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References in Research – Types, Examples and Writing Guide

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References in Research

References in Research

Definition:

References in research are a list of sources that a researcher has consulted or cited while conducting their study. They are an essential component of any academic work, including research papers, theses, dissertations, and other scholarly publications.

Types of References

There are several types of references used in research, and the type of reference depends on the source of information being cited. The most common types of references include:

References to books typically include the author’s name, title of the book, publisher, publication date, and place of publication.

Example: Smith, J. (2018). The Art of Writing. Penguin Books.

Journal Articles

References to journal articles usually include the author’s name, title of the article, name of the journal, volume and issue number, page numbers, and publication date.

Example: Johnson, T. (2021). The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health. Journal of Psychology, 32(4), 87-94.

Web sources

References to web sources should include the author or organization responsible for the content, the title of the page, the URL, and the date accessed.

Example: World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/emergencies/disease/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public

Conference Proceedings

References to conference proceedings should include the author’s name, title of the paper, name of the conference, location of the conference, date of the conference, and page numbers.

Example: Chen, S., & Li, J. (2019). The Future of AI in Education. Proceedings of the International Conference on Educational Technology, Beijing, China, July 15-17, pp. 67-78.

References to reports typically include the author or organization responsible for the report, title of the report, publication date, and publisher.

Example: United Nations. (2020). The Sustainable Development Goals Report. United Nations.

Formats of References

Some common Formates of References with their examples are as follows:

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

The APA (American Psychological Association) Style has specific guidelines for formatting references used in academic papers, articles, and books. Here are the different reference formats in APA style with examples:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of book. Publisher.

Example : Smith, J. K. (2005). The psychology of social interaction. Wiley-Blackwell.

Journal Article

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year of publication). Title of article. Title of Journal, volume number(issue number), page numbers.

Example : Brown, L. M., Keating, J. G., & Jones, S. M. (2012). The role of social support in coping with stress among African American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 22(1), 218-233.

Author, A. A. (Year of publication or last update). Title of page. Website name. URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2020, December 11). COVID-19: How to protect yourself and others. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html

Magazine article

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of article. Title of Magazine, volume number(issue number), page numbers.

Example : Smith, M. (2019, March 11). The power of positive thinking. Psychology Today, 52(3), 60-65.

Newspaper article:

Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day of publication). Title of article. Title of Newspaper, page numbers.

Example: Johnson, B. (2021, February 15). New study shows benefits of exercise on mental health. The New York Times, A8.

Edited book

Editor, E. E. (Ed.). (Year of publication). Title of book. Publisher.

Example : Thompson, J. P. (Ed.). (2014). Social work in the 21st century. Sage Publications.

Chapter in an edited book:

Author, A. A. (Year of publication). Title of chapter. In E. E. Editor (Ed.), Title of book (pp. page numbers). Publisher.

Example : Johnson, K. S. (2018). The future of social work: Challenges and opportunities. In J. P. Thompson (Ed.), Social work in the 21st century (pp. 105-118). Sage Publications.

MLA (Modern Language Association) Style

The MLA (Modern Language Association) Style is a widely used style for writing academic papers and essays in the humanities. Here are the different reference formats in MLA style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication year.

Example : Smith, John. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Journal article

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal, volume number, issue number, Publication year, page numbers.

Example : Brown, Laura M., et al. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” Journal of Research on Adolescence, vol. 22, no. 1, 2012, pp. 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Website Name, Publication date, URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC, 11 Dec. 2020, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, Publication date, page numbers.

Example : Smith, Mary. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, Mar. 2019, pp. 60-65.

Newspaper article

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, Publication date, page numbers.

Example : Johnson, Bob. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2021, p. A8.

Editor’s Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Publisher, Publication year.

Example : Thompson, John P., editor. Social Work in the 21st Century. Sage Publications, 2014.

Chapter in an edited book

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” Title of Book, edited by Editor’s First Name Last name, Publisher, Publication year, page numbers.

Example : Johnson, Karen S. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by John P. Thompson, Sage Publications, 2014, pp. 105-118.

Chicago Manual of Style

The Chicago Manual of Style is a widely used style for writing academic papers, dissertations, and books in the humanities and social sciences. Here are the different reference formats in Chicago style:

Example : Smith, John K. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal volume number, no. issue number (Publication year): page numbers.

Example : Brown, Laura M., John G. Keating, and Sarah M. Jones. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” Journal of Research on Adolescence 22, no. 1 (2012): 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Website Name. Publication date. URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC. December 11, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, Publication date.

Example : Smith, Mary. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, March 2019.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, Publication date.

Example : Johnson, Bob. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, February 15, 2021.

Example : Thompson, John P., ed. Social Work in the 21st Century. Sage Publications, 2014.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, page numbers. Publisher, Publication year.

Example : Johnson, Karen S. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by John P. Thompson, 105-118. Sage Publications, 2014.

Harvard Style

The Harvard Style, also known as the Author-Date System, is a widely used style for writing academic papers and essays in the social sciences. Here are the different reference formats in Harvard Style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example : Smith, John. 2005. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal volume number (issue number): page numbers.

Example: Brown, Laura M., John G. Keating, and Sarah M. Jones. 2012. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” Journal of Research on Adolescence 22 (1): 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Webpage.” Website Name. URL. Accessed date.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2020. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html. Accessed April 1, 2023.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, month and date of publication.

Example : Smith, Mary. 2019. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, March 2019.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, month and date of publication.

Example : Johnson, Bob. 2021. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, February 15, 2021.

Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Year of publication. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example : Thompson, John P., ed. 2014. Social Work in the 21st Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of publication. “Title of Chapter.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor’s First Name Last Name, page numbers. Place of publication: Publisher.

Example : Johnson, Karen S. 2014. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by John P. Thompson, 105-118. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Vancouver Style

The Vancouver Style, also known as the Uniform Requirements for Manuscripts Submitted to Biomedical Journals, is a widely used style for writing academic papers in the biomedical sciences. Here are the different reference formats in Vancouver Style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Book. Edition number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Example : Smith, John K. The Psychology of Social Interaction. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell; 2005.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Abbreviated Journal Title. Year of publication; volume number(issue number):page numbers.

Example : Brown LM, Keating JG, Jones SM. The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents. J Res Adolesc. 2012;22(1):218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Webpage. Website Name [Internet]. Publication date. [cited date]. Available from: URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others [Internet]. 2020 Dec 11. [cited 2023 Apr 1]. Available from: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Title of Magazine. Year of publication; month and day of publication:page numbers.

Example : Smith M. The Power of Positive Thinking. Psychology Today. 2019 Mar 1:32-35.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Title of Newspaper. Year of publication; month and day of publication:page numbers.

Example : Johnson B. New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health. The New York Times. 2021 Feb 15:A4.

Editor’s Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Edition number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication.

Example: Thompson JP, editor. Social Work in the 21st Century. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2014.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Chapter. In: Editor’s Last name, First name, editor. Title of Book. Edition number. Place of publication: Publisher; Year of publication. page numbers.

Example : Johnson KS. The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities. In: Thompson JP, editor. Social Work in the 21st Century. 1st ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; 2014. p. 105-118.

Turabian Style

Turabian style is a variation of the Chicago style used in academic writing, particularly in the fields of history and humanities. Here are the different reference formats in Turabian style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Smith, John K. The Psychology of Social Interaction. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2005.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Journal volume number, no. issue number (Year of publication): page numbers.

Example : Brown, LM, Keating, JG, Jones, SM. “The Role of Social Support in Coping with Stress among African American Adolescents.” J Res Adolesc 22, no. 1 (2012): 218-233.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Name of Website. Publication date. Accessed date. URL.

Example : Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “COVID-19: How to Protect Yourself and Others.” CDC. December 11, 2020. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Magazine, Month Day, Year of publication, page numbers.

Example : Smith, M. “The Power of Positive Thinking.” Psychology Today, March 1, 2019, 32-35.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Title of Newspaper, Month Day, Year of publication.

Example : Johnson, B. “New Study Shows Benefits of Exercise on Mental Health.” The New York Times, February 15, 2021.

Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Title of Book. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Thompson, JP, ed. Social Work in the 21st Century. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2014.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Chapter.” In Title of Book, edited by Editor’s Last name, First name, page numbers. Place of publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Johnson, KS. “The Future of Social Work: Challenges and Opportunities.” In Social Work in the 21st Century, edited by Thompson, JP, 105-118. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2014.

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Style

IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) style is commonly used in engineering, computer science, and other technical fields. Here are the different reference formats in IEEE style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of publication.

Example : Oppenheim, A. V., & Schafer, R. W. Discrete-Time Signal Processing. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2010.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Article.” Abbreviated Journal Title, vol. number, no. issue number, pp. page numbers, Month year of publication.

Example: Shannon, C. E. “A Mathematical Theory of Communication.” Bell System Technical Journal, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 379-423, July 1948.

Conference paper

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Paper.” In Title of Conference Proceedings, Place of Conference, Date of Conference, pp. page numbers, Year of publication.

Example: Gupta, S., & Kumar, P. “An Improved System of Linear Discriminant Analysis for Face Recognition.” In Proceedings of the 2011 International Conference on Computer Science and Network Technology, Harbin, China, Dec. 2011, pp. 144-147.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Webpage.” Name of Website. Date of publication or last update. Accessed date. URL.

Example : National Aeronautics and Space Administration. “Apollo 11.” NASA. July 20, 1969. Accessed April 1, 2023. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/apollo11.html.

Technical report

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Report.” Name of Institution or Organization, Report number, Year of publication.

Example : Smith, J. R. “Development of a New Solar Panel Technology.” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL/TP-6A20-51645, 2011.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Patent.” Patent number, Issue date.

Example : Suzuki, H. “Method of Producing Carbon Nanotubes.” US Patent 7,151,019, December 19, 2006.

Standard Title. Standard number, Publication date.

Example : IEEE Standard for Floating-Point Arithmetic. IEEE Std 754-2008, August 29, 2008

ACS (American Chemical Society) Style

ACS (American Chemical Society) style is commonly used in chemistry and related fields. Here are the different reference formats in ACS style:

Author’s Last name, First name; Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. Abbreviated Journal Title Year, Volume, Page Numbers.

Example : Wang, Y.; Zhao, X.; Cui, Y.; Ma, Y. Facile Preparation of Fe3O4/graphene Composites Using a Hydrothermal Method for High-Performance Lithium Ion Batteries. ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 2012, 4, 2715-2721.

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication.

Example : Carey, F. A. Organic Chemistry; McGraw-Hill: New York, 2008.

Author’s Last name, First name. Chapter Title. In Book Title; Editor’s Last name, First name, Ed.; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication; Volume number, Chapter number, Page Numbers.

Example : Grossman, R. B. Analytical Chemistry of Aerosols. In Aerosol Measurement: Principles, Techniques, and Applications; Baron, P. A.; Willeke, K., Eds.; Wiley-Interscience: New York, 2001; Chapter 10, pp 395-424.

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Webpage. Website Name, URL (accessed date).

Example : National Institute of Standards and Technology. Atomic Spectra Database. https://www.nist.gov/pml/atomic-spectra-database (accessed April 1, 2023).

Author’s Last name, First name. Patent Number. Patent Date.

Example : Liu, Y.; Huang, H.; Chen, H.; Zhang, W. US Patent 9,999,999, December 31, 2022.

Author’s Last name, First name; Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Article. In Title of Conference Proceedings, Publisher: Place of Publication, Year of Publication; Volume Number, Page Numbers.

Example : Jia, H.; Xu, S.; Wu, Y.; Wu, Z.; Tang, Y.; Huang, X. Fast Adsorption of Organic Pollutants by Graphene Oxide. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Environmental Science and Technology, American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2017; Volume 1, pp 223-228.

AMA (American Medical Association) Style

AMA (American Medical Association) style is commonly used in medical and scientific fields. Here are the different reference formats in AMA style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Article Title. Journal Abbreviation. Year; Volume(Issue):Page Numbers.

Example : Jones, R. A.; Smith, B. C. The Role of Vitamin D in Maintaining Bone Health. JAMA. 2019;321(17):1765-1773.

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example : Guyton, A. C.; Hall, J. E. Textbook of Medical Physiology. 13th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Saunders; 2015.

Author’s Last name, First name. Chapter Title. In: Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year: Page Numbers.

Example: Rajakumar, K. Vitamin D and Bone Health. In: Holick, M. F., ed. Vitamin D: Physiology, Molecular Biology, and Clinical Applications. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Springer; 2010:211-222.

Author’s Last name, First name. Webpage Title. Website Name. URL. Published date. Updated date. Accessed date.

Example : National Cancer Institute. Breast Cancer Prevention (PDQ®)–Patient Version. National Cancer Institute. https://www.cancer.gov/types/breast/patient/breast-prevention-pdq. Published October 11, 2022. Accessed April 1, 2023.

Author’s Last name, First name. Conference presentation title. In: Conference Title; Conference Date; Place of Conference.

Example : Smith, J. R. Vitamin D and Bone Health: A Meta-Analysis. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research; September 20-23, 2022; San Diego, CA.

Thesis or dissertation

Author’s Last name, First name. Title of Thesis or Dissertation. Degree level [Doctoral dissertation or Master’s thesis]. University Name; Year.

Example : Wilson, S. A. The Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on Bone Health in Postmenopausal Women [Doctoral dissertation]. University of California, Los Angeles; 2018.

ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) Style

The ASCE (American Society of Civil Engineers) style is commonly used in civil engineering fields. Here are the different reference formats in ASCE style:

Author’s Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Journal Title, volume number, issue number (year): page numbers. DOI or URL (if available).

Example : Smith, J. R. “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Drainage Systems in Urban Areas.” Journal of Environmental Engineering, vol. 146, no. 3 (2020): 04020010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0001668.

Example : McCuen, R. H. Hydrologic Analysis and Design. 4th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education; 2013.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Chapter Title.” In: Editor’s Last name, First name, ed. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year: page numbers.

Example : Maidment, D. R. “Floodplain Management in the United States.” In: Shroder, J. F., ed. Treatise on Geomorphology. San Diego, CA: Academic Press; 2013: 447-460.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Paper Title.” In: Conference Title; Conference Date; Location. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year: page numbers.

Example: Smith, J. R. “Sustainable Drainage Systems for Urban Areas.” In: Proceedings of the ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure; November 6-9, 2019; Los Angeles, CA. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers; 2019: 156-163.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Report Title.” Report number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example : U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “Hurricane Sandy Coastal Risk Reduction Program, New York and New Jersey.” Report No. P-15-001. Washington, DC: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; 2015.

CSE (Council of Science Editors) Style

The CSE (Council of Science Editors) style is commonly used in the scientific and medical fields. Here are the different reference formats in CSE style:

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Article Title.” Journal Title. Year;Volume(Issue):Page numbers.

Example : Smith, J.R. “Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Sustainable Drainage Systems in Urban Areas.” Journal of Environmental Engineering. 2020;146(3):04020010.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Chapter Title.” In: Editor’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial., ed. Book Title. Edition number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year:Page numbers.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Paper Title.” In: Conference Title; Conference Date; Location. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example : Smith, J.R. “Sustainable Drainage Systems for Urban Areas.” In: Proceedings of the ASCE International Conference on Sustainable Infrastructure; November 6-9, 2019; Los Angeles, CA. Reston, VA: American Society of Civil Engineers; 2019.

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Report Title.” Report number. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Bluebook Style

The Bluebook style is commonly used in the legal field for citing legal documents and sources. Here are the different reference formats in Bluebook style:

Case citation

Case name, volume source page (Court year).

Example : Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).

Statute citation

Name of Act, volume source § section number (year).

Example : Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7401 (1963).

Regulation citation

Name of regulation, volume source § section number (year).

Example: Clean Air Act, 40 C.F.R. § 52.01 (2019).

Book citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. Book Title. Edition number (if applicable). Place of Publication: Publisher; Year.

Example: Smith, J.R. Legal Writing and Analysis. 3rd ed. New York, NY: Aspen Publishers; 2015.

Journal article citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Article Title.” Journal Title. Volume number (year): first page-last page.

Example: Garcia, C. “The Right to Counsel: An International Comparison.” International Journal of Legal Information. 43 (2015): 63-94.

Website citation

Author’s Last name, First Initial. Middle Initial. “Page Title.” Website Title. URL (accessed month day, year).

Example : United Nations. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations. https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/ (accessed January 3, 2023).

Oxford Style

The Oxford style, also known as the Oxford referencing system or the documentary-note citation system, is commonly used in the humanities, including literature, history, and philosophy. Here are the different reference formats in Oxford style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example : Smith, John. The Art of Writing. New York: Penguin, 2020.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Journal Title volume, no. issue (year): page range.

Example: Garcia, Carlos. “The Role of Ethics in Philosophy.” Philosophy Today 67, no. 3 (2019): 53-68.

Chapter in an edited book citation

Author’s Last name, First name. “Chapter Title.” In Book Title, edited by Editor’s Name, page range. Place of Publication: Publisher, Year of Publication.

Example : Lee, Mary. “Feminism in the 21st Century.” In The Oxford Handbook of Feminism, edited by Jane Smith, 51-69. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Author’s Last name, First name. “Page Title.” Website Title. URL (accessed day month year).

Example : Jones, David. “The Importance of Learning Languages.” Oxford Language Center. https://www.oxfordlanguagecenter.com/importance-of-learning-languages/ (accessed 3 January 2023).

Dissertation or thesis citation

Author’s Last name, First name. “Title of Dissertation/Thesis.” PhD diss., University Name, Year of Publication.

Example : Brown, Susan. “The Art of Storytelling in American Literature.” PhD diss., University of Oxford, 2020.

Newspaper article citation

Author’s Last name, First name. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title, Month Day, Year.

Example : Robinson, Andrew. “New Developments in Climate Change Research.” The Guardian, September 15, 2022.

AAA (American Anthropological Association) Style

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) style is commonly used in anthropology research papers and journals. Here are the different reference formats in AAA style:

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. Book Title. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example : Smith, John. 2019. The Anthropology of Food. New York: Routledge.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Article Title.” Journal Title volume, no. issue: page range.

Example : Garcia, Carlos. 2021. “The Role of Ethics in Anthropology.” American Anthropologist 123, no. 2: 237-251.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Chapter Title.” In Book Title, edited by Editor’s Name, page range. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example: Lee, Mary. 2018. “Feminism in Anthropology.” In The Oxford Handbook of Feminism, edited by Jane Smith, 51-69. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Page Title.” Website Title. URL (accessed day month year).

Example : Jones, David. 2020. “The Importance of Learning Languages.” Oxford Language Center. https://www.oxfordlanguagecenter.com/importance-of-learning-languages/ (accessed January 3, 2023).

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Title of Dissertation/Thesis.” PhD diss., University Name.

Example : Brown, Susan. 2022. “The Art of Storytelling in Anthropology.” PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley.

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Article Title.” Newspaper Title, Month Day.

Example : Robinson, Andrew. 2021. “New Developments in Anthropology Research.” The Guardian, September 15.

AIP (American Institute of Physics) Style

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) style is commonly used in physics research papers and journals. Here are the different reference formats in AIP style:

Example : Johnson, S. D. 2021. “Quantum Computing and Information.” Journal of Applied Physics 129, no. 4: 043102.

