Referencing Styles

A guide to the reference styles used at the University of St Andrews

What you need to include:

Print journal article references include:

  • Author(s) of article
  • Year of publication
  • Title of article
  • Title of Journal (italicised)
  • Volume number
  • (Issue number),
  • Page numbers

Online journal article references include:

  • Author(s) of the article
  • Year of Publication
  • Title of article
  • Title of Journal (italicised)
  • Volume number
  • (Issue number),
  • Page numbers
  • doi           OR
  • URL of the article

 

Text marked in blue is only included where the source contains that information.

Where the reference takes up multiple lines, indent the reference from the second line, see examples in the tabs above.

The basic in-text citation format is:

(Author surname, year)

The Basic Reference format is:

Author, A.A. (Year). Article title. Journal title, volume number (issue number), xx-xxii.

In-text citation entry:

(Black & Barnes, 2015, p. 425)

Reference list entry:

Black, J. & Barnes, J.L.  (2015).  Fiction and social cognition: The effect of viewing award-winning television dramas on the theory of mind.  Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, 9(4), 423-429.

Example of journal cover page Example of journal article first page

 

In-text citation entry:

(Kemp et al., 2014, p. 100)

Reference list entry:

Kemp, E., Tiggerman, M., Orr, J. & Grear, J. (2014) Attentional retraining can reduce chocolate consumption. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20(1), 94-102. https://doi.org/10.1037/xap0000005

Example of journal article first page

URLs to include or exclude:

  • If a journal article includes a DOI and a URL use the DOI.
  • Where a URL will fully resolve for the reader include it, this will be the case with journal articles retrieved from the publisher
  • Where a URL is from a database do not include it, treat these articles in the same way as print journal articles.

In-text citation entry:

(Balfour, 2006, p. 747)

(Ahmann et al., 2018, p.22)

Reference list entry:

Balfour, G. (2006). Re-imagining a feminist criminology. Canadian Journal of Crime and Criminology, 48, 735-752. http://heinonline.org.ezproxy.st-andrews.ac.uk/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/cjccj48&id=1  (do not include database URLs)

Ahmann E., Tuttle, L.J., Saviet, M., & Wright, S.D. (2018). A descriptive review of ADHD coaching research: Implications for college students. Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability, 31(1), 17-39. https://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/publications/jped/archive-jped/jped-volume-31

 

Ensure you include all the punctuation required in your reference.

  • In-text citations are within parenthesis, and contain the author(s) surname(s) and year of publication. The page number is given if you are referring to a specific page/section, always give page numbers if you are quoting. If you refer to the authors within your text, only the date is needed in your in-text citation. If you refer to the year in your text, only the author(s) is required in your in-text citation.
  • Ensure you include all the punctuation required in your reference.
  • For multiple authors follow the advice in the Author Rules tab, paying attention to the use of commas, ampersand, and ellipses. Surname is followed with a comma, a space, then the initials.  No space is given between initials when more than one is needed for an author's forename.
  • (Date) is always within parenthesis, and followed with a "."
  • Journal article references include the title of the article and the title of the journal in which the article is published.
  • Article titles are not italicised, and are followed by a full-stop.
  • Journal publication title is always italicised and followed with a comma.
  • The volume number , issue, and pages of the article are included.
  • For print resources a full-stop is given at the end of the reference.
  • For articles accessed online include the doi (digital object identifier) when available. When no doi can be found include a URL when this goes to a publishers site and not a database. No full stop is given.
  • For online article which only have a URL to a database, don't include the URL, treat these link print journal articles.
  • The second and subsequent lines of each reference should be indented.
  • The reference list should be double line spaced.