05 June 2009

ACADEMIC REFERENCING STYLES - Note

This is the full-length version of an article that will be published in the 'Times Higher Education' on 25th June 2009 (pp 24-25). It is online at: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=407112. It was originally written around 20th April; but THE asked me to shorten it to a 750-word piece for their Opinion section. I have done this - and you know what it is like when sacrifices have to be made. Anyway, here is the detailed article. I am especially keen to show a range of examples of the new author-year-type referencing system that I have proposed.

ACADEMIC REFERENCING STYLES:
Time to Move from Chaos to Order
by Alec Gill MBE

The internet is, fortunately, causing havoc with the way academics reference their source material. It is forcing a re-think about the archaic referencing rituals that are performed within the ‘ivory towers’ of academia.

In the pre-web days, it was reasonable to insist upon the curious underlining of book titles, the idiosyncratic italicisation when naming journals, single inverted commas for chapters within edited books, the dots, commas, brackets in specific places (or not) and full-stops here, there and everywhere. The permutation of punctuation is endless - and the methods of citing references are cumbersome.

Some departmental heads still vigorously defend their scholastic territory - perhaps to maintain a vestige of petty control. They had battled with bibliographies; therefore, the next generation of students must also uphold the outmoded practices.

Students today, however, are under a host of pressures never encountered before. Leaving aside financial and workload worries, they have to reference academic material from a wide range of multi-media sources (not envisaged even a few years ago). Overseas and mature students (and those with dyslexia) are often baffled by all the dots, commas, brackets and underlinings that are used to distinguish a variety of different source material. And joint-degree students (e.g., Politics and Law) have to switch between two different styles: ‘Harvard’ and footnotes. An international student from Turkmenistan was highly delighted when she mastered the referencing style used by the Open University (OU) – “I felt I had learnt the British method of referencing – and I was happy”. Then, after arriving at Hull University, she had to learn a completely new system and felt cheated.

From my own experience as a study advice tutor, I can testify that many of the departmental handbooks are grossly inadequate and often provide confusing guidelines. In theory, these should give reliable directions about how to reference; but in reality, they are riddled with inconsistencies. Even the best handbooks contain contradictory information within the examples that are meant to clarify the situation. And many a student has complained that some academics blatantly tell them to ignore the handbook completely and reference the way their lecturer tells them it must be done.

The referencing of websites has certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons. Many guidelines ignore the existence of the internet or provide an example from a traditional journal and merely add the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) web address at the end. However, a variety of web resources have no stated author, year or page number to cite. For example, the NHS (National Health Service), CBI (Confederation of British Industry), the BBC, and Hansard websites are classed as ‘corporate authorship’. Students have to guess how to reference such material. In addition, more and more students have to cite multi-media material: blogs, podcasts, DVDs, CDs, YouTube, works of art, television programmes, films, and so on.

In an endeavour to help academics cope with the citation complexities, new software has come into use in recent years. These programmes are certainly marvellous and do a great job. However, they tend to pander to the time-honoured comic convolutions of compiling a bibliography. EndNote is a dedicated “easy-to-use bibliography” package that claims to handle 3,300 journal styles. Microsoft’s Word 2007 now has a special ‘Citations & Bibliography’ section under its ‘Reference ribbon’. It formats references into a host of different publishing styles: APA, Chicago, GB7714, GOST, ISO690, MLA, SIST02, and Turabian (but, please, do not ask me to explain what they all mean). And, RefWorks is a web-based competitor to the two previous (static) systems. It is part of the new Web 2.0 ‘cloud’ technology that allows users to share their bibliographic material through social networking and also benefit from the two-way process.

All this juggling about, however, seems to be building a new Tower of Babel. It is time to change. Academic referencing must be reformed, unified and simplified. There has to be a move toward speed when referencing and the reduction of time-consuming keystrokes. My proposed method builds upon the traditional author-year system [popularly, but erroneously, referred to as the ‘Harvard’ system]. However, it strips away the guesswork element that has scholars looking for clues in order to work out whether the source is a book, journal, chapter, newspaper or whatever. I urge that italics, underlining, brackets, bold type, inverted commas and some full-stops are made obsolete. The aim of the new system is to be more explicit. That is, after stating the name(s) of the author and year, the citation openly tells the reader what type of resource follows - such as a book, website, painting, chapter, etc. The new system could be called: author-year-type. In effect, future bibliographies will insert the type of material that is being referred to; but save time, effort and the stress of going back and forth over the text to insert fancy formatting. The list at the end of the academic work will, of course, remain in alphabetical order. The way sources are cited within the body of the text will also stay the same (author, year, and page number where necessary).

Obviously, there has to be consistency, and this I hope to provide by showing a variety of specific examples (see below). Initially, I endeavoured to compile my own list of references. I wanted these to be genuine and began to hunt for appropriate material to cite. This proved difficult and I felt a certain bias creeping into the process. Then I came across a ready-made list that proved ideal. It is by the OU (in the UK) on their website. Although this list gave me a sound basis, I have taken the liberty to chop and change it around. Added to this, I have presented the following list of references in two broad categories: Traditional (books, journals, chapters) and Digital (websites, blogs, DVDs, TV programmes) – I have also inserted a corporate authorship and other web-based references (and deleted a couple).

TRADITIONAL SOURCES:

Chalke, S. 2003 Book: How to Succeed as a Working Parent, London: Hodder & Stoughton.

Thompson, K. 2003 Journal: Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins: the Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, The Velvet Light Trap, 52/Fall/45-63.

Mason, R. 1994 Chapter: The Educational Value of ISDN, in Mason, R. and Bacsich, P. (eds) ISDN: Applications in Education and Training, Exeter: Short Run Press.

Mackay, C. 2002 Newspaper: Alert over Big Cat, Daily Mirror, 4 July/28.

Halliday, J. 1995 Report: Assessment of the Accuracy of the DTI's Database of the UK Wind Speeds, Energy Technology Support Unit, ETSU-W-11/00401/REP.

Jones, J. 1994 Paper: Polymer Blends Based on Compact Disc Scrap, in Proceedings of the Annual Technical Conference, Society of Plastics Engineers, San Francisco, 1-5 May 1994, Brookfield, CT, 2865-2867.

Open University 1984 Text: T281 Basic Physical Science for Technology, Unit 9, 'Thermochemistry', Milton Keynes: Open University.

Morishita, M. 2003 Thesis: Empty Museums: Transculturation and the Development of Public Art Museums in Japan, Unpublished PhD, Milton Keynes: Open University.

Horan, D. 2002 Painting: Kipper in the Cat's Mouth, Watercolour: 20x30 cm, London: National Gallery.

DIGITAL SOURCES
:

Spitzer, K.L., Eisenberg, M.B. and Lowe, C.A. 1998 Web: Information Literacy: Essential Skills for the Information Age, ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology, Syracuse University (ED 427 780) http://ericit.org/toc/infoliteracytoc.shtml accessed 28 October 2003.

Open University Library 2005 Web: Welcome to the Open University Library
http://library.open.ac.uk/ accessed 2 February 2006.

NHS (National Health Service) Choices 2009 Web: Jet Lag http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Jet-lag/Pages/Introduction.aspx?url=Pages/What-is-it.aspx accessed 21 March 2009.

Cline, W.R. 1992 eBook: The Economics of Global Warming, Washington DC: Peterson Institute http://books.google.com/books?id=kTJvx2-fTYUC&printsec=frontcover accessed 2 June 2009.

Willie, S.S. 2003 eBook: Acting Black: College, Identity and the Performance of Race, Taylor and Francis e-book collection
http://library.open.ac.uk/linking/index.php?id=311027 accessed 10 April 2006.

Virkus, S. 2003 eJournal: Information Literacy in Europe: a Literature Review, Information Research, 8/4/159 http://informationr.net/ir/8-4/paper159.html accessed 28 October 2003.

Cavendish, C. 2009 eNewspaper: Insane Spendaholics are Mortgaging our Future, The Times, 20 March http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/camilla_cavendish/article5941273.ece accessed 2 June 2009.


MacLeod, D. 2007 eNewspaper: Oxbridge Trainee Teachers 'twice as likely to get jobs', Education Guardian, 3 August http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2007/aug/03/schools.uk1 accessed 28 August 2008.

Sloniowski, L. 2005 Blog: Information Literacy in Canada - Because Sharing is Nice, 30 June http://blog.uwinnipeg.ca/ilig/archives/learning_objects/ accessed 2 February 2006.

Wings of a Butterfly 2005 Podcast: ABC Radio National, Sydney http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/default.htm#mind accessed 16 September 2005.