Example : Feynman, Richard. 2018. The Feynman Lectures on Physics. New York: Basic Books.

Example : Jones, David. 2020. “The Future of Quantum Computing.” In The Handbook of Physics, edited by John Smith, 125-136. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Conference proceedings citation

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. “Title of Paper.” Proceedings of Conference Name, date and location: page range. Place of Publication: Publisher.

Example : Chen, Wei. 2019. “The Applications of Nanotechnology in Solar Cells.” Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Nanotechnology, July 15-17, Tokyo, Japan: 224-229. New York: AIP Publishing.

Example : American Institute of Physics. 2022. “About AIP Publishing.” AIP Publishing. https://publishing.aip.org/about-aip-publishing/ (accessed January 3, 2023).

Patent citation

Author’s Last name, First name. Year of Publication. Patent Number.

Example : Smith, John. 2018. US Patent 9,873,644.

References Writing Guide

Here are some general guidelines for writing references:

  • Follow the citation style guidelines: Different disciplines and journals may require different citation styles (e.g., APA, MLA, Chicago). It is important to follow the specific guidelines for the citation style required.
  • Include all necessary information : Each citation should include enough information for readers to locate the source. For example, a journal article citation should include the author(s), title of the article, journal title, volume number, issue number, page numbers, and publication year.
  • Use proper formatting: Citation styles typically have specific formatting requirements for different types of sources. Make sure to follow the proper formatting for each citation.
  • Order citations alphabetically: If listing multiple sources, they should be listed alphabetically by the author’s last name.
  • Be consistent: Use the same citation style throughout the entire paper or project.
  • Check for accuracy: Double-check all citations to ensure accuracy, including correct spelling of author names and publication information.
  • Use reputable sources: When selecting sources to cite, choose reputable and authoritative sources. Avoid sources that are biased or unreliable.
  • Include all sources: Make sure to include all sources used in the research, including those that were not directly quoted but still informed the work.
  • Use online tools : There are online tools available (e.g., citation generators) that can help with formatting and organizing references.

Purpose of References in Research

References in research serve several purposes:

  • To give credit to the original authors or sources of information used in the research. It is important to acknowledge the work of others and avoid plagiarism.
  • To provide evidence for the claims made in the research. References can support the arguments, hypotheses, or conclusions presented in the research by citing relevant studies, data, or theories.
  • To allow readers to find and verify the sources used in the research. References provide the necessary information for readers to locate and access the sources cited in the research, which allows them to evaluate the quality and reliability of the information presented.
  • To situate the research within the broader context of the field. References can show how the research builds on or contributes to the existing body of knowledge, and can help readers to identify gaps in the literature that the research seeks to address.

Importance of References in Research

References play an important role in research for several reasons:

  • Credibility : By citing authoritative sources, references lend credibility to the research and its claims. They provide evidence that the research is based on a sound foundation of knowledge and has been carefully researched.
  • Avoidance of Plagiarism : References help researchers avoid plagiarism by giving credit to the original authors or sources of information. This is important for ethical reasons and also to avoid legal repercussions.
  • Reproducibility : References allow others to reproduce the research by providing detailed information on the sources used. This is important for verification of the research and for others to build on the work.
  • Context : References provide context for the research by situating it within the broader body of knowledge in the field. They help researchers to understand where their work fits in and how it builds on or contributes to existing knowledge.
  • Evaluation : References provide a means for others to evaluate the research by allowing them to assess the quality and reliability of the sources used.

Advantages of References in Research

There are several advantages of including references in research:

  • Acknowledgment of Sources: Including references gives credit to the authors or sources of information used in the research. This is important to acknowledge the original work and avoid plagiarism.
  • Evidence and Support : References can provide evidence to support the arguments, hypotheses, or conclusions presented in the research. This can add credibility and strength to the research.
  • Reproducibility : References provide the necessary information for others to reproduce the research. This is important for the verification of the research and for others to build on the work.
  • Context : References can help to situate the research within the broader body of knowledge in the field. This helps researchers to understand where their work fits in and how it builds on or contributes to existing knowledge.
  • Evaluation : Including references allows others to evaluate the research by providing a means to assess the quality and reliability of the sources used.
  • Ongoing Conversation: References allow researchers to engage in ongoing conversations and debates within their fields. They can show how the research builds on or contributes to the existing body of knowledge.

About the author

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Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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  • Study and research support
  • Referencing

Referencing explained

Why and when to reference.

Referencing is an important part of academic work. It puts your work in context, demonstrates the breadth and depth of your research, and acknowledges other people’s work. You should reference whenever you use someone else’s idea.

View video using Microsoft Stream (link opens in a new window, available for University members only)

These webpages explain what referencing is, why it is important and give an overview of the main elements of how to reference. Our Referencing made simple tutorial opens in a new window and covers how to identify your source and create a reference with interactive examples.

Why reference?

Referencing correctly:

  • helps you to avoid plagiarism by making it clear which ideas are your own and which are someone else’s
  • shows your understanding of the topic
  • gives supporting evidence for your ideas, arguments and opinions
  • allows others to identify the sources you have used.

When to reference

Whenever you use an idea from someone else's work, for example from a journal article, textbook or website, you should cite the original author to make it clear where that idea came from. This is the case regardless of whether you have paraphrased, summarised or directly quoted their work. This is a key part of good practice in academic writing.

Read more on:

  • academic integrity
  • quoting, summarising, paraphrasing, and synthesising
  • citing direct quotations in Leeds Harvard or citing direct quotations in Leeds Numeric styles.

University and school policies

The University referencing policy (PDF) sets out the referencing requirements that all taught students and tutors are expected to follow.

Each school in the University requires students to use a specific style of referencing. Check the referencing style used in your school before you begin.

All your citations and references should match the style you are using exactly, including any punctuation, capitalisation, italics and bold, and you should use the same referencing style throughout your assignment.

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Academic writing relies on more than just the ideas and experience of one author. It also uses the ideas and research of other sources: books, journal articles, websites, and so forth. These other sources may be used to support the author's ideas, or the author may be discussing, analysing, or critiquing other sources.

Referencing is used to tell the reader where ideas from other sources have been used in an assignment. There are many reasons why it is important to reference sources correctly:

  • It shows the reader that you can find and use sources to create a solid argument
  • It properly credits the originators of ideas, theories, and research findings
  • It shows the reader how your argument relates to the big picture

(For a detailed discussion, see why reference? )

Failure to properly acknowledge sources is called plagiarism , and it can carry significant academic penalties. Fortunately, plagiarism is easy to avoid by following a few basic principles.

What needs to be referenced?

Whenever an assignment uses words, facts, ideas, theories, or interpretations from other sources, those sources must be referenced. Referencing is needed when:

  • You have copied words from a book, article, or other source exactly ( quotation )
  • You have used an idea or fact from an outside source, even if you haven't used their exact wording ( paraphrasing and summarising )

The only exception to this is when the information is common knowledge , which is something that anyone is likely to know. If you are uncertain whether to reference something or not, it is better to reference it.

Citations and references

There are two elements used in referencing:

  • A citation in the text of the assignment (also known as in-text citations)
  • An entry in a reference list at the end of the assignment

The citation contains only enough information for the reader to find the source in the reference list. Usually, this is the name of the source's author and the year the source was published. For example:

When testing the usability of a website, it is necessary to gather demographic information about the users (Lazar, 2006).

In this example, (Lazar, 2006) tells the reader that this information has come from a source written by Lazar, which was published in 2006. This is a signpost, pointing the reader to the reference list.

The reference list is a list of all the sources used (and cited) in an assignment. It is alphabetised according to the names of the authors. Each entry in the reference list contains detailed information about one source. This usually includes the author's name, the year of publication, the title of the source, and source location details (e.g., publisher’s name, URL). For example:

Durie, M. (2003). Ngā kāhui pou: Launching Māori futures . Huia.

Hazledine, T., & Quiggan, J. (2006). Public policy in Australia and New Zealand: The new global context. Australian Journal of Political Science, 41 (2), 131–143.

Lazar, J. (2006). Web usability: A user-centered design approach . Pearson Addison Wesley.

Ministry for Primary Industries. (2012).  Food safety . https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety

If they wanted to, a reader could use this information to find these sources in a library or online.

Referencing is a formal system: there are rules and standards to follow when formatting citations and references. Many students find referencing quite intimidating at first. Like any skill, it takes time and patience to learn.

The examples above use APA style , a format created by the American Psychological Association. It is the most common referencing style used at Massey University.

Other styles include MLA style , Oxford style , Harvard style , and Chicago style . These styles are subtly different, and different colleges and departments may ask you to use different styles. Oxford style, for example, uses footnotes instead of in-text citations, and a bibliography instead of a reference list .

For more about the different referencing styles used at Massey University, see referencing styles .

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Reference list: common reference list examples, article (with doi).

Alvarez, E., & Tippins, S. (2019). Socialization agents that Puerto Rican college students use to make financial decisions. Journal of Social Change , 11 (1), 75–85. https://doi.org/10.5590/JOSC.2019.11.1.07

Laplante, J. P., & Nolin, C. (2014). Consultas and socially responsible investing in Guatemala: A case study examining Maya perspectives on the Indigenous right to free, prior, and informed consent. Society & Natural Resources , 27 , 231–248. https://doi.org/10.1080/08941920.2013.861554

Use the DOI number for the source whenever one is available. DOI stands for "digital object identifier," a number specific to the article that can help others locate the source. In APA 7, format the DOI as a web address. Active hyperlinks for DOIs and URLs should be used for documents meant for screen reading. Present these hyperlinks in blue and underlined text (the default formatting in Microsoft Word), although plain black text is also acceptable. Be consistent in your formatting choice for DOIs and URLs throughout your reference list. Also see our Quick Answer FAQ, "Can I use the DOI format provided by library databases?"

Jerrentrup, A., Mueller, T., Glowalla, U., Herder, M., Henrichs, N., Neubauer, A., & Schaefer, J. R. (2018). Teaching medicine with the help of “Dr. House.” PLoS ONE , 13 (3), Article e0193972. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0193972

For journal articles that are assigned article numbers rather than page ranges, include the article number in place of the page range.
For more on citing electronic resources, see  Electronic Sources References .

YouTube

Article (Without DOI)

Found in a common academic research database or in print.

Casler , T. (2020). Improving the graduate nursing experience through support on a social media platform. MEDSURG Nursing , 29 (2), 83–87.

If an article does not have a DOI and you retrieved it from a common academic research database through the university library, there is no need to include any additional electronic retrieval information. The reference list entry looks like the entry for a print copy of the article. (This format differs from APA 6 guidelines that recommended including the URL of a journal's homepage when the DOI was not available.) Note that APA 7 has additional guidance on reference list entries for articles found only in specific databases or archives such as Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, UpToDate, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global, and university archives. See APA 7, Section 9.30 for more information.

Found on an Open Access Website

Eaton, T. V., & Akers, M. D. (2007). Whistleblowing and good governance. CPA Journal , 77 (6), 66–71. http://archives.cpajournal.com/2007/607/essentials/p58.htm

Provide the direct web address/URL to a journal article found on the open web, often on an open access journal's website. In APA 7, active hyperlinks for DOIs and URLs should be used for documents meant for screen reading. Present these hyperlinks in blue and underlined text (the default formatting in Microsoft Word), although plain black text is also acceptable. Be consistent in your formatting choice for DOIs and URLs throughout your reference list.

Weinstein, J. A. (2010).  Social change  (3rd ed.). Rowman & Littlefield.

If the book has an edition number, include it in parentheses after the title of the book. If the book does not list any edition information, do not include an edition number. The edition number is not italicized.

American Nurses Association. (2015). Nursing: Scope and standards of practice (3rd ed.).

If the author and publisher are the same, only include the author in its regular place and omit the publisher.

Lencioni, P. (2012). The advantage: Why organizational health trumps everything else in business . Jossey-Bass. https://amzn.to/343XPSJ

As a change from APA 6 to APA 7, it is no longer necessary to include the ebook format in the title. However, if you listened to an audiobook and the content differs from the text version (e.g., abridged content) or your discussion highlights elements of the audiobook (e.g., narrator's performance), then note that it is an audiobook in the title element in brackets. For ebooks and online audiobooks, also include the DOI number (if available) or nondatabase URL but leave out the electronic retrieval element if the ebook was found in a common academic research database, as with journal articles. APA 7 allows for the shortening of long DOIs and URLs, as shown in this example. See APA 7, Section 9.36 for more information.

Chapter in an Edited Book

Poe, M. (2017). Reframing race in teaching writing across the curriculum. In F. Condon & V. A. Young (Eds.), Performing antiracist pedagogy in rhetoric, writing, and communication (pp. 87–105). University Press of Colorado.

Include the page numbers of the chapter in parentheses after the book title.

Christensen, L. (2001). For my people: Celebrating community through poetry. In B. Bigelow, B. Harvey, S. Karp, & L. Miller (Eds.), Rethinking our classrooms: Teaching for equity and justice (Vol. 2, pp. 16–17). Rethinking Schools.

Also include the volume number or edition number in the parenthetical information after the book title when relevant.

Freud, S. (1961). The ego and the id. In J. Strachey (Ed.),  The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud  (Vol. 19, pp. 3-66). Hogarth Press. (Original work published 1923)

When a text has been republished as part of an anthology collection, after the author’s name include the date of the version that was read. At the end of the entry, place the date of the original publication inside parenthesis along with the note “original work published.” For in-text citations of republished work, use both dates in the parenthetical citation, original date first with a slash separating the years, as in this example: Freud (1923/1961). For more information on reprinted or republished works, see APA 7, Sections 9.40-9.41.

Classroom Resources

Citing classroom resources.

If you need to cite content found in your online classroom, use the author (if there is one listed), the year of publication (if available), the title of the document, and the main URL of Walden classrooms. For example, you are citing study notes titled "Health Effects of Exposure to Forest Fires," but you do not know the author's name, your reference entry will look like this:

Health effects of exposure to forest fires [Lecture notes]. (2005). Walden University Canvas. https://waldenu.instructure.com

If you do know the author of the document, your reference will look like this:

Smith, A. (2005). Health effects of exposure to forest fires [PowerPoint slides]. Walden University Canvas. https://waldenu.instructure.com  

A few notes on citing course materials:

  • [Lecture notes]
  • [Course handout]
  • [Study notes]
  • It can be difficult to determine authorship of classroom documents. If an author is listed on the document, use that. If the resource is clearly a product of Walden (such as the course-based videos), use Walden University as the author. If you are unsure or if no author is indicated, place the title in the author spot, as above.
  • If you cannot determine a date of publication, you can use n.d. (for "no date") in place of the year.

Note:  The web location for Walden course materials is not directly retrievable without a password, and therefore, following APA guidelines, use the main URL for the class sites: https://class.waldenu.edu.

Citing Tempo Classroom Resources

Clear author: 

Smith, A. (2005). Health effects of exposure to forest fires [PowerPoint slides]. Walden University Brightspace. https://mytempo.waldenu.edu

Unclear author:

Health effects of exposure to forest fires [Lecture notes]. (2005). Walden University Brightspace. https://mytempo.waldenu.edu

Conference Sessions and Presentations

Feinman, Y. (2018, July 27). Alternative to proctoring in introductory statistics community college courses [Poster presentation]. Walden University Research Symposium, Minneapolis, MN, United States. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/symposium2018/23/

Torgerson, K., Parrill, J., & Haas, A. (2019, April 5-9). Tutoring strategies for online students [Conference session]. The Higher Learning Commission Annual Conference, Chicago, IL, United States. http://onlinewritingcenters.org/scholarship/torgerson-parrill-haas-2019/

Dictionary Entry

Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Leadership. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary . Retrieved May 28, 2020, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leadership

When constructing a reference for an entry in a dictionary or other reference work that has no byline (i.e., no named individual authors), use the name of the group—the institution, company, or organization—as author (e.g., Merriam Webster, American Psychological Association, etc.). The name of the entry goes in the title position, followed by "In" and the italicized name of the reference work (e.g., Merriam-Webster.com dictionary , APA dictionary of psychology ). In this instance, APA 7 recommends including a retrieval date as well for this online source since the contents of the page change over time. End the reference entry with the specific URL for the defined word.

Discussion Board Post

Osborne, C. S. (2010, June 29). Re: Environmental responsibility [Discussion post]. Walden University Canvas.  https://waldenu.instructure.com  

Dissertations or Theses

Retrieved From a Database

Nalumango, K. (2019). Perceptions about the asylum-seeking process in the United States after 9/11 (Publication No. 13879844) [Doctoral dissertation, Walden University]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses.

Retrieved From an Institutional or Personal Website

Evener. J. (2018). Organizational learning in libraries at for-profit colleges and universities [Doctoral dissertation, Walden University]. ScholarWorks. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6606&context=dissertations

Unpublished Dissertation or Thesis

Kirwan, J. G. (2005). An experimental study of the effects of small-group, face-to-face facilitated dialogues on the development of self-actualization levels: A movement towards fully functional persons [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Saybrook Graduate School and Research Center.

For further examples and information, see APA 7, Section 10.6.

Legal Material

For legal references, APA follows the recommendations of The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation , so if you have any questions beyond the examples provided in APA, seek out that resource as well.

Court Decisions

Reference format:

Name v. Name, Volume Reporter Page (Court Date). URL

Sample reference entry:

Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). https://www.oyez.org/cases/1940-1955/347us483

Sample citation:

In Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the Supreme Court ruled racial segregation in schools unconstitutional.

Note: Italicize the case name when it appears in the text of your paper.

Name of Act, Title Source § Section Number (Year). URL

Sample reference entry for a federal statute:

Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq. (2004). https://www.congress.gov/108/plaws/publ446/PLAW-108publ446.pdf

Sample reference entry for a state statute:

Minnesota Nurse Practice Act, Minn. Stat. §§ 148.171 et seq. (2019). https://www.revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/148.171

Sample citation: Minnesota nurses must maintain current registration in order to practice (Minnesota Nurse Practice Act, 2010).

Note: The § symbol stands for "section." Use §§ for sections (plural). To find this symbol in Microsoft Word, go to "Insert" and click on Symbol." Look in the Latin 1-Supplement subset. Note: U.S.C. stands for "United States Code." Note: The Latin abbreviation " et seq. " means "and what follows" and is used when the act includes the cited section and ones that follow. Note: List the chapter first followed by the section or range of sections.

Unenacted Bills and Resolutions

(Those that did not pass and become law)

Title [if there is one], bill or resolution number, xxx Cong. (year). URL

Sample reference entry for Senate bill:

Anti-Phishing Act, S. 472, 109th Cong. (2005). https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/senate-bill/472

Sample reference entry for House of Representatives resolution:

Anti-Phishing Act, H.R. 1099, 109th Cong. (2005). https://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/1099

The Anti-Phishing Act (2005) proposed up to 5 years prison time for people running Internet scams.

These are the three legal areas you may be most apt to cite in your scholarly work. For more examples and explanation, see APA 7, Chapter 11.

Magazine Article

Clay, R. (2008, June). Science vs. ideology: Psychologists fight back about the misuse of research. Monitor on Psychology , 39 (6). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/06/ideology

Note that for citations, include only the year: Clay (2008). For magazine articles retrieved from a common academic research database, leave out the URL. For magazine articles from an online news website that is not an online version of a print magazine, follow the format for a webpage reference list entry.

