References

The basics

Reference lists: what to include

All articles on raisingchildren.net.au should have reference lists. 

It usually isn't necessary to include reference lists for videos or activity guides.

Ideally, reference lists should include at least 1-2 entries that are no more than three years old. You may leave or include older or seminal references if reviewers judge that these are important.

If you're having trouble finding detailed information to include in a citation, you could try searching the US National Library of Medicine's PubMed database, which comprises more than 26 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books.  

Elements of reference list entries

All references – both print and online – generally require the following elements in the following order:

• • the author element 

  • the date element 

  • the title element 

  • the source element.

Author element

Authors can be one individual, several individuals, a group (government department or agency, university, hospital research organisation and so on), or an individual or individuals and a group. This applies to editors also.

Individual authors
Invert all author names. For example:

Ayers, S.

For sources with more than one author, use a comma to separate an author’s initials from additional author names, even when there are only two authors. Use an ampersand (&) before the final author’s name. For example:

Ayers, S., & Coates, R.

Ayers, S., Coates, R., & Matthew, S. 

Include the names and initials for up to and including 20 authors. When there are 21 or more authors, include the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis (but no ampersand), and then add the final author’s name:

This:
Livesey, G., Taylor, R., Livesey, H.F., Buyken, A.E., Jenkins, D.J.A., Augustin, L.S.A., Sievenpiper, J.L., Barclay, A.W., Liu, S., Wolever, T.M.S., Willett, W.C., Brighenti, F., Salas-Salvadó, J., Björck, I., Rizkalla, S.W., Riccardi, G., Vecchia, C., Ceriello, A., Trichopoulou, A., Poli, A., Astrup, A., Kendall, C.W.C., Ha, M.A., Baer-Sinnott, S., & Brand-Miller, J.C. (2019).  Dietary glycemic index and load and the risk of type 2 diabetes: Assessment of causal relations. Nutrients, 11(6), Article e1436. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11061436.

Becomes this:
Livesey, G., Taylor, R., Livesey, H.F., Buyken, A.E., Jenkins, D.J.A., Augustin, L.S.A., Sievenpiper, J.L., Barclay, A.W., Liu, S., Wolever, T.M.S., Willett, W.C., Brighenti, F., Salas-Salvadó, J., Björck, I., Rizkalla, S.W., Riccardi, G., Vecchia, C., Ceriello, A., Trichopoulou, A., ... Brand-Miller, J.C. (2019).  Dietary glycemic index and load and the risk of type 2 diabetes: Assessment of causal relations. Nutrients, 11(6), Article e1436. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11061436.

Group authors
Group authors are often government agencies, hospitals, research organisations and so on.

If the group (organisational) author and publisher are the same and the group author name can be reduced to a commonly recognised abbreviation or acronym, present the author element as the full name plus the abbreviation in parenthesis. Use the abbreviation only as the source element. For example:

The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). (2020). Clinical practice guidelines: Chest pain. RCH.

If numerous layers of government agencies are listed as the group author of a work, use the most specific agency as the author in the reference. The names of parent agencies not present in the group author name appear in the source element as the publisher.  For example:

National Human Genome Research Institute. (2017). About osteogenesis imperfecta. National Institute of Health. 

Date element

In most cases, this is the year of publication.

For newspaper and magazine articles and blog posts, it's the day, month and year.

Use n.d. for works without a date.

Title element

This might be a:

• book title

• article title 

• chapter title

• webpage title.

Source element

For:

• whole books – publisher name and doi or URL if relevant

• edited books – editor name, book title (and edition number if relevant), page range, publisher name, and doi or URL if relevant

• journal articles – journal title, volume number (and issue number if relevant), page range or article number, and doi or URL if relevant

• webpages – website name, retrieval date and URL.

A note about dois: the preferred format for dois is https://doi.org/xxx not doi: xxx. 

Write this: https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.116.187179 

Not this: doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.116.187179

Do not leave doi links live.

Notes about URLs: 

The format is Retrieved DD MM YEAR from https://xxx not Retrieved on DD MM YEAR from https://xxx:

Write this: Retrieved 12 January 2021 from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64567/1/Livingstone_Review_on_Sexual_rights_and_sexual_risks_among_online_youth_Author_2015.pdf. 

Not this: Retrieved on 12 January 2021 from http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/64567/1/Livingstone_Review_on_Sexual_rights_and_sexual_risks_among_online_youth_Author_2015.pdf. 

Do not leave URL links live.

Formatting of references and their elements

List references in alphabetical order. Where there are two references with the same author, list the most recent item first.

