SPORTS SCIENCE
CITING AND REFERENCING (JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCE)
HARVARD
STYLE
As sports science students you will be required to prepare and produce a reference
list for each of your assignments. Each reference should contain the information
needed to trace the item you have made reference to, or cited, in the assignment. At
times, the terminology used for citation, references and other lists of source material
can seem confusing, but the definitions of the main terms used are:
Citation: The process of recognising the contribution of a specific individual or
organisation as the acknowledged source of a particular view, argument or
decision. You therefore „cite‟ a book, article, document or web site within the
text of your essay.
Referencing: A precise way of ensuring that someone or something that has
been mentioned can be identified. The references will normally appear at the
end of your essay.
Your reference list must include all (and only) those texts referenced in your work.
You should not provide a bibliography, which lists all texts read but not necessarily
cited in your work.
Where there are between three and five authors, all authors should be given in the
first citation in the text; subsequent references to the same source should give the
first author only followed by et al.. Where there are six or more authors, the first
author only, followed by et al., should be cited in all instances. In the reference list,
the first six authors only should be listed, followed by et al.
REFERENCING SOURCES WITHIN THE TEXT
In the Harvard system, only the surname of the author and the date of the publication
referred to are given in brackets immediately after your reference in the text.
However, in the list of references at the end, you should include full details, including
the author‟s initials. If the surname of the author appears naturally in your text, then
only the date of publication is given in brackets.
Examples of making references in the text:
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Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and disability in the western
world (Ross, 1993; Stevens, 1995).
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Large population studies indicate the link between blood cholesterol levels and the
frequency of atherosclerotic heart disease in man (Stamler et al., 1986).
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Hawley et al. (1997) illustrated the effect of carbohydrate ingestion on a 1 hr time
trial cycling performance.
Where the name of the first author appears more than once, references must be
distinguished using a, b, c, etc. as follows: Brown et al., (1990a), Brown et al.
(1990b), Brown et al. (1990c).
Please note that „et al.’ should not appear in the reference list.
REFERENCING DIRECT QUOTES IN THE TEXT
You will only need this section if you are including direct quotes in your assignment.
When quoting directly in the text use quotation marks as well as including the
author‟s surname, year of publication and page number of the quote in brackets.
Example:
“Skeletal muscle represents dynamic tissue whose cells do not remain as fixed
populations throughout life. Rather, muscle fibres undergo regeneration and
remodelling in response to diverse functional demands to alter their phenotypic
profile.” (McArdle et al., 2003, p.502).
SECONDARY SOURCES
Although you should always attempt to use primary sources you may sometimes need
to use secondary sources (i.e. someone‟s work referenced in another text).
Referencing work cited in another text is done as follows:
In the text:
Smith et al (2001) as cited by Edwards (2003)
Ground reaction forces have been shown to be an important factor in the incidence of
knee injury in fast bowlers (Smith et al., 2001).
In the reference list at the end of your work:
Smith, J.A., Jones, K. & Arthurs, L.M. (2001). Ground reaction forces in fast bowlers.
International Journal of Biomechanics, 21, 201-208. (cited in Edwards, J.D., 2003,
Biomechanical testing in sport. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.)
MAKING REFERENCES
INFORMATION
TO
ELECTRONIC
SOURCES
OF
Electronic sources of information are now an important part of academic work. It is
essential to reference electronic sources with the same care as printed materials.
The temporary nature of the material made available on the Internet creates
particular problems, and you must always quote the date you accessed the
resources. The content of a web page can be updated and the pages can be
deleted or the URLs (Uniform Resource Locators) may change. It is a good idea to
keep a printed copy of the source referred to. The length and complexity of URLs
make accurate referencing vital if the reader of your work needs to follow up your
sources.
Articles in electronic journals. The great majority of electronic journals available
through the library web pages are part of journal collections e.g. Emerald, General
Science Plus, Ingenta, Science Direct. You should refer to the fact that you
obtained the title Online. See Section 2 below for full details and examples.
It is important to apply a consistent style throughout your references to enable your
reader to understand and trace your sources.
LISTING REFERENCES AT THE END OF THE TEXT
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References should be listed at the end of your assignment in alphabetical
order by author‟s surname and then by date (earliest first), and then if more
than one item has been published during a specific year, by letter (1995a,
1995b etc.) Whenever possible details should be taken from the title page of a
publication and not from the front cover, which may be different. Each
reference should include the elements and punctuation given in the
examples below. Authors‟ forenames are normally abbreviated, but can be
written out in full if they appear on the title page. The title of the publication
should be in italics. You also need to include the place of publication and the
publisher.
Examples of listing references at the end of the text.
1. Books
Book by a single author: You should include.
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Author(s)/editor(s). (Surname followed by initials)
Year of publication (in round brackets)
Title of publication (in italics).
