178 Leeds University Library - Referencing faqs
Leeds University Library

Frequently asked questions: Referencing

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Referencing FAQ's

Q: How do I write a reference for a source without an author?

Q: What should I do if I use lots of pages from the same website? How would I reference this in my bibliography – would I have to list all of the pages?

Q: If I access an online journal, but print the article out and read it on paper, do I still refer to it as on online journal?

Q: Should I include a very long URL for an online journal article or a webpage?

Q: If there is a town and county/state on the title page, do I include both in my reference?

Q: If more than one publisher is mentioned, should I list them all?

Q: If I am citing a chapter, should I put the author of the chapter in my citation, or the editor of the book?

Q: If a book has reprinting dates, do I have to take the reprinting date as a new publishing date and new edition accordingly, or should I take the original publication date only?

Q: How do I cite the ideas of an author that I have read about in the work of a different author?

Q: What do I do if there is no publication date?

Q: Do I have to write the title of an item (book, chapter, article etc.) with a capital letter on every word?

Q: I often see the abbreviations ibid., op. cit. and et al. in lists of references. What do they mean?

Q: Can I put the authors name in full instead of using the initials?

Q: How do I reference material in a foreign language?

Answer:

You should reference exactly what you read, so if you read the item in the foreign language, then you should reference it in the foreign language. For example:
FOUCAULT, M. 1971. L'archéologie du savoir. Paris : Galimard.

Q: How do I reference something I read in translation?

Q: Should I include the ISBN?

Q: If I use a table/graph etc from a source and then adapt it to use in my own assignment how do I reference it?

Q: What is the difference between p. and pp.?

Q: Why are titles written in italics in the reference list/bibliograpy?

Q: Do I need to reference html and pdf documents differently?

Q: How do I quote from a website or other online resource that doesn't give page numbers?

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