How to create a bibliography or reference list

A list of all cited source materials, known as a bibliography or reference list, must be included at the end of your essay.

They are divided into two sections: primary sources and secondary sources. Each of these sections need to be in alphabetical order.

Each bibliographical reference needs:

• the author's last name followed by their first initial(s)
• the year of publication
• the name of the work (in italics)
• the publication details

Depending on the assessment task, you will either be asked to create a bibliography or a reference list. Here are the differences between the two:

1. A bibliography lists all of the materials that have been consulted during your research, regardless of whether or not you've quoted from them
2. A reference list states only the sources that you've quoted in your assignment

Regardless of which you're required to create, you must follow the formatting shown below.

These examples use the popular APA (American Psychological Association) referencing style. 

Required Elements:

Author's Surname, First Initials. (Year of Publication). Name of book. City of Publication: Name of Publishing Company.

Examples:

Required Elements:

Author's Surname, First Initials. (Year, Month day OR Season - if known - of publication). Article title. Name of Journal the Article Appeared In, Journal Volume Number (Issue or Part Number), page number(s) of the article.

Examples:

Required Elements:

Author's Surname, First Initials. (Year, Month day of publication). Article title. Name of Newspaper/Magazine, page number(s) of the article.

Examples:

Required Elements:

Speaker's Surname, First Initials. (Year, Month Day Speech was Given). Title of Speech. Institution, City the Speech was Given at/in.

Examples:

Required Elements:

Author's Surname, First Initials. (Year of Publication). Name of webpage. Retrieved from URL.

Examples:

Required Elements:

Ancient Author's Name. Name of Ancient Work. (Name of Modern Translator that You're Using, trans.). Location of Modern Translation's Publisher: Name of Modern Translation's Publishing Company, Year of Modern Translation's Publication.

Examples:

On some occasions you find a source in the pages of different source. Your first task should be to try and quote the source you have found separately from the book that it is in. Do this, look in the bibliography of the book in order to gain the necessary details.

However, if you cannot find the information necessary to create a separate bibliographical entry, you will need to create a bibliographical entry that acknowledges the book that the source was found in.

To do this you will need:

• as many of the details that you can find of the source you are using. (Anything you don't know is left out).
• the full bibliographical details of the book it was found in, along with the page number in the book where the source was found. This is preceded by the phrase "As found in" and the entire bibliographical reference is placed in brackets.

For example:

Nixon, R. (1969). (As found in US Government Printing Office 1969, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, Washington D.C.: US Government Printing Office, pp. 903).

Reference List

Primary Sources

Appian. The Civil Wars. (John Carter, trans). New York: Penguin, 1996.

Department of Defence. (1959). Strategic basis of Australian defence policy. Canberra: Department of Defence.

Department of Defence. (1976). Defence White Paper. Canberra: Department of Defence.

Millar, T. (1979). The political-military relationship in Australia. Strategic and Defence Studies Centre Working Paper, 6, p. 12.

Nixon, R. (1969). (As found in US Government Printing Office 1969, Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Richard Nixon, Washington D.C.: US Government Printing Office, p. 903).

Secondary Sources

Dibb, P. (2007). The self-reliant defence of Australia: The History of an Idea. (As found in  Huisken, R., & Thatcher., M. (eds). History as policy: Framing the debate on the future of Australia’s defence policy. Canberra: ANU Press and Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, p. 11-26).

Horner, D. (1997). Security objectives. (As found in Mediansky, F. (ed). Australian foreign policy: Into the new millennium. South Melbourne: Macmillan, p. 73-92).

Lawson, E. (2009). The Australian defence environment. Australian Defence Force Journal, 179, p. 70-81.

White, H. (2007). Four decades of the defence of Australia: Reflections on Australian defence policy over the past 40 years. (As found in Huisken, R & Thatcher, M. (eds). History as policy: Framing the debate on the future of Australia’s defence policy. Canberra: ANU Press and Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, p. 163-187).