Referencing Styles

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

How MHRA Author Date style manage Authors, Editors and Anonymous works

Author-Date:

In text citation:

(Author Surname Year: page number)

Example:

(Gallois 2016: 28)

 

Entry in a bibliography:

Surname, First Name. Year. Title (Publisher)

Example:

 Gallois, André. 2016. The metaphysics of identity (Routledge)

 

Author-Date:

In text citation:

(Surname and Surname Year: page)

Example:

(Alford and Seniff 1984: 42)

Entry in a bibliography:

Surname, First Name, and Firstname Surname. Year. Title (Publisher)

Example:

AlfordJohn A., and Dennis P. Seniff. 1984. Literature and law in the Middle Ages: a bibliography of scholarship (Garland).

The word "and" is used between the first and second author.  Note that the first author is given as Surname, First name, and the second is given as First Name Surname.

Author-Date:

In text citation:

(Surname, Surname and Surname Year: page)

Example:

(Thomson, Cate and Chaplin 2005: 151)

Entry in a bibliography:

Surname, First name, First name Surname, and First name Surname. Year. Title (Publisher)

Example:

Thomson, Richard,  Phillip Dennis Cate, and Mary Weaven Chaplin. 2005. Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre (National Gallery of Art in association with Princeton University Press)

Note that in the bibliography the first author name is given as surname, first name: subsequent authors are given as first name surname.  A comma is used between the first and second author, and the word "and" is used between the second and third author.

Where you have more than three authors, you list the First Author followed by "and others" in the in-text citation.

Author-Date:

In text citation:

(First Author Surname and others Year: page)

Example:

(Davis and others 2015: 95)

Entry in a bibliography:

Surname, First Name, and others. Year. Title (Publisher)

Example:

Davis, Glyn, and others. 2015. Film studies: a global introduction (Routledge)

Note that in the bibliography the author name is given as surname, first name, followed by and others.

Author-Date:

In text citation:

(Editors Surname Year: page)

Example:

(Van Bouwel  2009: 201)

Entry in a bibliography:

Surname, First name (ed.). Year. Title (Publisher)

Example:

Van BouwelJerone (ed.). 2009. The social sciences and democracy (Palgrave Macmillan)

Note that in the bibliography the editor's name is given as surname, first name, followed by (ed.). or (eds.) for multiple editors.

Where a work has an original author or editor and has been translated, you need to include the details of the Author/Editor and the Translator in the bibliography.  

Author-Date:

In text citation:

(Author Surname Year: page)

Example:

(García Márquez 2007: 143)

Entry in a bibliography:

Surname, First name. Year. Title, trans. by First name Surname of translator (Publisher)

Example:

García Márquez, Gabriel. 2007. One hundred years of solitude trans. by Gregory Rabassa (Penguin)

Include the Author and the Translator names in the Bibliography entry.  The translators name comes after the title, use the abbreviation trans. and use the format First Name Surname for the translator.

If the author or editor is unknown, the footnote and biography should use a short form of the title.  Entries in the bibliography are alphabetised from the first significant word (excluding words like "A", "The", "An", etc).

Author-Date:

In text citation:

 (Shortened title Year: page)

Example:

(Primary Colors 2006: 67)

Entry in Bibliography:

Full title. Year. (Publisher)

Example:

Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics. 2006. (Random House)

Don't use abbreviations such as Anon where an author is unknown.