A short introduction to scientific referencing 


List of references:

There are many possible ways to write references. This applies in particular to presentation and layout. The items to be included, however, are broadly identical irrespective of form. As a minimum, a reference shall include:

Author: Surname, first name of all authors (for the first author the surname must come first, for the others you can choose). If the book has an editor/editors rather than an author you write (ed./eds.) after the name.
Example: Solheim, Hilde C., Helle Vaagland (eds.)  

Year of publication: The year when the book or journal was published. In particular with regard to older publications it is also common to state when the book was first published. 
Example: Beauvoir, Simone de, [1949] 2000

Title: The book?s title if you refer to a monography (i.e. the authors have written the entire book themselves). The title is highlighted by italics or underlining. If you include a possible subtitle this should have the same emphasis. 
Example: Beauvoir, Simone de, [1949] 2000. The Other Sex.

If you refer to an article in an anthology you put the title in double quotation marks and place it before the editor and title of the book. 
Example: Vaagland, Helle, 1999: ?Helles smukke navle?. Solheim, Hilde C., Helle Vaagland (eds.): Råtekst

If you refer to an article in a journal you use the same template as for anthologies but exclude the name of the editor. However, you should state the volume, the number of the volume and the page numbers. Some journals do not state the volume number; in such cases you state the relevant year number.
Example: Raaum, Nina, 1995. ?Politiske forståelser av kjønn: Det gåtefulle skillet mellom det offentlige og det private?. Sosiologi i dag, 25 (3): 21-47

Place of publication and publisher: Place of publication is the city where the publisher is located. The publisher is the company issuing the publication. On some occasions the publisher is an institution or an association. In the case of journals it is not common to include place of issue and publisher.  
Example: Solheim, Hilde C., Helle Vaagland (eds.), 1999: Råtekst. Oslo: Aschehoug.

References in the text:

The humanities and the social sciences follow different practices. As a rule, humanists put the reference in a footnote (see examples of this practice in Toril Moi?s book). Social scientists put the name of the author and the year of publication in parentheses in the text: (Raaum 1995), and use footnotes only for elaborating on and precisely defining the text. If the author is mentioned in the text, it is sufficient to put the year of publication in parentheses: Example: Nina Raaum (1995) discusses the feminist conception of the division between public and private spheres.

If you mention the title of a book in the text, it should have the same emphasis as in the list of references, i.e. either italics or underlining. Example: Simone de Beauvoir wrote the book The Other Sex in 1949.

If you quote from a text you should use double quotation marks for shorter quotations and an indentation when the quote extends over more than four lines of text. You should also state the number of the page from where the quote has been taken: (Raaum 1995:23), or only: (p.23) when it is clear which text you mean. When referring to the viewpoints expressed in a text without quoting directly it is a matter of judgement whether a general reference is adequate: (Raaum 1995), or whether the page numbers also should be included: (Raaum 1995:23-25).

A reference to a text that you have not read yourself but know from another text is called a secondary reference. In this case it should be made clear that you have taken this reference from your primary reference (i.e. the book that you yourself have read). This is written in the following manner: (Eduards 1991, referred to in Raaum 1995:36). If you employ a quotation from Eduards taken from Raaum you should write: (Eduards 1991, quoted in Raaum 1995:27). In the list of references you include only Raaum?s book that you actually have read, and not Eduards?. This practice is important for three reasons: First, one should not falsely claim the credit for something, i.e. pretend to have read texts that one as a matter of fact has not. Second, you should give full credit to the person from whose books you have borrowed (Raaum, in this case). Third, you are covered if Raaum has misquoted the original or the reference is incomplete.


Size 
Assignments should be printed with 1.5 line spacing, 12 pt font and 2300 characters per page (spaces not included).