Self Paced Referencing Course

In this unit:

► Describe the basic elements of information used to build a reference.

► Using the example provided collect the information needed for a singe author book.

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When taking notes and gathering information, write down all the relevant bibliographic details of your information sources, such as author, date of publication, title, publisher and place of publication, etc. You need to provide enough detail for someone else to find the item or information you used. 

These are the elements required for a print book:

• Author (or  Authors)
• Year of Publication
• Title
• Subtitle (if there is one)
• Edition
• Place of Publication
• Name of Publisher
• Page number (where you have quoted the text)

Where to find this information:

• Books: Title page, Verso*
• Journal: Front cover, spine, title page
• DVDs: Cover, start and end of recording
• Webpage: Banner, contact us page, footer, URL bar
• For other sources you may need to look further. Explore the resource thoroughly. Consider a search of Google or Trove to find the details you need. You can also ask in your library for help.

                 * What does Verso mean?  It's just a quick way of referring to the page on the back of the title page.

Our  APA Referencing Guide 2018 (pdf) shows all the information needed for different types of item (and how to format it in an end-text citation). See pages 11-26.

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See our Referencing and Plagiarism Guide for more information.