MAKERERE UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF LAW

REFERENCING GUIDELINES IN ACADEMIC WRITING

[This guide has been adapted from several unreferenced sources]
Compiled by Sylvia Tamale

The reader of your thesis would like to know which part of your text you
have written yourself, and to understand which sources you used. If you
follow these guidelines you will avoid committing the serious academic crime
of plagiarism.

List of references
To give an overview of the sources used, your thesis needs a table or list of
references (bibliography) at the end, listing those texts and only those texts that
you refer to in the text.

There are two main referencing styles that you can use: (a) in-text referencing
and (b) footnote referencing. You can use either; the important thing is to be
consistent with one referencing style throughout your thesis.

Literal quotation
Maybe you find a brilliant idea or a good description of some relevant facts
somewhere. There are different ways ahead:
Use quotation marks: You literally copy the text and you do not change a
letter while doing so. You mark the beginning of this quote with left
quotation marks (“) and you mark the end with right quotation marks (”).
When using a whole (sub-)clause from a source you must use quotation
marks.
Use an indented paragraph: If your quote is longer than one sentence, or
two lines, the tiny quotation marks are easily overlooked. Therefore it is
good practice when dealing by definition with long text extracts, to put those
quotes in a separate paragraph. This paragraph is indented without quotation
marks. After any of the two types of literal quotes you indicate the source
according to the referencing style you chose.

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 A. In-Text Referencing System

Sometimes referred to as the Harvard system of referencing, this method uses

in-text references or citations to show where someone else‖s words, thoughts
or ideas have been used in your work, e.g., in an assignment or essay. There
are two forms of citations – direct quotations and paraphrases. Three pieces
of information must be included in a citation. These are:

the author(s)‖s surname(s)

the year of publication
the page number (direct quote only).

Guidelines:

1. Material from an article or book is referenced after the ideas or direct

quote is used, using just the author‖s surname and the date of publication
in rounded brackets e.g. (Mugezi 2005).

2. Use footnotes and endnotes only to expand upon concepts and ideas so
that the flow of the text is allowed to progress.

3. Where appropriate (when providing a direct quote or citing

numbers/percentages from a specific page), be sure to include a page
number like this - (Mugezi 2005: 345).

4. If you are using material (e.g. a table or graph) from two separate pages,
then you should display it as follows in rounded brackets: (Mugezi 2005:
345, 736).

5. Should you be referencing more than one source, as ideas are often used
by more than one source if they are good ideas then you should reference
this as follows, within rounded brackets - (Mugezi 2005: 345; Katono 2003:
22). You should use a semi-colon to separate the different authors‖ names.

6. When citing a source indirectly you will need to place the reference at the
end of the sentence.

7. If your source text is by two authors, then you should use the following
format - (Mugezi and Katono 2005) - or with two authors with the same
name: (Mugezi and Mugezi 2005).

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8. If you are citing a source that has more than two authors then you will
need to write the name of the first author then use et al. meaning the
author “and others” e.g. (Mugezi et al. 2005).

9. If you use two sources written in the same year where the author‖s name is
the same, then you should use (Mugezi 2005a) for the first instance and for
later referencing, simply change the letter in alphabetical order such as
(Mugezi 2005b), and (Mugezi 2005c).

10. If you are going to place a quotation in your written material then you
will need to acknowledge the source. If they are short enough the
quotations need to be placed in the body of the text e.g. Mugezi (2005:
345) believes that culture is ―…truly understanding organisational
behaviour…‖ with regards to large enterprises.

11. When using longer quotations you will need to indent them with the
source being referenced in rounded brackets at the end. Example:

Taking gender struggles as their point of take-off, Tamale and Bennett

point out that:

While law and judicial reforms are not a panacea for gender
inequalities, the legal front is a central plank in this struggle
as both shield and sword—a shield to protect women against
discrimination and the violation of their fundamental rights,
and a sword to challenge and overturn unjust sexist practices
and to effect fundamental change to the status quo. While
by no means a magic bullet the law can indeed be a critical
game changer in the gender political landscape (Tamale and
Bennett 2011: 1).

12. When referencing, it is important to give an alphabetical reference list or

bibliography as the last part of your essay, dissertation, or thesis. Always
list your authors in alphabetical order; it is helpful when you are trying to
find a resource. Example:

Amadiume, Ife (1987), Male Daughters, Female Husbands: Gender and Sex in
an African Society, London: Zed Books

Kiwanuka, Peter and Susan Tinyefunza (Eds.) (2013), The Political

Economy of Sexuality in Uganda, Kampala: Pilato Publishers
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 Nyanzi, Stella, Margaret Emodu-Walakira and Wilberforce Sewaniko
(2009), “The Widow, the Will and Widow-Inheritance in Kampala:
Revisiting Victimisation Arguments,” Canadian Journal of African Studies
43(1): 12-33

Ratele, Kopano (2011), “Male Sexualities and Masculinities,” in Sylvia

Tamale (Ed.), African Sexualities: A Reader, Oxford: Pambazuka Press, Pp.
399-419

13. To reference an online source, you should cite the following information
in the order in which it is given here:
• Author or Editor name (which can be the name of a person or the name
of corporation). If you‖re experiencing difficulty finding this detail then
the nearest ―unit‖ would be suffice – such as the organisation or brand.
• The date of publication should follow in rounded brackets – this is the
day, month and year of when the page was produced. This is generally
to be found at the start of the document near the title, or can be located
at the bottom of the page. If you can‖t find the whole date then the
year of the page production will suffice.
• The title of the online resource should then appear in italics.
• The URL (Unique Resource Locator) or as it‖s commonly known the
full web address (starting with http://) should follow.
The date you accessed the resource should be last [in square brackets] –
this is important as these online sources are frequently updated.

E.g., Center for Reproductive Rights (March 14, 2011), Submission Of The
Center For Reproductive Rights And The Uganda Association Of Women
Lawyers Regarding Uganda’s Compliance With Its International Obligations In
The Area Of Women’s Reproductive And Sexual Health Rights, Available at:
http://lib.ohchr.org/HRBodies/UPR/Documents/session12/UG/JS11-
JointSubmission11-eng.pdf [Accessed June 12, 2013]

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 B. FOOTNOTE REFERENCING [with full reference list]
The Chicago style uses footnotes instead of in-text citations. Even after
providing the references in the footnotes, you will need a full reference list at
the end which follows the same rules as the Harvard style described in 12 &
13 above.

General Guidelines:
 Your footnotes should be numbered consecutively throughout the paper.

Use your word processing program to insert footnotes and it will number
them for you automatically.
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 The footnote number should always be inserted after the punctuation.

 The first time you cite a source, you will include a full citation. For all

subsequent references to that text, your footnote citation will be in

abbreviated form. (More detail below)
 Cite authors‖ names as they appear in the texts. Don‖t replace first names

with initials unless the names appear this way on the title page of the
source. If no author is listed, organize the entry by the title.

1. Books: Single Author

Footnotes
Basic format:
Author‖s first name Last name, Title in Italics and in Headline Style
(City of Publication: Publisher, Year), page number if relevant.

Subsequent references to the same text:

Last name, Title in Shortened Form, page number.

Note:
(i) If your second reference to a text comes immediately after the first,
use “Ibid.” in place of the author‖s name and the book title. Include
the page number if it is different from that listed in the first
reference.
Examples:
1
Peter Portney, Taking Sustainable Cities Seriously (Cambridge:
MIT Press, 2003).
2
Ibid., 162.
3
David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity: An Enquiry Into
the Origins of Cultural Change (New
York: Blackwell, 1989), 197.

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 4
Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for
Postwar Oakland (Princeton: Princeton
Univ. Press, 2003).
5
Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 86-87.
Note: The second, third and fifth footnotes above cite direct quotes or
material found on one or more specific pages, therefore the page
numbers of the source are included.

(ii) The Latin abbreviation op. cit. means “as previously cited.”
Use op. cit. when you have already given full details of that
source in an earlier note. When using op. cit. you still need to
provide information such as the author‖s name to make the
source clear.
Examples:
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Ian Reid, Higher Education or Education for Hire?
Language and Values in Australian Universities
(Rockhampton: CQU Press, 1996), p. 87.
12
ibid., p. 26.
13
Mark Doyle, ―Captain Mbaye Diagne‖, Granta, vol. 48,
August 1994, p. 99.
14
Reid, op. cit., p. 147.

2. Books: Multiple Authors

Footnotes
For two or three authors, list each of the authors in the order presented on
the title page of the book. For more than three authors, list the first author‖s
name followed by “and others” or “et al.”:

First name Last name and First name Last Name, Title (City: Publisher,
Date), page number if relevant.

First name Last name et al., Title (City: Publisher, Date), page number
if relevant.

Subsequent references to the same text:

Last name and Last name, Title, page number.
Last name et al., Title, page number.

Examples:

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 1
Harriet Bulkeley and Michele M. Betsill, Cities and Climate Change:
Urban Sustainability and Global Environmental Governance (London:
Routledge, 2003), 25.
2
Randall Arendt et al., Growing Greener: Putting Conservation into Local
Plans and Ordinances (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1999).
3
Bulkeley and Betsill, Cities and Climate Change, 27.
4
Arendt et al., Growing Greener.

3. Books: Edited Volume or Chapter Within an Edited Volume

Footnotes
Occasionally you will need to cite an edited book containing chapters by
various authors. If citing the overarching idea of the entire book, use the
editors‖ names as you would the names of authors, following their names
with “ed.” (short for editor, not to be mistaken for the abbreviation of
“edition”). Works with a translator (trans.) or a compiler (comp.) would be
treated similarly.

Basic format:
Editor‖s First name Last name, ed., Title (City: Publisher, Year), page
number if relevant.

Example:
1
Warren Magnusson and Karena Shaw, eds., A Political Space: Reading the
Global Through Clayoquot
Sound (Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press, 2003).
Subsequent references to the same text:
2
Magnusson and Shaw, eds. A Political Space.

More frequently, you will cite a particular essay or chapter in an edited book.
In this case your footnote will refer to the specific chapter or essay but will
also include the title of the book and its editors. The format is as follows:
Author‖s First name Last name, “Chapter Title,” in Book Title, ed.
Editor‖s name (City: Publisher, Year), page number if relevant.

Subsequent references to the same text:

Last name, Chapter Title, page number.

Examples:

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 3
Timothy W. Luke, “On the Political Economy of Clayoquot Sound,”
in A Political Space: Reading the Global Through Clayoquot Sound, ed.
Warren Magnusson and Karena Shaw (Minneapolis: Univ. of
Minnesota Press, 2003), 99.
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Luke, “On the Political Economy of Clayoquot Sound,” 101.

4. Books: Multiple Editions

Footnotes
Include the edition number after the title, not italicized:
First name Last name, Title, Number ed. (City, Publisher, Year), page
number if relevant.

Subsequent references to the same text:

Last name, Title, page number.

Examples:
1
Michael E. Kraft, Environmental Policy and Politics, 4th ed. (New
York: Pearson, 2007).
2
Kraft, Environmental Policy and Politics, 54.

5. Journal Articles
Footnotes
Basic format:
Author‖s First name Last name, “Article Title,” Journal Title
Volume, Issue No. (Year): page number.

Subsequent references to the same text:

Last name, “Article Title,” page number.

Examples:
1
Keith Dowding, “Explaining Urban Regimes,” International Journal of
Urban and Regional Research 25, no. 1 (2001): 12.
2
Marina Alberti, “Measuring Urban Sustainability,” Environmental
Impact Assessment Review, 1996, no. 16: 390.
3
Roger Keil, “Globalization Makes States: Perspectives of Local
Governance in the Age of the World City,” Review of International
Political Economy 5, no. 4 (1998): 617.
4
Alberti, “Measuring Urban Sustainability,” 391.

Note: As in the Alberti example above, if the year serves as the volume
number, it should not be in parentheses.
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6. Web Sources
Note: Not all information available on the internet should be considered a
valid source for academic research. Use common sense in deciding what
internet sites to include in your research. For example, wikipedia.org is
generally not considered an appropriate source of information for an
academic paper. If you are unsure if a site is appropriate, check with your
supervisor.

Footnotes
If an online source is also a print source (a journal or newspaper article, etc.)
or has a clear online publishing date (such as online news sources), footnote it
in the same way as you would footnote the source if it were in print, adding
the URL and access date if the information is time sensitive:
Author‖s First name Last name, “Article Title,” Web Site Title. Sponsor,
Original publication Month Day, Year, URL. (accessed Month Day,
Year).