Strang, W. 1903 ePainting: Neil Munro 1864-1930, National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/index.php/collection/online_az/4:322/results/0/3342/ accessed 2 February 2006.

Open University 2008 DVD: T320 E-business Technologies: Foundations and Practice, DVD 1: Video Case Studies, Milton Keynes: Open University.

Knight, C.J. 1997 Email: Cumbrian Windfarms, May 29 to J.Q.Parker-Knoll.

The Apprentice 2008 TV: BBC1, 11 June.

Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers 2003 Film: Directed by Peter Jackson, New York: Newline Productions Inc.

My final recommendation - to prevent misunderstanding when referencing - is to avoid the use of only lowercase fonts in titles. I strongly advise the use of traditional capitalization of titles. The fashion for all lowercase titles is a passing fad that will fade. A recent example was when Hull City Council promoted “hull – the pioneering city”.

Academics often tell students to be objective when examining scientific situations. It is time to practise what we preach. We need to become detached and analytical about what is at the heart of scholarly inquiry – the way we reference our source material. Too much student and research time is wasted upon such trivial traditions. My motivation is to ease the stress upon our globe-trotting students, especially those who straddle academic disciplines.

Compiling a bibliography is not a game of Cluedo. The reader should not have to waste time guessing where a particular academic source is located. The purpose of a reference list is to enable other researchers to find the source material if they wish. And, the more explicit we make it, the better.

Reference reform is long overdue. The demands and pace of technological advances are forcing change in many areas of everyday life. Indeed, academics of all people, must apply scientific logic and critical thinking to their own methodology. The onus is upon us to bring referencing up to date and into the 21st century. This process is not ‘dumbing down’; it is a catching up with reality, de-cluttering absurdity, and joining the Digital Age.

[P.S. The above long version of this article was written before I attended the University of Bradford symposium on 'Referencing & Writing' (8 June). That is why - for those who noticed - the introductions are different - thanks.]

REFERENCES:

EndNote 2008 Web: EndNote X2 New Features
http://www.endnote.com/enx2info.asp accessed 19 Dec 2008.

Gill, A. 1997 Web: Talk Topics - English, Psychology, Reminiscence, Hull’s Trawling Heritage, and Superstitions
http://www.hull.ac.uk/php/cesag/index.htm accessed 5 January 2009.

Microsoft Office Online 2009 Web: Create a Bibliography
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100674921033.aspx accessed 24 March 2009.

Open University 2009 Web: Citation Guides: OU Harvard Style, OU Library Services
http://library.open.ac.uk/research/citastyle/index.cfm accessed 11 February 2009.

RefWorks 2009 Web: Your Online Research Management Writing and Collaboration Tool
http://www.refworks.com/ accessed 19 March 2009.


Alec Gill - MBE BSc MSc FHEA
a.gill@hull.ac.uk
The University of Hull
Study Advice Service
Academic Tutor + MultiMedia Developer
01482.466344 - Office
www.hull.ac.uk/studyadvice
www.hull.ac.uk/php/cesag - my research work

17 comments:

  1. Thanks, Alec. Having just revised a handbook in response to an obsessional external's report (http://www.doceo.co.uk/reflection/2009/04/on-shibboleth-of-harvard-referencing.htm) I applaud efforts to raise the issue. But where? With whom? How does one change such an inchoate culture, which nonetheless exercises such an iron grip on practice? Fascinating question!

    (Just one cavil with your referencing, Brookes is a University, not a college.)

    ReplyDelete
  2. What is the point of author-date or author-date-type systems for in-text citations?

    Suppose your text contains (Doe, 2009a) as a reference.

    Do you think that most readers will know who 'Doe' is? Considering the amount of researchers in most fields I very much doubt that.

    But suppose 'Doe' is popular, do you think readers will know which works 'Doe' published in '2009'?

    And what if 'Doe' wrote several works in '2009', are you going to add letters such as 'a' or 'b'? People will have to look in the bibliography to know what you are citing anyway. And as the bibliography is sorted by author followed by date, they will have to check multiple entries.

    Why not use simple reference numbers for in-text citations? They directly point to the correct spot in your bibliography. And by introducing numbers in order of citing rather than alphabetically, lookup is probably even easier as grouped references will tend to stand together in your bibliography.

