i) Citations
The author-date style dispenses with all of the foregoing rules concerning footnotes because footnotes are only used to make substantive comments that would be inappropriate in the main text. All references to other works, whether in the main body of th e essay or in a footnote, take the form of a citation in brackets in the text. The basic form consists of the author's last name, the year of publication followed by a comma, and page or range of pages in question. The page references may be excluded if you are referencing ideas discussed throughout the source work; except in these (rare) instances, you should indicate with page numbers exactly where you found the ideas or words in question. The following examples illustrate various situations that may occur.
A 1-page citation: (Smith 1990, 57)
A page-range citation: (Smith 1990, 57-8)
Two authors: (Smith and Jones 1990, 121-7)
More than 3 authors: (Smith et al. 1990, 121-7)
Reference to a footnote (Smith and Jones 1990, 164 n3)
Reference to a volume
and page number: (Smith and Jones 1990, 2:105-7)
When several references are made in the same paragraph to the same source, it is acceptable to use a full author-date citation for the first reference and page citations, e.g. (101-5), for subsequent references. If all references are to the same page in the source, only one full author-date citation is required.
It often happens that an idea has been mentioned in more than one work. Where this occurs, the multiple references are listed in chronological order and separated by semi-colons. If the multiple works are all by the same author(s), the name is not repeated. If page numbers are not included, commas rather that semi-colons are use to separate the different works. Finally, if the reference is to the works by the same author(s) in the same year, the years of publication are separate d by adding small-case letters, e.g. 1990a, 1990b, etc. The following examples illustrate these possibilities:
Different authors: (Smith and Jones 1990, 120-7; Smith and Wessen 1992, 156-9)
Same authors: (Smith and Jones 1990, 120-7; 1992, 190-201)
Same author,
no pg. numbers: (Smith and Jones 1990, 1992)
Same author, same year: (Smith and Jones 1990a, 1990b)
(Smith and Jones 1990a, 120-7; 1990b, 561-7)
Citations for direct quotations should be placed immediately following the quotation, regardless of whether the quotation is placed in the body of the text or separated out and indented. Citation for ideas not directly quoted should be placed close to the idea itself and at a point where it is least likely to
disrupt the flow of thought. Typically, this occurs just before a period or other punctuation mark but there are exceptions:
Many authors (Smith and Jones 1991; Black and Blue 1992) have argued that...
There are occasions when leadership may fail (Smith and Jones 1990, 156-7), yet...
ii) Reference Lists
Because the author-date style gives only limited information on sources in the body of the essay, it is especially important that a complete list of references be included at the back of the essay. It is customary to begin the list on a separate page, with the heading "References" (rather than "Bibliography"). Entries are listed in alphabetical order and, for authors that have more than one entry, in chronological order. Unless prohibitively long, all authors should be listed (unlike citations where "et al." can be used for more than three authors).
The format for entries follows the basic rules described for bibliographies in the humanities style, but with one crucial exception: the date of the publication is listed immediately following the name(s) of the author(s). The reason for this is that c itations are listed in the main text by author and date; listing author and date first in the list of references therefore makes it easier for the reader to find the full information for any citation that appears in the text of the essay. Where more than one publication appears for the same author in the same year, they are identified by small Roman letters, in alphabetical sequence attached to the year of the publication. The following examples illustrate this style:
Book: Cantor, Norman F. and Richard I. Schneider. 1967. How to Study History. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co.
Edited book: Wright, Gordon, and Arthur Meija, Jr., eds. 1964. An Age of Controversy: Discussion Problems in 20th Century European History. New York and Toronto: Dodd, Mead and Co.
Journal article: Tannenbaum, Edward R. 1969. "The Goals of Italian Fascism." The American Historical Review 74 (April): 1183-1204.
Chapter in edited Macartney, C.A. 1953. Hungary. In The European Nobility in the Eighteenth
book: Century, edited by A. Goodwin. London: Adam and Charles Black.
Multiple works Smith, Fred. 1990a. "The Legislative Process in France." American Journal of
in the same year: Political Science 35 (March): 701-21.
Smith, Fred. 1990b. "Further Thoughts on the Legislative Process in France." American Journal of Political Science 35 (December): 1505-21.
or
240
_____. 1990b. "Further Thoughts on the Legislative Process in France." American Journal of Political Science 35 (December): 1505-21.
essay 1 - essay 2 - essay 3 - essay 4 - essay 5 - essay 6 - essay 7
Download a printable PDF version of this information