Referencing

Putting documents 'on the web' is publishing them and, as with paper-based publishing, copyright is infringed if material from other sources is not properly referenced.

Government referencing style

The author-date style of referencing is widely used in the physical, natural and social sciences and in most government publications. Its general style characteristics are:

Titles of all published works except periodicals take minimal (first word only) capitalisation and italics. This includes books, reports, media releases, policies, protocols, standards and guidelines.
Titles of periodicals (journals, magazines and newspapers) take maximum capitalisation (capitals for all major words) and italics.
Titles of articles and chapters of books take minimal capitalisation, and are set in roman in single quotes.
Titles of unpublished papers, theses, etc. are set in roman.
The elements of a citation are separated by commas (except before the date). There are no full stops following the author's or editor's initials.
Page numbers are separated by en rules not hyphens.
When quoting page numbers, use a minimum number of numerals: 256-8; 256-64; 256-301 (except for numbers 10-19, e.g. use 510-19 not 510-9).
For an in-text reference to a work with more than three authors, include only the name of the first-listed author, followed by the abbreviation et al.

When citing multiple author works in a bibliography or list of references, include the name and initials of each author.

When material is published in more than one medium, the print version is the citation preferred because it won't change, unlike an electronic one, which may become unavailable.

Electronic citations

The in-text citation of a web site using the author-date system includes:

the name of the author (the person or organisation responsible for the site)
the site date (the date the site was created or most recently updated).

Details required for a bibliographic reference are:

the name of the author (the person or organisation responsible for the site)
the site date (the date the site was created or most recently updated).
name and place of the sponsor of the resource
date of viewing the resource
URL of the site

When citing URLs, transcribe the location information exactly, taking particular care with punctuation and case. If it is necessary to break a URL across lines, do so only at a punctuation separator.

In running text, enclose the URL in pointed brackets (<>) to avoid confusion with the sentence punctuation.

Examples:

Website document—institutional author

Department of Premier and Cabinet 2000, Smart Queensland: Smart State Strategy 2005-2015, viewed 6 September 2005, <http://www.smartstate.qld.gov.au/strategy/strategy05_15/smart_state_strategy05_15.pdf>.

Website document—individual author

Elder, R 2002, 'Leucaena seed bruchid in Leucaena, DPI Note 3181, viewed 23 June 2002, <http://www.dpi.qld.gov.au/cps/rde/dpi/hs.xsl/4790_11856_ENA_HTML.htm>.

Electronic journal articles

Murray, CJL, King, G, Lopez, AD, Tomijima, N & Krug, EG 2002, 'Armed conflict as a public health problem', British Medical Journal, Feb. 2002, viewed 8 February, 2002, <http://bmj.com>.

CD-ROM

Prime Notes 2005, CD-ROM, Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries, Queensland.

Film, video or other recording

The Caretakers—pastoral property planning 1989, video recording, Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education, Toowoomba.

Databases

As a minimum, provide details of the title, producer, the term database (if this is not clear from the title) and the frequency of updating. Useful additional information includes version number, timespan covered, hardware and software requirements, etc.

Emails and other personal correspondence

While they must be cited in text, it is not necessary to cite the details of personal communications in a bibliography. In text:
White, B 2000, email, 28 March

If they are cited in full in a bibliography , use the formula:
White, B 2000, email, 28 March, bwhite@bigpond.net.au.

(Do not cite an email address without prior permission from the owner.)

top

Last updated 02 August 2005