It is absolutely crucial that you record the publication details of every book or article you consult. Do this even if you are not yet sure you will use any of the material. Being methodical about this will save you a lot of grief at the final stages of preparing your dissertation: if you have missed out any details needed for the bibliography, you may find it difficult or even impossible to track down the book again before the deadline, especially if it is one you read abroad or it is on loan from the library. If you are using an online referencing tool like Zotero, Endnote or Mandeley, you will be prompted to fill in a whole range of bibliographic data. The checklist below may be useful as it tells you what information you will need to record. This information is also available via Cite them Right (accessed via the University’s subscription account).

For a book, note down:

• the full title
• the author(s) or editor(s)
• the date of publication
• the place of publication
• the name of the publisher
• the page number of every quotation or note

For an article in a journal, note down:

• the title of the article
• the author
• the name of the journal
• the volume and issue numbers of the journal (e.g. 10.2, which means the 10th year of the journal’s publication and the second issue published that year)
• the date of publication (usually a month and a year)
• the first and last page numbers of the article
• the page number of every quotation or note

For an essay or chapter in an edited book (to which several authors have contributed):

• the title of the chapter
• the author of the chapter
• the title of the book
• the editor(s) of the book
• the date of publication
• the place of publication
• the name of the publisher
• the first and last page numbers of the chapter
• the page number of every quotation or note