Your bibliography

All publications you use must be listed at the back of your article or report in a bibliography: it is also called a bibliography or reference list. A bibliography is a complete list of publications used. For citations and paraphrases in your text, refer to the bibliography. See also quoting and paraphrasing. In a bibliography, the references used are usually sorted by author's last name (APA, Chicago) or by order in the text (Vancouver).

The program RefWorks allows you to easily generate a bibliography to include in the back of your report.

Why a bibliography?

Using the bibliography, a reader of your report can see at a glance which publications you used. The reader can use the bibliography to check what you came up with yourself and what you borrowed from another writer. See also: plagiarism.

With a bibliography, you can also point the reader to other publications on the same topic.

The reverse also applies, of course. If you are looking for information on a subject yourself, it is always useful to go through the bibliography of a book or article.

Design of the bibliography

A bibliography can be designed in different ways. There are different citation styles for this purpose. Within the social sciences, the APA style is mainly used, and sometimes Chicago or Vancouver.

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Two examples

1. A bibliography formatted according to the APA style:

References

Donvan, J., Zucker, C. (2016). In a different key: the story of autism. New York: Crown Publishers.

Engelhardt, C. R., Mazurek, M. O., Hilgard, J., Rouder, J. N., & Bartholow, B. D. (2015). Effects of Violent-Video-game exposure on aggressive behavior, aggressive-thought accessibility, and aggressive affect among adults with and without autism spectrum disorder. Psychological Science, 26, 1187-1200. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797615583038

 

2. A bibliography formatted according to the Chicago (author-date) style:

References

Donvan, J. and C. Zucker. 2016. In a different key: the story of autism. New York: Crown Publishers.

Engelhardt, Christopher R., Micah O. Mazurek, Joe Hilgard, Jeffrey N. Rouder, and Bruce D. Bartholow. 2015. “Effects of Violent-Video-Game Exposure on Aggressive Behavior, Aggressive-Thought Accessibility, and Aggressive Affect Among Adults With and Without Autism Spectrum Disorder.”Psychological Science" 26:1187-1200. doi:10.1177/0956797615583038.

 

Examples of references in APA style

In many programs at the UvA, the APA style is used. Therefore, below are some fictitious examples for different types of publications.

 

Books:

Johnson, J. (2004). The rhetoric of research and statistics. London, University Press.

Robertson, P. (2012). Verbal intelligence: The power of the word. Amsterdam, Scriptum.

May, Y.  (2010). History of the world. New York, Contact.

 

Articles:

McAndrew, F. T., & Jeong, H. S. (2012). Who does what on facebook? Age, sex, and relationship status as predictors of facebook use. Computers in Human Behavior, 28, 23592365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2012.07.007

Bircher, J. & Wehkamp, K. (2011). Health care needs need to be focused on health. Health, 3, 378-382. https://doi.org/10.4236/health.2011.36064

Appel, M. (2012). Are heavy users of computer games and social media more computer literate? Computers & Education, 59, 1339-1349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.06.004

Websites:

Rubiera, C. (2022). If anxiety is in my brain, why is my heart pounding? A psychiatrist explains the neuroscience and physiology of fear. Retrieved from https://theconversation.com/if-anxiety-is-in-my-brain-why-is-my-heart-pounding-a-psychiatrist-explains-the-neuroscience-and-physiology-of-fear-210871

How to Remember Things: 21 Memory Techniques (2015). Retrieved from: https://www.magneticmemorymethod.com/how-to-remember-things

More information?

APA style

Publication manual of the American Psychological association (6th edition)
APA style blog

Chicago style

Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)
Chicago Manual of Style Online

The reference manager software RefWorks enables you to create essays and papers in many different citation styles.