HND Social Science

NOTES ON REFERENCING

THE HARVARD SYSTEM

The purpose of citing references, in addition to acknowledging the source of any quotations included in the text, is to document the information presented so as to allow the reader to check the evidence on which an argument is based. It further enables the writer to illustrate his or her familiarity with a more extensive range of views / arguments in any given area without the necessity of including lengthy descriptive accounts of their actual substance.

A reference should therefore be indicated in such a way that enables the reader to find the source referred to as quickly and as easily as possible.

It is suggested therefore that you use the most widely used format in academic writing viz. the ‘Harvard System’.

I Layout and General Principles

1. All references to non-edited books, monographs, articles and statistical sources should be identified at an appropriate point in the text by the name of the author, year of publication and if appropriate, pagination, usually all within parenthesis. In the case of an edited work, the author of the relevant portion should be identified and cited in the section detailing all references as illustrated in the 8^th item in the example of a listing of references at the end of this document. Statistical tables, graphs and similar material may be placed either within the text or as appendices at the end. Material which is peripheral or not entirely central to the text or which is extending, by using illustrative examples, points already made in the text is best presented as an appendix, and the appropriate appendix number should be cited at the relevant point in the text.

2. Footnotes, if used at all, should be used sparingly and only for substantive observations and never for the purposes of citation.

3. All quotations should be indented (at both left and right hand margins) and line spacing should distinguish quotations from your own text. All quotations must cite the relevant page numbers of the source from which they have been taken, Secondary quotations, ie. when you are quoting a passage from one author which itself contains a quotation from another author, both authors should be acknowledged, that is both authors should be referred to in the text, eg. ‘Maslow (1954) cited in Pinder (1987) illustrated that … [cite quote – following indentation and spacing rule]’.

4. The Harvard System dispenses with the necessity to use latin tags such as ‘ibid’; ‘op cit’; ‘loc cit’; which have traditionally created difficulty for students and frustration for readers, who may have to refer back many pages to find the source. In the Harvard System subsequent citations from the same sources are presented in the same way as for their first citation. The only exception to this rule is the use of op.cit. in the ……. references and its use is illustrated in Section III …… paper, in the 8^th item.

II Specific Points on Citation

1. When the authors name is specifically referred to in the text follow it with the year of publication in parenthesis: eg. ‘Likert (1961) illustrated that ….’.

If the author’s name is not an integral part of your text, insert in parenthesis at an appropriate point the last name and year separated by a coma: eg. ‘It has been claimed by one commentator (Likert, 1961) that …..’.

2. Pagination, where appropriate without ‘P’ or ‘Pp’ follows the year of publication, separated by a colon: eg. ‘…. it has been noted (Fiedler, 1967: 111-116) that ….’.

You may also incorporate within parenthesis any brief phrase associated with a reference: eg. ‘Hellriegel et. al. (1989) point out that …..’.

3. In cases of dual authorship cite both surnames. For more than two use the surname of the first author and ‘et al’ in the textual reference, but give the names of all authors in the list of references: eg. ‘Hellriegel et. al. (1989) point out that ……’.

4. If there is more than one reference to the same author and same year of publication distinguish them by the use of lower case letters (a, b, c etc.) attached to the year of publication in both the text and list of references: eg. ‘… as it has been suggested by Etzioni, (1959a: 50) it is likely that ……’.

5. Enclose a series of references within a single pair of parenthesis and separate by semi-colons: eg. ‘….. and this view has been endorsed by a number of commentators (Argyris, 1960; McGregor, 1960; Likert, 1961).

6. Finally list all references alphabetically by author at the end of the text. Where a number of publications from the same author are cited list these sequentially starting with the year of the earliest cited publication.

An example of a list of references has been included overleaf to illustrate the most common forms you will encounter. Whilst you may use some discretion regarding layout (eg. using Italics for journal names or citing date of publication below the authors name) all the information cited here should be included. Recognised abbreviations for journals may be used. The list of references should not be tagged on to the end of the text, but should always be started on a new page at the end of your complete text.

The foregoing points illustrate the main rules of the system. For further details you should refer to the British Standard specification No. 4821 : 1972.

III Listing References : Example

References

Argyris, C	Understanding Organisational Behaviour, Tavistock Publications, London, 1960
Buchanan, DA & Huczynski, AA	Organisational Behaviour: An Introductory Text, Prentice Hall International, Englewood Cliffs, N.J, 1985
Etzioni, A	‘Authority Structure and Organisational Effectiveness’ Admin. Sci. Q. 1959a, 4: 43-67
Etzioni, A	‘Lower Levels of Industrial Leadership’ Sociol & Soc. Res. 1959b, 43(3): 209-212
Etzioni, A & Lehman, EW (Eds)	A Sociological Reader on Complex Organisations Holt Rinehart & Winston, N.Y. 1980
Fiedler, FJ	A Theory of Leadership Effectiveness McGraw Hill, New York, 1967
Hellriegel, D Slocum, JW & Woodman, RW	Organisational Behaviour West Pub Co. St. Paul, MN, 1989
Kaplan, HR & Tansky, C	Humanism in Organisations: A Critical Approach in Etzioni and Lehman, 1980 op cit.
Likert, R	New Patterns of Management McGraw Hill, New York, 1961
Macoby, EE Newcomb, TM & Hartley, EL (Eds)	Readings in Social Psychology Methuen & Co, London, 3^rd Edition, 1966
McGregor, D	The Human Side of Enterprise McGraw Hill, New York, 1966
Maslow, AH	Motivation and Personality Harper & Row, New York, 1954
Pinder, CC	Work Motivation: Theory, Issues and Applications Scott Foresman & Co, Glenview, Ill., 1984
Rose, M	Industrial Behaviour: Theoretical Development since Taylor. Penguin, Harmondsworth, 1978
Standing, TE	‘Satisfaction with the work itself as a function of cognitive complexity.’ Proceedings, 81^st Annual Convention, American Psychological Association, 1973 , 603-604
Telly, CS French, WL & Scott WG	‘The relationship of inequity to turnover among hourly workers’ Administrative Science Quarterly 1971, 16, 164-171
Yetley, M	‘Sociological & economic factors related to managerial success’ Unpublished Ph.D Thesis, Iowa State University, 1973