Include author and date in text, and list full details later

The author–date system uses:

• in-text citations with the author’s name and the date of publication
• an alphabetical reference list with the full information about the source.

People use the information from an in-text citation to find the corresponding reference in the list.

The author–date system is useful when you have many sources to cite. It’s mostly used in scientific writing and government reports, but you can use it for any type of writing. It’s more accessible than the documentary–note system, as there are no superscript numbers or symbols.

The referencing systems used by Harvard and the American Psychological Association (APA) are examples of the author–date system. It’s also called the name–year system.

In-text citations

An in-text citation gives the author’s name and the date of publication. You can put the author’s name as part of a sentence, or it can go in parentheses with the date. Always include the date in parentheses. Don’t separate the name and date with a comma.

Most in-text citations have only the author’s family name (or authoring organisation’s name) and the year.

Use the shortened form of an organisation’s name in the in-text citation. (In the reference list, you can use the shortened form followed by the spelt-out form in parentheses.)

Two or more authors

For a work by 2 authors, include both names in the in-text citation.

For a work by 3 or more authors, use the first author’s name plus the Latin term ‘et al.’ (meaning ‘and others’). Don’t use italics for ‘et al.’. All authors’ names are included in the reference list.

Use the word ‘and’ between names outside and inside parentheses. Don’t use the ampersand (‘&’).

Page numbers

Include page numbers in the in-text citation only when the work has page numbers and you’re including a direct quotation. Use a colon between the date and page numbers.

Multiple works in one citation

When citing multiple works in the same in-text citation, use semicolons between citations. Enclose all the citations in one set of parentheses.

Multiple works by the same author in the same year

When citing multiple works by the same author in the same year, put a letter after the date of each citation. Put an ‘a’ after the date of the first work you cite, then a ‘b’ after the date of the second, and so on.

Shortened forms and abbreviations of names

Use shortened forms and abbreviations in in-text citations to save space.

Use the same shortened form in the reference list, followed by the spelt-out version. That way the user can easily find the reference but can also see the organisation’s full name.

No date of publication

For works without a date, write ‘n.d.’ (for ‘no date’) instead of the year of publication.

Reference lists

A reference list includes the full details of every cited work. Use the heading ‘References’.

On a webpage, place the reference list immediately after the content and under the heading ‘References’. In print, place the reference list after any appendices but before an index.

If the content has sections written by different authors or on different subjects, include a reference list at the end of each section. This helps users who are interested in only one section and keeps reference lists manageable.

Include a reference in your list for each source you cite in text. All other sources can go in a list called ‘More reading’ or ‘More information’. This list should appear after the reference list.

Some types of specialised sources, such as works of art, need their own reference list. Others, like legislation, are only included in a reference list if there are references to other types of works as well.

Check each type of specialised source that you’re using to see if you need to include it in a reference list.

Order the elements of each item in a reference list

References in the list will have different elements depending on the type of source. For example, when citing a book, include the name of the publisher. When citing a website, include the date you accessed it.

The general order is:

1. author or authoring organisation’s name
2. publishing date
3. title (and series or issue details)
4. publisher details
5. accessed date (for digital content).

Some elements have shortened forms used in referencing. Use the shortened form when appropriate.

Follow the examples of author–date citations.

Personal author names

Write the family name of the authors, editors or translators before writing their initials. Use the original spelling for all author names.

Don’t separate the family name from the initials with a comma. Don’t separate initials with full stops.

Works by 2 or more authors

Unlike for in-text citations, include all of the authors’ names in a reference list.

Government names that have changed

Organisations change names over time. Use the name that appears on the source.

For example, the Services Australia annual report for 2016–17 has the author as the Department of Human Services. That was the name of the agency at the time, so use Department of Human Services as the author when you cite the report.

Shortened forms and abbreviations of organisations’ names

If you have used the shortened form of an organisation’s name in your content, use it in your references. Use the shortened form followed by the spelt-out version in parentheses.

