Coffee drinking and cancer of the pancreas' (1981) British Medical Journal, 283, p. 628.	No author
Bould, M. & Reid, M. (eds) (2005) Parietal games: critical writings by and on M. John Harrison. Cambridge: Science Fiction Foundation.	Book: edited collection
Hamilakis, Y., Pluciennik, M. & Tarlow, S. (2001) 'Academic performances, artistic presentations'. Assemblage, 6. Available at http://www.shef.ac.uk/assem/issue6/art_web.html (Accessed: 8 July 2002).	Journal article (only available online)
Royal Horticultural Society (n.d.). Plant finder: Genista. Available at: www.rhs.org.uk/plantfinder/genista (Accessed: 25 August 2007).	Website
Shahabudin, K. (2006) 'From Greek myth to hollywood story: explanatory narrative in Troy', in Winkler, M.M. (ed.) Troy: from Homer's Iliad to Hollywood epic. Malden, MA: Blackwell, pp. 107-118.	Chapter in edited collection
Turner, J.E., Henry, L.A. & Smith. P.T. (2000). 'The development of the use of long-term knowledge to assist short-term recall'. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology: Section A, 53(2), pp. 457-478.	Journal article

Look at this bibliography and identify any errors you find:

Citations	Error/s?
Business Strategies (2000) Tomorrow’s call centres: a research study.
Department for Trade and Industry (2004) The UK contact centre industry: a study. London: Department for Trade and Industry.
Health and Safety Executive. Psychosocial working conditions in Great Britain in 2004.
Huws, U. (1999) Virtually there: the evolution of call centres. London: Mitel Telecom Ltd.
Huws, U. (1993) Teleworking in Britain: a report to the Employment Department. Research Series No 18. London: Department of Employment.
Huws, U. (1996) eWorking: an overview of the research. London: Department of Trade and Industry.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bob/callcentres/ (Accessed: 9 August 2022).

Adapted from Neville, C. (2008) Referencing exercises. LearnHigher and University of Bradford. Available at: http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/Students/Referencing.html (Accessed: 9 May 2013).

These are the answers to the exercises:

Http://www.bbc.co.uk/bob/callcentres/ (Accessed 09/08/2004).

Comment: More information is needed; in this example, the name of author or originator and title of item needed to be shown. The format of the accessed date is also wrong. It should be:
BBC (2004). Brassed-off Britain: call centres. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/bob/callcentres/ (Accessed: 9 August 2004).

Once the details are correct, it is also obvious that the citation is in the wrong place. It should be at the beginning of the list (alphabetical order puts BBC before Business Strategies).

Business strategies (2000). Tomorrow’s call centres: a research study.

Comment: You need to give details of where this study can be located, e.g. name of publisher or details of website. This one was online, so the full reference should look like this:
Business strategies (2000) Tomorrow’s call centres: a research study. Available at: www.businessstrategies.co.uk (Accessed: 7 July 2008).

Department for Trade and Industry (2004) The UK contact centre industry: a study. London: Department for Trade and Industry.

Comment: This source is correctly referenced.

Health and Safety Executive. Psychosocial working conditions in Great Britain in 2004.

Comment: the date of publication and detail of publisher is missing. So the full reference should look like this: Health and Safety Executive (2004). Psychosocial working conditions in Great Britain in 2004. London: Health and Safety Executive.

Huws, U (1999) Virtually there: the evolution of call centres. London: Mitel Telecom Ltd.

Huws, U (1993) Teleworking in Britain: a report to the Employment Department. Research Series No 18. London: Department of Employment.

Huws, U (1996) eWorking: an overview of the research. London: Department of Trade and Industry.

Comment: These are references correctly but if you have more than one publication by the same author, they need to be listed in chronological order, with the earliest listed first. So Huws (1993) would be the first listed in this trio of sources.

Adapted from Neville, C. (2008) Referencing exercises. LearnHigher and University of Bradford. Available at: http://www.learnhigher.ac.uk/Students/Referencing.html (Accessed: 9 May 2013). 9/5/13.