Research Tools: Bibliography

Online bibliography generators will layout your items correctly but you must check that the information is correct at the end.

Pick one, set it to APA or the Harvard system, enter details about the items you used.  

It is very important to acknowledge WHERE you find your information.  

You must acknowledge:

• Direct quotes (using someone else's exact words)
• Copied details / facts (using figures, tables, etc)
• Paraphrasing (placing someone else's ideas in your words)
• Summaries (presenting a brief account of someone else's ideas)
• ALL sources must be referenced: websites, books, videos, magazines, newspaper articles, personal communication, etc. 

Follow the prompts on the website to find out how to reference various resources.

Book: Author Year of publication, Title of book, Publisher, Place of publication . 

   Example: 

   Rowling, J 1997, Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, Bloomsbury Publishing House, London . 

Website: Author of web site Year, Title of Article, Title of Website, viewed date, URL

   Example: 

   Rowling, J  2012, What's new on JKRowling.com, J K Rowling, viewed 14 March 2103, http://www.jkrowling.com/en_GB/

 

Encyclopaedia: Author (if there is one), 'Title of Article', Title of encyclopaedia, Pubisher, Place, vol no., pages

  Example:

Smith, J  'Germany', The World Book Encyclopedia 2004, World Book, Sydney, vol. 8, pp. 114-116.

Encyclopaedia online (World Book Online will generate a citation for you at the bottom of the article)

 

An image, photograph or graph from a website: Author (artist, person or organistation responsible, if available) Year, Title of image (or a description), description of item (eg image), name of organisation or website, viewed Day Month Year,URL

  Example (Author):

Jorgensen, L 2000, The Egyptians - society, image, History on the net, viewed 24 February 2014, http://www.historyonthenet.com/
Remember if there is no author the title of the image goes first.

  Example (No Author): The Egyptians - society, 2000, image, History on the Net, viewed 24 February 2014, http://www.historyonthenet.com/

 

Video 

Title date of recording, format (eg DVD), publisher, place of recording, additional information.

  Example:

Annie Hall 1977, DVD, MGM Home Entertainment, Santa Monica CA, directed by Woody Allen.

Alien underworld 2002, video recording, Tattooed Media and the Australian Film Finance Corporation, Australia, written & directed by Sonya Pemberton

 

Youtube

Author, date of recording, Title of clip, online video, viewed date, URL

Example:

Crosson, S 2008, Accounting basics 1 - where did accounting come from, online video, viewed 16 November 2011,
 http://youtube.com/watch?v=mpNmcFzy6-4

 

VARIATIONS
Organisation 

Book: British Museum 2009, Ancient artifacts, Oxford University Press, Oxford.   

Website:  Ancient Egypt 2013, Australian Museum, viewed 14 March 2013,  http://australianmuseum.net.au/Ancient-Egypt.

No author

Book: Ancient Rome 2010, Macmillan, Sydney . 

Website: A history of ancient Rome 2011, History Learning Site, viewed 13 March 2013,  http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/a_history_of_ancient_rome.htm.

 

Two or three authors

Book: Robinson, S, & Smith, L 2012, Ancient History, Penguin Publishing, New York.  

Website: McGee, K, & Snyder, J 2013, Civilisations of the East, viewed 14 March 2013, http://www.civilisations.com/east  

More than three authors

Book: Polster, B and others 2007, Eight ancient wonders, Puffin,New York.  

Website: Maxwel, J and others 2010, Egypt, viewed 14 March 2013,  http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/City/Egypt

 

No date - In the position of the year type n.d.

Example: Robinson, S  n.d., Ancient History, Penguin, Melbourne. 

Editions   The edition (if other than the first edition) is included after the main title.

Example: Stewart, A 2009, Stewart's guide to employment law, 2nd edn, Federation Press, Annandale, New South Wales.

Print Newspaper

If using Microsoft WORD, select 'Article in Periodical'. 

Author, Year, Title of article, Publication, Day and month, page. 

Example: Smith, L 2013. Bombers to take on big shot. The AGE, 23 April, pp. 6-7.

Digital Newspapers 

If using Microsoft WORD, select 'Document from Website'.

Author, Year, Title of article, viewed day month year,  http://

Example: Smith, L 2013. Bombers to take on big shot, viewed 23 April 2013  : http://www.theage.com/bombers_to_take_on_big_shot

Below is a video to show you how to use Word to complete your bibliographies. 

How do I write an Annotated Bibliography?

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources or citations with a brief evaluative summary (annotation) about each source. Its purpose is to describe and evaluate the text in a way that allows the reader to decide whether or not to use the source.

