General rules to remember

References need to be consistent in layout and punctuation.

• When in doubt, provide more information rather than less.
• Make a note of the details of the material you use at the time you are using it. It may be very difficult to find the details retrospectively.
• Print and ebooks are formatted the same in the reference list, except that an ebook would have a DOI or URL at the end.
• If an author has more than one first name add a space between each initial. e.g. Author, A. A.
• Capitalise the first letter of title and subtitle.
• Title and subtitle are always separated by a colon.
• Use a colon followed by a space to separate titles and subtitles.
• Include the edition number for all editions other than the first.
• Use abbreviations for editors (Eds.) and edition (ed.).
• Use ‘p.' for a single page, ‘pp.' for several pages.
• Do not manually add line breaks into long DOIs or URLs.
• If you are referencing a long URL, you are encouraged to use a URL shortening service, e.g. Bitly or TinyURL.
• All links should be live if the work is to be read online. Remove the hyperlink if the work in a printed format.
• Provide a retrieval date if the content is designed to change over time and is not archived. The format is: Retrieved January 12, 2020, from

See also:

• Principle of referencing
• Principle of citation
• Reference list