Bibliography
References in the text are intended to make it easier for readers to find the sources in the bibliography.
Every source you mention in your text must be listed in your bibliography and every source that is in your bibliography must be mentioned in your text.
The references in your bibliography must be listed in alphabetical order.
If you are writing your report in Dutch, you should list your sources according to the Dutch rules for alphabetisation, i.e. infixes must be ignored. If you are writing your report in English, you should alphabetise based on the infix (for example, ‘Van der’)
Other rules for alphabetisation
- List your sources in order of the surname of the first author (for books, articles and edited books).
- Work through each letter at a time and apply the rule ‘nothing comes before something’, so Janse, Z. comes before Jansen, B.
Articles and infixes:
In Dutch texts you should stick to the Dutch rule for alphabetisation:
- Articles and other infixes come after the initial/initials. For example, ‘P. van Dijk’ is listed in the bibliography as ‘Dijk, P. van’.
When writing in English, use the English rules:
- Articles and other infixes come before the surname: ‘P. van Dijk’ is listed in the bibliography as: ‘Van Dijk, P.’
- If two or more authors have the same surname, they are listed in order of their initials.
- If two or more publications by the same author are mentioned, they are listed based on the year of publication (from oldest to most recent). If two or more publications of the same author and same publication year are mentioned, they are listed based on the order in which they are mentioned in the text. The first is referenced with an a after the year; the second with a b, etc.
Skifter Andersen, H. (2002a). Excluded places. On the interaction between segregation, urban decay and deprived neighbourhoods, Housing, Theory and Society, 19, 153–169.
Skifter Andersen, H. (2002b). Can deprived housing areas be revitalised? Efforts against segregation and neighbourhood decay in Denmark and Europe, Urban Studies, 39(4), 767-790.
- For publications with the same first author, publications with just one author come before publications with multiple authors.
- Publications with the same first author are listed based on the second author.
- The bibliography comes at the end of the text, so after the article or at the end of the book. Start the bibliography on a new page and give it the title ‘Literature list’, ‘Reference list’ or ‘Bibliography’.
- Indent the second line of a reference so that the list is easy to read and the author’s name stands out.
- In the bibliography you should state the source in full, so not as you would do in the text, i.e. just the name of the author and the year.
Click here for examples of different source types.
Click here for more information about the structure of a reference