Referencing Guidelines
How to cite references
There are many acceptable ways of citing references, e.g. in the form of footnotes. All references should include author, work, and the page numbers from which the passage or idea is taken. Here is a standard method of indicating sources:
Format of Footnotes and references:
You must footnote ideas that you have taken from other authors, even if you use your own words to express them. You need not footnote ideas that are common philosophical knowledge (e.g., “Ethics is the study of how one should live”). But you should indicate where ideas not your own come from (e.g., you should footnote Mill when you say, “Mill believed that it is better to be reflective and dissatisfied than unreflective and content”—and, if you got this idea from Mill, you should also footnote when you say, “It is better to be reflective and dissatisfied than unreflective and content.”)
References can be given in full in footnotes, or in short-hand there – e.g. McGinn (1997) – with full details in the bibliography. The page numbers given within the footnote should indicate the page/s from which the passage or idea is taken.
There are a number of different formats that you could follow for your references: just choose one to follow consistently. See, e.g., https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/library/idlt/referencing.
Here, in more detail, are guidelines for different formats you could use:
For Journal Articles
Format
Author, “Title”, Journal Journal number (Date of Publication), page number/s.
For instance:
Marie McGinn, “The Writer and Society: An Interpretation of Nausea”, British Journal of Aesthetics 37 (1997), pp. 118-28.
For chapters of edited books, the format is:
Author, “Chapter Title,” in Editor, ed., Title (Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication), page number/s.
For example:
J.W. Allard, “Degrees of Truth in F.H. Bradley,” in W. Mander, ed. Perspectives on the Logic and Metaphysics of F.H. Bradley (Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 1995), p. 138.
For lecture handouts, the format is:
Lecturer, “Title,” Course number, University, Term.
For example:
A.N. Other, “Lecture Handout 16,” PHI254, University of Sheffield, Spring Term 2003.
For Citing Books
Format
Author, Title [Translator, trans. if applicable] (Place of Publication: Publisher, Date of Publication), page number/s.
For example:
Ludwig Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations Elizabeth Anscombe, trans. (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1953), p. 5.
For Lecture Handouts
Format
Lecturer, “Title,” Course number, University, Term.
For example:
A.N. Other, “Lecture Handout 16,” PHI254, University of Sheffield, Spring Term 2003.
For Websites
Format
Author, “Title,” Source of Publication (Date of Publication). Available at: Web Address.
For example:
C. Collins, “Critiques of Humanitarianism and Humanitarian Action,” Report for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (1998).
Available at: http://www.reliefweb.int/library/documents/stock.html#F.