In reading lists, Resource Lists, books, journal articles and elsewhere, you will see lists of references. This is information about the piece of writing or other kind of source, and it's formatted in specific ways to make it clear who created the information, when they created it, what they called it, where you can find it, and more.

It can sometimes be complicated to understand what the different elements within the reference actually are. The image below shows how the different elements are put together to make a full reference:

A colour coded and labelled reference. These include:
Bennet, L. and Abusalem, A. (authors)
2024 (year of publication)
Building academic integrity and capacity in digital assessment in higher education (title of journal article)
Athens Journal of Education (name of journal)
11(1) (volume and issue number)
pp. 71-94 (pages)
Available at: link (URL)
Accessed 5 April 2024 (date viewed)

Yellow: Name of author(s)

Orange: Year of publication

Pink: Title of journal article

Purple: Name of journal

Blue: Volume and issue number

Yellow: Page numbers

Orange: URL

Pink: Date it was viewed

What to read

It's helpful to understand what a reference means so that you know what you're being asked to read. This can help you work out where to find it, how to access it, and also how much of it you need to read. If there is an item on your reading list that's one chapter of a book, for example, you're not expected to read the whole book (although you might find you want to!). A reference for a journal article means you're being asked to read that one article (although again, you might be able to find relevant wider reading in that recommended journal).

Let's look at a couple more examples:

Book

Weiss, G. (2023) The sociology of health, healing and illness. New York: Routledge.

Information	Element
Weiss, G.	The name of the author, presented as surname and the initial of their first name
(2023)	Year of publication
The sociology of health, healing and illness.	Title of the book
New York:	Place of publication
Routledge.	The name of the company that published the book

On a reading list this means: this whole book is relevant and you might be asked to read it all

Chapter of an ebook

Adamov, E. and Fusco, H.N. (2017) 'Concussions', in S. Kahn and R. Xu (eds.) Musculoskeletal Sports and Spine Disorders. Cham: Springer, pp. 9-14. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50512-1_2

Information	Element
Adamov, E., Fusco, H.N.	The name of the author, presented as surname and the initial of their first name
(2017)	Year of publication
'Concussions',	Title of the book chapter
in S. and R. Xu (eds.)	Name of the people who edited the book (note: the initial and surname come the other way round to the authors, and you ad ed. for one editor and eds. for more than one)
Musculoskeletal Sports and Spine Disorders.	Title of the book
Cham.	Springer
Springer	The name of the company that published the book
pp. 9-14	Page reference (p. means page and pp. means pages. There is a space between pp. and the numbers)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50512-1_2	Link to access it (note: if there is a DOI you do not need to provide date of access information)

On a reading list this means: this book chapter is relevant and you are being asked to read it

Journal article

Brook Purdum, A. and Evans, A.L. (2024) 'Impacts of need and culture in higher education', International Journal on Social and Education Sciences, 6(1), pp. 164–173. Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1414974 (Accessed: 5 April 2024).

Information	Element
Brook Purdum, A. and Evans, A.L.	The name of the author, presented as surname and the initial of their first name
(2024)	Year of publication
‘Impacts of need and culture in higher education’,	Title of the journal article
International Journal on Social and Education Sciences,	Name of the journal
6(1),	Volume and issue number
pp. 164–173.	Page numbers
Available at: https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1414974	Link to access it
(Accessed: 5 April 2024).	Date it was viewed (note: because there is not a DOI, a URL is provided instead. This means a date of access is needed)

On a reading list this means: this journal article is relevant and you are being asked to read it

Note: you're expected to present the sources you use in this kind of format, too. We cover that in Part 6: Referencing and citations.