Referencing – Rules, Queries, Harvard etc.

Thanks! very helpful!
Amarain

@Linn – that reference looks fine to me for the ref list and text. I have interpreted it as meaning that the co-authors Bitner & Booms originally presented this as a conference paper and it has subsequently been included in a book called Marketing of Services edited by Donnelly & George. You would only cite the conference if you had been a delegate at it that’s where you first discovered the information. I am guessing this would be impossible as at best you were probably only a child or not even born in 1981!!!! 😀 . You could add available at: and include the website address

Can we use microsoft word’s built in tool for citations and creating reference list? Can anyone please tell if it would be alright to use it?

According to the Harvard system the format for in text citation is (author, date). I was wondering, when we reference the annual report over and over again, we keep writing for example (XYZ Annual report, 2012)… without page numbers… so how will the marker know which information is being picked up from the annual report? Sure details are in the reference list but how do the markers link which reference on the list belongs to which part of the text in RAP? I want to have a clear understanding of this to ensure my referencing process is correct. Can anyone explain please how this works?

@avian will – you may put in page numbers if you wish (but it is not mandatory for the RAP but would be required at post-graduate level). I usually recommend that a student distinguishes between the CEO/ Directors’ report and the actual financial statements/annual in their referencing (most of the commentary is in the former and the latter are mostly figures with a few notes). So ratios are attributed to the annual report as a source but comments on strategy will be referenced to the CEO report etc.

@aneeq7 – you only use the quotation marks + ref if you are citing the same words but do not just ‘redesign’ the sentence to avoid using them – this is bad academic practice – you should be precising, that is distilling the important points, rather than just doing a bit of rewording (which is often obvious to the reader).

It is appropriate to have two or more references if you have used more than one source so you have done this correctly (it actually would be wrong to put both of them at the end as the reader cannot see what you are referencing – however I trust your analysis goes deeper than just talking in percentages! 🙂 ) If the 4 sentences are more or less straight after each other then one reference would suffice. However if there is use of a different source sandwiched in between then you would have to re-iterate the reference. Yes it is very important to show exactly what you are referencing and it is very frustrating for a reader if they are left in doubt!

Thanks Trephena

But if I include page numbers for annual reports in the in-text citations but don’t do so for let’s say journals (instead just put the usual author, date reference) wouldn’t that be an inconsistency?

Also I noticed there are slight differences between referencing formats of let’s say Harvard Anglia Ruskin Uni and Harvard Coventry Uni… is it a problem which format we choose to follow so long as it falls under the umbrella of Harvard referencing system? Also these reference formats are slightly different from the examples given in the infopack. Not too different though. Is it a problem?

– Thanks @trephena…the thing is I read in the BSc info pack page 66 there is a note in BOLD that says
”Note: In the examples given below, pay attention to the punctuation, and in your own
work, copy it exactly as it is set out – put the full stop in where it is placed in the example, and leave it out, if it isn’t in the example.”

Now that sounds threatening to me! It appears they are serious about it and so I just had to think to what extent these differences will matter. I take it that you are saying that it doesn’t, correct?

– One more thing, you stated that each source should be given a unique designation so where I cited say the same newspaper article thrice, how am I supposed to have shown the ‘uniqueness’? Surely stating it once in the final reference list is enough?

– What about the inconsistency I mentioned? Where inconsistency arises when I use page numbers for annual report but not when citing a journal for example.

I’m sorry I have so many concerns at a go over referencing. Please bear with me as I am at the end of my tether right before submission.

@avian will – I think you will find that the same guidelines are issued by OBU to post-graduate students. OBU recognises that for most students doing the RAP this is their first ever attempt at academic work, doing it distance learning with only a mentor (who many not even be familiar with referencing) for guidance and therefore they are far more lenient. Therefore they are hard on the basics (the points I have mentioned) as it is important students have mastered the fundamentals and also because some may go on to do another degree, but fairly flexible on the rest (commas and full stops etc).

It is your RAP and so your choice if you take my advice or not, but believe me you need to chill on this one. Consistency on page numbers? maybe when you are citing the CEO/directors reports they are useful but as for the rest just do that when you are doing your Masters (and I’m not sure I always gave them all myself for my MSc dissertation – I definitely messed up one major source I cited but still got 72% 🙂 )

@Amarain – yes you can cite it with either a ref to the FS (in this case if I am reading this right you are saying the company is citing The industry average so the supply FS page no.) Otherwise you cite the Kantar website and give an ( approximate) date you accessed this.

Hello again trephena. thanks for all the help till now. Here another query about in-text citation. Can we write it like this (xyz,2012) or is it important to give a space after xyz i.e (xyz, 2012) ?

@aneeq7 – the space is correct but if you are trying to get away with it as ‘all one word’ to save on the word count I think you can safely assume your marker will not penalise you for such a minor infringement.

Ok but i am talking about doing this in all the in-text citations. Is it still ok ?