Oxford - writing a reference list

Collect all sources in a reference list

According to the Oxford style, references to sources in the text are marked with footnotes. At the end of your document, you should have a reference list in which you collect all the sources you have used and referred to in your text. The reference list should be sorted alphabetically by the first author's surname or equivalent.

How to write references in footnotes

When writing references in the footnotes, you can also use the examples below, but remember to change the order of the authors' names. In the footnotes, the author's first name initials should precede the surname.

Read more about how to use Oxford-style footnotes:

Oxford - references in text

Examples for different types of sources

The reference list should include detailed information about the sources so that a reader can find the exact source you have referred to. Here you can see examples of how to write references for different types of sources in the Oxford style.

For each source type, we first show a template of how to write the reference and what information to include. Then we show a real example. Note that not all the information in the template is always available and, therefore, can’t be included.

Books and reports

Books with one author

Template

Author’s last name, initial(s). Title. Edition (if not 1st). (Publisher, year of publication).

Example

Bryman, A. Social research methods. 3rd ed. (Oxford University Press, 2008).

Books with two or more authors

Template

Author’s last name, initial(s)., Author’s last name, initial(s). & Author’s last name, initial(s). Title. Edition (if not 1st). (Publisher, year of publication).

Example

Blocher, E., Stout, D.E., Juras, P.E. & Cokins, G. Cost management: a strategic emphasis. 6th ed. (McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2013).

Books which are edited (anthologies)

Template

Editor’s last name, initial(s). (ed.). Title. Edition (if not 1st). (Publisher, year of publication).

Example

Allen, J. & Young, I.M. (eds.). The thinking muse: feminism and modern French philosophy. (Indiana University Press, 1989).

More information

For edited books, include (ed.) or (eds.) if multiple editors between the name of the editor/editors and the title of the publication.

E-books

Template

Author’s last name, initial(s). Title. Edition (if not 1st). (Publisher, Year of publication). Complete permanent link or URL (Access date).

Example – book with a permanent link (DOI, URN, Handle or equivalent)

Swinnen, J.F.M. & Rozelle, S. From Marx and Mao to the market: the economics and politics of agricultural transition. (Oxford University Press, 2006). https://doi.org/10.1093/0199288917.001.0001

Example – book with a complete URL and access date

Strindberg, A. Three plays: Countess Julie; The Outlaw; The Stronger. (International pocket library, 1912). https://archive.org/details/threeplayscounte00striuoft (Accessed 2012-05-21).

More information

• The same information should be provided as for printed books. Provide the complete permanent link (DOI, Handle, URN or equivalent) if available, without a full stop at the end.
• For books that are (legally and) freely available on the internet, include the same information as for printed books (see example above). In those cases, you should add the complete URL (http://....) or the link provided by the publisher, and the date you downloaded/read the book. Include a full stop at the end.

Book chapters

Template

Author’s last name, initial(s). Title of the book chapter. In Editor(s) last name, initial(s). (eds.). Title of book. Edition (if not 1:st). (Publisher, year of publication), page numbers of chapter.

Example

Malmberg, A. Beyond the cluster: local milieus and global connections. In Peck, J. & Wai-chung Yeung, H. (eds.). Remaking the Global Economy. (Sage Publications, 2003), pp. 145-162.

Reports

Template

Organisation or author. Title of report. (Publisher, year of publication). Complete permanent link or URL (Access date).

Example – report with a permanent link (DOI, URN, Handle or equivalent)

Aronsson, T. & Blomquist, S. Uncertain length of life, retirement age, and optimal pension design. (Department of Economics, Umeå University, 2018). http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-145736

Example – report with a complete URL and access date

Transparency International. Corruption perceptions index 2019. (2020). https://images.transparencycdn.org/images/2019_CPI_Report_EN.pdf (Accessed 2020-10-19).

More information

The publisher can be excluded if it is the same as the organisation writing the report.

Articles

Journal articles (scholarly articles)

Template

Author’s last name, initial(s). Title of article. Journal name Volume: Issue (Year of publication): Page numbers of article. Complete permanent link or URL (Access date).

Example – article with a permanent link (DOI, URN, Handle or equivalent)

Lundmark, L. Economic restructuring into tourism in the Swedish mountain range. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 5: 1 (2005): pp. 23–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/15022250510014273

Example – article with a complete URL and access date

Larsen, J.E. & Blair, J.P. The importance of police performance as a determinant of satisfaction with police. American Journal of Economics and Business Administration 1: 1 (2009): pp. 1-10. http://scipub.org/ajeba/article/view/5217/5214 (Accessed 2019-12-10).