The elements (author, date, title and source) are separated by full stops. In the case of an author initial, the full stop does double duty as a terminating and abbreviating mark.

Note that title and sentence case and roman type or italics are required in particular places. Please look carefully at the rules and examples below to determine how to format particular types of references. 

Use of 'suggested citation'

Some works contain suggested citations. These citations often have all the details you need to write a reference for raisingchildren.net.au, but you will probably need to change the formatting to make these details conform to our style.

Whole authored books

Rule: Author, A. (Year). Book title: Subtitle. Publisher name. doi or URL if relevant.

Examples

Davies, D. (2011). Child development: A practitioner’s guide (3rd edn). The Guildford Press. 

Hawton, M. (2013). Talk less, listen more: Solutions for children’s difficult behaviour. Jane Curry Publishing.

Maddison, S. (2013). Australian public policy: theory and practice (2nd edn). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781107255920. 

Ricci, M., & Lee, M. (2016). Mindsets for parents: Strategies to encourage growth mindsets in kids. Prufrock Press.

The Royal Children’s Hospital (RCH). (2020). Clinical practice guidelines: Chest pain. RCH.

Siegel, D.J. (2013). Brainstorm: The power and purpose of the teenage brain. Jeremy P. Tarcher & Penguin.

Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. (2015). Child health record. Victorian Government. 

Notes: 

• Format: titles are presented in italics and sentence case, including after any colons.

• doi: if the book includes a doi, include the doi in the reference after the publisher name. 

• Place of publication: note that this is not required. 

Whole edited books

Rule: Editor, B. (Ed. or Eds). (Year). Book title. Publisher name. doi or URL if relevant.

Francis, W.S. (Ed.). (2021). Bilingualism across the lifespan: Opportunities and challenges for cognitive research in a global society. Routledge.

Green, L., Holloway, D., Stevenson, K. , Leaver, T. , & Haddon, L. (Eds). (2020). The Routledge companion to digital media and children. Taylor and Francis.

Notes

• • Editor/s abbreviation: ‘Ed.’ if there is one editor; ‘Eds’ if there is more than one editor (no stop after ‘s’)

Chapters from edited books

Rule: Author, A. (Year). Chapter title: Subtitle. In B. Editor (Ed. or Eds), Book title (Number of edn if relevant, page range or chapter number). Publisher name. doi or URL if relevant.

Short, M.A, Bartel, K., & Carskadon, M.A. (2019). Sleep and mental health in children and adolescents. In M.A. Grandner (Ed.), Sleep and health (pp. 435-445). Elsevier Academic Press. 

Smith, D. (2020). The newborn infant. In W.W. Hay Jr., M.J. Levin, M.J. Abzug & M. Bunik (Eds), Current diagnosis & treatment: Pediatrics (25th edn, Chapter 2). McGraw Hill. Retrieved 17 June 2021 from https://accessmedicine.mhmedical.com/content.aspx?bookid=2815&sectionid=244254981. 

Thomson, R.A. (1998). Early sociopersonality development. In W. Damon (Series Ed.) & N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3: Social, emotional and personality development (5th edn, pp. 309-330). Wiley.

Notes

• • Edition abbreviation: ‘edn’ (no stop)

  • Page range or chapter number: if the book is available both in print and online, it should have page numbers so include these, joined by an unspaced dash.  If the book is available only as an electronic edition (or you're using an electronic edition) and the book has a chapter number instead of a page range, include the word 'Chapter' and then the chapter number in parenthesis after the book title (for example, Chapter 2) instead of the page range. See the Smith example above.

Journal articles

Rule: Author, A. (Year). Article title: Subtitle. Journal Title, volume number(issue number if available), page range or Article number. doi.

Collins, K.C., & Chacko, M.R. (2002). Adolescent parenthood: Role of the paediatrician. Children and Youth Services Review, 15(3), 295-308.

Beaumont, R., & Sofronoff, K. (2008). A multi-component social skills intervention for children with Asperger syndrome: The Junior Detective Training Program. The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 49, 743-753. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01920.x. 

Gray, K.J., Bordt, E.A., Atyeo, C., Deriso, E., Akinwunmi, B., Young, N., Baez, A.M., Shook, L.L., Cvrk, D., James, K., De Guzman, R., Brigida, S., Diouf, K., Goldfarb, I., Bebell, L.M., Yonker, L.M., Fasano, A., Alireza Rabi, S., Elovitz, M.A., … Edlow, A.G. (2021). Coronavirus disease 2019 vaccine response in pregnant and lactating women: A cohort study. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajog.2021.03.023.

