Whenever citing a reference in the text source, it is made with its author’s
surname and the year of publication is to be inserted in the text. Choose
from the listed below to see examples:
• Citing the author in the
• Using direct quotes
• Citing works by more than
• Citing works by three
or more authors
• Citing a chapter of section
• Citing an organization
• Citing works by the same
author written in the same year
• Citing secondary sources
Citing the Author in the Text
Dogs were the first animals to be domesticated (Sheldrake, 1999).
If the author’s name occurs naturally in the sentence the year is
given in brackets.
Sheldrake (1999) asserted that dogs were the first animals to be domesticated.
Using Direct Quotes
If you quote directly from a source, you must insert the author’s
name, date of publication and the page number of the quotation. The domestication
of dogs, long predated the domestication of other animals (Sheldrake, 1999).
Citing works by more than one Author
If your source has two authors, you should include both names in the text.
Anderson and Poole (1998) note that a “narrow line often separates
plagiarism from good scholarship.”
Citing works by three or more Authors
If there are three or more authors, you should include the first named author
and then add ‘et al.’ in italics followed by a full stop. This
is an abbreviation of ‘et alia’ which means ‘and others’
In the United States, revenue from computer games now exceeds that of movies
(Kline et al., 2003).
Citing Chapter or Section
When referring to a chapter or section which is part of a larger work, you
should cite the author of the chapter not the editor of the whole work.
The sea level has risen by approximately 10cm in the last 100 years (Mason,
Citing an Organization
If an organization or company (e.g., Department of Health, Arcadia Group
Limited) is named as the author of a work rather than a person, you should
cite their names. Make sure that you use the same version of the organizations
name in both the Text and List of references (e.g., always use ‘Department
of Health’, don’t abbreviate to ‘DoH’).
Spain became a member of the United Nations in 1955 (United Nations, 2000).
Citing Secondary Sources
When citing secondary sources (i.e., an author refers to a work which you
have not read) cite the secondary source, but include the name of the author
and date of publication of the original source in the text.
Only the secondary source should be listed in your List of references. You
should only cite secondary sources if you are unable to read the original
Sheff (1993) notes that Nintendo invested heavily in advertising (cited
in Kline et al., 2003, p. 118).