Subject guides: Translation Studies: Referencing and reference management

This guide provides a general introduction to Library and information resources available in Edinburgh for Translation Studies.

A guide to Harvard referencing for Translation Studies students

This guide introduces the Harvard style of referencing (based on British Standard BS ISO 690:2010), explaining what academic referencing is, why it is important, and how to do it.

Examples of how to format references are provided for the main kinds of information sources cited in academic writing and university written projects, such as books, journal articles, reports, websites, audio-visual sources, and other related source types.

You will also find information about using reference managers and other reference generating tools towards the end of the page.

What is referencing and why is it important?

What is referencing?

Referencing is a practice used in academic writing to acknowledge the sources of information and ideas that have been used.

There are various referencing styles, each with its specific guidelines for citing different types of sources. The choice of citation style usually depends on the academic discipline. Translations Studies students are expected to use the version of the Harvard referencing style and follow the guidance and formatting examples presented in this guide.

Why is referencing important?

Referencing the sources you have used in your academic work is important because:

It enables you to acknowledge and give credit to the original authors whose work you have drawn upon.
It enables your reader to verify the information and arguments presented in your work by referring to the cited sources.
It helps you to avoid unintentional or intentional plagiarism*, which is a serious ethical issue in academia.
It demonstrates your commitment to good academic practice. Referencing is a standard convention in academia that enables scholars to build upon existing research and ideas and contribute to the body of knowledge in a particular field.

*The University’s Institute for Academic Development’s Good academic practice webpage provides guidance and factsheets on good academic practice, including referencing and plagiarism.

Edinburgh University Students’ Association also provide information for students on academic integrity and plagiarism on their Academic misconduct webpage.

Books

Printed book

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s)., Year of publication. Title of book. Edition (if not the 1st). Place of publication: Publisher.

Example

BAKER, M., 2018. In other words: a coursebook on translation. 3rd ed. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

E-book

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s)., Year of publication. Title of book [online]. Edition (if not the 1st). Place of publication: Publisher. [viewed date]. Available from: http://www...

Example

STANTON, A. Z., 2023. The worlding of Arabic literature: language, affect, and the ethics of translatability [online]. New York: Fordham University Press. [viewed 04 October 2023]. Available from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.1176747

Chapter from an edited book

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s)., Year of publication. Title of chapter. In: Initial(s) of first name(s). EDITOR’S SURNAME, ed. Title of book. Place of publication: Publisher, Page reference.

Example
AIELLO, F., 2022. Translation and colonial memory in East Africa. In: S. DEANE-COX & A. SPIESSENS, eds. The Routledge handbook of translation and memory. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 74–90.

Websites and blogs

Website

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s). or ORGANISATION NAME, Year of page creation or last updated. Title of web page [online]. Organisation responsible (optional). [date viewed]. Available from: http://www...

Example

HUBSCHER-DAVIDSON, S., 2021. Position statement on translators’ mental health and wellbeing [online]. Institute of Translation and Interpreting. [viewed 4 October 2023]. Available from: https://www.iti.org.uk/resource/position-statement-on-translators-mental-health-and-wellbeing.html

Blog post

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s). or ORGANISATION NAME, Year of Publication. Title of blog post [online]. Title of blog. Day and Month published. [viewed date]. Available from: http//www…

Example

BRITISH LIBRARY, 2023. Women in translation month 2023 [online]. European studies blog. 31 August. [viewed 04 October 2023]. Available from: https://blogs.bl.uk/european/2023/08/women-in-translation-month-2023.html

Audio-visual sources

Online video

Format

SURNAME (of person posting video), Initial(s) of first name(s). or ORGANISATION NAME (posting video), Year posted. Title of video [online video]. Date and Month posted. [viewed date]. Available from: http//www…

Example

UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH, 2013. Prof. Philipp Koehn - open problems in machine translation [online video]. 25 March 2013. [viewed 04 October 2023]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UVgFjJeFGY

Film (online)

