HOW TO CITE LITERATURE

It is very important that you give credit to the source of any information or ideas that you present in your essay. The source of the information or ideas must be credited directly in the text and this is known as citing literature. Usually, the sources you cite will be your primary articles, popular article, books or texts. However, you should also cite any personal communications with researchers or instructors.

Try to avoid direct quotes. These are appropriate when you wish to quote a pithy phrase that you cannot express better in your own words. In general, you should rephrase the information or ideas cited into your own words and cite the source appropriately.

We suggest that you use the guidelines below in citing literature in your essay. However, you may use any format you wish as long as your citation style is accurate and consistent. We would prefer that you avoid footnotes, although you will not be penalized for them.

Haig (1993) explores the genetic conflicts between mother and fetus that occur during human pregnancy.

Hedrick and Duffield (1986) compare the blood viscosity of the northern elephant seal to that of a rabbit.

* Even when the two authors have the same last name, both names must be listed.

Hurst et al . (1996) consider examples of selfish genes.

* Note that et al. is a Latin abbreviation for "and others" and must be italicized.

Both Haig (1993) and Hurst et al. (1996) discuss the evolutionary significance of genetic conflicts.

* Note that the references are placed in chronological order.

Salmon embryos develop faster at higher temperatures (L. Albright, personal communication).

* Include the name and initials of the person cited, but do not include a year.

Website or e-mail information is treated with the same credibility as personal communications, and viewed as less reliable than primary sources. Include the author and title of the website, its address and the date that you accessed it.

Hickey and Rose (1988, cited in Hurst et al., 1996) have proposed that sex may have arisen as a consequence of self- promotion by a selfish gene.

* In this case, only Hurst et al. need be cited in your literature cited section at the end of your essay. In such a case, it is best to actually find and read Hickey and Rose's paper. However, when this is difficult or impossible, you may cite the paper in which you read about their work, as shown above.

At the end of your essay, you must have a section entitled 'Literature cited'. This section should include an alphabetical list of all of the literature cited in the body of your essay. Include full citations for all your sources, including primary articles, popular articles, books, textbooks, personal communications or web references. Do not include any sources that you read but did not refer to in the body of your essay.

The function of the literature cited section is two fold. First, it gives credit to the researchers whose ideas and findings you are discussing in your introduction. Second, it allows others who are interested in your study to find relevant articles for further, in depth investigation of this topic. You may have used the 'literature cited' yourselves, to track down additional primary sources on your topic once you located one useful reference on your topic.

Some rules:

• When listing your references in this section, put them in alphabetical order according to the first author. Give all authors, and don't use et al. in this section.
• If you include more than one article by the same author, place these articles in chronological order with the earliest article listed first.
• Titles of books and journals should be underlined or italicized.
• For articles from journals, you must give the volume number and may give the issue number.
• The publisher's name and city are required for books but not for journals.
• Page numbers are not required for books but must be included for journal articles or for articles in edited books.
• Web page references should include the author's name, title and address of the website and date on which you viewed it.

Guyton, A.C. 1981. Textbook of medical physiology. W.B. Saunders Co., Philadelphia

Weathers, W.W. 1976. Influence of temperature on the optimum hematocrit of the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana). J. Comp. Physiol. 105: 173-184

Elsner, R.E. and S Ashwell-Erickson. Cardiovascular adjustments to diving. In The Biology of marine mammals, Edited by H.T. Andersen, Academic Press, New York, pp 117-145.