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Open University Referencing

Open University referencing is in most part a version of the Harvard system for citing references, although this may vary depending on which Open University course is being studied. Some of the reasons for referencing completely and accurately that apply to Open University referencing apply equally to referencing in general;

An important skill when undertaking study with the Open University is effectively citing sources (quotations and ideas) using the standards set out for Open University referencing, just as referencing is an important skill for academic writing in general.

Open University referencing requires that citations in the body of text of a document specify the author's name and year of publication, and that a matching entry in the references list at the end of the document gives the full details of the citation, starting with the author's name and year of publication. Where there are several citations from the same author in the same year, Open University referencing standards require that each citation should be assigned with a character of the alphabet so that they can be differentiated, for example Davis (1990a), Davis (1990b) and so on. Open University referencing requires that author's names within the references section are listed alphabetically. If three or more authors have co-written a source article, Open University referencing standards require that only the fist author is named, followed by 'et al', as in the example; Davis et al (1990).

Where the original source is not available and the writing or idea is quoted by another author, which you then want to use in your own document, Open University referencing standards require the following; in the body of text the original author's name is given, followed "quoted by", followed by the second (quoting) author's name and year of publication. In accordance with Open University referencing standards, the references section would then give the full details for the second author, that is, the source that you read the quotation / idea in.

The Open University Referencing guide sets out standards to follow for citing references from many different types of resource, including books, chapters in books, e-books, journals, journal articles, e-journals and articles, course texts, newspapers (online and in print), reports, conference papers, theses, world-wide-web documents, personal websites, blogs and podcasts. All follow the same principles as above within the body of the text, but differ in the way the detailed reference is presented in the references section. This essay will now go on to specify how popular categories of reference should be presented so as to comply with the Open University referencing guide.

When citing references from books, the Open University referencing guide requires that  the surname and initials of the author and the year of publication are stated first, followed by the title of the book (in italics), the location of the publisher, and the name of the publisher. For citations from a specific chapter on a book, the Open University referencing guide requires that the surname of the author of the relevant chapter is stated along with the year of publication, followed by the title of the chapter in italics, and then followed by the editor's surname and initials and 'ed.' in brackets, followed by the title of the book in italics, the place of publication, the name of the publishers and any page references. The citation in the text gives the name of the author of the chapter and the year of publication. Open University referencing requirements for e-books are much the same as for books, except that after the title of the e-book, the name of the e-book supplier and 'online' in brackets replaces the publisher details. In addition, the e-book url and date of access is required.

Journals and e-journal articles, in line with the Open University referencing guide, are referenced in much the same way as books. The surname and initials of the author are given first, followed by the year of publication, the title of the article (in inverted commas rather than in italics), the title of the journal in italics, the volume number and issue number of the journal, followed by the date of publication and page numbers. For e-journals, the Open University referencing guide requires that after the issue number, 'online' in brackets is included along with the url and date of access.

The Open University referencing guide specifies a similar format for world-wide-web documents. The author's surname and initials are stated first, followed by the year of publication and the title of the document (in italics), 'online' in brackets, followed by the url and date of access. Blogs are slightly different due to the nature of the articles published. The Open University referencing guide requires that the name of the author of the message is given, unless the blog author wished to remain anonymous, in which case, the word 'anonymous' would be used. This is followed by the title of the message within inverted commas, the title of the internet site in italics, the date of publication of the message, the url and the date of access.

Open University referencing requirements are largely based on Harvard referencing requirements, although requirements can vary for specific Open University courses, so it is always worth checking what referencing style is required. By and large, Open University referencing requirements are the same as the referencing requirements of most institutions; a reader must be able to easily locate from references the sources for any ideas, quotations, phrases or pieces of writing that are not your original work. Open University referencing requirements provide a standardised framework to achieve this, which is in line with referencing requirements and standards for most educational institutions. As an absolute minimum, a reference must contain the author's name, date of publication, title, publisher, place of publishing (on-line or print) and volume or issue numbers where appropriate. As can be seen from the above requirements, the Open University referencing guide incorporates all of these elements into a standardised set of requirements, thus ensuring that readers can easily understand and locate source material.