In this blog post, we will be looking at the Harvard referencing system, this time focusing on how to reference edited books. I also have a blog post looking at how to reference books in general, so it may help to refresh your mind with this first. Edited books are those where chapters or sections have been written by different people, then all of these are brought together by the editor. It is usually the editor’s name on the cover of the book.
It is important that you reference your work for two main reasons. Firstly, referencing means that your work is not the product of plagiarism. This is when you take other people’s work and present it as your own. Remember that plagiarism is not always as simple as copying out what another person has written; it can also be plagiarism if you take ideas from their work without referencing them properly.
Plagiarism is unethical and could have serious consequences for you, including being asked to leave your course. At the least, you would have to add the references and rewrite either the whole essay or the problematic areas.
The other reason to reference is to help your readers. If they read a point you have made with a reference to a source, they might want to look at this source themselves to understand the context. Readers might also find your reference list useful to broaden their own research.
The basic format to reference the entirety of an edited book is:
Author, Initial(s). ed., Year. Title of book. Edition. Place: Publisher.
For example:
Hatton, G. ed., 2006. Exploring democracy. London: Greenfield Publishing.
If you are referring to a particular chapter in an edited book, the format is:
Chapter author surname, Initial(s)., Year of chapter. Title of chapter. In: Editor’s initial(s). Surname, ed. Year of book. Title of book. Edition. Place: Publisher. Chapter number or first and last page numbers.
For example:
Turner, F., 2004. Elections and voting. In: G. Hatton, ed. 2006. Exploring democracy. London: Greenfield Publishing. Ch.4.
We will now look at each part of this reference individually.
Chapter Author’s Surname and Initial(s)
Make sure this is the name of the chapter author, not the editor.
Year of Chapter
This should be the year that the chapter was written, given as four digits i.e. 2004, not 04. Bear in mind that this may not be the same as the year that the book was published – check the copyright page.
Title of chapter
Write out the chapter title in full. However, remove all capitalisation except in the first word and any proper nouns. For example, “A Travel Guide to Bali” would become “A travel guide to Bali”.
Editor’s Initial(s) and Surname
You also need to include the editor’s name. Start this by writing “In:”, followed by the editor’s initial(s) and surname. Add “ed.” after, to indicate that this is the editor, or “eds.”, if there are multiple editors.
Year of Book
Again, write this as four digits and bear in mind that it may not be the same as the year the chapter was published.
Title of book
This should be the full title of the book exactly as it appears on the cover. As with the chapter title, only keep capitals on the first word and any proper nouns. The title of the book should be written in italics in your reference.
Edition
If the book you are using is not the first edition, include details of what edition it is, for example:
2nd ed.
Place: Publisher.
You should be able to find details of both the publisher and place of publication at the start of the book with the copyright information. The place of publication must be a town or city, not a country. If there are multiple locations given, choose the one that is in your country.
Chapter Number or Page Numbers
If you have the chapter number, use the abbreviation “Ch.” followed by the number. If you are using page numbers, write this as you would any range of pages with the abbreviation “pp.” followed by the numbers. Follow this with a full stop to finish the reference.
In-Text Citations
When you are citing an edited book in the text of your work, make sure you use the chapter author’s name, not the editor’s, and the year the chapter was published, not the book. You can cite them directly by mentioning their name in the text:
Turner (2004) says that…
Alternatively, you can reference them by having both the name and year inside brackets, separated by a comma:
(Turner, 2004)
Evaluating Sources
Before you reference a source, check how reliable it is. There are few things to look out for here, starting with checking its references. Do these look complete? Are they reliable sources themselves? In addition, what do you know about the author? Are they generally a trustworthy source of information? If the source seems to be written to persuade rather than inform, it is less likely to be useful.
Another point to consider is how recently the source was written. One from 20 years ago will not be as reliable as one from recent years. Also, make sure that it is actually relevant to what you are writing, not a tangential point.
Wrapping Up
I hope that this helps you to reference edited books in your work. In my next blog post, we will be looking at how to reference ebooks, so come back in two weeks for that!
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