Edition if not first.
Place of publication: Publisher.
Series and volume number (where relevant).
Example
Woolf, N. (1986). Cell tissue and disease: the basis of pathology. (2nd edn.).
London: Bailliere Tindall.
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Book by two authors: You should include.
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Author. (Surname followed by initials)
Author. (Surname followed by initials)
Year of publication. (in round brackets)
Title of publication. (in italics).
Edition if not first.
Place of publication: Publisher.
Series and volume number (where relevant).
Example
Williams, C. & James, D. V. B. (2001). Science for Exercise and Sport. London:
Routledge.
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Edited book: You should include.
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Editor. (Surname followed by initials)
Abbreviation (Ed.)
Year of publication. (in round brackets)
Title of publication. (in italics).
Edition if not first.
Place of publication: Publisher.
Example
Maughan, R. J. (Ed.), (1999). Basic and Applied Sciences for Sports Medicine.
Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
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Chapter in an edited book: You should include.
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Author. (Surname followed by initials)
Year of publication. (in round brackets)
Title of chapter.
In: plus editor‟s name (Surname followed by initials)
Title of publication (in italics).
Edition if not first.
Place of publication: Publisher.
Page reference
Example
Burke, L. M & Broad, E. M (1999). Nutritional demands of training and
competition. In: R. J. Maughan (Ed.), Basic and Applied Sciences for Sports
Medicine. pp. 145-169. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann.
2.
Journal articles
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Article in a printed journal: You should include.
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Author(s) of article. (Surname followed by initials)
Year of publication (in round brackets)
Title of article.
Title of journal (in italics),
Volume ( in italics)
Page numbers.
The issue number of a journal should be included only to avoid confusion, as
when for example the pages start from 1 in each issue rather than being
continuous across a volume; in such cases use 16(4), etc
For one author:
Ross, R. (1993). The pathogenesis of atherosclerosis; a perspective for the
1990s. Nature. 362, 801-809.
For multiple authors:
Baker, D., Wilson, G. & Carlyon, B. (1994). Generality versus specificity: a
comparison of dynamic and isometric measures of strength and speed-strength.
European Journal of Applied Physiology, 68, 350-355.
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Article in an electronic journal: You should include.
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Author(s) of article. (Surname followed by initials)
Year of publication (in round brackets)
Title of article.
Title of journal (in italics),
Volume ( in italics)
Web address.
available at: accessed date (in round brackets)
Example
Nimmo, M. (2004). Exercise in the Cold. Journal of Sports Science, 22, 898916. (available at: http://www.ingentaconnect.com accessed 13 June 2005).
3.
Theses and dissertations
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Thesis, Dissertation or Project: Citation order is as follows:
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Author (surname followed by initials)
Year of publication (in round brackets)
Title of dissertation (in italics)
Unpublished type of dissertation
Name of institution.
Example
Skerm, J. (2002). An investigation into the incidence of eating disorders in
sport: implications for coaches. Unpublished M.A. dissertation, Kingston
University, Kingston: Surrey.
4.
Electronic Resources – Referencing Web Addresses
Although the World-Wide Web is becoming an ever increasingly useful source of
information you must remember that seldom has this information been refereed or
checked for accuracy. In addition, information is often only posted on a temporary
basis, which makes it very difficult for readers of your work to find the information.
Therefore web addresses are generally not acceptable references for scientific
writing, however you may want to use web addresses sparingly to provide
background information or rationale for your work. You will therefore need to
reference such information as follows in the text:
The full address, names of sub-pages and full date on which you last accessed
the site must be provided, e.g.
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Author(s) of article. (Surname followed by initials)
Year of publication (in round brackets)
Title of article.
Title of journal (in italics),
Volume ( in italics)
Web address.
available at: accessed date (in round brackets)
Tiddlywinks has been identified as the UK‟s fastest growing competitive sport today
(http://www.boa.org.uk/tiddlywinks.htm, 3/04/04)
In the reference list at the end of your work:
The name of the author or organisation associated with the information and the title of
the paper or article must be provided in addition to the web address information used
in the text, e.g.
Flipper, K. (2003). Tiddlywinks leapfrogs hopscotch as the UK‟s fastest growing
sport. (Available at: http://www.boa.org.uk/tiddlywinks.htm.) (Accessed:3 April 2004).
For Web pages where there is no author or title identified you should use the web
Page‟s URL, e.g.
UCI (2001). About mountain biking (available at http://www.uci.ch/english
mtb/what_is.htm)
5. Article from a newspaper.
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Author (Surname followed by initials)
Year of publication
Title of article
Title of newspaper (in italics)
Day and month
Page reference
Example
McElvoy, A. (2003). Can they ever stop the spin? The Evening Standard. 30 July, p.11.
Revised January 2008.