    I like the idea of adding a type to a bibliography entry for clarificaton but more drastic changes are needed. Formatting of an entry in a bibliography should become basic. That is, no bold, no underline, no italics, no brackets, no colons, no semi-colons, no commas, ... All fields in an entry should be separated by the same symbol (I would suggest a period).

    For most authors, references are an annoyance on which they spend too much time. People are dropping important references just because they are too hard to format correctly. In my opinion, the only solution to this is to create an entire new referencing style from scratch keeping simplicity in mind and getting it standardised by ISO or ECMA or a similar body.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dear James A,
    Nice to be in touch again. I have just taken a look at your blog and left a Comment there about academia and the myth of 'Harvard'.
    Thanks for pointing out about Oxford Brookes. I obviously got it wrong. However, that subtitle has now become redundant and I have recently changed it some something more nebulous.
    Cheers for now, Alec Gill

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dear Yves,
    Thanks for your Comments. You certainly raise some good points. You have obviously moved the debate forward to 'in-text citations' - the topic for another article (why not give it a go?)
    We seem to agree about stripping away the fancy typography in the Reference List at the end of any academic piece of writing (a point I make in my article - indeed, it is central).
    Hopefully, when my Times Higher Education article is published (25th June 09) it will eventually result in "an entire new referencing style" - in the longer term (who knows?).
    I must say that your idea to get it standardised by an official body is worth greater consideration. This, however, is also a long way down the road and we will have to see how things pan out.
    In the meantime, very many thanks for your pre-publication interest in my article.
    Bye for Now, Alec Gill.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Read your article in the THES, Subject: A useful article in the THES about referencing (25 June) and having just finished a paper where I was citing a myriad of sources (from books to podcasts) I sympathise with your view. Also your arguments made me realise that perhaps the archaic nature of referencing is the reason why students and staff are unable to reference properly. Btw I have posted your article to the JISC information literacy mailing list, so you might get few more comments on your blog.

    Best

    Susie

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dear Susie,
    Thank you very much for your support and views. The article in the Times HE Online is certainly generating lots of response. Thank you also for posting it to the JISC website. I am not sure what that will involve - so I will wait and see, The more it gets around the better.
    I have been advised to notify the British Standards people in London, but I do not have a direct contact there. Can anyone help in this regard? Does anyone know any people and their email I can use to contact them directly?
    Cheers Alec Gill.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for raising this Alec, and thanks to Susie for posting to the JISC website. Two comments:
    (i) we're scoping international work for repositories to be able to share citation information, see:
    http://repinf.pbworks.com/Citation-Services-draft-project-proposal
    Comments on that are more than welcome. It includes a major two-year activity to use text-mining and other approaches to decode the myriad referencing styles, which certainly illustrates the scale of the problem of making these links work in a digital age.
    (ii) I guess I'd like to echo James' point above, the issue is probably less what style do we agree on, but who is the "we" and how do we get to agreement? With reference to your reply to Susie, I doubt a purely British approach will be adequate, this needs international action, probably working with editors and publishers?
    Best wishes
    Neil Jacobs, JISC

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dear Alec,

    just to keep you in the loop I have had a reply from the JISC information literacy mailing list which might be of interest as it attempts to simplify the process of referencing

    Hi,
    The new edition of Cite them right (http://www.citethemright.co.uk)
    does try to address some of these issues by providing guidance on using a simplified version
    of the Harvard (author-date) style for all kinds of sources and concise information on using other referencing styles.

    Graham Shields
    Learning Adviser - Library
    University of Cumbria
    email: graham.shields@cumbria.ac.uk

    Although I think that Graham is attempting to adapt an existing referencing method rather than devising a completely new and simplified version.

    I agree with Neil that this is an issue that requires an international response and as I am speaking at the International Federation of Library Associations conference this year I shall endeavour to raise this point in my talk which incidentally is about library practices across multi-media. Librarians are certainly part of the 'we' that need to be involved in this discussion since they are seen as the 'enforcers' of citation and referencing rules.