Newspaper Article (Retrieved Online)

Baker, A. (2014, May 7). Connecticut students show gains in national tests. New York Times . http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/08/nyregion/national-assessment-of-educational-progress-results-in-Connecticut-and-New-Jersey.html

Include the full date in the format Year, Month Day. Do not include a retrieval date for periodical sources found on websites. Note that for citations, include only the year: Baker (2014). For newspaper articles retrieved from a common academic research database, leave out the URL. For newspaper articles from an online news website that is not an online version of a print newspaper, follow the format for a webpage reference list entry.

Online Video/Webcast

Walden University. (2013).  An overview of learning  [Video]. Walden University Canvas.  https://waldenu.instructure.com  

Use this format for online videos such as Walden videos in classrooms. Most of our classroom videos are produced by Walden University, which will be listed as the author in your reference and citation. Note: Some examples of audiovisual materials in the APA manual show the word “Producer” in parentheses after the producer/author area. In consultation with the editors of the APA manual, we have determined that parenthetical is not necessary for the videos in our courses. The manual itself is unclear on the matter, however, so either approach should be accepted. Note that the speaker in the video does not appear in the reference list entry, but you may want to mention that person in your text. For instance, if you are viewing a video where Tobias Ball is the speaker, you might write the following: Tobias Ball stated that APA guidelines ensure a consistent presentation of information in student papers (Walden University, 2013). For more information on citing the speaker in a video, see our page on Common Citation Errors .

Taylor, R. [taylorphd07]. (2014, February 27). Scales of measurement [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDsMUlexaMY

Walden University Academic Skills Center. (2020, April 15). One-way ANCOVA: Introduction [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/_XnNDQ5CNW8

For videos from streaming sites, use the person or organization who uploaded the video in the author space to ensure retrievability, whether or not that person is the speaker in the video. A username can be provided in square brackets. As a change from APA 6 to APA 7, include the publisher after the title, and do not use "Retrieved from" before the URL. See APA 7, Section 10.12 for more information and examples.

See also reference list entry formats for TED Talks .

Technical and Research Reports

Edwards, C. (2015). Lighting levels for isolated intersections: Leading to safety improvements (Report No. MnDOT 2015-05). Center for Transportation Studies. http://www.cts.umn.edu/Publications/ResearchReports/reportdetail.html?id=2402

Technical and research reports by governmental agencies and other research institutions usually follow a different publication process than scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. However, they present original research and are often useful for research papers. Sometimes, researchers refer to these types of reports as gray literature , and white papers are a type of this literature. See APA 7, Section 10.4 for more information.

Reference list entires for TED Talks follow the usual guidelines for multimedia content found online. There are two common places to find TED talks online, with slightly different reference list entry formats for each.

TED Talk on the TED website

If you find the TED Talk on the TED website, follow the format for an online video on an organizational website:

Owusu-Kesse, K. (2020, June). 5 needs that any COVID-19 response should meet [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/kwame_owusu_kesse_5_needs_that_any_covid_19_response_should_meet

The speaker is the author in the reference list entry if the video is posted on the TED website. For citations, use the speaker's surname.

TED Talk on YouTube

If you find the TED Talk on YouTube or another streaming video website, follow the usual format for streaming video sites:

TED. (2021, February 5). The shadow pandemic of domestic violence during COVID-19 | Kemi DaSilvalbru [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGdID_ICFII

TED is the author in the reference list entry if the video is posted on YouTube since it is the channel on which the video is posted. For citations, use TED as the author.

Walden University Course Catalog

To include the Walden course catalog in your reference list, use this format:

Walden University. (2020). 2019-2020 Walden University catalog . https://catalog.waldenu.edu/index.php

If you cite from a specific portion of the catalog in your paper, indicate the appropriate section and paragraph number in your text:

...which reflects the commitment to social change expressed in Walden University's mission statement (Walden University, 2020, Vision, Mission, and Goals section, para. 2).

And in the reference list:

Walden University. (2020). Vision, mission, and goals. In 2019-2020 Walden University catalog. https://catalog.waldenu.edu/content.php?catoid=172&navoid=59420&hl=vision&returnto=search

Vartan, S. (2018, January 30). Why vacations matter for your health . CNN. https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/why-vacations-matter/index.html

For webpages on the open web, include the author, date, webpage title, organization/site name, and URL. (There is a slight variation for online versions of print newspapers or magazines. For those sources, follow the models in the previous sections of this page.)

American Federation of Teachers. (n.d.). Community schools . http://www.aft.org/issues/schoolreform/commschools/index.cfm

If there is no specified author, then use the organization’s name as the author. In such a case, there is no need to repeat the organization's name after the title.

In APA 7, active hyperlinks for DOIs and URLs should be used for documents meant for screen reading. Present these hyperlinks in blue and underlined text (the default formatting in Microsoft Word), although plain black text is also acceptable. Be consistent in your formatting choice for DOIs and URLs throughout your reference list.

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Articles, Books, and . . . ? Understanding the Many Types of Information Found in Libraries

  • Reference Sources

Encyclopedias

Dictionaries, almanacs and yearbooks, handbooks and manuals.

  • Documents and Reports
  • Non-Text Content
  • Archival Materials

Reference sources are generally the place to begin your research, especially when you're starting out with an unfamiliar field. But they're also where you return when you need to look up formulas, facts, definitions, and other standard details; they tend to pack a lot of information into simple, easy-to-use packages.

Physical Media

Many reference works are available online and are accessible through links from the Library Catalog and from subject or course guides , but many valuable reference resources are still available only in print, and a few highly specialized tools are on microform or CD. Because print-only reference books are in high demand, they are kept in separate, non-circulating reference collections in most UCLA libraries.

Scholarly Sources

Reference sources are rarely peer-reviewed. In fact, because they mostly contain established, factual information, they're sometimes not even cited in academic works, unless directly quoted. Check your style manual for best guidelines.

Primary or Secondary Sources

As compilations of existing information, reference works are decisively in the category of secondary sources... to the point that some people call them tertiary sources .

Because Wikipedia content is anonymous and lacks a formal review process, it's not considered a "scholarly source," and most professors don't accept Wikipedia citations in papers. That said, Wikipedia does increasingly cite sources, so you can use it to lead you to sources which you can cite.

Encyclopedias attempt to provide comprehensive summaries of knowledge in either a specific field (subject encyclopedias) or "everything" (general encyclopedias). Encyclopedias are typically divided into a collection of articles on discrete topics. Academically oriented encyclopedias will often include short bibliographies, making them a good resource for identifying key books and articles on a topic.

  • Online Encyclopedias
  • Finding Print Encyclopedias
  • Subject dictionaries: define technical terms in specific fields, sometimes in as much detail as an encyclopedia
  • Bilingual dictionaries: define words in a different language
  • Thesauri: provide synonyms
  • Rhyming dictionariess
  • Major Online Dictionaries
  • Finding Dictionaries (both online and in print)
  • World Almanac and Book of Facts
  • Statistical Yearbooks

Both "handbook" and "manual" refer to the traditional small size of the volumes, designed to fit in one hand for ease of use. Despite this origin, many modern handbooks are quite hefty!

what is reference in research

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Institute for Academic Development

Referencing and citations

Advice and resources to support you with referencing and citations, and avoiding plagiarism.

At university you are expected to read and research, and then use the ideas, information, data and a range of other sources in your own academic work and assignments. However, it is important to make absolutely clear where each idea or piece of information comes from by referencing it (giving your sources) in your own work.

What is referencing? (PDF)

What is referencing? (Word rtf)

When done properly, reference adds credibility and strength to your arguments, as well as demonstrating the effort that you have put into research and reading. There is more information on using your reading and developing your argument in the Reading at university and Academic writing pages.

Reading at university

Academic Writing

Different subjects and disciplines use different referencing styles (or systems). You may even find that different assignments on a course use different styles, depending on the format of the assignment. The different styles, e.g. Harvard, Chicago, OSCOLA, look very different. But when and why you need to reference does not change. There is further information on Different style s in the Go further section of this page.

You need to make sure you know how you are being expected to do this and you should refer to your course, assignment, or programme information provided by your School about what style you are expected to use. If you are unsure, you need to ask someone who teaches you.

Citations vs references

In your work, you need to explicitly indicate and acknowledge when you have used or referred to someone else’s idea or data etc. However, if you were to include the full reference (or bibliographic details) of your evidence, it would disrupt the flow of your argument.

Instead, it is academic convention to give an abbreviated version of the reference details at the point it is being discussed. This is known as a citation or in-text citing. The citation should make an explicit link between the point being presented or discussed, and the evidence you are using.

A reference is the full bibliographic or publication details of a citation. Whilst the in-text citation tells your audience that there is evidence to support your point, the reference gives them all the information they would need to find that evidence and review it themselves. You may cite the same source several times in your argument, however it only needs one reference as it is the same source each time.

Typically, the references of all your citations are collated at the end of a piece of work. Depending on your discipline and the style you are using this may be called a reference list (or works cited ), or a bibliography . Everything you’ve cited in your work must be included in the references or bibliography. However, in some subjects, a bibliography may also include other sources which you have consulted but have not cited in your work. You need to check the information provided by your course or School about what is required.

Tips for accurate referencing (PDF)

Tips for accurate referencing (Word rtf)

Most word processing software has a citation or referencing function so you do not necessarily have to format them all yourself. However you will still need to check that the software has done it properly and in the style that is required. You should be able to find instructions on how to do this for your software in the Help section or by searching online.

It is your responsibility to ensure the accuracy and adequacy of your citations and references. You need to make sure that your citations unambiguously link to the correct reference. You also need to make sure that you have citations everywhere they are needed. If you forget or miss a citation, then the impression you are giving is that the work is your own, when it is in fact someone else’s.

This is called plagiarism and is a form of academic misconduct. Typically plagiarism is due to unintentional, inadequate referencing, but it can also be deliberate.

What is plagiarism? (PDF)

What is plagiarism? (Word rtf)

You should also read the University of Edinburgh’s official guidance and policy on plagiarism:

Academic Services – Plagiarism

The Good academic practice page has additional information and guidance on what’s expected, academic misconduct and support.

Good academic practice

Different styles

The way a reference is abbreviated into a citation, and the format of the bibliographic details at the end of your work differ, depending which style (or system) you are using. Styles generally fall into two categories and relate to what the in-text citation looks like:

  • Author-date e.g. APA, Harvard,
  • Numeric e.g. Chicago notes and bibliography (NB) format, OSCOLA and Vancouver.

Some styles also include footnotes, which have a distinct purpose and format depending on the style. Be sure to check course or assignment information on if and how to use footnotes.

Information Services provide access to Cite Them Right online, which offers guidance and examples of how to cite and reference different sources (e.g. journal articles, books, web pages) in different styles. If you are not on the University network, you may need to login in via your institution for full access.

Cite Them Right

Reference managers

Once you are accustomed to referencing (including when you need to do it and what it needs to look like), you could start to use a reference manager. Reference management software can automatically format citations and build a reference list or bibliography for you. They can also allow you to store, annotate and group s references in your own personal database. The Academic Support Librarians have put together a Referencing and reference management subject guide with information on the different tools and training available.

Referencing and reference management

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5 Accessing Scientific Literature and Referencing

An essential skill for all scientists to master is the ability to access relevant and reliable scientific information from a variety of sources.

You will need access to scientific literature for a variety of reasons:

  • designing an experiment
  • writing an article or essay
  • designing a poster.

All of these tasks involved sourcing reliable, authoritative literature, and you’ll need to know how to reference it.

This chapter will provide student scientists with assistance in navigating the many avenues for locating scientific literature and referencing it, including using the reference management software EndNote.

5.1 Types of scientific literature

Screenshot of a report titled effects of systemic hypoxia in human muscular adaptions to resistance exercise training

The two main types of scientific literature are original investigations and literature reviews.

Original investigations ( Figure 5.1 ) are published accounts of new studies undertaken on a particular topic. They will generally step the reader through the stages of the study:

  • introduction

Screenshot of article titled cerebral oxygenation and hyperthermia

Published literature reviews ( Figure 5.2 ) present a synthesis and evaluation of the existing literature on a particular topic with the aim of gaining a new, deeper understanding of the topic. The review article will be structured around themes rather than stages of the scientific method.

5.2 Accessing scientific literature

You can locate scientific literature via Google Scholar , online databases such as PubMed, and the University of Southern Queensland library website when you are looking for a specific article or searching for literature on a specific topic.

Google Scholar

Google Scholar provides a simple way to perform a broad search for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search across many disciplines and sources:

  • court opinions.

Academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and other web sites all publish these types of literature. Google Scholar helps you find relevant work across the world of scholarly research.

Box 5.1: Search tips

  • Set your preferences to retrieve your university library resources: For example, select Settings > Library Link > add University of Southern Queensland Library > Save
  • Use the asterisk * (e.g. child* will find child, children, childhood, childless)
  • Use the asterisk as a placeholder to find a word within words e.g. “acquired * injury” finds acquired brain injury
  • Use quotes to search by phrase (e.g. “type 2 diabetes” or “social media”)

Try this search in Google Scholar: “patient information” AND “back pain”

Extra help with using Google scholar is at this webpage. 

Databases, what are they and how do I use them to find information?

Databases are another way to find quality academic and scholarly information. The USQ library subscribes to many databases that are relevant to your studies in human physiology, such as:

  • Web of Science
  • ClinicalKey
  • ScienceDirect
PubMed is a database that comprises of more than 26 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher websites.

Journals contain scholarly articles written by experts in specific disciplines. This tutorial explains what scholarly journals are and how to access them from the USQ library.

5.3 Determining if an article is scholarly or peer reviewed

It can be hard to work out if a journal is scholarly or peer reviewed. There is a lot of information online that looks like proper science, but isn’t! These tips can help you determine if you are accessing reliable information.

If searching in a library database:

  • Check to see if there is a box on the database search page that allows you to limit your search results to refereed or peer-reviewed journal articles.

If you already have a journal article or title, use these option to check if it is scholarly or peer reviewed: 

  • Look at the article itself for a header or similar that indicates refereed or reviewed.
  • Look at the table of contents of the journal. Often items are grouped under a heading like ‘reviewed articles’.
  • Check the journal’s website to see if a statement is made about the content being peer reviewed or refereed. However, be aware that not all the contents of a refereed journal will be refereed (e.g. books reviews, practice, commentaries, editorials are not peer reviewed).
  • Look for the Ulrichsweb database in your library catalogue. If you have access, use the ‘Quick Search’ drop down and select ‘Title (keyword)’ and type in the journal title. Next to journal titles that include at least some refereed content is the image of a black and white striped  ‘referee’s shirt’.  You can also click on the journal title and you will see ‘Refereed – yes or no’.

5.4 Library website resources to assist with searching for authoritative information

Your university library will provide tutorials and resources to help you search for authoritative information.

5.5 Referencing

Anyone who reads your work will need to know where you got your information from if you didn’t generate it yourself (e.g. the results of your experiment). The reference section provides a list of the references that you cited in the body of your work, whether it be a literature review, original investigation research article or essay.

It is important to accurately cite references in research papers to acknowledge your sources and ensure credit is appropriately given to authors of work you have referred to. An accurate and comprehensive reference list also shows your readers that you are well-read in your topic area and are aware of the key papers that provide the context to your research.

It is important to keep track of your resources and to reference them consistently in the format required by the publication in which your work will appear. Most scientists will use referencing software to store details of all of the journal articles (and other sources) they use while writing their review article. This software also automates the process of adding in-text references and creating a reference list.

In-text citations indicate where (within your sentences) you have used the ideas of other scientists. The in-text citations will either be provided as a number, or as the name of the author and date of publication. A reference list is a list of all the sources that you have used as in-text references in your scientific paper that enables the reader of your work to locate and verify the sources you have use.

Here are two basic formats for a reference list:

  • an alphabetical listing by first author’s last name (author–date system)
  • a numerical listing that reflects the order of the citations in the body of the paper (number format).

The format will depend on the journal of publication, as each journal has their own specific referencing format.

A bibliography tends to use the author–date format, as the works might not be cited in the text.

Author–date system

Author-date reference styles indicate in-text citations by placing the author’s surname and the date of publication in brackets, and the reference list is in alphabetical order by author’s surname. Harvard and APA are examples of author date styles.

The associated images show a section of the discussion, and a section of the reference list of a research article (Bain et al., 2014) that has used an author-date system.

Example of author date referencing, with annotations showing in-text citations and two examples of the formatting of references in a reference list

Your university library will provide guidance and examples of the referencing styles you are expected to use. Ask your tutor which style you are to use for your assignment.

This short video shows you the basics of Harvard referencing. Please note there are different interpretations of the style and use the resources provided by your university library when composing your own in-text citations and reference lists.

Click the drop down below to review the terms learned from this chapter.

Bain, A.R., Morrison, S.A., & Ainslie, P.N. (2014). Cerebral oxygenation and hyperthermia. Frontiers in Physiology, 5 , 92.

How To Do Science Copyright © 2022 by University of Southern Queensland is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Reference List: Basic Rules

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This resourse, revised according to the 7 th  edition APA Publication Manual, offers basic guidelines for formatting the reference list at the end of a standard APA research paper. Most sources follow fairly straightforward rules. However, because sources obtained from academic journals  carry special weight in research writing, these sources are subject to special rules . Thus, this page presents basic guidelines for citing academic journals separate from its "ordinary" basic guidelines. This distinction is made clear below.

Note:  Because the information on this page pertains to virtually all citations, we've highlighted one important difference between APA 6 and APA 7 with an underlined note written in red.  For more information, please consult the   Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , (7 th  ed.).

Formatting a Reference List

Your reference list should appear at the end of your paper. It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

Your references should begin on a new page separate from the text of the essay; label this page "References" in bold, centered at the top of the page (do NOT underline or use quotation marks for the title). All text should be double-spaced just like the rest of your essay.

Basic Rules for Most Sources

  • All lines after the first line of each entry in your reference list should be indented one-half inch from the left margin. This is called hanging indentation.
  • All authors' names should be inverted (i.e., last names should be provided first).
  • For example, the reference entry for a source written by Jane Marie Smith would begin with "Smith, J. M."
  • If a middle name isn't available, just initialize the author's first name: "Smith, J."
  • Give the last name and first/middle initials for all authors of a particular work up to and including 20 authors ( this is a new rule, as APA 6 only required the first six authors ). Separate each author’s initials from the next author in the list with a comma. Use an ampersand (&) before the last author’s name. If there are 21 or more authors, use an ellipsis (but no ampersand) after the 19th author, and then add the final author’s name.
  • Reference list entries should be alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work.
  • For multiple articles by the same author, or authors listed in the same order, list the entries in chronological order, from earliest to most recent.
  • Note again that the titles of academic journals are subject to special rules. See section below.
  • Italicize titles of longer works (e.g., books, edited collections, names of newspapers, and so on).
  • Do not italicize, underline, or put quotes around the titles of shorter works such as chapters in books or essays in edited collections.

