Guide to Compiling Bibliography And References

References and Bibliography are two forms of acknowledging works cited or consulted in the course of a research project. It is generally considered a mark of academic excellence for a researcher to demonstrate that he or she is aware of past and present works and authorities in the area under investigation.

There is no hard and fast rule as to how far back one should go in exhibiting this awareness. It all depends on the issue under investigation and the importance of developments and milestone scholarly contributions in that field. But as to how current one should be, there is no doubt that a researcher is required to demons rate that he or she is topically relevant and up-to-date with landmark issues, developments and contributions in the field of enquiry.

The two differ in one significant way. The list of References, which is placed immediately at the end of the research report, or after each chapter of the report, is concerned with works and authorities directly cited inside the research report. On the other hand, the Bibliography, which is usually compiled and listed at the end of the research report, and often next to the References, is concerned with works cited plus those consulted, used or read, but not used as References.

  There are several different styles of making references and of compiling bibliography. University faculties and departments usually adopt one style for the purpose of uniformity or convenience. Similarly, publishers of books or journals may designate a particular style to be followed by authors submitting works to them for publication. This is done for the same reason of uniformity.

The key styles in use include:

APA (American Psychological Association) Style

This is very close to the Harvard style; and the difference is so minute as we shall soon discover. The compilation of references and bibliography in accordance with the APA style follows the following order:

Example

Asika, N. (2000) Research Methods in Behavioural Sciences. Ikeja, Lagos : Longman.

For Journals

The APA style used for Journals follows this order:

Example

Agashua, P. A. (2004) “ Human Factors Impacting Aviation Safety in Nigeria ” Nigerian Journal of Management & Consulting, Vol. 1, No. 1.pp22-26

For Dissertations

The quest to gather material and get conversant with the most up-to-date contributions in the field of enquiry often leads the researcher to resort to may unpublished sources, especially dissertation projects of other scholars. Referencing such a dissertation is done in the following manner:

Iornem, David (1978) Investigation into Motivation and Job Satisfaction Among Salesmen in Nigeria . MSc Dissetation . Heriot-Watt University , Edinburgh , Scotland .

The Harvard Style

The Harvard style is not very different from the APA style. No wonder, other scholars interchangeably refer to the APA style as the Harvard style as well. What is the difference? In the Harvard style it is optional, whether or not you put the year of publication in parenthesis when compiling the bibliography or references. In the Harvard style, the publisher's name and the town of publication are also interchanged.

Example

Iornem, David, 1998, New Trends in Business Consulting . JVC Press, Kaduna .

Kate Turabian ( Chicago ) Style

This style came out of a criticism of one form of referencing, which has long been in use. In this style, usually, the work referred to is noted with a superscript, e.g.,

According to Agashua¹, the bahaviour of …

Traditionally, this is followed by numbered footnotes at the bottom of each page which correspond to the superscript numbers in the body of the research report on the specific pages. Kate Turabian suggested improvements, which were accepted and adopted. Turabian argued that it was cumbersome compiling footnotes on every page of the research report. She, therefore, suggested that the numbers corresponding to the sequential referencing be used to list the works cited and then placed at the end of the research report.

Whereas the Chicago style lists the works cited in the sequence in which they are referred to in the work using superscript numbers as a cross reference guide, the APA and the Harvard styles list works cited alphabetically.

Citing of Works from the Internet

The citing of works from the Internet follows the same principle outlined in the APA, the Harvard and the Turabian styles. The following is a useful guide:

References from the Internet

Protocol

Hostname

Path to document

Filename of specific document

Example

http://www.stclements.edu/homepage

Where htt:/www is the protocol

Stclements.edu is the hostname

Homepage is the path to document MISSION STATEMENT which is the document displayed on the homepage and also the Filename

Online Publications

Name of author, year

Title of book or article

Retrieval month, day, year, i.e., when you retrieved the work.

Web source

Example

Oliver, C. and Wynder, N., IMC's Internet Action Learning, 995, accessible at http://www.imc.org.uk/home.htm . Or in the case of a publication or report written by an organization, not credited to individual authors: International Foundation for Action Learning ( 1997), available at http://www.tlainc.com.index2.htm .

The Abstract

The abstract is a brief, yet comprehensive executive summary of the research report. It enables the reader to survey the contents of the research report quickly. It helps the reader to grasp the main issues of the report without having to read the full report. A good abstract would normally contain: