How to Create a List of References

Each entry in the list of references should have it is own number, starting with 1. They are arranged in the order in which they appear in the text.

When you cite a reference, place its number in superscript at the end of the appropriate line in the report. An example would look like this:

Use of mobile phones has skyrocketed in the last decade, from about 400 million users in 2007 to over two billion in 2015.1

In the following sections, we will show you how to create entries for a variety of materials.

Books

Books by one author should include the author's name, book title in italics, and publishing information in parentheses. Publishing information should include place of publication, publishing house, and date published. If you want to reference a particular page, you can put its number at the end.

Some some antiquated style guides suggest you underline a title instead of italicizing it. Underlining is an artifact from the typewriter age, and is best avoided. Use italics instead.

As you can see in the example below, each item is isolated, either by italics or parentheses, so they are easily grasped.

If the book has two authors, list both authors. Otherwise, the entry is identical:

Notice, however, that we included "3rd ed" immediately after the title. This means we are referencing the 3rd edition of this particular book. This may seem like a minor distinction, but it is really not. Big changes can occur between editions -- information updated, sections re-arranged, passages re-worded. The part you referenced may not even exist in another edition.

Notice also that a page number was omitted.

If a book has three or more authors, then only list the first, along with the words, "and others." The term "et al" is a bit antiquated and should be avoided. All other aspects are identical:

Anthologies

An anthology is a collection of pieces written by various authors and bound into a book. The pieces are usually related in some way, and selected and arranged by an editor. The way we reference an anthology is a bit trickier than the way we referenced a book by a single author. If we wanted to reference the entire volume, the entry would be nearly identical to that of a book, except, instead of the author, we would use the name of the editor, with the descriptor "ed."

If we wanted to refer to a particular article in the anthology, we would list the author's name, the title of the article in quotation marks, the book title in italics, the name of the editor, publishing information in parentheses, and the page number.

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