Basic Rules for Articles in Academic Journals

  • Present journal titles in full.
  • Italicize journal titles.
  • For example, you should use  PhiloSOPHIA  instead of  Philosophia,  or  Past & Present   instead of  Past and Present.
  • This distinction is based on the type of source being cited. Academic journal titles have all major words capitalized, while other sources' titles do not.
  • Capitalize   the first word of the titles and subtitles of   journal articles , as well as the   first word after a colon or a dash in the title, and   any proper nouns .
  • Do not italicize or underline the article title.
  • Deep blue: The mysteries of the Marianas Trench.
  • Oceanographic Study: A Peer-Reviewed Publication

Please note:  While the APA manual provides examples of how to cite common types of sources, it does not cover all conceivable sources. If you must cite a source that APA does not address, the APA suggests finding an example that is similar to your source and using that format. For more information, see page 282 of the   Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association , 7 th  ed.

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  • Citing sources

Citation Styles Guide | Examples for All Major Styles

Published on June 24, 2022 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on November 7, 2022.

A citation style is a set of guidelines on how to cite sources in your academic writing . You always need a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize a source to avoid plagiarism . How you present these citations depends on the style you follow. Scribbr’s citation generator can help!

Different styles are set by different universities, academic associations, and publishers, often published in an official handbook with in-depth instructions and examples.

There are many different citation styles, but they typically use one of three basic approaches: parenthetical citations , numerical citations, or note citations.

Parenthetical citations

  • Chicago (Turabian) author-date

CSE name-year

Numerical citations

CSE citation-name or citation-sequence

Note citations

  • Chicago (Turabian) notes and bibliography

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Table of contents

Types of citation: parenthetical, note, numerical, which citation style should i use, parenthetical citation styles, numerical citation styles, note citation styles, frequently asked questions about citation styles.

The clearest identifying characteristic of any citation style is how the citations in the text are presented. There are three main approaches:

  • Parenthetical citations: You include identifying details of the source in parentheses in the text—usually the author’s last name and the publication date, plus a page number if relevant ( author-date ). Sometimes the publication date is omitted ( author-page ).
  • Numerical citations: You include a number in brackets or in superscript, which corresponds to an entry in your numbered reference list.
  • Note citations: You include a full citation in a footnote or endnote, which is indicated in the text with a superscript number or symbol.

Citation styles also differ in terms of how you format the reference list or bibliography entries themselves (e.g., capitalization, order of information, use of italics). And many style guides also provide guidance on more general issues like text formatting, punctuation, and numbers.

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In most cases, your university, department, or instructor will tell you which citation style you need to follow in your writing. If you’re not sure, it’s best to consult your institution’s guidelines or ask someone. If you’re submitting to a journal, they will usually require a specific style.

Sometimes, the choice of citation style may be left up to you. In those cases, you can base your decision on which citation styles are commonly used in your field. Try reading other articles from your discipline to see how they cite their sources, or consult the table below.

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) recommends citing your sources using Chicago author-date style . AAA style doesn’t have its own separate rules. This style is used in the field of anthropology.

APA Style is defined by the 7th edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association . It was designed for use in psychology, but today it’s widely used across various disciplines, especially in the social sciences.

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The citation style of the American Political Science Association (APSA) is used mainly in the field of political science.

The citation style of the American Sociological Association (ASA) is used primarily in the discipline of sociology.

Chicago author-date

Chicago author-date style is one of the two citation styles presented in the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). It’s used mainly in the sciences and social sciences.

The citation style of the Council of Science Editors (CSE) is used in various scientific disciplines. It includes multiple options for citing your sources, including the name-year system.

Harvard style is often used in the field of economics. It is also very widely used across disciplines in UK universities. There are various versions of Harvard style defined by different universities—it’s not a style with one definitive style guide.

Check out Scribbr’s Harvard Reference Generator

MLA style is the official style of the Modern Language Association, defined in the MLA Handbook (9th edition). It’s widely used across various humanities disciplines. Unlike most parenthetical citation styles, it’s author-page rather than author-date.

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The American Chemical Society (ACS) provides guidelines for a citation style using numbers in superscript or italics in the text, corresponding to entries in a numbered reference list at the end. It is used in chemistry.

The American Medical Association ( AMA ) provides guidelines for a numerical citation style using superscript numbers in the text, which correspond to entries in a numbered reference list. It is used in the field of medicine.

CSE style includes multiple options for citing your sources, including the citation-name and citation-sequence systems. Your references are listed alphabetically in the citation-name system; in the citation-sequence system, they appear in the order in which you cited them.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ) provides guidelines for citing your sources with IEEE in-text citations that consist of numbers enclosed in brackets, corresponding to entries in a numbered reference list. This style is used in various engineering and IT disciplines.

The National Library of Medicine (NLM) citation style is defined in Citing Medicine: The NLM Style Guide for Authors, Editors, and Publishers (2nd edition).

Vancouver style is also used in various medical disciplines. As with Harvard style, a lot of institutions and publications have their own versions of Vancouver—it doesn’t have one fixed style guide.

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what is reference in research

The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation is the main style guide for legal citations in the US. It’s widely used in law, and also when legal materials need to be cited in other disciplines.

Chicago notes and bibliography

Chicago notes and bibliography is one of the two citation styles presented in the Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition). It’s used mainly in the humanities.

The Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities ( OSCOLA ) is the main legal citation style in the UK (similar to Bluebook for the US).

There are many different citation styles used across different academic disciplines, but they fall into three basic approaches to citation:

  • Parenthetical citations : Including identifying details of the source in parentheses —usually the author’s last name and the publication date, plus a page number if available ( author-date ). The publication date is occasionally omitted ( author-page ).
  • Numerical citations: Including a number in brackets or superscript, corresponding to an entry in your numbered reference list.
  • Note citations: Including a full citation in a footnote or endnote , which is indicated in the text with a superscript number or symbol.

Check if your university or course guidelines specify which citation style to use. If the choice is left up to you, consider which style is most commonly used in your field.

  • APA Style is the most popular citation style, widely used in the social and behavioral sciences.
  • MLA style is the second most popular, used mainly in the humanities.
  • Chicago notes and bibliography style is also popular in the humanities, especially history.
  • Chicago author-date style tends to be used in the sciences.

Other more specialized styles exist for certain fields, such as Bluebook and OSCOLA for law.

The most important thing is to choose one style and use it consistently throughout your text.

A scientific citation style is a system of source citation that is used in scientific disciplines. Some commonly used scientific citation styles are:

  • Chicago author-date , CSE , and Harvard , used across various sciences
  • ACS , used in chemistry
  • AMA , NLM , and Vancouver , used in medicine and related disciplines
  • AAA , APA , and ASA , commonly used in the social sciences

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

MLA Style  is the second most used citation style (after APA ). It is mainly used by students and researchers in humanities fields such as literature, languages, and philosophy.

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Reference Sources: What They Are and How to Use Them: Home

Subject index, search hiebert library.

  • What is a Reference Source?
  • What are Reference Sources good for?
  • Is it acceptable to cite Reference Sources in a Research Paper?
  • Where can Reference Sources be found?

"Reference sources" are used to locate general factual information on a particular topic.They usually are read selectively for specific pieces of information, rather than from beginning to end. Examples of reference sources include:

  • Encyclopedias
  • Dictionaries
  • Bibliographies

We realize that the term "reference sources" used this way may be a bit confusing, since your professors might also talk about "references" as a way of describing  anything  that you might cite in a research paper. Always be sure to ask your professor if you aren't clear on how they're using the term.

What are reference sources good for?

Reference sources often provide an excellent starting point for a research project. They are a good place to find general background and introductory information, specialized terminology, and lists of references for further research. Think of them as a way to find your bearings in a particular subject area before digging into more detailed scholarly sources.

Is it acceptable to cite reference sources in a research paper?

You may have heard professors tell you not to use encyclopedias when writing a research paper. What they probably meant were general reference sources like the  Encyclopaedia Britannica  or  Wikipedia . While even general sources like these can contain useful information, they are not specialized enough to use for academic work. There are, however, other highly specialized reference sources (some of them even called "encyclopedias" or "dictionaries") that might be perfectly appropriate for use in a research project. Such specialized sources are written by experts in their fields and sometimes include quite detailed scholarly treatment of their topics. These can provide an excellent starting point for your research. Always check with your professor to find out whether it's acceptable to use such specialized reference sources as citations in a research paper.

Where can reference sources be found in Hiebert Library?

We've prepared lists of our most useful reference sources, arranged by subject area. Select the appropriate subject area from the list below to see the list for that topic.

The lists are divided by online and print resources. Online reference sources can be accessed simply by clicking on them. The library's print reference section is located near the main circulation desk (just to the right of the desk as you walk through the front gate). Items in the reference section cannot be checked out. They are intended for use in the library only.

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Writing Research Papers

  • What Types of References Are Appropriate?

When writing a research paper, there are many different types of sources that you might consider citing.  Which are appropriate?  Which are less appropriate?  Here we discuss the different types of sources that you may wish to use when working on a research paper.   

Please note that the following represents a general set of recommended guidelines that is not specific to any class and does not represent department policy.  The types of allowable sources may vary by course and instructor.

Highly appropriate: peer-reviewed journal articles

In general, you should primarily cite peer-reviewed journal articles in your research papers.  Peer-reviewed journal articles are research papers that have been accepted for publication after having undergone a rigorous editorial review process.  During that review process, the article was carefully evaluated by at least one journal editor and a group of reviewers (usually scientists that are experts in the field or topic under investigation).  Often the article underwent revisions before it was judged to be satisfactory for publication. 

Most articles submitted to high quality journals are not accepted for publication.  As such, research that is successfully published in a respected peer-reviewed journal is generally regarded as higher quality than research that is not published or is published elsewhere, such as in a book, magazine, or on a website.  However, just because a study was published in a peer-reviewed journal does not mean that it is free from error or that its conclusions are correct.  Accordingly, it is important to critically read and carefully evaluate all sources, including peer-reviewed journal articles.

Tips for finding and using peer-reviewed journal articles:

  • Many databases, such as PsycINFO, can be set to only search for peer-reviewed journal articles. Other search engines, such as Google Scholar, typically include both peer-reviewed and not peer-reviewed articles in search results, and thus should be used with greater caution. 
  • Even though a peer-reviewed journal article is, by definition, a source that has been carefully vetted through an editorial process, it should still be critically evaluated by the reader. 

Potentially appropriate: books, encyclopedias, and other scholarly works

Another potential source that you might use when writing a research paper is a book, encyclopedia, or an official online source (such as demographic data drawn from a government website).  When relying on such sources, it is important to carefully consider its accuracy and trustworthiness.  For example, books vary in quality; most have not undergone any form of review process other than basic copyediting.  In many cases, a book’s content is little more than the author’s informed or uninformed opinion. 

However, there are books that have been edited prior to publication, as is the case with many reputable encyclopedias; also, many books from academic publishers are comprised of multiple chapters, each written by one or more researchers, with the entire volume carefully reviewed by one or more editors.  In those cases, the book has undergone a form of peer review, albeit often not as rigorous as that for a peer-reviewed journal article.

Tips for using books, encyclopedias, and other scholarly works:

  • When using books, encyclopedias, and other scholarly works (that is, works written or produced by researchers, official agencies, or corporations), it is important to very carefully evaluate the quality of that source.
  • If the source is an edited volume (in which case in the editor(s) will be listed on the cover), is published by a reputable source (such as Academic Press, MIT Press, and others), or is written by a major expert in the field (such as a researcher with a track record of peer-reviewed journal articles on the subject), then it is more likely to be trustworthy.
  • For online encyclopedias such as Wikipedia, an instructor may or may not consider that an acceptable source (by default, don’t assume that a non-peer reviewed source will be considered acceptable). It is best to ask the instructor for clarification. 1

Usually inappropriate: magazines, blogs, and websites  

Most research papers can be written using only peer-reviewed journal articles as sources.  However, for many topics it is possible to find a plethora of sources that have not been peer-reviewed but also discuss the topic.  These may include articles in popular magazines or postings in blogs, forums, and other websites.  In general, although these sources may be well-written and easy to understand, their scientific value is often not as high as that of peer-reviewed articles.  Exceptions include some magazine and newspaper articles that might be cited in a research paper to make a point about public awareness of a given topic, to illustrate beliefs and attitudes about a given topic among journalists, or to refer to a news event that is relevant to a given topic. 

Tips for using magazines, blogs, and websites:

  • Avoid such references if possible. You should primarily focus on peer-reviewed journal articles as sources for your research paper.  High quality research papers typically do not rely on non-academic and not peer-reviewed sources.
  • Refer to non-academic, not peer-reviewed sources sparingly, and if you do, be sure to carefully evaluate the accuracy and scientific merit of the source.

Downloadable Resources

  • How to Write APA Style Research Papers (a comprehensive guide) [ PDF ]
  • Tips for Writing APA Style Research Papers (a brief summary) [ PDF ]

Further Resources

How-To Videos     

  • Writing Research Paper Videos

Databases and Search Engines (may require connection to UCSD network)

  • Google Scholar
  • PubMed (NIH/NLM)
  • Web of Science  

UCSD Resources on Finding and Evaluating Sources

  • UCSD Library Databases A-Z
  • UCSD Library Psychology Research Guide: Start Page
  • UCSD Library Psychology Research Guide : Finding Articles
  • UCSD Library Psychology Research Guide : Evaluating Sources

External Resources

  • Critically Reading Journal Articles from PSU/ Colby College
  • How to Seriously Read a Journal Article from Science Magazine
  • How to Read Journal Articles from Harvard University
  • How to Read a Scientific Paper Infographic from Elsevier Publishing
  • Tips for searching PsycINFO from UC Berkeley Library
  • Tips for using PsycINFO effectively from the APA Student Science Council

1 Wikipedia articles vary in quality; the site has a peer review system and the very best articles ( Featured Articles ), which go through a multi-stage review process, rival those in traditional encyclopedias and are considered the highest quality articles on the site.

Prepared by s. c. pan for ucsd psychology, graphic adapted from  t-x-generic-apply.svg , a public domain creation by the tango desktop project..

Back to top

  • Research Paper Structure
  • Formatting Research Papers
  • Using Databases and Finding References
  • Evaluating References and Taking Notes
  • Citing References
  • Writing a Literature Review
  • Writing Process and Revising
  • Improving Scientific Writing
  • Academic Integrity and Avoiding Plagiarism
  • Writing Research Papers Videos

Book cover

Evidence and Expertise in Nordic Education Policy pp 33–57 Cite as

What Is in a Reference? Theoretically Understanding the Uses of Evidence in Education Policy

  • Gita Steiner-Khamsi 3  
  • Open Access
  • First Online: 02 April 2022

2814 Accesses

1 Citations

The chapter deals with the reference—the unit of analysis for our bibliometric analyses—and examines what it stands for in the policy process. We found Paul Cairney’s ( The Politics of Evidence-Based Policymaking . Palgrave Pivot, 2015) definition useful: “‘[e]vidence’ is assertion backed by information.” In concert with Cairney’s definition, we treat references as a construct or an aggregate of several pieces of information (authorship, year of publication, topic or theme, etc.) that helps position the author in a larger semantic space. We have used all these constitutive elements as epistemological cues for understanding not only whose texts or whose knowledge the authors have selected to substantiate their points with, but also whose knowledge they cite as sources of expertise in order to reduce uncertainty, enhance credibility, or generate legitimacy about the validity of their own claims or assertions. In an era in which we have a surplus of information as well as a surplus of evidence, this is no small enterprise.

  • Education policy

Download chapter PDF

Arguably, the main unit of analysis for all bibliometric analyses is the reference. It may be listed conveniently at the end of a document in a separate bibliographical section, in a footnote, in an endnote or, more inconveniently, only vaguely alluded to in the main text. In either case, the reference communicates or conveys “something” to the reader. One question arises: What exactly does it communicate, what is embedded in a reference, or, to place the question into the context of our study, how have we interpreted the reference in the larger corpus of policy documents that we collected in Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway, and Sweden in an attempt to understand the policy process?

References have several constitutive elements: an indication of authorship, year of publication, topic or theme, location of publisher, and type of publisher. The authorship may be further differentiated by gender, nationality, institutional affiliation, and, if several coauthors are involved, the network structure within the group of authors. All these constitutive elements are essential in a bibliometric analysis because they are utilized as epistemological cues for understanding not only whose texts or whose knowledge the authors have selected to substantiate their points, but also whose knowledge they cite as sources of expertise to reduce uncertainty or generate legitimacy about the validity of their own claims or assertions.

According to political scientist Paul Cairney ( 2015 ), “‘[e]vidence’ is assertion backed by information.” In our bibliometric network analysis, we treat references as a construct or aggregate of several pieces of information (authorship, year of publication, topic or theme, etc.), helping position the author in a larger semantic space. Referencing sources in a policy document—whether it is a Green Paper (in the Nordic context: prepared by government-appointed expert panels) or a White Paper (issued by the government)—is fundamentally different from the references in, for example, an encyclopedia, where the expectation is that the researcher at least pretends to identify the universe of relevant research literature on the topic with which they can situate their own framework. Policy documents are much more evaluative and controversial in nature; therefore, they tend to openly take a stance for or against existing assertions. Unsurprisingly, a bibliometric analysis of policy documents will often surface clusters of like-minded authors/documents and set them apart from those holding viewpoints that are seen as different or distant.

References from the Perspective of Sociological Systems Theory

In the Nordic POLNET (Policy Knowledge and Lesson Drawing in an Era of International Comparison) study, we interpret a reference functionally, that is, in its larger context of evidence-based policy planning. We ask the following: What does a reference stand for—or rather do—in a policy document? From the perspective of sociological systems theory, references are meant to reduce uncertainty for the reader. They do this by making transparent the positionality of the author in the larger, discursive policy space and by documenting the credibility of the sources used for the assertions the author is making. As Jenny Ozga ( 2019 ) has astutely pointed out, the discursive space in policy documents is by default a political space in which authors position themselves in terms of political orientation and alliances.

To reiterate, references help validate or provide legitimacy to the evidence that the author (e.g., the government-appointed expert commissions or the government) has presented in the document. Thus, if “evidence is assertion backed by information” (Cairney, 2015 ), then a reference is validation of evidence . Said differently, references are used to provide authoritative status to the evidence presented in policy documents. Naturally, a host of questions surface with this particular conceptualization of references: Which texts are influential, that is, referenced frequently or referenced by two or more different knowledge networks? Are international references, that is, texts published outside the Nordic region, more influential than national or regional references or vice versa? Does the institutional affiliation (government, academe, “institute sector,” private think-tank, civil society organization) of the author matter? Finally, the cross-national dimension enables us to examine the varied legitimization or authorization strategies in the five countries in depth and, by means of comparison, identify nation-specific patterns in the policy process.

Eyal ( 2019 ) explains Luhmann’s conceptualization of authority, validity, and legitimacy of expert knowledge, juxtaposing the systems-theoretical approach against Jürgen Habermas’ work on the legitimacy crisis. In concert with Luhmann, Eyal uses “validation” in the sense of defensibility to “reassure people that if they would bother to check, they would find that the particular decision was rationally taken and justified, so no need to bother!” (Eyal, 2019 , p. 88). For Luhmann, the insistence on validation is ultimately a “functionally necessary deception” that saves time and prevents discord, here given that every fact may also be interpreted differently.