Format

Title of film. Year of release. [film]. Directed by NAME OF DIRECTOR. Place of production: Production company. [viewed date]. Available from: http//www…

Example

Speak up [Ouvrir la voix]. 2017. [film]. Directed by A. GAY. Paris: Bras de Fer Production. [viewed 04 October 2023]. Available from: http//www.kanopy.com

TV programme (online)

Format

Title of TV programme. Year of transmission. Name of channel. Date of transmission, time of transmission. [viewed date]. Available from: http//www…

Example

Japanese language and people 1–4. BBC2 England. 02 June 2008. 04:00. [viewed 04 October 2023]. Available from: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/00A10523?bcast=29767919

Radio programme (online)

Format

Title of programme, year of transmission. Name of channel, Date and time of original transmission. Available from: URL [viewed date].

Example

The forum, machine translation: the end of human translation, 2016. BBC Radio 4, 04 June 11:00. [viewed 04 October 2023]. Available from: https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ondemand/index.php/prog/0CAC2423?bcast=121794029

Generating references using online catalogues, databases, and search engines

Some online catalogues, databases, and academic search engines enable users to generate references in a variety of referencing styles. DiscoverEd, for example, generates references for books, articles and other sources in 5 different styles (see screenshot below).

Google Scholar's 'Cite' function also generates references in 5 different styles (see screenshot below).

Several of the Library online databases, including EBSCO and ProQuest databases, also generate references in multiple styles.

If you use any of these tools to generate references in the Harvard style, remember that there are many versions of Harvard and you must be prepared to make the necessary changes to any generated reference to bring it in line with the British Standard BS ISO 690:2010 version of Harvard. You can use do this by referring to this guide.

The Harvard style

The Harvard referencing style is an example of what is called an author-date referencing system. The author-date system of referencing does not require numbering or footnotes on each page. Instead, after you refer to a source in the text, you simply insert the author’s name and the date of publication of the source you are citing in round brackets (called an in-text citation). Quotations or specific information from a page also require a page number.

These in-text citations act as a signpost to your reader who can then locate the full reference, providing the publication information about the source, including the author's name, publication date, title, and publisher information, in the alphabetical list of references at the end of your document.

So, there are two steps involved in referencing an information source in the Harvard style:

1. Citation in text

After you quote or paraphrase an information source (book, article, website, etc.), add the author’s or creator’s surname and the year of publication of the source in parenthesis. If the author’s surname is given in the text, the year follows in parenthesis, e.g. Aiello (2022). If not, both the surname and year are included in parenthesis, e.g. (Aiello, 2022). If directly quoting, the page number in the original source of the quoted text should also be included in parenthesis, e.g. (Aiello, 2022, p. 76).

2. References

The full details (author name, year of publication, title, publisher information) of each source cited in the text are provided at the end of the work in a list of references arranged alphabetically by author surname (see ‘Example reference list’ section).

Journal articles, newspaper articles, conference papers, reports, theses

Article from a printed journal

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s)., Year of publication. Title of article. Title of Journal. Volume number(Part or Issue or Month), Page number(s).

Example

VALDEÓN, R. A., 2023. On the cross-disciplinary conundrum: the conceptualization of translation in translation and journalism studies, Translation Studies. 16(2), pp. 244–260.

Article from an e-journal

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s)., Year of publication. Title of article. Title of Journal [online]. Volume number(Part or Issue or Month), Page number(s). [viewed date]. Available from: http://www…

Example

GUERBEROF-ARENAS, A. & TORAL, A., 2021. The impact of post-editing and machine translation on creativity and reading experience. Translation Spaces. [online]. 9(2), pp. 255–282. [viewed 04 October 2023]. Available from: https://www.ingentaconnect.com

Newspaper article

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s)., Year of Publication. Article title. Name of Newspaper [online]. Day and Month, Page Number(s) if paginated. [viewed date]. Available from: http//www…

Example

LEE, M. H., 2017. AI translation rivalry heats up. Korea Times [online]. 28 April. [viewed 4 October 2023]. Available from: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr

Conference paper

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s)., Year of Publication. Title of paper. In: Initial(s) of first name(s). EDITOR’S SURNAME, ed. Title of conference proceedings. Location of conference, Date of conference. Place: Publisher, Page Number(s). [viewed date]. Available from: http://www…

Example

LEI, D., 2016. Translation studies as an interdiscipline: plurality of research approaches. In: E. McANALLY, T. VOLODINA, C. QUANAN, Z. YONG and I. SOLOVJEVE, eds. Proceedings of the 2016 3rd international conference on education, language, art and inter-cultural communication (ICELAIC 2016). Paris, 2016. Atlantic Press, pp. 715–717. [viewed 04 October 2023]. Available from: https://www.atlantis-press.com/proceedings/icelaic-16/25869683

Report

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s). or ORGANISATION NAME, Year of Publication. Title of report. Place of publication: Publisher. [viewed date]. Available from: http//www…

Example

EUROFOUND. 2023. Working time in 2021–2022. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. [viewed 04 October 2023]. Available from https://www.eurofound.europa.eu/en/publications/2023/working-time-2021-2022

Thesis

Format

AUTHOR SURNAME, Initial(s) of first name(s)., Year of Publication. Title of thesis. Qualification, Awarding institution. [viewed date]. Available from: http//www…

Example

ZHANG, L., 2023. Translation and feminism in twentieth- and twenty-first century China: a case study on Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. PhD thesis, Lancaster University. [viewed 4 October 2023]. Available from: https://doi.org/10.17635/lancaster/thesis/1885

Translated sources

A translation of the title may be supplied immediately after the original title, along with the name of the translator with an indication of the role and the original language.

Example:

GORKI, M., 1955. The Artamonovs [Delo Artamonovykh]. Translated from the Russian by Alec BROWN. London: Folio Society.

Referencing non-Roman script sources

You may need to reference sources not in Roman script. In the reference list entry, transliterate the name of the author and present the title in the following order: original characters (script), then transliteration, then translation. If you need to alphabetise a title in the reference list, do so by the transliterated title.

Example:

YONG, J. [金庸]. 天龍八部 [Tian long ba bu; Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils]. Hong Kong: Ming Ho Publications,1963.

Missing information

For anonymous works, ‘Anon’ may be used instead of an author’s name, e.g. (Anon, 2001).

If an exact year of publication is not given in the source, an approximate date can be provided in square brackets, e.g. [ca. 1750]. If no approximation is possible, that should be indicated as [no date].

Example reference list

Some of the example references used in this guide have been selected to for the example reference list below. References are listed in alphabetical order by author surname.

Please note that a reference list is a list of all the sources cited in the text. A bibliography is a list of all the sources cited in the text plus any other source that influenced the work but was not cited in the text. For example, you may have read an article during your research that you did not cite. Check with your lecturer if you should use a reference list or a bibliography in your work.

References

AIELLO, F., 2022. Translation and colonial memory in East Africa. In: S. DEANE-COX & A. SPIESSENS, eds. The Routledge handbook of translation and memory. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge, pp. 74–90.

BAKER, M., 2018. In other words: a coursebook on translation. 3rd ed. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.

LEE, M. H., 2017. AI translation rivalry heats up. Korea Times [online]. 28 April. [viewed 4 October 2023]. Available from: https://www.koreatimes.co.kr

Reference managers

Reference managers, also known as reference management software or bibliographic software, are applications designed to enable users to collect and organise references to scholary information sources, such as academic journal articles and books, and also cite these sources in a particular referencing style in their writing. These tools can help with making academic referencing more efficient and less error-prone.

The Library offers training and support with EndNote and Zotero reference managers. There are a number of others available you may wish to explore; see the Bodleian Libraries Choosing a Reference Manager guide for an overview and comparison of some of the main reference mamangers.

Please see the Referencing and Reference Management subject guide for more information and guidance on choosing a reference manager and using EndNote and Zotero.