by Andy Field
.10. Independent t-test for coherence of argument: t = 0.62, with 39 degrees of freedom; p > .10. Independent t-test for balance: t = 1.10, with 39 degrees of freedom; p > .10. Independent t-test for scholarship: t = 1.16, with 39 degrees of freedom; p > .10). It is concluded that the kind of educational experiences that people have during their secondary school education may influence writing style in different ways for men and women, thus producing the gender differences found in the present study. This is in line with Scribble and Submititt’s (1998) theory of essay-writing behaviour, which suggests that boys are encouraged to write in different ways to women during the course of their secondary education.
‘Tardive (1995) claimed that schizophrenia was caused by evil spirits.’
‘Studies by Legless (1987, 1994) indicate that drunk people tend to overestimate the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex.’
Or like this:
‘It has been claimed that schizophrenia is caused by evil spirits (Tardive, 1995).’
‘Evidence suggests that drunk people tend to overestimate the attractiveness of the opposite sex (Legless, 1987, 1994).’
Both versions use only the surname and date. The only time you include the author’s initials is to differentiate between two different authors with the same surname, as in this example:
‘J. Tardive’s (1995) results are at odds with those of C. Tardive (1955).’
Citing works by multiple authors
How you refer to these depends how many authors there are, If there are only two authors, give both surnames each time the reference is cited, as in ‘Tardive and Kattatonier (2000) have now abandoned exorcism as a treatment for schizophrenia’ or ‘Exorcism has now been abandoned as a treatment for schizophrenia (Tardive and Kattatonier, 2000)’.
If there are three, four or five authors, the first time a reference is mentioned, give the surnames of all of the authors and the date of publication, Thereafter, if there are more than two authors, use only the first author’s surname, followed by ‘et al.’ and the date, (‘et al.’ is Latin for ‘and all the rest of ’em’). So, the first time a study is mentioned, you might write:
‘Tardive, Kattatonia, Diskenisia and Parrenoide (2000) claimed that schizophrenia could be alleviated by blood-letting.’ Later on, referring to the same study, you would write ‘There were a number of problems with the study by Tardive et al. (2000).’
If there are six or more authors, use the first author’s name and ‘et al.’ from the very first mention of the reference.
Sometimes the same authors manage to churn out more than one paper or book in a year. In this case, differentiate between them by using letters after the date. Thus, you might refer to Tardive and Wibble (1981a) and Tardive and Wibble (1981b). What if two multi-author references shorten to the same form? For example, ‘Tardive, Kattatonia and Diskenisia (2000)’ shortens to ‘Tardive et al. (2000)’, but so too does ‘Tardive, Diskenisia, Kattatonia and Parrenoide (2000).’ In situations like this, cite the first author’s surname plus as many of the subsequent authors as are needed to distinguish between the two references. So, in this example, the abbreviated versions would be ‘Tardive et al. (2000)’ and ‘Tardive, Diskenisia et al. (2000)’ respectively.
Citing works by organizations or groups
Sometimes works are produced by anonymous, faceless organizations or committees rather than individuals. If the organisation has a long and unwieldy name and a familiar or easily understandable abbreviation, mention the name in full the first time you cite the study, and use the abbreviation subsequently. For example, ‘Consumption of carrots improved readers’ eyesight (Centre for Research into Applied Perception [CRAP], 1995).’ If the name is short or the abbreviation would not be easily understandable, use the full name each time the work is cited. (Thus, if you happen to be citing both ‘Alcoholics Anonymous’ and the ‘Automobile Association’ in the same report, write them out in full each time).
Citing multiple references
You might want to refer to several studies all at once. The most succinct way of doing this is to put all of the references that you want to cite in brackets at the end of the statement to which they refer. Arrange them in the same order as they will appear in the reference list at the end of the report, and separate them with semicolons. For references within parentheses you can also replace the word ‘and’ with the symbol ‘&’.
‘Blood-letting and purges have been claimed to be effective treatments for schizophrenia (Dobbs, 1998; Tardive, Dobbs, Wibble & Wobble, 1995; Wibble & Wobble, 2000).’
Note that these surnames are in alphabetical order (i.e. as they will be shown in the Reference section).
If there are two works by the same author, put the references in date order. You don’t need to repeat the name. Thus you would write ‘(Dobbs, 1998, 1999)’ or ‘(Dobbs, 1998a, 1998b)’. The same goes if you are referring to more than one work by the same set of authors (as long as their names appear in the same order each time). Thus you would write ‘Little is known about the aetiology of long-term coma (Sneezy, Bashful & Dopey, 1978, 1999, 200 I)’ to refer to three works by Sneezy and his chums that all had the authors’ names in this order. However, suppose the names had appeared in different orders; then you would write all of the references in full and put them in alphabetical order within the brackets: ‘(Bashful, Sneezy & Dopey, 1999; Dopey, Sneezy & Bashful, 2001; Sneezy, Bashful & Dopey, 1978)’.
