Where can citation and reference details be found?
This is the second of three chapters about Locating Source Details. To complete this reader, read each chapter carefully and then unlock and complete our materials to check your understanding.
– Provide guidance about locating source details
– Discuss and exemplify the five most common source types
– Include activities to help check progress and understanding
Before you begin reading...
-
video and audio texts
-
knowledge checks and quizzes
-
skills practices, tasks and assignments
Chapter 2
In this second chapter of our short reader on locating source details we next turn our attention to finding these details among a number of the most common source types. While these pieces of information might be small, source details such as the particular title or author of a book or journal article are vital to the successful creation of accurate citations and references. Any student or researcher that wishes to be taken seriously as an academic must reference accurately and consistently, following the regulations of correct academic conduct.
Which source details should I find?
In truth, the type of reference elements required for a particular reference such as an ‘Author’, ‘Title’ or ‘Publisher’ are wholly dependent on the source type being referenced. Whether it’s a book, a journal article or a web page, each source type will likely require different reference elements and provide different source details – particularly across different referencing styles. To assist recognition, we’ve therefore included examples for the ten most common elements below:
How can I find source details efficiently?
While different source types will be formatted differently, they are normally fairly standardised among themselves. Therefore, although the following advice may not be sufficient in all instances, by looking in the following places for the vast majority of sources you should be able to find the source details you need:
Source Type: Books
- The front and back covers
- The spine of the book
- The copyright page
- The title page
- The table of contents
- The first five pages
Source Type: Dissertations
- The cover page
- The title page
- The table of contents
- In the headers and footers
Source Type: Journal Articles
- The cover page of the journal
- The first page of the specific article
- The title page of the specific article
- Beneath the article title
- In the article headers and footers
Source Type: Newspaper Articles
- The cover page of the newspaper
- The beginning of the specific article
- The end of the specific article
- In the article headers and footers
- In the article’s margins
Source Type: Web Pages*
- The browser search bar
- The top of the web page
- The bottom of the web page
- In the web-page margins
*Tip: For web pages, the information could be anywhere or it could be nowhere. Try using the right click function of your mouse to inspect a page. Some browsers will provide additional information when being inspected in this way.
Having completed this chapter, students should consider unlocking our Chapter 2 activities to check their progress and understanding before moving on to our third and final chapter about locating source details.
To reference this reader:
Academic Marker (2022) Locating Source Details. https://academicmarker.com/academic-guidance/referencing/referencing-challenges/locating-source-details/ (Accessed: Date Month Year).
Downloadables
Once you’ve completed all three chapters in this short reader about Locating Source Details, you might then wish to download our Chapter Worksheets to check your progress or print for your students. These professional PDF worksheets can be easily accessed for only a few Academic Marks.
Chapter 1 explores the topic: What are source details in academic referencing? Our Chapter 1 Worksheet (containing guidance, activities and answer keys) can be accessed here at the click of a button.
Chapter 2 explores the topic: Where can citation and reference details be found? Our Chapter 2 Worksheet (containing guidance, activities and answer keys) can be accessed here at the click of a button.
Chapter 3 explores the topic: Can references be without authors, dates and titles? Our Chapter 3 Worksheet (containing guidance, activities and answer keys) can be accessed here at the click of a button.
To save yourself 2 Marks, click on the button below to gain unlimited access to all of our Referencing Challenges Chapter Worksheets. This All-in-1 Pack includes every chapter, activity and answer key related to this topic in one handy and professional PDF.
Collect Academic Marks
-
100 Marks for joining
-
25 Marks for daily e-learning
-
100-200 for feedback/testimonials
-
100-500 for referring your colleages/friends