organizational analyses

Overview for referencing in written reports,

essays and assignments

College of Business

Dr Peter Chomley

The academic challenge: Understanding how

you communicate

The RMIT College of Business Guidelines are based on the Style manual for

authors, editors and printers (2002), referred to here as Style manual (2002)

which is published on behalf of the Commonwealth of Australia, and is the

Commonwealth Government’s preferred style. The Style manual (2002) can be

used to provide guidance on areas which are not covered in the RMIT Business

document, but if there is any inconsistency you should follow the RMIT

Business document.

RMIT University 2018 College of Business v.4 2010 2

What is referencing?

• Referencing means acknowledging someone else’s work or ideas. It is

sometimes called ‘citing’ or ‘documenting’ another person’s work.

• Referencing is a basic University requirement.

• It is mandatory for all students to cite or acknowledge information that has

come from other sources.

• Without appropriate referencing students are in effect ‘stealing’ the work of

others - this is tantamount to academic fraud.

There are consequences if students fail to reference their assignments. These

may include:

• Reduction in marks for assessment tasks.

• Failure in a course of study.

• Expulsion from a program.

Note: The Harvard system has many variations. You must use this version

known as the AGPS style.

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When do I reference?

You reference whenever you have used a piece of information that comes from

• Text books

• Journals

• Published papers, (e.g. conference or working paper)

• Newspapers

• Websites

• TV/Radio interviews

• Personal communication

• Others

You must cite the origins of the information you are using, whether you have

copied the words directly or whether you have paraphrased.

• If in doubt----REFERENCE!

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Referencing

Whenever you rely on someone else’s work you must acknowledge that by

providing details of the source.

In this system, each reference is indicated in two areas of your work:

• in the text (in-text citation) by using the name of the author(s) and the date of

publication of the work.

• In the reference list, where the full details of each reference, including the title

and publishing details are given

In-text citations

There are two ways of referencing in-text:

• Paraphrasing - ideas of the author(s) are expressed in your own words.

• Direct quotes

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How to reference in-text

There are two options for in-text referencing

• Adding the citation at the end of the sentence.

• Using the author’s name as part of your sentence.

• When paraphrasing include the author’s name and date of publication.

e.g.

– Lack of variability in a product is an important measure of its quality

(Shannon 2003).

OR

– Shannon (2003) describes the role of statistics in minimising product

variability.

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General rules for reference in-text (1)

Where the name(s) of the authors are given:

• For books, journals, websites, conference papers and newspapers, the

general rule is to use the family name and the date.

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One author

Family name

Year of publication

Kumar (2007) argued that…

...(Kumar 2007).

Two or three authors

Family name

Year of publication

Brown and Lee (2008) offer the opinion that…

....(Brown & Lee 2008).

Four or more authors

The name of the first author followed by

‘et al.’

Year of publication

Note: Family names of all authors, and

initials, to be used in the reference list

Ng et al. (2004) stated that…

…(Ng et al. 2004).

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General rules for reference in-text (2) Where the name(s) of the authors are NOT given:

• For books, journals, websites, conference papers and newspapers, the

general rule is to use the organisation name and the date.

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Newspapers from a database or hard copy

Name of paper – in italics

Date

Page

Date viewed

Database if applicable

In-Text Reference

As stated in the Financial Review (1 August

2007, p. 62, viewed 27 August 2007, Factiva

Database)…..

…. (Financial Review, 1 August 2007, p. 62,

viewed 27 August 2007, Factiva Database).

Websites – corporations / institutions

An organisational publication with no

individual author e.g. a corporate website or

report, treat the company as the author

Name of authoring body, corporation /

institution

Year of publication

Telstra (2007) provided the latest….

...,(Telstra 2007).

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General rules for reference in-text (3)

Several items with same author and year):

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If you are referring to more than

one work written by the same

author in the same year, the

letters a,b,c etc are added to the

date to indicate which one you

mean.

In the reference list the works

are listed alphabetically

according to the title. If the title

starts with ‘A’, ‘An’, or ‘The’, the

alphabetical order is determined

by the second word in the title

Hill, CWL 2004a, Global

business today, 3rd edn,

McGraw Hill / Irwin,

Boston.

Hill, CWL 2004b, Strategic

management theory: an

integrated approach, 6th

edn, Houghton Mifflin,

Boston.

Hill (2004a) suggests that...

Hill (2004b) suggests that...

...(Hill 2004b).

...(Hill 2004a).

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General rules for reference in-text (4)

Secondary citation (citation within a citation):

• A secondary citation is when you refer to the work of one author cited by

another author.

• Primary sources are preferred.

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If the original source is not

available you must include

the name of both writers for

in-text references.

Only the source you have

read appears in the reference

list.

Horton, S 2006, Access by

design: a guide to universal

usability for web designers,

New Riders, Berkeley,

California.