    Best

    Susie

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dear Neil [& Susie],
    Very many thanks for getting in touch via my blog. I appreciate your time and (having checked your JISC website) respect your role when it comes to the referencing styles issue. In response, I would say:
    (i) The myriad of referencing styles is going to increase. Indeed, I believe that the profusion of referencing management software will only make the situation much more complex and increase the hybrid of referencing styles (almost like a virus). One of my earlier working sub-titles for the Times article (but I dumped it before it went to print) was "The Urgent need for Universal Uniformity". I might be naive, but it seems to me that instead of trying to decode the growing number of styles, we need to step back, introduce a new, simpler style and de-clutter all the italics, inverted commas, brackets and redundant punctuation. More openness is necessary when we compile our bibliographies. As you state, we are in the digital age and "we" need to adapt accordingly.
    (ii) The "we / who" question is a good one and needs to be clarified. I agree that the British level is not an ultimate goal. I believe, however, in one step at a time. Added to this, I am on a steep learning curve since the article (and blog) was published. International action is certainly needed.
    Is there anything specific / concrete that JISC could do to further the idea of a uniform universal referencing style? Could we work together in any way? Can you point me in the direction of any international bodies who might be influential in the area of referencing styles?
    Where is the JISC research heading?
    Anyway, that is enough for now. Thanks again, Alec Gill.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dear Susie,
    Again, very many thanks for posting my article to the JISC website, letting Neil know about it and keeping me in the loop.
    Am I correct in assuming that 'Cite them right' is another piece of commercial referencing management software?
    I would be delighted if you could mention my new referencing system at the IFLA conference (is that the one in Italy?)
    Yes, indeed, librarians are central to this referencing issue. I like your phrase 'enforcers' of the citation rules. I see you are at the London Met. It is wonderful how the internet can bring diverse people together behind one issue.
    Keep in touch. Cheers for now and enjoy the weather. Alec.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dear Alec,

    talking about the librarians' role in all this when I posted the news about your article on the LIS-Infolit mailing list (which is used by a great number of librarians) I was expecting some a reaction (although I was not quite sure what kind of reaction I would get). To my surprise I only received one email (from a librarian at londonmet) it said:
    Dear Susie
    Great to get your email and info. We have been struggling away with a sub-referencing group here in the library and would appreciate some input from you.
    I've added my six-penneth into comments...not particularly well thought through but I was tickled by Alec's suggestions

    I am not sure which suggestion she is referring to and the type of contribution she wants me to provide but I'll find out and keep you posted.

    To answer your queries, 'Cite them right' is actually a printed guide on how to cite which is published by Newcastle University. I have the earlier version and now it seems they've come out with a new version to catch up with the myriad of sources that have emerged since the last publication.

    I like your idea of a 'uniform universal referencing style' it would make my job as tutor, researcher and editor a lot easier. Perhaps IFLA (yes the one in Milan in August) will have some ideas on how to proceed on this. I'll keep you posted.

    Best

    Susie

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dear Susie, Many thanks for responding quickly, sending those comments from your London Met librarian colleague, and keeping me posted. I see you are an academic and author (like me - but different fields). Thanks for putting me right about the 'Cite them right' publication.
    My little aim in life is to try and make life easier all round. The abundance of referencing styles seems to make academic life complex and confusing for lots of people. Academics should not have to be acrobatic when it comes to compiling a bibliography. Our modern pace of life demands simplicity. I recently came across the K.I.S.S. principle = "Keep It Short & Simple". In this case, it could be changed to "Keep It Speedy and Simple".
    Cheers for now and I look forward to your further updates and news, Alec.

    ReplyDelete
  13. http://www.zotero.org is a brilliant technological solution to referencing. It doesn't solve the problem raised here, but it does provide an easy, quick way to gather and use references. It's a Firefox extension, used within the browser, and it's light years ahead of anything else available. No academic should be without it.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I'm a librarian with an unnatural and unhealthy interest in referencing and citation styles. You're going to hate me.

    There's an important issue here, and I appreciated your THES piece. But in my experience it’s not the mechanics of referencing that are the problem (though it can be a pain in the neck, especially with over-elaborate systems), but the principles of referencing – when to reference, who to reference, and how to reference accurately and consistently.

    Most of the students I see don’t need help putting full-stops in the ‘right’ place. They lack an understanding of what they are doing and why they are doing it.

    I get more questions about in-text citation than about constructing bibliographies. Unless you’re switching between systems, or converting references written in one style to another style, the mechanics can be dealt with by making detailed guidance available – which many academics and librarians do, and would need to do even if there was a single universal system.

    All you’ve done is add another style to the pile. Without solving all the problems you set out to solve.

