General Rules

 

References in the text of something you are writing are called citations.  To write a citation is to cite.  Be careful to remember the spelling – it sounds like site or sight!

 

For example: Always cite your sources.

 

The general rule for citations is to list the last name of the author and the year of the publication.  Whether it is a newspaper article, a book or an academic journal article, if you know the author’s last name and the year of publication, this is how you cite it.

 

For example:  (Kay, 1995)

 

If the author’s name is part of the sentence then you only put the year in brackets.

 

For example: According to Farnham (2008), the EU plays an important…

 

Two authors are cited as:

 

Palmer and Hartley (2009) or (Palmer and Hartley, 2009)

 

The citation is part of the sentence, so if the sentence ends with a citation, the full stop comes after the citation.

 

For example: …a stable environment (Palmer and Hartley, 2009).

 

If you do not know the last name of the author, then you can either use Anon, or use the name of the publication, especially if it is a newspaper or a magazine.

 

For example: Anon (2008) reported …

or

…. The Economist (2013) reported…

 

More guidance is given in the section 2 below.

 

Some more examples:

According to Brennan, Canning and McDowell (2011), there are…

 

Mintzberg (2009) begins the argument that there is not much contemporary research on management….

 

There is no universally accepted definition of corporate social responsibility (Ahmad, 2006; De George, 2006; Blowfield and Frynas, 2005)…

 

Supporting evidence appears in a study by Black (2002, cited in Smith and Jones, 1990, p. 64).

 

Citations in Text

 

Citations within the text direct readers to the Table of References at the end.  The following chart provides guidance according to the Harvard style of referencing/citing.

Source	Citation format	Example
One author	(Surname, date)	(Farnham, 2008)
Two authors	(Surname and surname, date)	(Kew and Stredwick, 2005)
More than two authors	(Surname et al., date)	(Ahmad et al., 2007)
Citing work from an unread publication	(Surname, date; cited by surname, date)	(Miles and Snow, 1978; cited by Certo, 2002)
Company literature	(Company name, date)	(Towers Perrin, 2004)
Newspaper article with no author	(Newspaper name, date)	(Financial Times, 2004)
Other publications with no obvious author	(Publication title, date)	(MarketLine, 2013)
Internet site	(Site title, date)	(ft.com, 2010)