Use the shortened form in subsequent references.

Only use a shortened form of an agency’s name if the agency uses it regularly.

For example, the Australian Public Service Commission regularly uses the initialism ‘APSC’, so use it after the first mention and in the references.

Often, an organisation's name is both the author of the webpage and the name of the website. To avoid repetition of long names, use the shortened form for the name of the website after the title. Do this even if you have not introduced the shortened form before.

Works without a date

For works without a date, write ‘n.d.’ instead of the date of publication.

Works that need the full date of publication

For works like newspaper articles and social media posts, include the full date – not just the year – in the reference list. It makes it easier for users to find this detail.

Style and spell titles consistently

Use capitals, punctuation and italics consistently in all references.

Follow the rules in the examples of author–date citations, but generally:

• Capitalise all proper nouns, the names of periodicals and the first word of titles.
• Use lower case for all other words.
• Use commas to separate elements after the title.
• Use a full stop at the end of the reference.

Use italics for the formal title of a complete published work.

Don't use italics if the reference is:

• a book chapter
• an article
• a poem
• an episode
• a page that is part of a series or a similar division.

If it’s part of a publication, use single quotation marks around the title and use italics for the name of the series, book or periodical.

Use the original spelling for all titles and periodical names. This includes retaining misspellings and American spelling variations.

Hyperlink titles and include access dates for online works

Unless the source is behind a paywall, hyperlink the title of works available online.

You don’t need to include the URL in references in digital content.

Content publishers should make sure the CSS print style sheet automatically displays the URLs from the hyperlinks when the content is printed. This might be a default style in your document’s template.

If the document is print only, include a URL after the reference. Put the URL after the final full stop.

Include the date you accessed the work. This is important because online sources can change. The information you’re linking to could be different to what users will find in the future.

PDFs

If you’re citing a PDF, avoid linking directly to the PDF. Instead link to the landing page where the PDF is hosted.

Landing pages tend to be a more stable place to link to. PDFs are often renamed or moved around a site. Linking to a PDF also requires the user to download content.

If the PDF doesn’t have a landing page, link to the PDF and include ‘PDF’ in square brackets after the title. Follow ‘PDF’ with the file size in kilobytes (KB) or megabytes (MB). Include both of these additional details in the linked text.

Cite the PDF with the details you can find in the document. Sometimes details like publication dates will be missing.

Digital object identifiers (DOIs)

A DOI is a series of numbers and punctuation that identifies a document. Unlike a URL, a DOI always stays the same. DOIs are also internationally standardised.

Works that have DOIs include most journal articles, some e-books and some PDFs.

If the document has a DOI, include it in the citation in the reference list. Put it at the end of the citation and include the shortened form ‘doi’ in lower case before it.

Detail page, volume and issue numbers

If a citation has a volume number, an issue number and page numbers, follow the format: volume(issue):page–page.

In this example, the work is from volume 2, issue 4, and it’s on pages 223 to 240.

Alphabetise the reference items in the list

Order the reference list in alphabetical order, according to the family name and given name of the lead author.

Multiple works by the same author

If you have multiple works by the same writer, list them in date order.

In very long reference lists, such as in reports and theses, the same author may be cited many times.

To avoid repetition, you can use 2 unspaced em dashes for works by the same author cited immediately afterwards.

Multiple works by the same author in the same year

When citing multiple works by the same author in the same year, put a letter after the date of each citation. Put an ‘a’ after the date of the first work you cite and a ‘b’ after the date of the second one, and so on.

Include both works in the reference list.

If a writer has been the sole author for some references and the lead author for others, list the works in order of:

• the alphabetical order of the secondary authors
• the date of publication.

Specify details for government sources and reports

Media releases

Hyperlink the title of media releases and include an accessed date if the media release is published online.

Media release with authors listed

Rule: Author A (Day Month Year) Title of media release: subtitle of media release [media release], Organisation Name, accessed Day Month Year.

Media release with no authors listed

Rule: Organisation Name or Abbreviation (Day Month Year) Title of media release: subtitle of media release [media release], Organisation Name or Abbreviation, accessed Day Month Year.

Reports

For reports published online, hyperlink the title of the report and include an accessed date. If you’re citing a PDF, avoid linking directly to the PDF. Instead link to the page that hosts the PDF.

Sources with title pages will detail the author and publisher. Follow the authoring details on the title page of the document.

Report by an Australian government agency

Rule: Author A or Agency Name (Year) Title of report: subtitle of report, Name of Agency, Name of Government, accessed Day Month Year.

Unpublished report by an Australian government agency

Rule: Author A or Agency Name (unpublished) Title of report: subtitle of report, Name of Agency, Name of Government, accessed Day Month Year.

For unpublished reports include the word ‘unpublished’ instead of the year in in-text citations.

Report that is part of a series

Rule: Author A or Agency Name (Year) ‘Title of report: subtitle of report’, Name of Series, catalogue number, Name of Agency, Name of Government, accessed Day Month Year.

Report to an Australian government agency

Rule: Author A or Agency Name (Year) Title of report: subtitle of report, report to Agency Name, Organisation Name or Abbreviation.

Published internal report

Rule: Author A or Organisation Name or Abbreviation (Year) Title of report: subtitle of report, Organisation Name or Abbreviation.

Report known by a short title

Sometimes a report is better known by a short title or unofficial title. If you’re citing a source like this, use the short title in text.

In the reference list, use the short title followed by a spaced en dash and the full source information. List the source where the first word of the short title would be alphabetically.

Parliamentary sources

Parliamentary papers, such as budget papers, white papers and annual reports, are published:

• as individual documents
• as bound volumes of all documents tabled in a parliamentary sitting.

For individual documents, cite them as you would any document of that type. For example, if you access an annual report on a departmental website, cite it as a government report.

Bound parliamentary papers

For documents you access as part of a bound volume from a parliamentary sitting:

• use the name of the parliament as the author
• include the paper number.

Rule: Name of Parliament (Year) Title of document: subtitle of document, Parl Paper X, Name of Government.

Parliamentary debates and proceedings

To cite a record of what was said in parliament verbatim, as recorded in Hansard, use the volume and page number. Volume numbers are before the colon, page numbers are after.

Rule: Name of Parliamentary Committee or House (Year) Debates, volume:page–page.

To cite the official records of proceedings in each house of parliament, include the volume or issue number and the page number. Issue numbers are in parentheses. Volume numbers are outside parentheses.

Official Australian Parliament records may be from the Journals of the Senate or the Votes and Proceedings of the House of Representatives.

Rule: Name of Parliamentary House (Year) Journals or Votes and Proceedings, (issue) or volume:page–page.

Data sets

For online data sets, hyperlink the title and include the accessed date. If you’re citing a PDF or spreadsheet, avoid linking directly to the document. Instead link to the webpage that hosts the document.

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of data set [data set], Name of Website website, accessed Day Month Year.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has a guide to referencing ABS material.

Follow the ABS advice for information to include, but adjust capitalisation and punctuation to be in line with the rest of the reference list for your content.

Records from the National Archives of Australia

The National Archives of Australia (NAA) has a guide to referencing records it holds. Follow this advice exactly, but add a full stop at the end of the citation.

Sequence the elements of online sources

Only cite an entire website if you cannot pinpoint the material to a specific webpage or webpage content.

For example, you might mention a website as a general resource in the body text. You would give users the full details and link to that website in the reference list.

However, if you refer to content only found on a particular webpage on the website, you need to pinpoint the relevant webpage or webpage content in the reference list.

Entire website

Hyperlink the name of the website. 

Always include the date you accessed the site at the end of the reference.

Use the same capitalisation as the organisation uses for the name of a website.

Include the word ‘website’ after the name of the website in square brackets, unless you include the URL for the homepage.