Strikingly, the validity issue has become key at a time when information is openly and abundantly available and when expertise has become democratized, enabling users and other lay persons to participate in the production of evidence and render each and every piece of evidence contestable. In fact, the two prominent trends in “modern governance practices” are, according to Krick et al. ( 2019 , p. 927), a trend toward scientization and a participatory turn. The first trend is discernible in the composition of government-appointed advisory committees (a growing number of researchers), citation patterns (reference to studies, technical reports, and academic publications), and epistemic language (reference to “evidence,” “knowledge,” “data,” and “research”). The second trend implies greater public engagement in agenda setting as a result of open access to information, calling into question the corporatist or representative model of democracy (see Rommetvedt, 2017 ; Rommetvedt et al., 2012 ). Other scholars (Stehr & Grundmann, 2011 ) have labeled the second trend as a pluralization of expertise. These two trends—scientization and pluralization of expertise—have triggered a third trend that has only recently been discussed (see Lubienski, 2019 ): a surplus of evidence. Taken together, all three trends account for the fact that references, that is, the sources of information used to validate the evidence, have gained authoritative status.

Arguably, referencing other texts as an instrument of validation of one’s assertions has become an object of intense scrutiny, including in bibliometric network analyses. The pressure to disclose the sources of information that were used to produce evidence is discernible in the ever-increasing number of references listed in Green Papers. The Green Papers of the Norwegian Official Commissions (NOUs; Norges offentlige utredninger ) and the White Papers of the Ministry of Education and Research of Norway make for good cases for demonstrating the trend over time. The relevant papers of the 1996 School Reform in Norway made only sparse use of references, many of which were either embedded in the text or listed as footnotes. Twenty years later, however, there were 246 references on average per relevant Green or White Paper for the 2020 Curriculum Renewal Reform (Baek et al., 2018 ).

Paradoxically, the proliferation of evidence-based policy planning has added fuel to the crisis of expertise (see Eyal, 2019 ). Not only has science become politicized and politics scientized, but science has also become demystified in front of everyone’s eyes:

[T]he very discourse on expertise increases uncertainty and threatens legitimacy because now the public is witness to controversies between scientists. (Eyal, 2019 , p. 102)

In effect, the proliferation of evidence-based policy planning has brought to light that evidence is considered not more, and not less, than a subjective assertion backed by information. The boom has generated a surplus of evidence to the extent that there is now the challenge of how to weed out evidence based on relevance and credibility criteria. Concretely, in the wake of complexity reduction, we are witnessing a hierarchization of information (very often with randomized controlled trials on the top and qualitative data on the bottom), rendering some types of evidence more relevant than others. At the same time, the disclosure of the source of information to make a case for the credibility of the evidence, that is, the reference, has become as important, if not more so, than the information itself. In fact, the legitimacy of the assertion rests in great part on the source of the information itself. For example, a reference here and there to OECD studies has become a sine qua non for policy analysts in Europe because the OECD is seen, in the Foucauldian sense, as the founder of discursiveness for a very special kind of policy knowledge that ranks at the top in the hierarchy of evidence, one that operates with numbers and draws on international comparisons to enforce a political program of accountability. Ydesen ( 2019 ) has convincingly documented the rise of the OECD as a global education governing complex that uses a range of policy instruments (PISA, Education at a Glance, country reports, etc.) to diagnose and monitor national developments and advance the global solutions of a particular kind for national reforms.

There are many reasons why OECD studies are attractive for government officials (see Martens & Jakobi, 2010 ; Niemann & Martens, 2018 ). Espeland ( 2015 ) and Gorur ( 2015 ) masterfully observe the advantages of numbers over complex narratives because one may attach one’s own narratives to numbers. What is especially appealing to policy actors are OECD-type studies, that is, statistics, scores, ranking, and benchmarks based on international comparisons or on comparisons over time. Novoa and Yariv-Mashal dissect the politics of international comparison and examine how:

[T]his ongoing collection, production and publication of surveys leads to an ‘instant democracy’, a regime of urgency that provokes a permanent need for self-justification. ( 2003 , p. 427)

Espeland ( 2015 , p. 56) explains the dual process of simplification and elaboration involved in using numbers. In the first step, numbers “erase narratives” by systematically removing the persons, institutions, or systems being evaluated by the indicator and the researcher doing the evaluation. This technology of simplification stimulates narratives, or as Espeland astutely observes:

If the main job of indicators is to classify, reduce, simplify, and make visible certain kinds of knowledge, indicators are also generative in ways we sometimes ignore: the evoke narratives, stories about what the indicators mean, what their virtues or limitations are, who should use them to what effect, their promises, and their failings. ( 2015 , p. 65)

Scholars in comparative policy studies have started to explore why PISA and other international large-scale student assessments are so attractive to policy actors and politicians (Addey et al., 2017 ; Pizmony-Levy, 2018 ). A few studies focused on the “narrative evoking” phase (Espeland, 2015 , p. 65) of such studies have dissected what national governments interpret or project onto OECD reports or other international comparative studies based on their own policy context and agenda (Waldow & Steiner-Khamsi, 2019 ).

Reference Societies in Comparative Education Research

In addition to the governance-by-numbers argument presented above, for many countries, the OECD represents an attractive geo-political space inhabited by people in 36 high-income economies. Therefore, a recourse to OECD publications may be seen both as an affirmation of the affiliation and an acknowledgment of the OECD as a “reference society” (Bendix, 1978 , p. 292) or rather “[transnational] reference space” toward which national governments orient themselves or aspire to belong. In fact, in all five Nordic countries of the POLNET study, OECD publications represent the most cited international texts (see Chap. 11 ). This may come as a surprise for a non-Nordic audience because one would expect competition between two dominant policy discourses in the five countries of the POLNET study: the Nordic reference space, which traditionally has had a strong commitment to equity, and the OECD reference space, which has a mission to advance economic growth.

Thus, in comparative policy studies, the term “reference” also carries a spatial, geo-political, or epistemological connotation. It is used in connection with “reference society” or “reference space.” The reference as a validation instrument and the reference as a point of epistemological orientation both share a common feature: they position the author (in the case of references) or the state (in the case of reference society) in its larger discursive space.

By now, there is a well-established tradition in comparative policy studies to draw on references as an analytical tool to situate the positionality of an actor (author, institution, government) in a broader transnational, geo-political space. This body of scholarship is closely associated with studies on the “reference society” presented by sociologist Reinhard Bendix ( 1978 , p. 292). Bendix uses the term to denote how governments used economic competitors and military rivals as reference societies for their own development. One of the examples discussed by Bendix is the fascination of Meiji-era Japan with the West.

In comparative education, the term was—according to Waldow ( 2019 )—first introduced by Butts ( 1973 ), associate dean and professor of Teachers College, Columbia University. Butts observes that the governments of developing countries frequently used a specific educational system in the Global North as a model for emulation. That country’s path to “modernization” served government officials in the Global South as a reference for educational reforms in their country. It is important to bear in mind here that during Butts’ time, transnational networks and dependencies established during colonial times had endured into the present and determined in great part the choice of reference societies. Another noted historian and comparativist, David Phillips, first coined the term “cross-national policy attraction” to denote the keen interest of nineteenth-century British government officials in the educational reforms of Germany (see Ochs & Phillips, 2002 ). Both Butts and Phillips use records of study visits and government reports as sources for their analyses of cross-national attraction or policy borrowing.

Similar in the conceptual framework but different in terms of unit analysis, Schriewer and Martinez ( 2004 ) use bibliometric data to examine the use of reference societies in “educational knowledge,” as reflected in the publications of educational research journals; they wonder whether educational researchers in their sample of three countries draw on similar or different bodies of knowledge or texts. They purposefully use a time period of 70 years to see whether a convergence toward a single international canon of scientific educational knowledge, here interpreted as internationalization or globalization, has occurred. Concretely, they examine the references listed in flagship educational research journals in three countries (Spain, Russia/Soviet Union, PR China) and code them in terms of the national origin of the referenced authors. Rather than detecting a pattern of steady internationalization toward a single body of internationally acclaimed authors, they notice considerable fluctuation regarding the space allocated to international scholarship, as measured in the number and type of foreign bibliographical references made in the journal articles of the three countries. They find that the “socio-logic” (particularly political developments in a given country) was a better predictor of receptiveness toward international scholarship than an external logic as manifested in the ever-expanding transnational network of educational researchers.

In fact, the era of the greatest convergence regarding educational knowledge was in the 1920s and 1930s, when educational researchers in Spain, the Soviet Union, and China were drawn to the work of John Dewey. Once that brief period was over, Dewey was dropped from the reference list in Soviet educational journals and replaced by Nadezhda Krupskaya (Lenin’s wife). It is striking that against all expectations of globalization or international convergence theorists, educational knowledge in these three countries did not become more internationalized until after the mid-1980s, when all three opened their ideological boundaries and increased international cooperation. Even though Schriewer and Martinez’s ( 2004 ) justification for their case selection leans on a problematic notion of culture and “civilization,” the design and methodology of the study is compelling and well-suited for analyzing international convergence/divergence processes in educational research.

The link between the reference society and political change has also been well documented in comparative education research. Examples include two cases of a radical change in reference societies as a result of fundamental political changes in post-Soviet Latvia and post-socialist Mongolia, respectively. Silova ( 2006 ) examines the erasure of Soviet references and their subsequent replacement with Western European references. She interprets the shift from the Soviet to the Western European reference system as a marker for the new geo-political educational space that Latvia politically and economically had been aspiring to inhabit at the turn of the millennium. What is fascinating about this particular change of political allies is that it has merely affected the discursive level, not the practice of separate schooling. The separation of school systems, one for Latvian speakers and another for Russian and other ethnic speakers, continues to exist; however, segregated schools are no longer seen as “sites of occupation” but are now being reframed as “symbols of multiculturalism.” The list of comparative policy studies on reference societies is too long to present in an exhaustive manner. In our own study on Mongolia (Steiner-Khamsi & Stolpe, 2006 ), we observe the discursive ruptures and reorientation in terms of reference spaces that accompanied the political changes, notably the replacement of the Communist Council for Mutual Economic Assistance with the Asian Development, World Bank, and other post-communist international aid agencies.

Strikingly, studies on reference societies and cross-national policy attraction have experienced a revitalization of a special sort in recent years with the fast advance of international large-scale student assessments (ILSAs) used in many countries as a policy tool for governance by numbers (see Carvalho & Costa, 2015 ; Volante, 2018 ; Waldow & Steiner-Khamsi, 2019). Preoccupation with what league leaders (Finland, Shanghai, Singapore, etc.) have “done right” has generated new momentum for policy borrowing research. Precisely at a stage in policy borrowing research when scholars have put the study of cross-national policy attraction to rest and instead directed their attention at the ubiquitous diffusion processes of global education policies in the form of “best practices” or “international standards” vaguely defined, the cross-national dimension—and by implication the focus on the nation-state and its national policy actors—has regained importance in ILSA policy research.

In the case of PISA (Programme of International Student Assessment), the preoccupation of national policy actors is, at least rhetorically, on how their own system scores compared with others and what there is to “learn” from the league winners, league-slippers, and league-losers, in terms of PISA’s twenty-first-century skills. Because policy actors often attribute “best practices” to particular national educational systems, the national level regained importance as a unit of analysis. Therefore, ILSA policy researchers found themselves in a position of having to bring back the focus on national systems, a unit of analysis criticized as “methodological nationalism,” which, if used naively, is a cause for concern because of its homogenizing effects (see Giddens, 1995 ; Wimmer & Glick Schiller, 2003 ; Robertson & Dale, 2008 ).

Research on reference societies has also been refined over the past few years in other ways. For example, intrigued by negative media accounts in Germany about the PISA league leader Shanghai (during the 2012 PISA round), Waldow scrutinizes the policy usage of “negative reference societies” ( 2016 ) or “counter-reference societies,” respectively. The concept of a reference or counter-reference society is based on commensurability. How do national policy actors make the educational systems of league winners appear to be comparable to their own educational system in a way that can suggest that lessons could be drawn? Vice versa, how do they manage to make two educational systems incommensurable and incomparable to avoid lesson-drawing? The disbelief or the downplaying, respectively, of Chinese success in ILSAs, notably in the PISA rounds of 2012 and 2018, is comparable to earlier stereotypical accounts of Japanese or pan-Asian education.

Similar to the US media accounts of A Nation at Risk (1983) in which American policy analyses attempted but ultimately failed to persuade Americans of the great benefits of the German and Japanese educational systems, the education systems of Beijing, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and Zhejian are, despite “PISA success,” hardly used as models for emulation in Western countries. As with the A Nation at Risk report, the common reaction to Chinese success reflects a “yes, but …” attitude (see Cummings, 1989 , p. 296): even though there is a general agreement about the outstanding student performance in ILSAs in Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Macao, Singapore, and select cities of PR China, there are too many negative stereotypes associated with education in these locations to assign them reference or emulation status. In fact, the exaggerated statements or myths about “Asian education” include images of overly ambitious mothers (“tiger mothers”), excessive use of cram schools, competition and suicide among students, elitist higher education, and social inequality. More often than not, the educational systems in Asia are politically instrumentalized as a counter-reference, that is, examples of how educational systems should not be developed.

Let us now circle back to the five-country study at hand. In the Nordic region, there is an elephant in the room in the broader ILSA space, making one wonder the following: Do the other countries of the region (Denmark, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden) consider the educational system of Finland (a PISA league leader) as a reference or a counter-reference for educational reform in their own system, or are they indifferent toward lesson-drawing from Finland? The coding of the references by their country of publication and the qualitative analysis of thematic cross references make it possible to examine the fascinating question of a reference society within the Nordic education space (see Sivesind, 2019 ; Chap. 12 ).

Clearly, the bibliometric analyses presented in this volume demonstrate that OECD publications eclipse studies from Finland. Two possible yet inconclusive interpretations lend themselves to further investigation: either “Finnish success” is acknowledged but rendered irrelevant for one’s own national context (the “yes, but …” attitude explained earlier), or Finnish success is, for a variety of reasons, including linguistic ones, referenced via an authoritative source of information: OECD publications.

Expertise-Seeking Arrangements in Policy Making

In his dissertation research, Baek ( 2020 ) coins the term “expertise-seeking arrangements,” which captures very well the dilemma of governments in an era of evidence-based policy making: Where and how do they seek advice for policy analysis, evaluation, and formulation? Given that “the authority of experts is destabilized” (Eyal, 2019 , p. 102) in an era in which scientific evidence production is easily demystified and an ever-increasing number of individuals, including concerned citizens and other laypersons, lay claim to expertise, the question of governments’ expertise-seeking arrangements is taking center stage.

Eyal presents a typology of responses to the legitimation crisis, which is reproduced in Table 2.1 below. His focus is on “regulatory science” or the “interface between scientific research, law and policy” (see Eyal, 2019 , p. 7f.).

The first strategy of the state is to pretend that science is purified from politics by pursuing “mechanical objectivity ” (Eyal, 2019 , p. 115), as reflected in references to scores, rankings, numbers, impact evaluations, and quantifiable comparisons. In our case, references to OECD studies, evaluations, and ILSAs belong to this category.

The second strategy of inclusion is to acknowledge that science is politicized—or as Latour has eloquently put it, “Science is not politics. It is politics by other means” ( 1984 , p. 229)—and, therefore, includes laypersons, interest groups, and other engaged citizens into the advisory bodies of the government.

The third strategy of exclusion is to decouple science from politics and generate “gate-keeping mechanisms designed to maintain an artificial scarcity of expertise” (Eyal, 2019 , p. 105; see also Weingart, 2003 ); these are typically academic associations (academy of sciences) or professional associations that claim exclusive expertise and advise the government.

The fourth and final strategy of outsourcing represents another functional differentiation process. It decouples science from politics to the extent that it delegates research and policy formulation to outside groups, think-tanks, or semiprivate entities. Eyal contends that the fourth strategy is oftentimes a reaction to failed attempts of the state to generate trust or being inclusive, which would be pursued in the first three strategies. In particular, the fourth strategy is often a response to the critique that the second strategy—the appointment of ad hoc advisory commissions or government-appointed expert commissions—are merely meant for window-dressing and rarely impact the ultimate policy decisions and formulations prepared by government officials.

Another useful typology of “advisory system activity” has been developed by Craft and Howlett ( 2013 , p. 193ff.). In general, they find a trend toward the inclusion of nonstate actors (think-tanks, open data citizen engagement driven policy initiatives/web 2.0, etc.) and international actors (e.g., OECD, ILO, UN organizations) as policy advisors. This is in stark contrast to traditional advisory systems, which mainly have drawn on national advisory bodies, including statistical offices, strategic policy units within the government, or government-appointed ad hoc commissions.

Naturally, the changing nature of the relationship between politics and science has preoccupied comparative policy studies for a while. One of the early, more important comparative studies exploring the interpenetration of the two function systems is the research project “The role of knowledge in the construction and regulation of health and education policy in Europe: convergences and specificities among nations and sectors,” abbreviated as Know&Pol and funded in the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Commission (see, e.g., Fenwick et al., 2014 ). Knowledge-based regulation, which is analyzed in the Know&Pol research project, has fundamentally changed the role of the state from one that runs schools to one that establishes learning standards and monitors learning outcomes, thereby enabling a multitude of providers, including businesses, to enter the school market. Over the past 20 years or so, the private sector has become not only a major provider of education, but also a key policy actor, lobbying for reforms that further restrict the role of the state in the education sector (Verger et al., 2017 ).

As mentioned above, knowledge-based regulation has also enlarged the radius of individuals contributing to policy-relevant educational knowledge. An early indication of changes in knowledge production and sharing is the open-access policies that both governments and research councils have put in place recently. System theorists Peter Weingart and Justus Lentsch ( 2008 ) consider such open-access policies to be part and parcel of a democratization of expertise; here, the relationship between science and politics has experienced three distinct shifts over the past 70 years ( 2008 , p. 207 ff.). During the early period of scientific policy advice (1950s–1970s), the ad hoc expert commissions insisted on being autonomous and independent from governments. As a corollary, their reports amassed foundational scientific knowledge that policy actors could or could not use, respectively. In a second phase, the commissions became increasingly politicized (1970s to 1990s) because they were charged with the task of producing policy-relevant scientific knowledge. In the current third phase, the governments in many countries have experienced a shift from “knowledge-based legitimacy” to “participation-based legitimacy.” This also applies to government-appointed ad hoc expert commissions. Governments are under pressure to “democratize” scientific policy advice by (i) providing open access to reviews and expertise, (ii) expanding the definition of “experts” (including nowadays, both producers and consumers), and (iii) insisting that the knowledge products are useful, that is, provide a clear foundation for stop/go policy decisions.

In the five participating countries of the Nordic region, there is a wide array of expertise-seeking arrangements that these countries’ governments have put in place (see Chap. 10 ). The Eurydice Report ( 2017 ), Support Mechanisms for Evidence-Based Policy-Making in Education , is incomplete (data on Iceland is missing) and too imprecise to provide any useful clues for a categorization of expertise-seeking arrangements. For example, the government-appointed expert commissions in Norway (NOUs) and Sweden (SOUs) that amass evidence to substantiate their evaluation of past reforms and their recommendations for new directions are not mentioned. As documented in the OECD study on policy advisory systems (OECD, 2017 ), in all five countries, there is a commitment to evidence-based policy planning (which in some countries is inscribed in law), an extensive stakeholder review, or a “hearing” process in which draft versions of new policy are opened up for public consultation.