Example – article with an article number

Abramowicz, K., Sjöstedt de Luna, S. & Strandberg, J. Nonparametric bagging clustering methods to identify latent structures from a sequence of dependent categorical data. Computational Statistics & Data Analysis 177 (2022): 107583. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csda.2022.107583

More information

• Articles in scholarly journals often have a permanent link (DOI, URN, Handle or equivalent) that you should use. You can use the URL if there is no permanent link.
• For articles without a permanent link and articles freely available on the web, the access date should also be specified.

Newspaper articles

Template – article with a complete URL and access date

Author’s last name, initial(s). Title of article. Title of newspaper. (Day month and year of the article). Complete URL (Access date).

Example – article with a complete URL and access date

Jowit, J. Corporate lobbying is blocking food reforms, senior UN official warns. Guardian. (22 September 2010). http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/sep/22/food-firms-lobbying-samuel-jutzi (Accessed 2019-09-30).

Template – article in a printed newspaper or a database (such as PressReader)

Author’s last name, initial(s). Title of article. Title of newspaper. (Day month and year of the article), page number(s).

Example – article in a printed newspaper or a database (such as PressReader)

Jowit, J. Corporate lobbying is blocking food reforms, senior UN official warns. Guardian. (22 September 2010), pp. 8-9.

Internet sources

Web pages

Template

Author, organisation, authority or company. Title of document or page. (Year of web page update). Complete URL (Access date).

Example

Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Health: OECD says governments must fight fat. (2010). http://www.oecd.org/document/35/0,3343,en_21571361_44315115_46064099_1_1_1_1,00.html (Accessed 2010-10-10).

More information

• Use the web pages category only if no other reference category fits (e.g. book or journal article).
• If you can’t find information on when the webpage was updated, you can write (n.d.). N.d. means no date.

Blogs

Template

Author, organisation, authority, or company. Title of blog post. Name of the blog. [Blog]. (Day, month and year of the blog post update). Complete URL (Access date).

Example

Enever, J. A tentative view on primary language education policy in India. Forskarbloggen. [Blog]. (7 March 2015). http://blogg.umu.se/forskarbloggen/2015/03/a-tentative-view-on-primary-language-education-policy-in-india/ (Accessed 2015-08-14).

Tweets

Template

Author, organisation, authority or company. Title of tweet. [Twitter]. (Day, month and year of the tweet). Complete URL (Access date).

Example

Fällström, A. Fewer topics in greater depth. #mathematics #Math Singapore math skills add up in the West http://cnb.cx/1M3BgPX. [Twitter]. (15 July 2015). https://twitter.com/hyperconvex/status/621212215006392320 (Accessed 2015-08-14).

Encyclopaedias, dictionaries or Wikipedia

Template

Author of article. Title of article. Name of encyclopaedia. (Year of publication). Complete permanent link or URL (Access date).

Example

Lovari, S. Chamois. Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2008). https://academic.eb.com/levels/collegiate/article/chamois/22341 (Accessed 2023-07-25).

Example – no personal author

Encyclopaedia Britannica. Sestina. (2020) https://www.britannica.com/art/sestina-poetic-form (Accessed 2023-06-28).

Example – Wikipedia

Wikipedia. Zadie Smith. (2020). https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Zadie_Smith&oldid=981120030 (Accessed 2020-10-20).

More information

• If you can’t find the year of publication, you can write (n.d.). N.d. means no date.
• If there is no personal author, write the name of the encyclopaedia as author.
• Use Wikipedia's permanent link as URL, which is available under tools.

Dataset

Template

Organisation or creator. Title of dataset [Dataset]. (Organisation/database, Year of publication). Complete permanent link or URL (Access date).

Example

Eurostat. Healthy life years at birth by sex [Dataset]. (2023). https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/TPS00150/default/table?lang=en (Accessed 2023-07-25).

Edlund, J. & Svallfors, S. ISSP 2004 - Citizenship I: Sweden (1.1) [Dataset, documentation:ISSP2004_questions]. (Umeå University, 2009). https://doi.org/10.5878/001613

More information

• If the organisation/creator is the same as the organisation/database, the latter can be excluded.
• A dataset is often statistical data compiled by an authority or statistical provider.
• Datasets can contain many files that you do not use. You can then add in square brackets the name of the specific folder and file that you have used. Separate the folder name from the file name with a comma.

Theses and conference proceedings

Doctoral thesis

Template

Author’s last name, initial(s). Title of thesis. Doctoral thesis. (University of graduation, year of publication). Complete permanent link (URN, Handle or DOI)

Example

Abramowicz, K. Numerical analysis for random processes and fields and related design problems. Doctoral thesis. (Umeå University, 2011). http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-46156

Licentiate thesis

Template

Author’s last name, initial(s). Title of thesis. Licentiate thesis. (University of graduation, year of publication). Complete permanent link (URN, Handle or DOI)

Example

Landström, M. Two essays on Central Bank independence reforms. Licentiate thesis. (Umeå University, 2009).

Conference proceedings

Template

Author’s last name, initial(s). Title of conference paper. In: Title of conference publication (proceeding): name of the conference. City of conference, country. (Day, month and year of the conference), page numbers of the conference paper. Complete permanent link (DOI, URN or Handle) or URL (Access date).

Example

Witkowski, E., Hutchins, B. & Carter, M. E-sports on the rise?: Critical considerations on the growth and erosion of organized digital gaming competitions. In: IE´13: Proceedings of The 9th Australasian Conference on Interactive Entertainment: Matters of Life and Death. Melbourne, Australia. (30 September -1 October 2013), pp. 1-2. https://doi.org/10.1145/2513002.2513008

More information

• Papers from a conference can be published in a type of publication called conference proceedings (also known as symposiums or meetings).
• If conference papers are published as journal articles or book chapters, use the corresponding reference category in this guide.

Sounds and images

Illustrations (photographs, figures, diagrams, tables etc.)

Template

Last name and initial(s) of the creator. Title of illustration [Format, for instance, Photography]. (Year). Complete URL (Access date).

Example

Lennver, A. Night against procrastination [Photography]. (2012). http://www.ub.umu.se/nightagainstprocrastion/ (Accessed 2016-04-05).

Example – photography in a book

State the illustrator's name if different from the book's author.

Hazel, E. Prague by day [Photography]. In Johnson, S. Czech photography in the twenty-first century. (Autumn Publishing, 2015).

Example – work of art on the internet

If you use an image of a work of art online, you should reference it as an online image, regardless of the original medium. If possible, state the name of the artist and the collection:

Turner, J. The Fighting Temeraire [Photography]. The National Gallery [online]. (1839). www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/josephmallord-william-turner-the-fightingtemeraire (Accessed 2016-04-05).

More information

Illustrations created by others are often protected by copyright. In those cases, you will need permission from the copyright owner before using the illustrations in your text.

Podcasts, radio and TV programmes

Template

Name of series. Title of episode [Podcast/Radio programme/TV programme]. Transmitting organisation/channel. (Day, month and year of transmission). Complete URL (Access date).

Example – podcast

Soul Music. Purple rain [Podcast]. BBC. (21 May 2022). https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0017k0j (Accessed 2023-07-24).

Example – radio programmes

Living planet. The world on fire: how to deal with wildfires [Radio programme]. Deutsche Welle. (29 May 2023). https://www.dw.com/en/the-world-on-fire-how-to-deal-with-wildfires/audio-66072858 (Accessed 2023-07-24).

Example – TV programmes

Blue lights. The code [TV programme]. BBC Player. (1 July 2023) https://player.bbc.com/en/brand/blue-lights/blue-lights-s1 (Accessed 2023-07-25).

More information

For older programs, still accessible, some information (such as the date of transmission) might not be found. If so, there is no need to search for it. Create the reference with the help of the available information where you found the program.

Recorded lectures, presentations, speeches and interviews

Template

Name of the speaker/equivalent. Title of lecture/speech. [Format]. Publisher/organisation. (Year). Complete URL (Access date).

Example

Satyarthi, K. How to make peace? Get angry. [Video]. TED talks. (2015). http://www.ted.com/talks/kailash_satyarthi_how_to_make_peace_get_angry (Accessed 2015-05-03).

More information

If the speaker/equivalent is the same as the publisher/organisation, exclude the latter.

Other sources

Personal communication

Template

A reference to personal communication should include as much information as possible: Name, profession/position, (year), details of personal communication, and date.

Personal communication is sometimes not included in the reference list as the sources are usually untraceable. In those cases, information about personal communication is provided only in the footnotes. Check with your teacher/supervisor if you are uncertain.

Examples

Svensson, A., student at Umeå University. [Interview]. (11 May 2024).

Informant 1: Grammar school, Umeå. [Interview]. (9 May 2024)

Smith, V., Professor at the Department of Physics, Umeå University. Northern Lights, [Lecture]. (12 March 2024).

Lee, O. [E-mail to Geraldine Ford]. (13 May 2024).

More information

Personal communication includes information received through, for example, emails, phone calls, interviews, or lectures. You should always get permission from the person in question before referring to them, and if anonymity has been promised, you must keep that promise. If possible, keep a copy of the communication. More information on ethical rules for research can be found at CODEX – the collection of rules and guidelines for research.

CODEX

Secondary sources

To cite a source from a secondary source is generally to be avoided since you are expected to have read the works you cite. If a primary source (original source) is unavailable, you may use secondary sources. Only information about the secondary source should be included in the reference list.

Example

If you are writing about Bob Smith's book "Democracy" (published in 1981), where he on page 72 cites Tom Small's book "Civil Rights" published in 1832, you should only include Smith’s book in the reference list:

Smith, B. Democracy. (Herbst Verlag, 1981).

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