Order of Entries
The entries in the bibliography are arranged in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author listed on the source, which is inverted (last name first).
Corporate authors (organizations, associations, etc.) are alphabetized by the first significant word of the name.
If there is no author, move the title in the author position, then alphabetize by the first significant word of the title (skip the articles the, a, an).
Layout
Entries are listed in alphabetical order.
Double-spacing is used between entries, but within the same entry single-spacing is used.
Second and subsequent lines of an entry are indented.
In general, an entry in the bibliography should include the following components:
For authors or editors, follow the rules listed on this page.
The date of publication is usually the year of publication, but for magazines and newspaper the exact date is required (year, month and day). If no date is available, write n.d. in parentheses.
English-language titles of works are capitalized headline-style in source citations (Title Case).
If other information is required for the identification and retrieval of the source, it can be added in brackets immediately after the title (i.e. [Audio podcast], [Motion picture], etc.).
The following information applies to all kinds of sources.
One Author
When you cite a work by one single author, list the author's last name followed by the first name.
Last Name, First Name.
Bryfonski, Dedria.
Editor
In a reference to an edited book, place the editor's name in the author position followed by the abbreviation ed. (or eds.).
Last Name, First Name, ed.
LeGates, Richard T., ed.
Two to Three Authors/Editors
When you cite a work by two or three authors or with two or three editors, list the names in the order they appear in the original source. Invert only the first name, follow it with the second and the third author/editor in normal order. The last author/editor is preceded by and.
Last Name, First Name, and First Name Last Name.
Last Name, First Name, and First Name Last Name, eds.
Jansen, Marius B., and Gilbert Rozman.
Four or More Authors/Editors
For a source with four to ten authors/editors, include all the names in the bibliography entry following the same rule as for two or three authors. For more than ten authors/editor, in the bibliography the first seven are listed, followed by et al. In the footnote, in both cases, only the first last name is cited followed by et al. (Latin abbreviation that means "and others").
Last Name, First Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, and First Name Last Name.
Last Name, First Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, and First Name Last Name, eds.
Chatenoud, Lau, Eva Negri, Carlo La Vecchia, O. Volpato, and S. Franceschi, eds.
1. Lau Chatenoud et al., eds.
Last Name, First Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, et al.
Last Name, First Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, First Name Last Name, et al., eds.
Yonkers, K. A., S. M. Rasmin, A. J. Rush, C. A. Navarrete, T. Carmody, D. March, K. J. Leveno et al.
2. K. A. Jonkers et al.
Corporate Author
When you cite a work by a corporate author (organization, institution, etc.), spell out the full name.
Corporate Author.
Council on Foreign Affairs.
No Author
When you cite a work whose author is not identified, move the title of the source to the author position, before the publication data.
Title of Source. Publication Data.
"A Game of Dare: Confronting Intolerance in Pakistan." March 5, 2016.
Proper formatting of the titles allows the reader to easily identify the type of source.
Titles in quotation marks are part of bigger works. In this category we can find articles, chapters, essays, poems, web documents, videos.
Titles in italics are self-contained and independent, such as books and journals, but also anthologies.
In some cases, titles need to be shortened: take a look at our list of examples.
To avoid unnecessary repetition when citing multiple essays or works from a collection, such as an anthology or a reader, you can use the so-called cross-references.
With cross-references you give the full entry of the anthology, and then you give abbreviated entries for the essays/works that are used from the anthology itself.
Fishman, Robert. "Beyond Suburbia: The Rise of the Technobub." In LeGates and Stout, The City Reader, 75-83.
Harvey, David. "Contested Cities: Social Process and Spacial Form." In LeGates and Stout, The City Reader, 230-237.
LeGates, Richard T., and Frederic Stout, eds. The City Reader. London: Routledge, 2011.
In the footnotes, details of the book may be given the first time it is mentioned, with subsequent notes in the shortened/abbreviated form.