It is optional to include the URL for the homepage – for example ‘stylemanual.gov.au’. If you include the homepage URL, do not include the word ‘website’ in square brackets.

Rule: Author A (Year) Name of website, URL [optional], accessed Day Month Year.

Webpages and webpage content

Hyperlink the title of the webpage. Don’t link to PDFs or other downloadable documents. Instead link to the page that hosts the document.

Always include the date you accessed the site at the end of the reference.

Use the same capitalisation as the organisation uses for the name of a website.

Include the word ‘website’ after the name of the website, unless the name of the website is a URL, for example WA.gov.au.

Webpage with authors listed

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of webpage, Name of Website website, accessed Day Month Year.

Webpage written by an organisation

Rule: Organisation Name or Abbreviation (Year) Title of webpage, Name of Website website, accessed Day Month Year.

Webpage as part of a larger publication or series

Rule: Author A (Year) ‘Title of webpage’, Name of larger publication or series, Name of Website website, accessed Day Month Year.

Online videos

For videos published online, hyperlink the title of the video and file format. Include the date you accessed it at the end of the reference.

Rule: Creator C or Owner of Video (Day Month Year) ‘Title of video’ [video], Name of Channel or Owning Organisation, Name of Website website, accessed Day Month Year.

Online document

When citing a document hosted on a webpage, but not the webpage itself, don’t include the word website in the citation.

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of document, Organisation Name or Name of Website, accessed Day Month Year.

Tables and images

For tables and images (such as graphs) you’re using in the content, attribute the source in the notes below the table or figure. Include permission or copyright information if necessary. Don’t include this information in the caption or title to the table or image.

Rule: Source: Adapted from Source (Year).

For in-text references, refer to a published table or figure as you would any other published source.

In both cases, cite the usual form of the reference in the reference list.

Photographs, illustrations and other works of art

Attribute works of art (such as photographs) using an extended caption that includes:

• the full details of the work of art
• copyright and permission information if necessary.

Rule: Creator Full Name (Year) Title or description of work [medium], Webpage, Name of Website website, Exhibition or Gallery, Location of Gallery, © Creator, courtesy: Creator or Gallery, accessed Date Month Year.

If you’re writing about a work of art but not using it in your work, cite it in the text using the creator and date.

Cite the artworks in a separate list after the reference list with its own title, such as ‘Works of art’.

Blog posts and newspaper and magazine articles

For blog posts and online newspaper and magazine articles, hyperlink the title. Include the date you accessed the article or post at the end of the reference.

Post or article with authors listed

Rule: Author A (Day Month Year) ‘Title of article: subtitle of article’, Name of Blog, Newspaper or Magazine, accessed Day Month Year.

Post or article with no author listed

If a post or article doesn’t list an author, use the name of the blog, newspaper or magazine.

Rule: Name of Blog, Newspaper or Magazine (Day Month Year) ‘Title of article: subtitle of article’, Name of Blog, Newspaper or Magazine, accessed Day Month Year.

Comment on a blog post

Rule: Author A (Day Month Year) ‘Re: Title of post: subtitle of post’ [blog comment], Name of Blog, accessed Day Month Year.

Social media and forum posts

For social media posts, include the first 10 words of the content followed by an ellipsis if there’s no title. Hyperlink the content or title to the original post and include the date you accessed the post.

Rule: Name of Page or Poster (Day Month Year) ‘Title or first 10 words of content of post ...’ [type of post], Page of Post, accessed Day Month Year.

To cite social media and forum posts in text, use the poster’s name and the year as you would for other references. However, make sure the user knows it’s a social media post.

Emails and personal communication

For emails and personal communication, only include an in-text citation. Don’t include a citation in the reference list.

Interviews

If the interview is published online, hyperlink the title and include the date you accessed it. If you’re citing a PDF, avoid linking directly to the PDF. Instead link to the page that hosts the PDF.

Always use the interviewer’s name in the in-text reference. If you’re quoting the interviewee, make it clear in the text.