The type of expertise-seeking arrangement in each of the five countries needs to be kept in mind when interpreting the role of experts in producing evidence for policy making. It may be useful to draw on an existing typology of such arrangements. For example, Weingart and Lentsch identify six types of commissions that provide scientific advice for policy making ( 2008 , Chap. 2 ): (i) policy-domain-specific advisory councils, (ii) expert commissions for risk management, (iii) policy-specific expert commissions, (iv) ad hoc commissions, (v) enquete commissions, and (vi) sector research.

The typology may be used to categorize the five types of expertise-seeking arrangements in the countries of the Nordic region. According to the typology of Weingart and Lentsch ( 2008 ), the government-appointed “official commissions” in Norway and Sweden (NOUs and SOUs, respectively), which prepare and help legitimize policy decisions, fall into the categorization of “ad hoc commissions.” In Denmark, the School Council, which was established in 2006, serves to advise the ministry on topics related to elementary school (see Chap. 4 ). In Finland, the expertise-seeking arrangement is multisited or hybridized, according to Holli and Turkka ( 2021 ). The government-appointed ad hoc commissions, which exist in Norway and Sweden, were abolished in 2003 and replaced with broad-based working groups. The representation of academics declined over time and constituted only 4.7% of all working group members in 2015. At the same time, the Government of Finland pluralized the policy advisory system:

[T]he policy advisory system of Finland shows signs of hybridisation, as the channels and organization of policy advice have pluralised and advice has taken new forms. (Holli & Turkka, 2021 , p. 58 [translation by the authors])

The partial externalization of policy advice is manifested in the rise of “state investigators” or consultants who are hired to produce government-commissioned reports to a general outsourcing of policy research. According to the authors, Finland has created a “research market,” where the state buys the research it needs for policy preparation. In Iceland, finally, the composition of advisory bodies is strictly regulated in terms of gender and political parties to ensure an inclusive consultative process. According to the OECD survey on policy advisory systems, which is carried out in 17 countries, including the 5 Nordic countries studied here, the policy advisory system in Iceland requires that at least 40 of the members of ad hoc advisory commissions are female and that all political parties are represented (OECD, 2017 ).

The OECD has formulated five quality standards for policy advisory systems: adaptability, transparency, autonomy, inclusiveness, and effectiveness. The OECD 17-country study (OECD, 2017 ) presents a positive assessment of the ad hoc advisory committees found in the Nordic region:

Ad hoc advisory bodies […] are often used by governments to gather evidence-based answers to particular questions relatively quickly. They often serve as a “fast track” and specialized option for governments to obtain advice. The Nordic countries have well-established traditions of creating ad hoc bodies to enhance the adaptability of the system. (OECD, 2017 , p. 17)

Implications for the Five-Country Bibliometric Network Analyses

In the parallel universe of “gray literature” or technical reports, which are often commissioned by international organizations, there is an interesting discussion unfolding on the rapid spread of “global public goods” (GPGs) or global knowledge banks. GPGs include, for example, openly accessible international toolkits, documents, studies and databanks, training modules, good practices, and global monitoring reports. Clearly, the GPGs are openly accessible information, nowadays often backed up with numbers that any local, national, or international organization may use to back up their production of evidence. The rapid spread of GPGs was addressed by a few scholars around the turn of the millennium (notably Stone, 2000 ), but curiously, the discussion has not yet gained traction in academic debates. Hence, a brief summary of the debates, carried out in the context of development studies, may be in order here.

Within development studies, the discussion is now bifurcating in at least two different directions. One group of authors makes the argument for more funding for GPGs produced by a more diverse body of researchers (based in the Global North and the Global South) and another group critically examines the uptake of GPGs for national policy making at the national level (see Vasquez Cuevas, 2020 ).

In some countries, a wide range of propositions have been made about how to remedy the shortfalls related to global agenda setting, channeling of aid, and GPGs (see Schäferhoff & Burnett, 2016 ). Some suggestions entail more funding at the global level, whereas others notice that the production of GPGs is mostly done by a few global actors (OECD, the World Bank, the UN system) at the expense of national research institutions outside of North America, Europe, and Australia. This applies in particular to think-tanks, research institutions, and universities in the Global South, whose knowledge products are rarely taken up at the global level. Examples of more funding to the Global South include Oxfam’s early suggestion to eliminate one-size-fits-all benchmarking processes and dedicate three grants for capacity building to recipient governments and civil society organizations of low- and lower-middle-income countries (Oxfam, 2010 ).

For a while, the question arose whether the World Bank, UNESCO institutions, UNICEF, Global Partnership for Education, or other international organizations should earmark funds for research capacity building and policy analysis. One of the early suggestions was to increase funding for the global and regional agencies of UNESCO and UNICEF to advance cross-country sharing of knowledge on education and development. In addition to statistics, the UN organizations would use the funds to disseminate knowledge derived from research and from global sharing of experience. Others found the World Bank to be ideally suited for helping expand research funding and activities given its commitment to evidence-based policy making; they recommended that researchers at the World Bank would work more closely with other staff for country-level policy advice (Clemens & Kremer, 2016 ). Unsurprisingly, the lively debate in development studies is on whose knowledge is made publicly available at the global level and whose knowledge is confined to the national boundaries of its producers.

In OECD countries, the debate over the asymmetry of global knowledge production and update seems to center more on the language of publication (English vs. all other languages) rather than on the center/periphery differentiation in an unequal world system. Some countries in the Nordic region (Sweden and Norway in particular) require that all public documents be made openly accessible. The transparency standard of policy advisory systems, which are forcefully promoted by the OECD ( 2015 , 2017 ), is also practiced in the other three Nordic countries.

The open-access policies and practices have both enabled and exacerbated the “participatory turn” or the “pluralization of expertise” (see Krick et al., 2019 ), which has been explained above. The decline in corporatism or interest group representation in policy advisory systems is but one of the manifestations of this trend. Another manifestation is the surplus of evidence.

In the US context, Lubienski ( 2019 ) contends that there is not a scarcity but rather a “surplus of evidence.” In such a “marketplace of ideas,” there is ample opportunity for new, nonstate actors—specifically the private sector—to serve as intermediaries between research production and policy making:

Into the chasm between research production and policy-making, we are seeing the entrance of new actors—networks of intermediaries—that seek to collect, interpret, package, and promote evidence for policymakers to use in forming their decisions. (Lubienski, 2019 , p. 70)

Indeed, two decades after neoliberal calls for less politics and more scientific rationality in the policy process, we are now entering a new phase in policy making: the stage of surplus of evidence in which calls for “actionable research,” “policy-relevant research,” or “what works” studies are being heard. At the 2015 Public Governance Ministerial Meeting in Helsinki, the ministers from OECD countries agreed (OECD, 2015 , p. 3) that evidence alone is not sufficient. Evidence needs to be policy relevant, robust, and comparable:

We acknowledge the importance of evidence as a critical underpinning of public policies and recognize the need for a continuous effort to develop policy-relevant evidence on government performance that is robust and comparable. “What Works” initiatives are an example of how to ensure systematic assessment and leverage the stock of information on good practices available at the international level on policy impact. (OECD, 2015 , p. 3)

In the Nordic policy context, the OECD plays a major role as a transnational policy advisor and standard setter. During the first phase of evidence-based policy planning, the OECD advanced the notion of autonomous policy advisor systems that produce, independent of the state, evidence. In today’s stage of evidence overproduction, the OECD offers itself as an interpreter of evidence by selecting from the marketplace of ideas those that are actionable and in line with the broader political program of accountability.

The proliferation of GPGs and the overproduction of evidence make it pressing to investigate the changing role of government-appointed advisory commissions in the production and interpretation of evidence. A host of research questions open up once we acknowledge that the presentation of “facts” (information) and transformation of these facts into evidence rests on a subjective selection process that reflects the frame of reference or broader discursive orientation of the author.

Based on the elaborations presented above, we have several research questions that lend themselves to a systems-theoretical preoccupation with evidence-based policy planning: First, what sources of information do government-appointed advisory panels consider credible and, therefore, select to reduce uncertainty and generate trust? Second, what kind of hierarchization of evidence do government-appointed advisory panels generate to reduce complexity? Third, bearing in mind the three most common types of externalization, what type of externalization do the cited texts represent: reference to (i) tradition or values (e.g., Nordic value of equity), (ii) organization (e.g., reference to laws and regulations), or (iii) scientific rationality (e.g., studies and evaluations). Fourth, in which broader epistemic community, or rather political reference space, do the authors situate themselves? Finally, given the academization of government-appointed advisory commissions in some countries (Christensen & Hesstvedt, 2018 ), as a result of which the number of academics serving as members increased at the expense of interest group representatives, the phenomenon of structural coupling between science and politics (Steiner-Khamsi et al., 2019 ; Weingart, 2003 ; Stehr & Grundmann, 2011 ; see also Chap. 10 ) offers itself as an object of empirical scrutiny.

This chapter has attempted to demonstrate how a bibliometric network analysis may be used as a method of inquiry for understanding legitimization processes in evidence-based policy making. Drawing our attention to how uncertainty is reduced and trust in evidence is created is essential in an era in which there is a surplus and, by implication, competing notions of evidence. A bibliometric investigation of the references in a text provides important clues about the (i) selection of sources of information, (ii) hierarchization of evidence, (iii) and type of externalization made by an author to leverage authority for the claims made in the text. A network analysis of the references further helps complicate the findings. In fact, the focus on relations brings to light that different authors use the same references for different purposes, that is, one and the same reference may show up in, and bridge, two different knowledge networks. Perhaps needless to reiterate, the long list of fascinating research questions, which are presented in a nonexhaustive manner in this chapter, gains additional attraction when investigated across the five different national contexts within the Nordic region.

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Steiner-Khamsi, G. (2022). What Is in a Reference? Theoretically Understanding the Uses of Evidence in Education Policy. In: Karseth, B., Sivesind, K., Steiner-Khamsi, G. (eds) Evidence and Expertise in Nordic Education Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-91959-7_2

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Formatting References for Scientific Manuscripts

Srinivas b s kambhampati.

Sri Dhaatri Orthopaedic, Maternity and Gynaecology Center, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India

Lalit Maini

1 Department of Orthopaedics, Maulana Azad Medical College, New Delhi, India

While references are an essential and integral part of a scientific manuscript, format and style of references are as varied as the number of journals currently present. International Committee of Medical Journal Editors in their latest recommendations for publication, 1 advice authors to quote original references whenever possible. We would recommend the readers to go through these guidelines as they are given in sufficient detail to submit a good set of references including styling. Other resources for citing references include the PubMed section 2 which gives samples of formatting of different reference types and the eBook: Citing Medicine, 3 published by the U. S. National Library of Medicine, which gives assistance and rules to authors, editors, publishers and librarians for formatting of references for different reference types.

References are formatted in two basic styles – the Vancouver style which is numeric (more commonly used in medical journals) and Harvard which uses author-date style (more commonly used in natural and Social sciences journals). 4 Parts and order of the parts cited differ on what the author is citing (reference type) and the journal that is being submitted to. The most common types of references include journal article, book, book section or chapter, dissertation, monograph, and webpage. As an example, for a journal article, the parts of a reference in the sequence include authors, article title, journal title, date of publication, volume, issue, and location/pagination. Each journal has its own modification of the format for each part and the punctuation marks, or their lack of, between the parts. Formatting style in each part of a reference could involve placement of selected punctuation marks, bold and italics enhancements, alphabetical order or sequential ordering of references and style of citing in the text, making the combination of variations that create a unique reference style as large in number as the number of journals currently published. It is not clear why such a system has evolved, but it requires considerable attention to detail to get the formatting correct and is time-consuming for the author. The tradition of the journal has been thought as one of the reasons. 4 In manuscripts submitted for the Indian Journal of Orthopaedics (IJO), the reference section carries the most formatting errors committed by authors.

The advantage of having a constant style within a journal is two-fold, apart from an esthetic appearance of references across all articles published by the journal. Ease of reading the references at the end of each article and ease of finding reference part by the reader if he/she is used to the format and plans to look up the reference. As a student/professional in the medical field, one would require attention to finer details of his/her research work as well as in their clinical practice and hence exercising attention to the references would help improve those skills. Such a wide variation in the styles of references has also benefitted some software companies who deal with reference managers (RMs). Some RMs are free for use, and the authors are advised to use different RMs to see which one suits their needs best. While some RMs are cloud based, others are computer based and do not require an internet connection while some others are cloud and computer based. The variation in the style of references across journals appears unlikely to be standardized to a single universal format in the near future.

The Citation Style Language (CSL) is an XML-based computer language developed to standardize formatting of citations and references in manuscripts submitting to journals. They are text application editable files which are imported into RMs. An increasing number of RMs use CSL to help users format their list of references according to individual journal guidelines. However, not all journals are supported by CSL files.

There are two main repositories for access to CSL files – One by GitHub 5 and the other by Zotero 6 developed by Corporation for Digital Scholarship and Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media. These contain more than 8500 styles of references. Authors using Zotero, Mendeley, RefWorks, Papers, CrossRef, Bibliography, and some 42 other RMs can use these CSL files to manage references within them. IJO did not have a CSL file until now in both the repositories. In this scenario, there are a few options for the authors preparing references for a manuscript. First, to type and style references manually which would take a long time and prone to human errors. Second, a CSL file similar to IJO may be selected from the repository and used and later manually edited, if any needed. However, this involves searching for an exact match of style for a journal registered in the repository of CSL files. Third, there are RMs with inbuilt options to format references while citing in the text. This option is independent of CSL. The disadvantage here is that the author is bound by the list of reference styles already loaded within the software. They may not be able to add new formats. Fourth, some RMs allow authors to prepare a style, but this would take some time to prepare if the style is not already inbuilt. As a fifth option, a CSL file that is close to IJO may be chosen, and the code of this file tweaked with minor editing to convert it for use with IJO. To do that, the author must be familiar with programming or editing of HTML/XML files since HTML is a language that is closer to XML.

Zotero's repository 7 website has a user-friendly interface in which such searches are easier to perform. It has 9357 styles stored in the repository at the time of writing this article on March 17, 2019. There are 1924 unique styles through which one can search if their required journal is listed. Zotero draws CSL files from GitHub into their repository. Hence, if a file is created in GitHub, it is drawn into Zotero by default. CSL Project 8 is a website sponsored by four well known RMs. These are Zotero, Mendeley, 9 Papers, 10 and RefWorks. 11 This website gives detailed specifications and documentation of CSL language if one is interested in coding these files. If one is proficient with XML, they can create a style and submit it to the GitHub website for others to benefit. Editing is easier if one uses the Zotero RM as it has an inbuilt option to edit style. It can be done even in other managers or with the use of a standard text editing application in Windows or Mac operating systems. Once a new CSL file is developed, in order to publish it, it has to be validated by CSL validator website 12 and submitted at the GitHub site for accepting into the repository. Even finer details like number of author names before et al. while formatting reference, punctuation marks and their placement, style of each part of the reference and each style of the reference, etc., can be edited accurately.

Once developed, the output of references and citations is remarkably consistent, and too much time need not be directed to editing the punctuation marks and styling of the references and citations while preparing the manuscript. The only hurdle after this would be to get full details of the references reliably and accurately into the RM database while importing the references. The author needs to check that the references were properly imported into the database. If verified, they may be used any number of times with precision. With appropriate selection, the citing as well as the list of references can be formatted according to the journal that is being considered, for submission. Those who are already using RMs may be well aware of the advantages and the time such CSL files can save while preparing a manuscript.

We are happy to inform that a CSL file for IJO has now been created in the GitHub repository 1 and Zotero Styles repository 3 and it can be used by authors using the RMs listed in the CSL website and benefit from its use. The direct link of the file in the repository is given 13 [ Figure 1 ]. Basic users of RMs may download it through their RMs by selecting Indian Journal of Orthopaedics option. Advanced users who know where to place this file may access using the weblink given. Examples of reference style and citation for IJO are given in Figure 2 .

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is IJOrtho-53-381-g001.jpg

Screenshot of browser shows the web address and search words used to retrieve Citation Style Language file for Indian Journal of Orthopaedics

An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is IJOrtho-53-381-g002.jpg

Examples of format of references and their citation in text for the Indian Journal of Orthopaedics

Research-Methodology

Referencing

Referencing is one of the most important aspects of any academic research and poor or lack of referencing will not only diminish your marks, but such practices may also be perceived as plagiarism by your university and disciplinary actions may follow that may even result in expulsion from the course.

Difference between References and Bibliography

It is very important to be able to distinguish between References and Bibliography. Under References you list resources that you referred to within the body of the work that also include quotations.  For example,

It has been noted that “time and the management of time is an important issue, and the supply of time management products – books, articles, CDs, workshops, etc. – reflects the huge demand for these products” (Walsh, 2007, p.3).

Interchangeability of identical parts and a high level of straightforwardness of attaching these parts through the assembly line can be considered as revolutionary components of Fordism for the first part of the 20 th century (Nolan, 2008).

Under Bibliography, on the other hand, you need to list resources that you have read during the research process in order to widen your knowledge about the research area , but specific piece of information from these resources have not been used in your research in the direct manner. You do not need to refer to Bibliography within the body of the text.

There are various methods of referencing such as Harvard, APA and Vancouver referencing systems. You should check with your dissertation handbook for the exact type of referencing required and follow this requirement thoroughly.

Referencing

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Citing and referencing

What is Referencing?

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Referencing is a standardized method of formatting the sources you have used in your written works. Any given referencing style serves many purposes: 

  • Establishing credibility by citing reliable sources.
  • Preventing plagiarism by giving credit to original creators. 
  • Building on and connecting with existing knowledge. 
  • Enabling verification and reproducibility of research. 
  • Abiding and demonstrating intellectual property rights and standards.
  • Providing evidence to support your arguments. 
  • Acknowledging diverse perspectives and sources in your work. 

Referencing Elements

1. In-text citations

In-text citations are important, they consist of mentioning a specific source used in the body of the work. The format of the citation may change depending on the style you are using (e.g. MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.), yet there are some basic elements you need to include, which are: 

  • Name of the author(s)
  • Year of publication

If you used a direct quote from a source, you must add the exact page number in your citation. 

2. List of references

This is  a list of the sources you have cited in the text placed at the end of your paper. It is not a list of “works consulted”. Every source listed in your references' list needs to be also cited in the body of your work and vice versa. 

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  • Last Updated: Feb 6, 2024 10:17 AM
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What is Reference? Definition, Uses, Types vs Advantages

Generally, the term ‘reference’ means an allusion to an object, concept, or idea uttered or mentioned in a context different from the present. Regarding academic references, the meaning is slightly more technical and specific.

Here, ‘reference’ specifically means the citations and sources of information listed at the end of journals, books, articles, and essays. In essence, it is always necessary to have an intrinsic link between two objects or pieces of information, in which case one can be used to reference another. It is also necessary that this relationship can be established in the given context.

