DOCUMENTING SOURCES 
USED IN A STUDY

 

There are several systems for documenting the work by other researchers which you refer to in your own study. Each field has its own conventions, or may even have an accepted style manual. The important thing is to be CONSISTENT in writing up your references.  If you are preparing a report, check with your professor, supervisor or manager (in a company) what the conventions of the field or the in-house conventions are. One system recommended by the Technical Faculty of the University of Oulu (Alha, K. 1997) is the Harvard system.

 

CITING RESEARCH STUDIES WITHIN THE TEXT OF YOUR OWN WORK

REPORTING VERBS

USING QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER AUTHORS' WORK IN YOUR OWN TEXT

WRITING UP REFERENCES FOR BOOKS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES

WRITING UP REFERENCES FROM WWW ONLINE SOURCES

OTHER USEFUL LITERATURE

 

 

CITING RESEARCH STUDIES WITHIN THE TEXT OF YOUR OWN WORK:

If you report research by beginning with the author’s name (prominent author citations), put the date of the research in brackets after the name of the author. Note that only the author’s surname should be given:

 Hamilton (1994) studied the relationship between weather conditions and the density of wood in pinus sylvestris.

If you report research beginning with the focus of the research (weak author citations), put the surname of the author and the date of the research in brackets after the reference to the work done:

 The relationship between weather conditions and the density of wood in pinus sylvestris has been studied (Hamilton 1994).

 If several sources are cited, include them all in the same set of brackets:

Successful studies on the wood density of pinus sylvestris have been carried out using a variety of measuring tools (Ishiguro 1996, Weckberg 1999)

NOTE: the abbreviation “et al.” (et alia = and others) is only used when the work cited is by three or more researchers. When citing a study by two researchers, give BOTH names:

The device designed by Haarala et al. (2000) seemed to protect the egg very well.

A study of recursive parameter estimation of non-linear dynamic systems has been made (Ikonen & Heikkinen 1993).

The system of citations by numbers is sometimes used. In this case, the sources are then numbered in the References section:

Taniguchi et al. [12] suggested a slightly different model for Cd1-xFexSe

REPORTING VERBS:

When you want to report what another author has written, you can use a verb which indicates the author's attitude to what s/he has written about, and your own attitude to what the author has written:

NN (2001)    has found that.....
                      writes that .....
                      reports that.....
                      indicates that.......
                      states that.....(todeta)
                      suggests that....(ehdottaa, vihjata)
                      claims that.....(väittää)
                      remarks that....(huomauttaa)
                      implies that......(vihjata)
                      stresses that......(tähdentaa)
                      emphasises that......( tähdentää, korostaa)
                      maintains that.......(väittää )
                      asserts that.......(väittää, vakuuttaa)
                      contends that.....(lujasti väittää)
                      alleges that......(väittää)

USING QUOTATIONS FROM OTHER AUTHORS' WORK IN YOUR OWN TEXT:

Sometimes you may want to include quotations from another author's text in your own work. Quoting another author may lend support to your own argument or can make it easier for you to challenge or refer to what the other author has written. Quotations, however, should be used sparingly in your own text and make up only a very small proportion of the text of your own work. All quotations used should be clearly indicated as such by placing the quoted text in quotation marks (".....") and by indicating the source by giving the author's name and date of the study in brackets after the quotation, or by numbering the quotation:

"New technologies make it even more important for us to formulate ways with dealing with the issue of plagiarism" (Hyland, 2001).

"New technologies make it even more important for us to formulate ways with dealing with the issue of plagiarism" (3).

WRITING UP REFERENCES FOR BOOKS AND JOURNAL ARTICLES:

The list of publications which you have used in an academic study is normally called  “References” or "Bibliography". This list of the full names of works to which you have referred is located at the end of the report. 

 Here are some examples of references written up using the Harvard system: 

WRITING UP REFERENCES FROM WWW ONLINE SOURCES:

 One format for a Web citation is:

< author’s name><title of document><<URL>><date of document>(Accessed<date accessed>)

 e.g. Purdue University OWL, Quoting, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing <http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_quotprsum.html> 1995-2002 (Accessed 22nd April 2002)

(note that many web sites, like that mentioned above, do not have the name of a particular author listed on the page) 

This web site provides a good deal of additional info on this topic:

Quinion, M, World Wide Words, Citing online sources: advice on online citations formats <http://www.worldwidewords.org/articles/citation.htm> 1998 (Accessed 22nd April 2002)

OTHER USEFUL LITERATURE:

Tirronen, K. 1987. Teknisen kirjoituksen laatiminen. Helsinki, Suomen Teknillinen Seura STS r.y. ja Teknillisten Tieteiden Akatemia. 89 p.
Latomaa, T., Paavas, L. & Kemppainen, T. 1991. Kirjallisen töiden laatimisohjeita. Oulu. Oulun yliopiston Kasvatustieteiden tiedekunnan opetusmonisteita ja selosteita 42.

University of Bournemouth: Citing References: the Harvard System

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© S.McAnsh 2002