Personal communications
Occasionally you might need to refer to something that has been said to you, or written in an email or a letter to you: this is a ‘personal communication’. To be honest, it’s not likely to be something that crops up in your lab-report, but you’ll see references made to personal communications in journal articles and books, so you may as well know how to reference them correctly. In the text, you give the author’s surname, initials and as precise a date as you can: ‘Graham, don’t keep putting bloody dogs in our lovely book (A. Field, personal communication, September 10, 2001)’. Note that personal communications are the one type of reference that does not have a corresponding entry in the reference list at the end of the report. (This makes sense if you think about it, because the reader has no way of obtaining a copy of this type of reference – well, OK, if it was in the form of a letter, they could in theory burgle your house or office to get hold of it . . .)
Quotations
‘Whoahh, mate, looking at the state of that guttering, I reckon it’s gonna cost ya at least 500 quid.’ Whoops, sorry, wrong type of quotation: the ones we’re going to discuss here are the elegant bon mots bandied about by previous researchers that you want to cite word for word in your report. The APA suggests that short quotations (less than 40 words) should be incorporated into the text, surrounded by double inverted commas, like this: “The minute you have a couple of pints, ugly blokes transform miraculously into Brad Pitt” (Drunkwoman, 1996: p. 154).
Longer quotations should be in a separate block of text, with no quotation marks. The whole block should be indented by about half an inch from the left margin, like this:
Quotations are no substitute for trying to put things into your own words. Don’t think you can hide your own poor writing style by just cobbling together lots of extended quotations – your tutor will probably see through the ruse (Hole, 2001, p. 999).
As in these examples, give the author, year of publication and the number of the page from which the quotation came. In the references list, of course, you supply the complete reference. Quotations should be accurate: this may seem an odd thing to say, but you would be surprised how many times I’ve marked an essay or a report in which a quotation was very obviously reported wrongly. If you want to emphasise part of the original, use italics, but make it clear that they are your italics rather than the original writer’s, like this: ‘Professor Kwotashun is an arrant knave, [italics added] as well as a complete charlatan’. If you want to distance yourself from the original writer’s grammatical or spelling errors, show the err
ors are theirs by using ‘sic’, in italics and enclosed in square brackets: ‘Professor Kwotashun is an arrunt [sic] knave’.
There are minor changes you might need to make to a quotation, so that it fits in with your own text. Some of these don’t have to be acknowledged: for example, you might want to change the first letter of the quotation from upper case to lower case, or alter the final punctuation mark in the quotation from a comma to a full stop.
Sometimes you may want to omit material from a quotation, to shorten it or because some of the material is irrelevant to your argument. If you do this, you show that you have shortened the quotation by using three full stops, in place of the missing material. For example, suppose the original quotation was ‘Professor Kwotashun’s hobbies include gerbil grooming, delousing his cat, and – when he can find the time in his busy daily schedule of elephant hunting – cultivating bonsai Venus Flytraps’. This might be shortened to ‘Professor Kwotashun’s hobbies include gerbil grooming, delousing his cat, and . . . cultivating bonsai Venus Flytraps’.
If you want to add material to a quotation (perhaps because it wouldn’t make sense out of context), enclose it within square brackets like this: ‘Professor Kwotashun’s hobbies [following his decline into insanity] include gerbil grooming’.
What do you do if the author of the quotation has included a reference to another work, like this? ‘According to Kohma (2000), the best thing that you can say about Sopperifik’s new book is that it does have a nice cover’ (Sparkout, 2001, p. 366). In these circumstances, retain the citation within the quotation (after all, it is part of the quotation). However, unless you cite Kohma (2000) yourself, elsewhere within your own report, you don’t have to include her work in your reference list.
Conventions for the Reference Section at the End of the Report
As a basic guide, you need to provide enough information for the reader to be able to track down the references that you used in the text. This enables the reader to go off and read these references for themselves, to see if you have misquoted or misinterpreted the authors concerned. Science is all about having a healthy distrust for everyone else’s research and claims. With the exception of personal communications (see preceding section), every reference cited in the text should have a corresponding full version in the reference list, and vice versa.
The APA make a useful distinction between a ‘Reference List’ and a ‘Bibliography’. A ‘Reference List’ contains references to material directly used in the research and preparation of the report, that is the stuff cited in the text. A ‘Bibliography’ contains references to works for further information or background reading. A journal article (and your lab-report) should contain only a Reference List, and not a Bibliography.
Where full examples are given below, note that they follow APA format to the letter (and to the punctuation mark as well!) Your own references should be exactly the same. Only a selection of all the possible types of reference that you might need to supply are listed here: for a truly exhaustive account, consult the APA Publication Manual, which contains 74 pages on the issue of referencing, and includes many examples of how your references should look.
Journal articles
Give each author’s surname, followed by their initials; the year of publication; the title of the journal; the volume (including part number, where appropriate – see below); and the page numbers. The title of the journal and its volume number should be in italics.
