• You state the author and the year of publication in brackets. If you mention the author in the text (for example, as the subject of the sentence), you only need to state the year in brackets.

• When referring to the entire source, the name of the author and the year is sufficient. When referring to a specific part of the source, you need to state a page number or chapter. This applies not only to a quotation or a specific number, but also when you use an idea from a specific part of a source. So in many cases you do mention page numbers.
• To refer to one page, use p.; for multiple pages, use pp.

• For one or two authors: state both names in the text. If the authors’ names are enclosed in round brackets, use an ampersand (&) to separate them. You use ‘and’ if the authors are mentioned in the text.

• For three, four or five authors: in the first reference all authors are mentioned, separated by a comma. The name of the last author is preceded by an ampersand (&).

• In the following reference only the first author is mentioned, followed by ‘et al.’

• Six or more authors: only the first author is mentioned, followed by et al., even for the first reference in the text.

• When referring to multiple publications in one place in the text, these are listed in brackets, separated by a semicolon and a space. The same order is used as in the bibliography (alphabetical order).

• If you are referencing multiple sources from the same author, mention the oldest publication first. If you are referencing multiple sources from the same author and fromthe same year, the year is followed by consecutive letters of the alphabet (both in the text and in the bibliography).

In reports, you usually state the names of the individual authors. These are usually mentioned on the title page or in the publication information.

If no individual authors are mentioned you state the organisation, for example, the Netherlands Institute for Social Research or a ministry.

Some organisations have an official abbreviation. You may use it the second and subsequent times you reference it in the text. The first time, you must state the full name followed by the abbreviation in square brackets.

If both the author and organisation are unknown, you reference the publication using the first words of the title (or the whole title if it is short).

Titles of articles, chapters from books and webpages are mentioned using quotation marks; titles of journals, dictionaries, books and reports are italicised (this is rare).

Sometimes it is useful to literally include parts of someone’s text in your text. Reasons for this can be:

• The section of text reflects exactly what you want to say and is formulated extremely concisely.
• The inclusion of the quotation enlivens the text and makes it more attractive to read.
• The quotation comes from the data you collected (for example, from an interview).

The rule of thumb is: only include quotations if you cannot put it better yourself. Make sure that you do not use too many quotations.

Too many quotations result in:

• A text that does not read well because it is full of individual quotations joined together.
• The impression that you have neither a sufficient understanding of the literature nor have your own ideas.
• Copyright issues, if you exceed the permissible quantity of work that may be copied.

A quotation is always followed by a reference page entry. A quotation of fewer than forty words is placed in quotation marks.

A quotation of forty words or more is indented in its entirety. Note:

• The quotation starts on a new line.
• No quotation marks are used.
• The page number comes after the full stop and is not followed by a full stop.

References within quotations are included but do not appear in the bibliography.

Quotations must be included in their original form. You are permitted to:

• Leave out excerpts of a citation and replace them with ellipsis points, that is (…).
• Emphasise a word or words using italics, followed by the mention .
• To add text for clarity [in square brackets].

Personal communication includes private letters, memos, emails, conversations, phone conversations, personal interviews, etc. This information cannot be traced by the reader and is therefore not included in the bibliography. It is also not possible to check the validity or reliability of this information, so use it sparingly.

If you want to use information from lectures, then look for publications by the speaker or literature to which the speaker refers. Personal communication that is archived, e.g. letters, unpublished manuscripts, clippings, interview recordings or transcripts, etc. that are part of an archive or collection, is included in the bibliography.

Sometimes you might find information in a publication via a secondary source and you cannot find the original text. In such cases, you refer ‘indirectly’ to that original work. Try to keep indirect references to a minimum. It is preferable to use sources that you have consulted yourself. That way, you also know that you have interpreted the source correctly. Note: if you use an indirect reference, in the bibliography you should indicate the source reference that was consulted, in this case Daniels et al. (2009).