‘Form ever follows function’

(Sullivan, cited in Horton

2006, p. 1).

In 1896 Louis H. Sullivan

observed that ‘form ever

follows function’ (cited in

Horton 2006, p. 1).

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How to use quotes (1)

Direct quotes

• Direct quotes show where another person's original thoughts, words, ideas,

images etc have been used word-for-word in someone else's work. Direct

quotes should be kept to a minimum.

Quotations are used to:

• acknowledge the source of your information, eg ideas, words, thoughts, images

etc

• enable the reader independent access to your (re)sources.

Using the author’s name as part of your sentence.

e.g.

– Research shows the ‘Lack of variability in a product is an important measure

of its quality’ (Shannon 2003, p. 147).

OR

– Shannon (2003) describes the ‘lack of variability in a product is an important

measure of its quality’ (p. 147).

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How to use quotes (2)

Direct quotes (short)

• Follow these steps to use direct quotes in your assignments.

• Copy the exact words from the original source.

• Use quotation marks ' ' at the beginning and end of the copied text.

• Reference with appropriate author, year and page number information.

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Also: McShane and Travaglione (2003) state ‘work motivation and performance

increase when employees feel personally accountable for the outcomes of

their efforts’ (p. 199).

How to use quotes (3)

Blockquotes (long direct quotes)

• For citations over 4 lines, blockquotes should be used. A blockquote is

indented and written as a separate paragraph. It does not have quotation

marks around it.

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Reference lists (1)

A reference list:

• The publication details of every item cited / used in your writing need to be

included in the reference list at the end of your paper. Any websites used

must also be documented in full. This enables the reader to locate the source

if they wish.

• Each reference list entry requires a specific format depending on the

reference type i.e. whether it is a book, book chapter, journal article, website,

etc.

• You must use a variety of sources in your written work e.g. books, journals

and websites etc. This indicates that you have researched widely.

Note: RMIT Business requires all students to use a reference list in

assessment tasks unless otherwise instructed by your lecturers

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Reference lists (2)

Order of entries:

Note: No full stops are used between an author’s initials, and no comma is

used after the last author's initials. The dots following the entries’ names

indicate the details of the reference that should follow.

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Reference list order rules Reference list

The reference list is arranged first alphabetically by author, and if the authors are the same then by date.

A reference with multiple authors follows single author entries beginning with the same author name.

Where an item has no author it is listed by its title.

Where several works have the same author and year of publication, add the letters a, b, ... etc according to the alphabetical order of the titles in the reference list, ignoring the initial articles A, An or The.

Jones, AB 2000, ... Origin Energy 2005, …

Smith, AK 1990, ...

Smith, AK 1999, …

Smith, AK 2004, …

Stein, B 2003, …(single author entry)

Stein, B, Lee, HK, Yin, CX & Singh, GS 2000, … (plural and alphabetical author entry, that is, Lee comes before Reynolds in the English alphabet.)

Stein, B & Reynolds, JS 1995, … Stein, B & Reynolds, JS 2000, … (This reference is sorted by its date, it has the same authors as the reference before it but was written at a later date)…

Style manual for authors, editors and printers 2002, ...

Young, JC 1988a, Economic indicators … Young, JC 1988b, A quick guide … (Economic comes before quick in the English alphabet)

Young, JC & Smith, AK 1988, …

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Reference lists (3) - examples Textbook

• Schermerhorn, J Davidson, P Factor, A Woods, P Simon A & McBarron, E

2016, Management, Wiley, Milton, Qld.

Journal article

• Cole, B, & Salimath, M 2013, ‘Diversity identity management: an organizational

perspective’. Journal of Business Ethics, vol. 116, no.1, pp. 151–161.

eBook

• Karlsen, F 2013, A world of excesses: online games and excessive playing, Routledge,

Proquest Ebook Central.

Book Chapter

• Ahmadjian, C 2006, ‘Japanese business groups: continuity in the face of change’, in S

Chang (ed.), Business groups in East Asia: financial crisis, restructuring, and new

growth, 3rd edn, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 22-51.

Website

• World Health Organization 2014, WHO recommendations for routine immunization –

summary tables, World Health Organization, viewed 1 May 2014,

<http://www.who.int/immunization/policy/immunization_tables/en/>

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RMIT Resources

https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/dlsweb/bus/public/referencing/secondary_sources/s

econdary_sources.html

http://mams.rmit.edu.au/lp7zndovilp7.pdf

http://www1.rmit.edu.au/browse;ID=8rwjnkcmfoeez

http://www.lib.rmit.edu.au/easy-cite/

https://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/1_studyskills/study_tuts/studysmart/

referencing.html

https://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/1_studyskills/study_tuts/harvard_ll/

harvard.html

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