Key Takeaways A reference is a source of information used to support or verify a statement, claim, or fact. References may come in various forms, such as books, articles, websites, or personal communication. References are important for maintaining academic integrity, avoiding plagiarism, and ensuring credibility.

Quiche vs Souffle 98

Uses and types of references

  • The word is used in various ways in different contexts. For instance, it refers to a letter of recommendation in the professional sphere. No matter the context, it fundamentally establishes a link or connection.
  • References in academic journals and papers occur in citations or footnotes. Several styles and formats (APA, CMS, MLA, etc.) must be followed.
  • References can also be made as a list at the end of an article or essay as a complete bibliography .
  • References are used to create meaning and promote better understanding, but it has to be understood that there is a fundamental difference between meaning and reference. References only promote comprehensibility by drawing parallels and differences.
  • References are an absolute must to avoid plagiarism and copyright violations. It ensures that credit is assigned where it is due and the completed work does not infringe upon another’s intellectual property.

Advantages of using references

  • References help to build an entire network of information, a thread in which each is connected to the next.
  • It is the basis of primary and secondary research and how new ideas are explored, and theories are written.
  • Quality of references improves journals and papers. Often the reputation of an academic journal has been found to depend on the quality of references.
  • In the professional sector, references help employers streamline their search while choosing employers. References serve as both letters of recommendation and resumes, which is the ideal way to determine one’s capabilities.

Disadvantages of using references

  • Certain styles of academic references may be complex and disruptive, harming the flow of the written work.
  • It brings about a degree of rigidity to the work when in-text references are used. While it may be a necessary practice to avoid plagiarism, it is certainly not the most reader-friendly.
  • References may often be misleading and/or provide inadequate information. If the reference is not elucidated in the work but is listed at the end, it may not be easy to understand the connection between the two.
  • If not drawn out clearly, references leave ample scope for misinterpretation. If a book or article blatantly disagrees with another work or derives the thought from it but deviates in its application, inadequate knowledge on the part of the reader will cause gaps in the meaning.
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/20115956?seq=8#metadata_info_tab_contents
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1470593105058817
  • https://www.jstor.org/stable/2025108?seq=5#metadata_info_tab_contents

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Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page .

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Cross-referencing

Introduction.

Cross-referencing is a powerful tool that can greatly enhance your work. Good cross-referencing allows readers to link quickly to related material elsewhere in your work, adding significant functionality and value.

Pointing to a specific, relevant target is the key to effective cross-referencing, particularly in digital formats.

Please follow these instructions for effective cross-referencing:

  • Limit your cross-referencing to one type of target within your work, e.g. headings or paragraph numbers. Ensure the wording for your cross references are consistent. OUP’s preference is for ‘see [para/section/chapter number or heading]’. This need for consistency is particularly important if you are editing a multi-contributor volume.
  • Give a clear target for each cross-reference and do not use terms such as ‘see above/below’, ‘infra’/’supra’, ‘ante/post’, or print-specific language such as ‘see overleaf’/'see opposite’. Instead, reference specific headings (see the section ‘ cross-referencing by heading ’).
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  • Do not include cross references within headings. Headings and cross references are both treated as hyperlinks, and a single link cannot point to more than one place.
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Cross-referencing figures, tables, and boxes

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Cross-referencing via headings doesn’t work with long streams of unbroken text.  Break it up by placing main headings and sub-headings at regular and appropriate intervals. In addition to facilitating cross-referencing, this practice allows your reader to easily read and navigate your work.

Cross-referencing by numbered heading

Heading numbers can be used to point to cross-referencing targets (e.g. ‘see 4.3.2’). They make short, unobtrusive, and specific targets that are not tied to pagination.  This method is especially useful in textbooks and reference works with a lot of cross-referencing, as well as in digital publications. Completing cross-referencing before submission cuts down on queries during the production process.

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Figure 9 : An example of using numbered headings for cross-referencing.

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If your manuscript does not use numbered headings, please use the heading itself for cross-referencing:

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Figure 10 : An example of using unnumbered headings for cross-referencing.

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Read our research on: Israel | Internet & Technology | Election 2024

Regions & Countries

8 charts on technology use around the world.

Women work on laptops in the Bibinagar village outskirts of Hyderabad, India, in 2013. (Noah Seelam/AFP via Getty Images)

While internet use is nearly ubiquitous in many countries, not everyone is online. Divides still exist on technology usage between people in some advanced economies and those in some emerging economies, according to Pew Research Center data from 27 countries in 2022 and 2023.

Smartphone ownership and social media use also vary around the world. While most adults in the countries surveyed own smartphones and use social media, there are still pockets where many do not.

In addition, there are divides within countries on internet use, smartphone ownership and social media use based on demographic factors such as age, education and income. Almost universally, younger people and those with more education and income are more likely to be online, own a smartphone and use social media.

Related: Americans’ Use of Mobile Technology and Home Broadband

This analysis explores internet, social media and mobile phone use in 27 countries. It uses data from multiple Pew Research Center surveys:

  • 2022 Global Attitudes Survey of 20,944 respondents across 18 advanced economies from Feb. 14 to June 3, 2022
  • 2023 Global Attitudes Survey of 10,235 respondents across eight emerging and developing economies (Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Mexico, Nigeria, South Africa) from Feb. 25 to May 22, 2023
  • 2023 National Public Opinion Reference Survey (NPORS) of 5,733 U.S. respondents from May 19 to Sept. 5, 2023

The data was collected using various methods, including online, face-to-face and telephone interviews.

Data from Australia is not included in analyses of internet use or phone ownership.

NPORS asked Americans about specific websites or apps used, but the data is not comparable to the question on social media in other countries. For more on technology use in the United States, including specific social media site usage, read “Americans’ Use of Mobile Technology and Home Broadband” and “Q&A: How – and why – we’re changing the way we study tech adoption.”

Technology use can influence how surveys are conducted. For example, our surveys in Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea are only conducted on mobile phones because the prevalence of mobile phone ownership is so high. A 2023 study by the  Korea Information Society Development Institute  found that 98.3% of all people in Korea, not just adults, own a mobile phone.

In addition, people who take our survey over the phone may be more likely to use technology than those who take the survey in person. In 2019, we conducted  simultaneous telephone and in-person surveys  in Italy. Both samples were representative of the Italian population with respect to age, gender, education and region. Respondents who took part in the telephone survey had somewhat higher rates of internet use, smartphone ownership and social media use. We moved from in-person interviews to telephone interviews in Italy in 2020 and Greece in 2021, and we do not make direct comparisons to survey results prior to the mode change.

Respondents in each country were provided with a list of smartphone and social media types; refer to  this country-specific table  for more information.

To compare educational groups across countries, we standardize education levels based on the UN’s International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED).

  • In India, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Brazil, the lower education category is below secondary education and the higher category is secondary or above.
  • The lower education category is secondary education or below and the higher category is postsecondary or above in Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden, the UK, Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Israel, Argentina and Mexico.
  • The lower education category is some college or below and the higher category is a college degree or more in the U.S.

Here are  the questions used  for this report, along with responses, and its  methodology . U.S. smartphone  and  internet  data was drawn from a separate list of questions.

This is the first post in a series about internet use worldwide. The next post will focus on social media’s perceived influence on democracy. Data for this series was collected over two years using various methods, including online, face-to-face and telephone interviews.

Here are eight charts about technology use around the world.

A majority of adults in all countries surveyed use the internet. Internet users are defined as people who say they use the internet at least occasionally or have access to the internet via a smartphone.

In most countries surveyed, around nine-in-ten or more adults are online. At the upper bound, 99% of South Koreans are online.

Comparatively fewer adults are online in India (56%), Nigeria (57%) and Kenya (66%). Still, internet use in these countries continues to grow as economic outcomes improve and technology becomes more widespread.

Within countries, however, internet use remains highly dependent on demographic factors such as age, education and income.

A bar chart showing that internet use is exceedingly common worldwide, but not everyone is online.

In every country surveyed, adults ages 18 to 39 are significantly more likely than those 40 and older to use the internet. These gaps are especially large in several of the middle-income countries surveyed in 2023.

For example, 73% of adults in India who are younger than 40 say they use the internet, compared with 36% of Indians 40 and older. Similar gaps exist in Hungary, Indonesia, Mexico and Poland.

Differences by age in advanced economies are relatively small. In just over half of these countries, internet use among 18- to 39-year-olds is universal, at 100%.

A dot plot showing that younger adults are more likely than their elders to use the internet.

In all countries surveyed, adults with more education are more likely than those with less to use the internet. As with age, the education gap on internet use is most pronounced among people in emerging economies, such as India and Nigeria. In these countries, those with more education are about twice as likely as those with less education to use the internet.

Large gaps by educational attainment also exist in Indonesia, Kenya, Poland and South Africa. (Because education systems differ by country, the levels of education for “more education” and “less education” also vary. Read the “How we did this” section for more information.)

Similarly, adults with higher incomes are much more likely than those with lower incomes to use the internet.

A dot plot showing that adults with more education are more likely to use the internet.

Majorities of adults in nearly every country surveyed say they own a smartphone. Rates of smartphone ownership are highest in South Korea, where 98% report owning a smartphone, and lowest in India and Nigeria, where fewer than 50% do. (Refer to the appendix for types of smartphones given as examples in each country.)

Around three-quarters or more of adults in advanced economies in North America, Europe and Asia say they have smartphones.

However, two-in-ten or more in India, Kenya and South Africa say they own a mobile phone that is not a smartphone. In Nigeria, 42% say this.

And in India, three-in-ten say they do not own a mobile phone at all – the highest share of any country surveyed.

A bar chart showing that majorities own a smartphone in most countries surveyed.

Smartphone ownership tends to be higher in countries with higher per-capita gross domestic product. Similar patterns also appear within countries: In nearly every country surveyed, people with incomes above the national median are more likely than those with lower incomes to report owning a smartphone.

These differences are largest in Hungary, Israel and Poland, where people with higher incomes are around 30 percentage points more likely than those with lower incomes to have a smartphone.

A chart showing that smartphone ownership is high among wealthy nations.

Adults with more education and older adults are more likely than their counterparts to own a smartphone in every country surveyed. In India, around three-quarters of those with at least a secondary school education own a smartphone, compared with around one-third of people with less education.

Large gaps also exist in Mexico (36 percentage points), Kenya (34 points), South Africa (32 points) and Nigeria (30 points).

In addition, adults ages 18 to 39 are more likely than their elders to own smartphones in nearly every country surveyed. For example, 98% of younger adults in Hungary say they own a smartphone, compared with 65% of adults 40 and older.

A dot plot showing that those with more education are more likely to own a smartphone in nearly every country surveyed.

Roughly half or more of adults in 26 countries say they use social media sites. Social media use is most common in Argentina, Brazil and Malaysia, where over eight-in-ten report using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter (now known as X) and Instagram. (Refer to the appendix for the list of sites people in each country were given as examples of social media.)

But social media use is widespread across most surveyed countries. Majorities in all but two countries report using social media.

In Europe, Germany (51%) is the only country where fewer than six-in-ten adults say they use social media. And in the Asia-Pacific region, India (47%) is the only country where fewer than seven-in-ten say this.

A map showing that social media usage is highest in Latin America and most of Asia-Pacific.

Adults under age 40 are more likely than their elders to use social media. In every country surveyed, the difference between younger and older adults is greater than 10 percentage points.

A dot plot showing that younger people are more likely to use social media in most countries surveyed.

The gap is biggest in Poland, where 98% of adults under age 40 use social media sites. Only about half (48%) of their older counterparts say the same. In Germany, Hungary, India and Indonesia, there are also differences of 40 points or more.

The gap is smallest in Israel, where 72% of those 40 and older report using social media, compared with 85% of younger adults.

A 2022 Center report found that the age gap in social media use has narrowed over time across 19 advanced economies. That is because older adults’ rate of using social media has increased more quickly than that of younger adults in a number of countries.

In some countries, those on the political left are also more likely than those on the right to use social media. For example, eight-in-ten Hungarians who place themselves on the ideological left report using social media sites, while about six-in-ten of those on the right say the same.

Note: Here are  the questions used  for this report, along with responses, and its  methodology .

CORRECTION (Feb. 7, 2024): Previous versions of the first six charts in this post misstated the survey mode used in the U.S. survey. 

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Q&A: How – and why – we’re changing the way we study tech adoption

What the data says about americans’ views of artificial intelligence, about 1 in 5 u.s. teens who’ve heard of chatgpt have used it for schoolwork, as ai spreads, experts predict the best and worst changes in digital life by 2035, most popular.

About Pew Research Center Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, media content analysis and other empirical social science research. Pew Research Center does not take policy positions. It is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts .

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  • 29 January 2024

Signs of ‘transmissible’ Alzheimer’s seen in people who received growth hormone

  • Carissa Wong

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A coloured computed-tomography scan of a brain affected by Alzheimer's disease.

A coloured computed-tomography scan of a brain affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Credit: Zephyr/SPL

Researchers say they have uncovered more evidence to support a controversial hypothesis that sticky proteins that are a signature of Alzheimer’s disease can be transmitted from person to person through certain surgical procedures.

The authors and other scientists stress that the research is based on a small number of people and is related to medical practices that are no longer used. The study does not suggest that forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease can be contagious.

Still, “we’d like to take precautions going forward to reduce even those rare cases occurring”, says neurologist John Collinge at University College London who led the research 1 , which was published in Nature Medicine on 29 January.

For the past decade, Collinge and his team have studied people in the United Kingdom who, during childhood, received growth hormone derived from the pituitary glands of cadavers to treat medical conditions such as short stature. The latest study finds that, decades later, some of these people developed signs of early-onset dementia. The dementia symptoms, such as memory and language problems, were diagnosed clinically, and in some patients appeared alongside plaques of the sticky protein amyloid-β in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. The authors suggest that this protein, which was present in the hormone preparations, was ‘seeded’ in the brains and caused the damage.

Contaminated hormone

The work builds on the team’s previous studies of people who received cadaver-derived growth hormone, a practice that the United Kingdom stopped in 1985. In 2015, Collinge’s team described 2 the discovery at post-mortem of amyloid-β deposits in the brains of four people who had been treated with the growth hormone. These people had died in middle age of the deadly neurological condition Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease, which is caused by infectious, misfolded proteins called prions. The prions were present in batches of the growth hormone.

The four people analysed in that study died before clinical signs related to the amyloid-β build-up might have been observed. But the presence of these amyloid plaques in blood vessels in their brains suggested that they would have developed a condition called cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) — which causes bleeding in the brain and is often a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.

Collinge’s team also located and studied archived batches of the cadaver-derived growth hormone. In a 2018 study 3 , they reported that certain batches of the hormone preparation contained amyloid-β proteins , and that when such preparations were injected into mice, this led to the development of amyloid plaques and caused CAA in the animals.

This led the team to wonder whether the contaminated hormone preparations might also have resulted in people who received it developing Alzheimer’s disease, in which amyloid plaques are thought to cause the loss of neurons and brain tissue.

In the latest study, the researchers found that five out of eight people who had received the hormone treatment in childhood — but did not develop Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease — developed behavioural signs of early-onset dementia later in life, between the ages of 38 and 55. Collinge’s team argues that these five people — whom the researchers studied in the clinic or through medical records and brain scans — met the diagnostic criteria for early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Early-onset Alzheimer’s is usually caused by certain genetic variants, but the researchers did not find these variants in three of the people who showed signs of Alzheimer’s and whose DNA samples were available for testing. “This is consistent with these patients having developed a form of Alzheimer’s disease resulting from childhood treatment with this contaminated pituitary hormone,” says Collinge. Taken together, the studies suggest that, in rare cases, Alzheimer’s disease could be transmitted through the transfer of biological material, the authors argue.

However, the study’s small size limits the strength of the findings, says neuroscientist Tara Spires-Jones at the UK Dementia Research Institute at the University of Edinburgh. “Are the amyloid-β seeds from the hormone treatment playing a role in the development of dementia? It’s hard to know with just eight people,” she says.

It cannot be excluded that some of the people might have developed dementia regardless of the hormone treatment, says neuroscientist Mathias Jucker at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Tübingen. “These people had many different medical conditions which could have increased the risk of developing a neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s disease,” he says.

Researchers including Spires-Jones also question whether the people with dementia actually had Alzheimer’s, despite the clinical diagnoses.

“There are often errors in diagnosing the type of dementia someone has while they’re alive,” agrees neuroscience researcher Andrew Doig at the University of Manchester, UK.

From a public-health perspective, there is no need to be concerned about ‘transmissible’ dementia today, says Spires-Jones. “This treatment doesn’t exist anymore.”

Despite the study’s limitations, the research furthers our understanding of neurodegenerative diseases, scientists say. “I’m glad that people are doing amazing research to help us better understand seeding of neurodegenerative disease by amyloid-β,” says Spires-Jones.

“I think many other scientists will now look for additional evidence to explore the idea of transmissible Alzheimer’s,” says Jucker.

Nature 626 , 241-242 (2024)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-00268-5

Banerjee, G. et al. Nature Med . https://doi.org/10.1038/s41591-023-02729-2 (2024).

Article   Google Scholar  

Jaunmuktane, Z. et al. Nature 525 , 247–250 (2015).

Article   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Purro, S. A. et al. Nature 564 , 415–419 (2018).

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Law enforcement seizures of psilocybin mushrooms rose dramatically between 2017-2022

NIH-supported research highlights need to better understand psilocybin in context of growing psychedelic use

Number of Law Enforcement Seizures of Psilocybin Mushrooms in the United States, 2017-2022

Law enforcement seizures of “ magic mushrooms” or “shrooms ” containing the psychoactive component psilocybin increased dramatically in the United States between January 2017 and December 2022, according to a new study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. The number of law enforcement seizures increased from 402 seizures in 2017 to 1,396 in 2022. In addition, the total weight of psilocybin mushrooms seized by law enforcement increased from 226 kg (498 lbs) seized in 2017 compared to 844 kg (1,861 lbs) in 2022.

The researchers found that most seizures occurred in the Midwest (36.0%), followed by the West (33.5%). The greatest total weight in seizures came from the West (1,864 kg/4,109 lbs, representing 42.6% of all seizures), followed by the South (1,832 kg/4,039 lbs, representing 41.8%). Though there was a significant increase in the total weight of psilocybin mushrooms seized between 2017 and 2022 overall, the investigators found that the total weight seized peaked in 2021 (1,542 kg/3,400 lbs).

This analysis, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence , was led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, New York City, and the University of Florida, Gainesville. The data used for the analysis were collected through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) program, a grant program aimed at reducing drug trafficking and misuse administered by the Office of National Drug Control Policy . Though law enforcement seizures do not necessarily reflect prevalence of use, they represent an indicator of the availability of illicit drugs.

Psilocybin mushrooms fall under a broader drug category known as psychedelic and dissociative drugs , which can temporarily alter a person’s mood, thoughts, and perceptions. Self-reported data on the prevalence of their use is limited, though available research suggests that use of drugs like psilocybin that cause hallucinations has increased among adults aged 35-50 in recent years . In addition, research suggests that psilocybin is the most consumed plant-based psychedelic drug in the United States, with 11.3% of individuals aged 12 or older in the United States reporting having ever used psilocybin in 2022 .

“We are in the middle of a rapidly evolving cultural, media, and legal landscape when it comes to psychedelics, and we need data to help shape informed and appropriate public health strategies,” said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. “Moving forward, we must continue to track data on the availability of psychedelics, patterns in use, and associated health effects to guide efforts in promoting accurate education and reducing potential harms among people who do plan to use psychedelic drugs.”

Psilocybin is not currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of any condition or disease. In recent years, there has been growing research interest in the potential of psychedelic and dissociative drugs to treat medical conditions , including mental health disorders. Importantly, research on psychedelics as a medical treatment is done within a therapeutic structure, which includes a preparatory session with a clinician, a controlled environment and supervision while experiencing the effects of psilocybin, and follow-up sessions.

However, most people who report using psychedelic and dissociative drugs do so outside of medical or research settings for a variety of reasons , including for recreation, or based on the belief that doing so will improve well-being or allow for spiritual or self-exploration. Adverse effects have been associated with use of psilocybin mushrooms, such as “bad trips,” which are marked by distorted thinking, perceptual changes, putting oneself in physical danger, and intense feelings of fear, anxiety, and confusion. People who take psychedelic drugs like psilocybin may also experience short-term side effects such as raised blood pressure and heart rate, agitation, confusion, vomiting, or nausea, which may be severe and require medical attention. In recent years, possession of psilocybin has become increasingly decriminalized throughout the U.S. at the state level. Together, the authors note that these factors may influence nonmedical or recreational use of psilocybin mushrooms in the U.S.

“While psilocybin is by no means the most dangerous drug, recreational use can come with unforeseen risks such as bad trips” said Joseph J. Palamar, Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and co-investigator on the NIDA-funded National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) , and lead author on the paper. “Research studies suggesting its effectiveness in treating mental health issues and extensive positive media coverage may lead some people to seek shrooms outside of medical contexts. People who use psilocybin outside of medical supervision need to be educated about risks associated with use.”

The authors note that states and regions where seizures are reported don’t necessarily reflect the intended destinations for the seized psilocybin mushrooms. In addition, law enforcement efforts may vary across areas, and a higher number of seizures could be a result of increased vigilance by law enforcement. HIDTA seizures don’t encompass all drug seizures in the US; however, the researchers did observe similar overall increases by region based on data published by the DEA National Forensic Laboratory Information System . The authors also note that it is unknown to what extent psilocybin mushrooms were seized in “wet” or “dry” form, which can significantly impact the recorded weight of each seizure and prevents weight measures from being translated into possible doses.

“Most national surveys and studies don’t capture self-reported data on psilocybin use specifically, so these findings help shed important light on an area where we’ve been largely left in the dark,” said Linda B. Cottler, Ph.D., M.P.H, principal investigator of NDEWS, University of Florida, and author on the paper.

For more information on substance and mental health treatment programs in your area, call the free and confidential  National Helpline  1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit  FindTreatment.gov . Anyone who needs assistance with the first steps in pursuing help can find guidance at  FindSupport.gov .

  • JJ Palamar, et al. National and Regional Trends in Seizures of Shrooms (Psilocybin) in the United States, 2017-2022 . Drug and Alcohol Dependence . DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2024.111086 (2024).

About the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance addiction science. For more information about NIDA and its programs, visit www.nida.nih.gov .

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov .

About substance use disorders: Substance use disorders are chronic, treatable conditions from which people can recover. In 2022, nearly 49 million people in the United States had at least one substance use disorder. Substance use disorders are defined in part by continued use of substances despite negative consequences. They are also relapsing conditions, in which periods of abstinence (not using substances) can be followed by a return to use. Stigma can make individuals with substance use disorders less likely to seek treatment. Using preferred language can help accurately report on substance use and addiction. View NIDA’s online guide .

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health®

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Biden Takes Aim at Grocery Chains Over Food Prices

President Biden has begun to accuse stores of overcharging shoppers, as food costs remain a burden for consumers and a political problem for the president.

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what is reference in research

By Jim Tankersley

An economics reporter in Washington who covers policy from the White House

President Biden, whose approval rating has suffered amid high inflation, is beginning to pressure large grocery chains to slash food prices for American consumers, accusing the stores of reaping excess profits and ripping off shoppers.

“There are still too many corporations in America ripping people off: price gouging, junk fees, greedflation, shrinkflation,” Mr. Biden said last week in South Carolina . Aides say those comments are a preview of more pressure to come against grocery chains and other companies that are maintaining higher-than-usual profit margins after a period of rapid price growth.

Mr. Biden’s public offensive reflects the political reality that, while inflation is moderating, voters are angry about how much they are paying at the grocery store, and that is weighing on Mr. Biden’s approval rating ahead of the 2024 election.

Economic research suggests the cost of eggs, milk and other staples — which consumers buy far more frequently than big-ticket items like furniture or electronics — play an outsize role in shaping Americans’ views of inflation. Those prices jumped more than 11 percent in 2022 and 5 percent last year, amid a postpandemic inflation surge that was the nation’s fastest burst of price increases in four decades.

The rate of increase is slowing rapidly: In December, prices for food consumed at home were up by just over 1 percent, according to the Labor Department . But administration officials say Mr. Biden is keenly aware that prices remain too elevated for many families, even as key items, like gasoline and household furnishings, are now cheaper than they were at their postpandemic peak.

And yet there is a general belief across administration officials and their allies that there is little else Mr. Biden could do unilaterally to force grocery prices down quickly.

“It’s hard to figure out what the short-term policy response is in this situation,” said Bharat Ramamurti, a former economic aide to Mr. Biden and an author of a report on grocery-price inflation that the progressive Groundwork Collaborative in Washington published on Friday.

“When you have something that is driven in part by supply disruptions, what can you actually do to put downward pressure on prices?” he said.

The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing — and widely expected to block — a merger between two large grocery-store chains, Kroger and Albertsons. Opponents of the deal say it would reduce competition and allow the merged company to charge shoppers higher prices. But blocking that deal would do little to address the current price pop.

A Kroger executive on Thursday welcomed Mr. Biden’s increased focus on grocer profits, insisting that the merger would reduce costs for customers.

“We agree with President Biden: Too many grocers in America have increased margins in contrast to Kroger, who have reduced our margins consistently for nearly 20 years to save customers billions,” said Keith Dailey, Kroger’s group vice president of corporate affairs and chief sustainability officer. “Through our merger with Albertsons, Kroger will lower prices for even more of America’s consumers.”

A new analysis from the White House Council of Economic Advisers suggests that elevated profit margins among large grocery retailers could be contributing to the stubbornly high price of food on store shelves. The analysis, which relies on Quarterly Financial Reports data from the Census Bureau, found that food and beverage stores had increased their margins by about two percentage points since the eve of the pandemic, reaching their highest level in two decades.

Much of that increase came in 2021 and 2022, around the time that other retailers — like clothing and sporting goods stores — also saw profit margins jump. Grocery-store margins have stayed elevated, the analysis finds, even as other retailers’ margins have fallen back to more normal levels based on recent history.

“President Biden has made clear that as input prices fall, corporations should pass those savings on to consumers,” Michael Kikukawa, a White House spokesman, said this week.

Mr. Biden made a similar point last fall in a post on the social media platform X.

But the White House analysis also implies that increased grocery profit margins do not come close to accounting for the price spikes that grocery shoppers have experienced under Mr. Biden’s tenure.

Grocery store margins are rising

Other research suggests additional forces — like consumer demand and supply-chain disruptions — are a much bigger factor in the price increases. A bout of avian flu caused egg prices to spike last year, for example. And food producers, like soft-drink manufacturers, have continued to raise prices even as their costs have declined, leading to heady profit margins.

Researchers from the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City found last year that strong job growth in the U.S. economy, and the wage gains associated with a tight labor market, were key contributors to grocery-price increases. Processed foods, like candy bars, account for three-quarters of recent grocery price increases, the researchers found.

The tight labor market, they said, had resulted in higher costs for producing and distributing those foods, “which have been passed on to consumers.”

Mr. Biden’s administration has tried several efforts to soothe grocery price pressures , particularly on the supply side. The Agriculture Department has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help companies expand in the meatpacking industry, which is dominated by a handful of large players.

The department also changed its calculations of federal food assistance benefits and adjusted them for inflation, effectively increasing the value of food stamps for many low-income Americans. Mr. Ramamurti and his co-authors, Elizabeth Pancotti and Clara Wilson, calculate those increases have more than outweighed the increased cost of groceries for 40 million families in recent years.

In an interview, Ms. Pancotti said the consumers feeling the most pain from high food prices were the ones who earned just enough money not to qualify for the food-stamp program, which is known as SNAP.

“You have this huge chunk of people in the middle who are low-income, but not impoverished enough to get SNAP benefits, and paying 25 percent more” for groceries, she said. “At the end of the day, it just doesn’t reach enough people.”

The commission is also considering enforcement actions under a nearly 90-year-old law, the Robinson-Patman Act, which requires suppliers of retail goods to offer the same terms to every retailer they sell to. Supporters of those enforcement actions say they would drive down prices at smaller grocers, by ensuring they can buy items for the same cost as large retailers.

Politically, though, big grocers make the most appealing target for Mr. Biden. Aides are discussing how he can ramp up pressure on large chains in the weeks and months to come.

“Americans, we’re tired of being played for suckers,” the president said in South Carolina. “And that’s why we’re going to keep these guys — keep on them and get the prices down.”

Jim Tankersley writes about economic policy at the White House and how it affects the country and the world. He has covered the topic for more than a dozen years in Washington, with a focus on the middle class. More about Jim Tankersley

Our Coverage of the 2024 Presidential Election

News and Analysis

A special counsel’s report  that depicted President Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”  and “diminished faculties in advancing age” captured Democrats’ fears ahead of the election  and fueled Republicans  as they tried to cast the president as weak.

The Democratic National Committee accused Robert Kennedy and a super PAC that is backing his independent presidential bid of illegally coordinating on a petition drive  intended to qualify him for the ballot in several states that could be crucial to Biden’s re-election prospects.

Former President Donald Trump glided to victory in Nevada’s Republican caucuses on Feb. 8 , an outcome all but guaranteed because he was the only major candidate on the ballot.

Disparate Economic Pictures: Democrats say Nevada’s economy is getting better, while Republicans argue it’s getting worse. Which message resonates more could help make a difference in the pivotal battleground state in November .

Behaving Like an Incumbent: As he rolls toward the Republican nomination, Trump is using the imagery of his presidency  to twist the race in his favor in ways big and small.

Watching From a Distance: Maj. Michael Haley, Nikki Haley’s husband, has missed the highs and lows of his wife’s pursuit of the White House while deployed to Djibouti. He is still a big presence in her campaign .

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CEO explains why GE Healthcare's research and development is focused on AI

  • GE Healthcare CEO Peter Arduini told CNBC's Jim Cramer about developing AI products, including technology to make patient data more cohesive.
  • AI can also also enhance imaging, and Arduini said customers are willing to pay up for advanced technology.

In this article

GE Healthcare CEO Peter Arduini talks AI investments

In a Thursday interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer , GE Healthcare CEO Peter Arduini said a lot of his company's research and development efforts are focused on artificial intelligence.

Arduini went through several ways AI can enhance health-care workers' productivity, including technology that makes patient data more cohesive.

"The last piece, which we're assembling now and will evolve in the next few years, is what's called multimodal data integration — your genomics information, your pathology information, your image data," he said. "All together on one pane of glass, and a given algorithm, or foundational model, that can help decipher through that data and help your clinician move you in the right direction."

Arduini also described how AI can be used in MRIs, CTs and ultrasounds to heighten imaging, claiming that customers are willing to pay more for these advanced products. He added that GE Healthcare's R&D investments over the past year created a pipeline of 40 new products that will have a "flywheel effect" on the business.

Arduini also reflected on GE Healthcare's first year as an independent company from GE, saying that independence enabled progress.

"Focus is a lot. We have a very focused board, we have people coming to us that really are dedicated to health care," he said. "We've been able to free up our own balance sheet to invest across the company."

GE Healthcare CEO Peter Arduini goes one-on-one with Jim Cramer

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Disclaimer The CNBC Investing Club Charitable Trust holds shares of GE Healthcare.

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  1. Choosing a Research Topic

  2. Meaning of Research

  3. Research Project (What is research, research question, and bibliography/referencing)

  4. How to Select a Research Topic

  5. Reference Management using Mendeley

  6. Research report /Qualities of good research

COMMENTS

  1. References in Research

    Definition: References in research are a list of sources that a researcher has consulted or cited while conducting their study. They are an essential component of any academic work, including research papers, theses, dissertations, and other scholarly publications. Types of References

  2. Why and when to reference

    Referencing correctly: helps you to avoid plagiarism by making it clear which ideas are your own and which are someone else's shows your understanding of the topic gives supporting evidence for your ideas, arguments and opinions allows others to identify the sources you have used. When to reference

  3. Citations, References and Bibliography in Research Papers [Beginner's

    Learn the difference between citations, references and bibliography in research papers and how to use them correctly. Find out the purpose, placement and information of each element and how to follow the style of your target journal.

  4. What is referencing?

    Referencing is used to tell the reader where ideas from other sources have been used in an assignment. It shows the reader that you can find and use sources to create a solid argument, properly credit the originators of ideas, and show how your argument relates to the big picture. Learn the basics of referencing, the types of sources, and the different referencing styles.

  5. References

    Learn how to prepare references in APA Style that provide the information necessary for readers to identify and retrieve each work cited in the text. Find out the elements, format, and examples of references in the seventh edition APA Style manuals.

  6. Reference List: Common Reference List Examples

    Learn how to format your reference list of sources cited in your study in APA style. These instructional pages offer examples of reference list entries for different types of sources as well as guidance on the variations for citing online materials using doi numbers and URLs. ... Technical and research reports by governmental agencies and other ...

  7. Reference Sources

    Reference sources are generally the place to begin your research, especially when you're starting out with an unfamiliar field. But they're also where you return when you need to look up formulas, facts, definitions, and other standard details; they tend to pack a lot of information into simple, easy-to-use packages. Physical Media

  8. PDF What is Referencing and why is it important?

    footnotes, endnotes, reference list or bibliography. (The format and terms used depend on the citation style.) The terms reference list and bibliography are sometimes used to mean the same thing, that is, the complete list of references or bibliographic details for the sources you have cited. However, bibliography can be

  9. Referencing and citations

    Learn the basics of referencing and citations, how to avoid plagiarism, and the different styles and formats for different subjects and disciplines. Find tips, guides, and resources to help you cite and reference your sources correctly and efficiently.

  10. Accessing Scientific Literature and Referencing

    The reference section provides a list of the references that you cited in the body of your work, whether it be a literature review, original investigation research article or essay. It is important to accurately cite references in research papers to acknowledge your sources and ensure credit is appropriately given to authors of work you have ...

  11. Reference List: Basic Rules

    It provides the information necessary for a reader to locate and retrieve any source you cite in the body of the paper. Each source you cite in the paper must appear in your reference list; likewise, each entry in the reference list must be cited in your text.

  12. How to Cite Sources

    At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays, research papers, and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises). Add a citation whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

  13. How to write references in research papers| Researcher.Life

    A reference in research papers is a citation that points to a source of information or other relevant sources. Learn the types, sequence, punctuation and typography of references in different systems and formats. See examples of how to write references in research papers with the Harvard and Vancouver systems.

  14. How to Cite a Journal Article

    In an MLA Works Cited entry for a journal article, the article title appears in quotation marks, the name of the journal in italics—both in title case. List up to two authors in both the in-text citation and the Works Cited entry. For three or more, use "et al.". MLA format. Author last name, First name.

  15. Citation Styles Guide

    A scientific citation style is a system of source citation that is used in scientific disciplines. Some commonly used scientific citation styles are: Chicago author-date, CSE, and Harvard, used across various sciences. ACS, used in chemistry. AMA, NLM, and Vancouver, used in medicine and related disciplines.

  16. Reference Sources: What They Are and How to Use Them: Home

    Reference sources often provide an excellent starting point for a research project. They are a good place to find general background and introductory information, specialized terminology, and lists of references for further research.

  17. What Types of References Are Appropriate?

    Potentially appropriate: books, encyclopedias, and other scholarly works. Another potential source that you might use when writing a research paper is a book, encyclopedia, or an official online source (such as demographic data drawn from a government website). When relying on such sources, it is important to carefully consider its accuracy and ...

  18. What Is in a Reference? Theoretically Understanding the Uses of

    What Is in a Reference? Theoretically Understanding the Uses of Evidence in Education Policy Gita Steiner-Khamsi Chapter Open Access First Online: 02 April 2022 2784 Accesses 1 Citations Abstract The chapter deals with the reference—the unit of analysis for our bibliometric analyses—and examines what it stands for in the policy process.

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    The Citation Style Language (CSL) is an XML-based computer language developed to standardize formatting of citations and references in manuscripts submitting to journals. They are text application editable files which are imported into RMs. An increasing number of RMs use CSL to help users format their list of references according to individual ...

  20. Referencing

    Under References you list resources that you referred to within the body of the work that also include quotations. For example, It has been noted that "time and the management of time is an important issue, and the supply of time management products - books, articles, CDs, workshops, etc. - reflects the huge demand for these products ...

  21. Research Guides: Citing and referencing: What is Referencing?

    Referencing is a standardized method of formatting the sources you have used in your assignments or written work. Any given referencing style serves many purposes: acknowledge the source and give credit to the author. avoid plagiarism. allow the reader of your paper to find the original sources you used. add credibility to your work.

  22. What is Reference? Definition, Uses, Types vs Advantages

    A reference is a source of information used to support or verify a statement, claim, or fact. It can be in various forms, such as books, articles, websites, or personal communication. References are important for academic integrity, avoiding plagiarism, and creating meaning and credibility. Learn more about the uses and types of references in academic and professional contexts.

  23. Cross-referencing

    Cross-referencing is a powerful tool that can greatly enhance your work. Good cross-referencing allows readers to link quickly to related material elsewhere in your work, adding significant functionality and value. Pointing to a specific, relevant target is the key to effective cross-referencing, particularly in digital formats.

  24. 8 charts on technology use around the world

    Internet users are defined as people who say they use the internet at least occasionally or have access to the internet via a smartphone. In most countries surveyed, around nine-in-ten or more adults are online. At the upper bound, 99% of South Koreans are online. Comparatively fewer adults are online in India (56%), Nigeria (57%) and Kenya (66%).

  25. Signs of 'transmissible' Alzheimer's seen in people who ...

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  26. Law enforcement seizures of psilocybin mushrooms rose dramatically

    Importantly, research on psychedelics as a medical treatment is done within a therapeutic structure, which includes a preparatory session with a clinician, a controlled environment and supervision while experiencing the effects of psilocybin, and follow-up sessions. ... Reference: JJ Palamar, et al. National and Regional Trends in Seizures of ...

  27. Biden Takes Aim at Grocery Chains Over Food Prices

    Feb. 1, 2024. President Biden, whose approval rating has suffered amid high inflation, is beginning to pressure large grocery chains to slash food prices for American consumers, accusing the ...

  28. CEO explains why GE Healthcare is so focused on AI

    In a Thursday interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer, GE Healthcare CEO Peter Arduini said a lot of his company's research and development efforts are focused on artificial intelligence. Arduini ...