Bibliography/References Page
The bibliography, or reference page, is a list of all the resources you consulted for your project. It normally appears at the end of your project, allowing your readers to locate and independently consult sources that were cited as part of a work. Each source you use in your project must be included in your reference list, whether you directly quote from it, paraphrase it, or are merely informed by it.
Below is a sample of a professional bibliography from the journal The Reference Librarian:
Click image to enlarge.
Bibliography Rules:
- Entries are alphabetized by the last name of the first author of each work
- Include up to 20 authors in the citation. If more are named, include up to 19 names followed by an ellipsis (...) and the final author's name.
- Second and all subsequent lines are always indented using a half-inch hanging indent. This means that the first line of each reference entry is flush with the left margins and subsequent lines are indented by 0.5 inch. Consult the help in your word processor (Word or Google Docs) to learn how to create hanging indents.
- Capitalize the first letter of the first word of the title and any subtitles (indicated by a colon) and all proper nouns.
- Do not number or bullet bibliographies, and do not use headings or separate the entries by source type.
Each entry must should include most if of the following elements as appropriate to the source type:
- Author's name
- Title of the source (e.g. article or book chapter or report)
- Title of the larger work/container of the article (such as a book, journal, etc.) if applicable
- Publication date
- Publisher's name for books or reports
- Volume, issue, and page numbers for journal articles
- Location such as a DOI or URL (only for online sources that do not have a DOI).
Book Rules:
- A book citation must always include author(s), title (and subtitle), publisher, and date of publication. Other necessary elements, if applicable, include editor, translator, edition, revision, and volume number.
- Titles of books are always italicized.
Article Rules:
- An article citation must always include author, title (and subtitle), title of journal/magazine, date of publication, volume/issue number, and page numbers.
- Titles of journals and the volume number are always italicized.
For more information about formatting and citing sources in APA format, see: