Citing Secondary Sources Notes

Citing Secondary Sources

  • Writing academic and technical texts requires knowledge of secondary sources, argument construction, and cohesion.

Reference Style Guide at MCAST

  • Use the Harvard Style Guide for all citations and references.

In-text Citations

  • Direct Quotes: Quote an author’s words exactly. E.g., Vella (2014, p.12): "Climate change is a natural phenomenon."
    • Keep direct quotes minimal; use them for definitions/statistics.
  • Indirect Quotes: Paraphrase an author's ideas. E.g., Vella (2014) believes climate change results from the environment.
    • Majority of citations should be indirect quotes.

Citing Authors

  • Single Author: Use last name and year, e.g., (Dostoyevsky 1993).
  • Two/Three Authors: List all authors with commas and 'and' before the last author, e.g., (Austin, Rees and Vinaver 1961).
  • Four or More Authors: Use the first author’s surname followed by 'et al.', e.g., (Harkness et al. 2003).
  • No Author: Use the title or organization as the author, e.g., (Collins German-English Dictionary 1993).

Citing from Secondary Sources

  • Always try to find the original publication. E.g., Schneider's work cited in Forrester Jones et al. (2002).

Citing Online Sources

  • Cite normally if all details are available.
  • No Date: Use 'n.d.' instead of a date, e.g., (Smith n.d.).

Ellipsis in Quotes

  • Use ellipsis (i.e., …) to indicate omitted words in quotes, e.g., Smith (1979, p. 9) argues that critical path theory is important to project management in terms of both "planning for success… [and] preventing budget over-runs."

Reference List Guidelines

  • Alphabetical Order: List references alphabetically by author surname.
  • All Authors Listed: Multiple authors must all be included.
  • No Bullets/Numbers: Format without bullets or numbers; leave space between sources.
  • Include Access Date: For online sources, include access date and URL.

Reference Formats

  1. Books: Last name, INITIALS. Year. Title. Place of publication: Publisher.
    • E.g., Adams, A.D. 1906. Electric transmission of water power. New York: McGraw.
  2. Online Journal Articles: Last name, INITIALS. Year. Title. Journal Title. [Online]. Volume(issue), page numbers. [Date accessed], Available from: URL.
    • E.g., El Gharras, H. 2009. Polyphenols: food sources… [Accessed 10 June 2013]. Available from: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com
  3. Print Journal Articles: Last name, INITIALS. Year. Title. Journal Title. Volume(issue), page numbers.
  4. Online Sources: Last name, INITIALS. Year. Title. [Online]. [Date accessed]. Available from: URL.
  5. Chapters in Edited Books: Last name, INITIALS. Year. Chapter title. In: Editor last name, INITIALS. ed(s). Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher, page numbers.
  6. Electronic Books: Authors, (Year). Title. [Online]. Edition. Publisher. Available from: URL [Accessed date].
  7. Newspaper Articles: Last name, INITIALS. Year. Title. Newspaper name, Date, page number.
    • E.g., Toynbee, P. 2006. Comment & Debate. Guardian, 5 September, p. 27.
  8. Conference Papers: Last name, INITIALS. Year. Title. In: Editor last name, ed. Conference name, Location, Date. Place of publication: Publisher, page numbers.
  9. Theses: Treat published theses as authored books.