Yap, M.B.H., Mahtani, S., Rapee, R.M., Nicolas, C., Lawrence, K.A., Mackinnon, A., & Jorm, A.F. (2018). A tailored web-based intervention to improve parenting risk and protective factors for adolescent depression and anxiety problems: Postintervention findings from a randomized controlled trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(1), Article e17. https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.9139.

Notes

• • Date: if a work is an advance online publication, use the year of the advance online publication in the reference, and include the doi. It might not be possible to include other details, like the volume, article or page numbers. See the Gray example above.

  • Page range or article number: if the article is available both in print and online, it should have page numbers so include these, joined by an unspaced dash. If the journal article is available only online and has an article number instead of a page range, include the word 'Article' and then the article number (for example, Article e17) instead of the page range. See the Yap example above.

  • doi: include the doi in the reference after the source details. 

Webpages and websites

Webpage by an individual author on an organisation website

Rule: Author, A. (Year). Title of webpage. Name of website. Retrieved Day Month Year from URL. 

Baxter, J., & Warren, D. (2021). Families in Australia Survey Report no. 2: Employment & work-family balance in 2020. Australian Institute of Family Studies. Retrieved 17 June 2021 from https://aifs.gov.au/publications/employment-work-family-balance-2020.

Graber, E. (2020). Patient education: Acne (Beyond the Basics). UpToDate. Retrieved 28 April 2021 from http://www.uptodate.com/contents/acne-beyond-the-basics.

Miller, C. (n.d.). When is it time to end treatment? Child Mind Institute. Retrieved 17 June 2021 from https://childmind.org/article/when-is-it-time-to-end-treatment/.

Ngan, V. (2006). Angioedema. DermNet NZ. Retrieved 17 June 2021 from https://dermnetnz.org/topics/angioedema/.

Webpage by an organisational author

Rule: Organisation Name. (Year). Title of webpage. Name of website. Retrieved Day Month Year from URL.

Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA). (2016). Research snapshots: Aussie teens and kids online. ACMA. Retrieved 11 June 2020 from https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/research/kids-teens-online. 

National Autism Center. (2015). Findings and conclusions: National standards project, phase 2. National Autism Center. Retrieved 29 June 2020 from https://www.nationalautismcenter.org/national-standards-project/results-reports/. 

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). (2019). Fever in under 5s: Assessment and initial management [NICE guideline 143]. NICE. Retrieved 17 June 2021 from https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng143.

World Health Organization (WHO). (2020). Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) advice for the public: When and how to use masks. WHO. Retrieved 10 May 2021 from https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks. 

Specific sources: additional information

New editions of standard textbooks 

Our reference lists often include citations for standard textbooks and Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews. These citations should be checked and updated as part of currency review.

Examples of standard textbooks include:

• • Current diagnosis and treatment: pediatrics

  • Nelson textbook of pediatrics

  • Paediatric handbook.

If new editions of standard textbooks have been published, check and if necessary change:

• • authors

  • date of publication

  • edition number

  • page range.

Systematic reviews

Examples of Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews include:

• • Gadomski, A.M., & Bhasale, A.L. (2014). Bronchodilators for bronchiolitis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, 6, CD001266. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD001266.pub4.

  • McCallum, G.B., Bailey, E.J., Morris, P.S., & Chang, A.B. (2014). Clinical pathways for chronic cough in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, 9, CD006595. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD006595.pub3.

  • Oduwole, O., Meremikwu, M.M., Oyo-Ita, A., & Udoh, E.E. (2014). Honey for acute cough in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014, 12, CD007094. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD007094.pub4.

If new editions of CDSRs have been published, check and if necessary change:

• • authors

  • date of publication

  • the date in the journal title – that is, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2014

  • the issue number – that is, the number between the journal title and the CD reference.

  • the doi number.

Note that the review title – that is, Bronchodilators for bronchiolitis – and the CD number stay the same (this is how you know it's an update rather than a new piece of work).

DSM references

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th edn). American Psychiatric Association Publishing. 

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (4th edn, text rev.). American Psychiatric Association Publishing. 

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th edn) (DSM-5). American Psychiatric Association Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.

American Psychiatric Association (2022). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th edn, Text revision) (DSM-5-TR). American Psychiatric Association Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787.

Referencing sources and guides

The referencing guidelines in the raisingchildren.net.au Style guide are drawn primarily from American Psychological Assocation (APA) style: References. 

Additional guidance is drawn from Australian Government Style Manual: Referencing and attribution.