What is a reference?

A reference, or bibliographic citation, is a short description recognising a particular source of information/publication. It contains sufficient information for the reader to locate the original book or journal article.

A reference can be presented in various commonly accepted 'styles'. The APA referencing style is preferred in the psychology discipline.

In order to locate items in the library, you will need to identify the different elements of a given reference. The main specific search terms used are AUTHOR and TITLE.

- Point to the different sections of the examples to understand the information provided by a citation.

Publication type	Citation format
Books	Author/editor(s). (Year of publication). Title of book. (edition). Place of publication: Publisher.
	e.g. Campbell, N.A., Reece, J.A., & Mitchell, L.G. (1999). Biology, 5th Edition. Menlo Park: Benjamin/Cummings.
Journal Articles	Author of journal article. (Year of Publication). Title of article. Title of journal, volume of journal(issue of journal), article pages, Digital object identified (if available).
	e.g. Troyer, A.K., & Craik, F.I.M. (2000). The effect of divided attention on memory for items and their context. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54(3), 161-171. doi: 10.1037/h0087338
Book Chapters	Author of chapter. (Year of publication). Chapter title. In Editor(s) of book, Title of book. (edition, chapter pages). Place of publication: Publisher.
	e.g. Hilgard, E. R. (1951). Methods and procedures in the study of learning. In S. S. Stevens (Ed.), Handbook of exeprimental psychology. (pp. 517-567). New York: Wiley.

2.1	Module 2 objectives
2.2	What is a reference?
2.3	The Library Catalogue
2.4	Finding items using the call number/Library Catalogue record
2.5	Finding journals in the library
2.6	Important library services
2.7	Module 2 review
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