If citing an entire website, include the title of the site, the name of the
sponsoring organization, the publication date or date of latest update (if
available), URL, and access date if time sensitive.
Author‖s First name Last name, Web Site Title, URL (accessed Month
Day, Year).

Examples:
1
Keith Schneider, “Salt Lake City is Finding a Payoff in Conservation,”
New York Times, November 7,
2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/business/businessspecial3/0
7cities.html (accessed November 14, 2007).
2
Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Seattle Metronatural,
http://www.visitseattle.org/bureau/brand.asp (accessed Mar. 16,
2008).

7. Newspaper Articles
Footnotes
A footnote for a newspaper article should include: Name of author (if
known); title of the article, month, day and year of publication); the section if
in print or the URL if found online. You can omit page numbers.

Basic format:

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Last name, First name, “Article Title,” Newspaper Title, Month Day, Year,
edition, section.

Or:
Last name, First name, “Article Title,” Newspaper Title, Original publication
Month Day, Year, URL.

Subsequent references to the same text:

Last name, “Article Title,” Date.

Examples:
1
Kevin Sack, “In Partisan Battle, Governors Clash with Attorneys General
over Lawsuits,” New York Times, Mar. 28, 2010, late edition, sec. A.
2
Keith Schneider, “Salt Lake City is Finding a Payoff in Conservation,” New
York Times, November 7, 2007,
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/07/business/businessspecial3/07cities.ht
ml (accessed November 14, 2007).

8. Interviews
Footnotes
Regardless of the form of the interview, your footnote should begin with the
name of the person interviewed. Anonymous interviews can be cited as such,
with general information regarding the interviewee. Published interviews
should include the full citation of where the interview was found (for
instance, in a book or on the radio). In examples 2 and 3 below, it is assumed
that you (the author) conducted the interviews.

Examples:
1
Donald E. Felsinger, “Turning Energy Uncertainty into Opportunity,”
interview by Clifford Krauss. New
York Times, May 3, 2008, late edition, sec. C.
2
George Smith, e-mail message to author, March 17, 2008.
3
Interview with Congressional aide, February 9, 2008.

C. FURTHER GUIDELINES

1. Single space footnotes/endnotes and bibliography/reference list, leaving a

blank line between entries.

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2. Footnotes and endnotes are numbered sequentially but
bibliography/reference list entries are NOT numbered.

3. Follow the following rules for writing titles and sub-titles: (a) The first and
last words are always capitalized, even if fewer than five letters; (b) Words
over five letters are always capitalized; (c) Verbs are always capitalized,
even if fewer than five letters; (d) Nouns are always capitalized, even if
fewer than five letters; (e) Unless the first or last words of a title, these are
never capitalized: articles: a, an, the; conjunctions: and, but, or, not;
prepositions that are fewer than five letters long: at, by, for, from, in, into,
of, off, on, onto, out, over (unless used as a verb), up, with; infinitives: to; "as"
is never capitalized; o'Clock (since it means "of the clock"); (f) These
words are capitalized, even though they are fewer than five letters. also, be,
if, than, that, thus, when

When more than one place of publication is listed, document the first one
that appears on the title page.

4. Sometimes the original source is very hard to get or in a foreign language

you don‖t speak. You read about it in a textbook or another secondary
source and you want to quote something. This is perfectly all right if it
doesn‖t mean one single textbook is your only source of inspiration. Here
is how you reference such a second-hand quote properly:
Freud: “Das Unbewusste”. In: Internationale Zeitschrift für Ärztliche
Psychoanalyse. Bd. 3 (4). 1915, p. 189. cited in Miller2010,
p. 12

Only Miller2010 should appear in your list of references, as you

have not had Freud1915 in your hands.

5. Sometimes you don‖t want to quote a text literally because the grammar
does not quite fit into your sentence. Or you just want to mention that
your line of thought is different from some other publication. Or you
want to use a standard procedure and you are not going to describe it
because it is well known to the experts. In any of those cases, you still
refer to the original source! This is usually done using the abbreviation cf.
spelled out as Latin confer or compare.

Example: As we know Freud first introduced the idea that our conscious
mind is not the only instance in control of our actions. Even when …blah
blah … he said. [cf. REFERENCE].
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