    Arbitrarily eliminating some punctuation, while retaining or substituting the rest, makes the references harder to read without making their construction simpler.

    Date of publication is no longer bracketed, and isn’t separated from the title by a full stop. But there’s a colon instead. Why not stick to full stops? Full stops are already used to signal separation, after all, but the meaning of a colons is different. I found this confusing, particularly since what follows type/colon isn’t consistent.

    D

    ReplyDelete
  15. Some examples of type/colon inconsistency (a problem because you're not otherwise typographically distinguishing elements of the reference):

    Title follows the type/colon:
    ***
    Chalke, S. 2003 Book: How to Succeed as a Working Parent, London: Hodder & Stoughton.
    ***

    Type/colon followed by director (and there should be a full stop at the end!):
    ***
    Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers 2003 Film: Directed by Peter Jackson, New York: Newline Productions Inc
    ***

    Type/colon followed by TV channel:
    ***
    The Apprentice 2008 TV: BBC1, 11 June.
    ***

    In fact, given your stated principles, why retain the unnecessary comma between surname and initial? Why retain a full stop after the initial? Why end the reference with a full stop?

    And why introduce the innovation of virgules to volume/number/page numbers, as in this example?:
    ***
    Thompson, K. 2003 Journal: Fantasy, Franchises, and Frodo Baggins: the Lord of the Rings and Modern Hollywood, The Velvet Light Trap, 52/Fall/45-63.
    ***

    You may as well stick with full stops and commas.

    The Thompson reference above is also a good example of the potential for punctuation-related confusion. The journal title appears to merge into the article title, because of the use of a comma instead of something more effective. I bet we could come up with examples of where this could be seriously confusing.

    In the above example you’ve got a mess of colons, because in your system colons are sometimes part of subtitles, and sometimes the divider between material type and item title. Full stops are less often part of the title of an item, which is the advantage of using them to demarcate different elements of a reference.

    Here’s one of your examples to illustrate the chaotic colon problem:
    ***
    Horan, D. 2002 Painting: Kipper in the Cat's Mouth, Watercolour: 20x30 cm, London: National Gallery.
    ***
    If the painting title had a colon, you’d end up with four colons scattered around the reference.

    I note, also, that you capitalised “Watercolour”, which is confusing and unnecessary.

    An example with four colons:
    ***
    Open University 2008 DVD: T320 E-business Technologies: Foundations and Practice, DVD 1: Video Case Studies, Milton Keynes: Open University.
    ***

    Some other inconsistencies:

    In this example, where did the quote marks suddenly come from?
    ***
    Open University 1984 Text: T281 Basic Physical Science for Technology, Unit 9, 'Thermochemistry', Milton Keynes: Open University.
    ***

    In this example, why is the date placed in the middle of sender/recipient information, instead of at the end like most of the other references, and why is the day on the right side of the month instead of on the left, like all the other dates in your examples?
    ***
    Knight, C.J. 1997 Email: Cumbrian Windfarms, May 29 to J.Q.Parker-Knoll.
    ***

    Personally, I’d want the page numbers of the chapter in this example. But that might just be me.
    ***
    Mason, R. 1994 Chapter: The Educational Value of ISDN, in Mason, R. and Bacsich, P. (eds) ISDN: Applications in Education and Training, Exeter: Short Run Press.
    ***

    Finally, I think this is misleading:
    ***
    Strang, W. 1903 ePainting: Neil Munro 1864-1930, National Galleries of Scotland http://www.nationalgalleries.org/index.php/collection/online_az/4:322/results/0/3342/ accessed 2 February 2006.
    ***
    The fact is, this is not an ePainting created in 1903. It’s a 1903 painting reproduced digitally. How would you reference it if you’d seen it in a book?

    D

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dear Dan,
    Very many thanks for going through my article and this blog in such tremendous detail. Sorry I have not got back to you before now. The summer gap and other things got in the way.
    Your advice about full-stops has been mentioned by others (especially on the THE website). I need to fully absorb and respond to that aspect and others you have raised.
    I certainly do not 'hate you'/ Your comments and thoughts are highly constructive.
    I need to print off your ideas, thinking about them, continue to re-jig my ideas and put these onto the web / blog.
    Cheers for now,
    Alec Gill.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Your articles are very well written and unique.bestcitation.com

    ReplyDelete