Transcript of an interview

Rule: Interviewer I (Day Month Year) Interviewer Full Name interviews Interviewee Full Name: Title of interview [interview transcript], Name of Publisher, accessed Day Month Year.

Audio or video file of an interview

Rule: Interviewer I (Day Month Year) Interviewer Full Name interviews Interviewee Full Name: Title of interview [interview audio or video file], Name of Publisher, accessed Day Month Year.

Journal articles

For journal articles, include the DOI if possible.

Published journal article

Rule: Author A (Year) ‘Title of article: subtitle of article’, Name of Journal, volume(issue):page–page, doi:number.

Journal article accepted for publishing but not yet published

Rule: Author A (in press) ‘Title of article: subtitle of article’, Name of Journal.

For journal articles not yet published, use ‘in press’ instead of the year in the in-text citation.

Conference papers

For conference papers published online, hyperlink the title. If you’re citing a PDF, avoid linking directly to the PDF. Instead link to the page that hosts the PDF.

Published conference paper and presentations

Rule: Author A (Day Month Year) ‘Title of paper: subtitle of paper’ [conference presentation], Name of Conference, Place of Conference, accessed Day Month Year.

Unpublished conference paper

Rule: Author A (Day Month Year) ‘Title of paper: subtitle of paper’ [unpublished conference presentation], Name of Conference, Place of Conference.

Theses

If the thesis is online, hyperlink the title and include an accessed date. If you’re citing a PDF, avoid linking directly to the PDF. Instead link to the page that hosts the PDF.

Published thesis

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of thesis: subtitle of thesis [type of thesis], Name of University, accessed Day Month Year.

Unpublished thesis

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of thesis: subtitle of thesis [unpublished type of thesis], Name of University, accessed Day Month Year.

Give particulars for books, formal publications and printed documents

Books

If you read the book online, hyperlink the title. As books are published in editions, you don’t need to include an accessed date.

Include a DOI if the book has one. Only include the place of publication if it’s relevant to the user (refer to the ‘Place of publication’ heading in this section).

Book with authors listed

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.

Book with organisation as author

Rule: Organisation Name or Abbreviation (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.

(Refer to the ‘Place of publication’ heading in this section for another illustration of this kind of book title.)

Book with DOI

If you include a DOI, you don’t need to include a publishing location.

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, doi:number.

Edition of a book

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Xth edn, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.

Book compiled by editors

Rule: Editor E (ed) (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.

Chapter in an edited book

Rule: Author A (Year) ‘Title of chapter: subtitle of chapter’, in Editor E and Editor F (eds) Title of book: subtitle of book, Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.

Book with author and editor listed

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of book: subtitle of book (Editor E ed), Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.

Translation of a book

Rule: Author A (Year) English title of book: subtitle of book (Translator T trans), Name of Publisher, Place of Publication.

For translated works, use the original author’s name in the in-text citation.

Place of publication of a book

Only include the place of publication if it’s relevant to the user.

The place of publication may be relevant if:

• you’re citing works with editions published in multiple locations
• the location the book was published impacts the credibility of your work.

Editions of books published in different locations may have different spelling conventions. For example, the same publisher may publish an edition in London (using UK spelling) and an edition in New York (using US spelling).

Sometimes knowing the place of publication of the sources adds credibility to the work. For example, an Australian publication may be more credible if it cites books published in Australia. Including the publishing location clearly shows users where the book is from.

If the place of publication doesn’t add useful information for the user, you can omit it from your citation.

Dictionaries and encyclopedias

For dictionaries and encyclopedias, only include an in-text citation. Don’t include a citation in the reference list.

Unpublished works

For unpublished works such as internal documents, include the year the work was written where you would usually have the year the work was published.

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of document: subtitle of document [unpublished type of document], Organisation Name, Writing Location.

Other printed publications

Rule: Author A (Year) Title of publication: subtitle of publication [printed type of publication], Name of Publisher or Owning Organisation, Place of Publication or Print.