Terminology

Source	The material you have used for your topic; for example: journal articles, electronic sources, books or chapters of books, websites, interviews, etc.
Citation	Gives the precise bibliographical information needed to locate the material; it is the same as a list of references and is placed in alphabetical order.
Annotation	Follows each individual citation and is a note that explains, describes and/or evaluates the cited source. Annotations are normally no more than 50 to 150 words.

How to write an Annotated Bibliography.

1. Locate the source material (resources) that may contain useful information and ideas on your topic.
2. Cite the book, article or document, using the Harvard style of referencing. You may go to the Library LibGuides page for bibliographies, here you will find step by step instructions on how to cite your information.
3. Write your Annotation - Tips are below:
   ​Annotations usually do two things - describe and evaluate. Write a concise (brief and clear) annotation that:

• Describes what type of source it is. This source is an article from a medical journal in Australia. 
• What topics are covered? The information covers stem cell research from 2016. 
• What are the main arguments? How the research was conducted is explored and the difficulties in achieving the desired outcome. 
• What is the point of this book or article? If someone asked what this article/book is about, what would you say?

Questions to consider when evaluating the source:

• Is the source up-to-date? Is it current? Does the source need to be current for your purpose?
• How credible is this source? Is this article from a highly respected professional journal or is it posted on the web by ‘anyone’? Who has published the source? Is it a company, organization or individual? How much should you trust the publisher?
• Who has authored the source? Is the person's name stated? Are their qualifications accessible? 
• Is there any indication of possible bias in the source?
• What type of information or evidence is supporting the central arguments? Is this based on opinion, anecdote, weak or strong evidence, data, statistics, scientific ideas? 
• Are there any special features? How is the source organised?
• Based on the above, what are the strengths and weaknesses of the source?

Example

The citation goes first and is followed by the annotation. In the sample annotation below, each element is numbered (see Key).

(1) Harris, N.1985, Spotlight on the industrial revolution. Wayland, Hove, England. (2.) In this book Harris outlines the origins, events and after-effects of the Industrial Revolution. It is principally a pictorial history with black and white illustrations and some photographs. (3) The author has identified the significant industries that came into being due to the Industrial revolution; cotton, iron, coal, transport. With these industries came technological advancements such as the Spinning ‘Mule’ which was used in a factory setting. (4) The book is useful to my research topic because it includes information based on many quotations from primary sources. The photographs and illustrations make the book interesting to look at. (5) This book has no limitations to my research. (6) This is a good book to use for the Year 9 Humanities assignment ‘The Making of the modern world’. It has information based on many inventions from the Industrial revolution.

Key  (1) Citation – Bibliographic  details  (2) Introduction  (3) Topics Covered  (4) Usefulness to your    particular topic/strengths  (5) Limitations/weaknesses  (6) Conclusions

 

Harris, N.  1985, Spotlight on the industrial revolution. Wayland, Hove, England.

In this book Harris outlines the origins, events and after-effects of the Industrial Revolution. It is principally a pictorial history with black and white illustrations and some photographs. The author has identified the significant industries that came into being due to the Industrial revolution; cotton, iron, coal, transport. With these industries came technological advancements such as the Spinning ‘Mule’ which was used in a factory setting. The book is useful to my research topic because it includes information based on many quotations from primary sources. The photographs and illustrations make the book interesting to look at.  This book has no limitations to my research. This is a good book to use for the Year 9 Humanities assignment ‘The Making of the modern world’. It has information based on many inventions from the Industrial revolution.

References:
The Learning Centre:  University of New South Wales, viewed 12 February 2012, http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/onlib/annotated_bib.html

Charles Sturt University, viewed 12 February 2012,  http://www.csu.edu.au/division/studserv/my-studies/learning/guides/annotated

At CMC we usually use either the APA Referencing Style or the Harvard System of referencing. Regardless of the style you chose to use, you must be consistent throughout the entire bibliography. 

Bibliography      ____ / 5 Marks

• Number of resources (5 or more resources listed)

• Quality of resources (Reliable and authoritative information – particularly books, and websites containing .gov, .edu in the URL, and not from wikipedia, ask.com, thinkquest.org)  

• Correct bibliographic detail (Correct Harvard style – Author-Date System in a consistent order)

• Correct bibliographic layout (Bibliography title, alphabetical layout)

• Clear and concise annotation bibliography (Comment on the WHY you consider the resource to be reliable)

Use 'in-text referencing' when you need to acknowledge someone else's work in your writing.

See information from RMIT on 'General rules for in-text references' plus a handout below.