Tardive, A.H., Diskenesia, K., & Parranoide, W.M. (1995). Trepanning as a cure for schizophrenia. Journal of Dubious Research, 26, 225–226.
If there are more than six authors (!) list the first six, and then use ‘et al.’ to refer to the rest.
Most journals are published in parts during a calendar year, usually one part appearing every three months. In most journals, the page numbers start at 1 at the beginning of the year, and continue throughout the various parts for that year. However, some journals start each part with 1. In the case of the latter, give the part number of the journal as well as the volume number, like this:
Tardive, A.H., Diskenesia, K., & Parranoide, W.M. (1995). Trepanning as a cure for schizophrenia. Journal of Dubious Research, 26 (3), 225–226.
Some journals are published more frequently, either monthly or weekly (‘Nature’ is a good example of this). In these cases, give the month (if it’s published monthly) or month and day of publication (if it’s a weekly), like this:
Obsessive, A., Compulsive, D. & Disorder, T. (2000, November 21). Yet another modification to our revised model of the causes of OCD. Nature, 300, 1110–1105.
Books
Give the author’s surname and initials; the year of publication; the title of the book; the geographical location of the publisher; and the publisher’s name. The title of the book should be written in italics.
Tardive, A.H. (1992). My life as a quack. Beirut: Walford University Press.
Articles or chapters in a book
First, give the author and title of the chapter, then the details of the editor, title and publisher of the book. The title of the book (not the name of the chapter) should be in italics. For example:
Tardive, A.H. (1992). How to avoid litigation from schizophrenics. In H. Hamster, (Ed.), Dubious research and how to conduct it (pp. 119–155). Liverpool: Brookside Associates.
(Note how, in this case, the surname and initials of the book’s author are not switched round: in other words, write H. Hamster rather than Hamster, H.).
Electronic references
It is becoming increasingly commonplace for students and researchers to cite information that they have obtained via the Internet. This information comes in various types: it might be an electronic version of an article which is also published on paper, say in a journal; or it might be material which is available only on a person’s web-site (perhaps because it’s a lecturer’s teaching notes, or some other form of material which is not otherwise published). As with more traditional references, the idea is to make it as easy as possible for the reader to track down the original source if they so wish. However, there are a few differences. First, a complication with Web-based materials is that they are rather more ephemeral than books and journals, since they are so easily changed or moved to another location. Therefore the reference should give the precise address of the material (its ‘uniform resource locator’ or ‘URL’, in the jargon) but also the date on which you retrieved the material. Second, page numbers generally don’t have much meaning as far as electronic sources are concerned, so you normally won’t have to provide these. Thirdly, a minor typographical error will probably make little difference to a conventional reference, but will probably make a URL unusable, so make sure your URLs are perfectly correct. Here’s an example of how to cite a Web address:
Electronic reference formats recommended by the American Psychological Association. (2000, October 12). Retrieved October 23, 2000, from http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html
(Notice that if the reference ends with the Internet address, as it does here, you don’t end it with a full stop: that’s so readers don’t mistakenly think the full stop is part of the net address).
If there’s no date to the document, use (n.d.) in your reference to show this. Where possible, give a URL that will take the reader directly to the material that you cited, rather than to a home page.
Order of presentation of references
References should be placed in alphabetical order. If you have more than one reference from a given first author, place them in date order, earliest first, and then arrange them in this sequence: single-author first; multiple authors second. Where there are several works by a given author in collaboration with other authors, arrange these references in alphabetical order based on the surnames of the other authors.
Here’s a set of references in the correct order, worth an explanation of why each one follows the one before it in the list:
Tardive, G. (1922).
Tardive, G. (2000). (It’
s the same author as the previous reference, but a later date).
Tardive, P. (1996). (P. comes later than G. in the alphabet).
Tardive, P., Waggle, A. and Wobble, R. (1967). (Multi-author works by an author follow that author’s single-author works).
Tardive, P. and Wibble, T. (1985). (Wibble follows Waggle in the alphabet).
Tardive, P., Wibble, T. and Wobble, R. (1981). (This has the same alphabetical position as the previous reference, but it has more authors).
Tardive, P., Wibble, T. and Wobble, R. (1992). (This has the same authors as the previous reference, but a later date).
Tardive, P., Wibble, T., Wobble, R. and Waggle, A. (1991). (This has the same alphabetical position as the previous reference, but it has more authors).
Now suppose that Tardive and Wibble wrote two papers in 1985: if so, these would go in alphabetical order based on the title (ignoring ‘A’ or ‘The’), like this:
Tardive, P. and Wibble, T. (1985a) ‘The Root causes of schizophrenia: excessive pressure in the head’.
Tardive, P. and Wibble, T. (1985b) ‘A Theory of schizophrenia and trepanning as a proposed cure’.
If there is no author (i.e. the work has been produced by an institution such as the American Psychological Association), treat the organization as the author, writing their name in full, and insert them into the appropriate alphabetically-determined position in your reading list: