LITTERATURE REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY

IN STUDENT THESIS
Svein Helge Birkeflet / October 2010
Norwegian edition

Bibliographic style for books and articles in a student thesis is a question of taste and
tradition, and there are a lot of styles to choose among. Harvard, Chicago, MLA and
Turabian are the most common in the humanistic disciplines, and they are found i several
variations.
There is no rule telling that you have to use a specific style, f. ex. Harvard, in a student
thesis. It is the needs and the consideration of what is best that decides which style to be
chosen. But either you choose the Harvard or the Chicago style, you have to be
unambigous, accurate and consequent. The bibliographic information must without doubt
refer to the correct publication, and the style you choose must be followed with accuracy
and consequence.
The Harvard style is an easy style to use, and it has become common within humanistic
science. A variant of this style is described here.

THE HARVARD STYLE IN GENERAL

These are the essential caracteristics of the Harvard style:
The bibliographic references are given within the text, not in footnotes. They are
placed in parenthesis, and lists the authors surname, the publication year and the
page(s) referred to. This is in contradiciton to the classic style, the socalled Chicago
style, which is common in scientific litterature. This style uses footnote numbers in the
text, and short litterature references in the footnotes at the page bottom.
As a main rule, footnotes are note used in the Harvard style. And if they are used, it is
for discourse only, never for bibliographic information.
The thesis ends with a complete bibliography. The bibliography shall not reflect what is
read during the work with the thesis; the purpose is to show all litterature refered to in
the thesis, no more no less. The bibliography is ordered alfabethically by author, and
chronologically for two or more works by the same author. The main difference
between the Harvard and Chicago style, is the placement of the publication year. In the
Chicago style it is placed at the end of the reference; in the Harvard style it is placed
immediately after the author name.

THE HARVARD STYLE IN TEXT OG BIBLIOGRAPHY

The examples below show the Harvard style :
in the text.
in the bibliography.
how to give a detailed description of the different reference types.

Main form:
(Author publ. year, page(s)

Page numbers,
when referred
to:
- a whole article
or a whole
chapter: 156202
- one page: 134
- one and the
following
page: 134f.
- one and the
following
pages: 134ff.

Two ore more

references are
separated with
a semicolon.

Litterature by
the same
author and
publ. the same
year are
separated with
letters.

Main characteristics of the bibliography:

- Form of the author name: Surname, first name by initials.
- Publication year is placed within parenthesis.
- The rest of the reference is left indented.
- The bibliography is sorted alfabetically by author, chronologically under the same author, and
with letters for publications by the same author and with the same publication year.
- All book titles are written in italics. All article titles are written in regular style and with
quotation marks. The titles of the journals or books where the articles are published are
written in italics. For further details, see below.

THE DIFFERENT REFERENCE TYPES

Here is a detailed description of the bibliographic information for the most important
reference types, such as books and articles in print and at the web. The examples here are
all taken from the bibliography above. If you are in doubt, ask a teacher or a librarian.

Books
Jervell, J. (1962) Den historiske Jesus. Oslo: Land og kirke.
Moxnes, H. (2003a) Putting Jesus in his place. A radical vision of household and kingdom,
Louisville: Westminster.
-

Author name is written: Surname, initials of first name.

If two or three authors: Dahl, N.A., J. Jervell og H. Moxnes.
If more than three authors: Dahl, N. A. et al.
The book title, both the main title and the subtitle is given in italics. The main title and the
subtitle is separated with av dot, and the first letter of the subtitle is in uppercase. The title
information ends with a dot.
- Place/city of publication and publisher end the bibliograsphic information. The are separated
with colon and blanc.
- Drop the number of pages of the book.
- Drop publisher information such as LTD.

Articles in books (Festschriften, anthologies, reports, muliauthor works)

Dahl, N. A. (1953) Problemet Den historiske Jesus. In: N. A. Dahl: Rett lre og kjetterske
meninger. Oslo: Land og kirke, 156-202.
Moxnes, H. (2002 ) Jesus the Jew. Dilemmas of interpretations. In: Fair play. Diversity and
conflicts in early Christianity. Essays in honour of Heikki Risnen. (Supplements to
Vetus Testamentum, 103) Leiden: Brill, 83-103.
Moxnes, H. (2003b) Jesus from Galilee in an age of nationalism. In: S. J. Stlsett (utg.):
Discovering Jesus in our place. Contextual Christologies in a globalized world. Delhi:
ISPCK, 100-120.
-

Article title and evt. subtitle is written in regular style and placed between quotation marks.
The book where the article is published is introduced with av In: -information.
The book title is written in italics.
If the book has an author, write the name in this way: N. A. Dahl:
If the book has a publisher, write the name in this way: S. J. Stlsett (publ.):
Series title and number are written within parenthesis, placed after the title, and before
publication and publisher.
- Page information for the article ends the bibliographic information. Do not use the abbreviation
p. or pp. for page.
- Sidehenvisningen for artikkelen avslutter den bibliografiske opplysningen.

Articles in printed journals

Moe, O. (1963) Til sprsmlet om den historiske Jesus. In: Tidsskrift for teologi og kirke, 34,
129-135.
-

Article title and evt. subtitle is written in regular style and placed between quotation marks.
The journal where the article is published is introduced with av In: -information.
The journal title is written in italics.
The journal title is followed by volume information. Drop abbreviations like vol. and no. Give
the volume number only.
- Number information is given only when the different numbers within a volume have separate
pagination. It is written like this: 34, h. 2, 20-30.
- Page information for the article ends the bibliographic information. Do not use the abbreviation
p. or pp. for page.

Articles in electronic journals

Moxnes, H. (2006) Jesus som europeer? Jesus-forskningen og Europas problemer i det 19.
rhundre. In: Dansk teologisk tidsskrift, 69, 139-155.
http://www.tf.uio.no/studier/phd-utd/programaktiviteter/moxnes-jesus-someuropeer.pdf [25.2.07]
- If the digital article is a pdf of the printed version and that is the most common the
information given is identical with those given for a printed article. And in fact, a pdf is a copy
of the printed version.
- The web address must be given.
- The date for web access to the article must be given. It is placed within square brackets.

Articles in printed encyclopaedias

Seim, T. K. (1997) Jesus Kristus. In: Aschehoug og Gyldendals store norske leksikon, vol. 8.
Oslo: Kunnskapsforlaget, 146-148.
-

Article title is written in regular style and placed between quotation marks.
The encyclopaedia title is introduced with av In: -information.
The encyclopaedia title is written in italics.
Information on volume number where the article is published must be given, and placed after
the title.
- Publication year is given for the exact volume number, not the whole encyclopaedia.
- Page information for the article ends the reference information. Do not use the abbreviation p.
or pp. for page.

Articles in electronic encyclopaedias

Seim, T. K. (2007) Jesus Kristus. In: Aschehoug og Gyldendals Store norske leksikon, 4. ed.,
2005-07. www.snl.no 26.02.2007 http://www.snl.no/article.html?id=614703 [26.2.07]
-

Article title is written in regular style and placed between quotation marks.
The encyclopaedia title is introduced with av In: -information.
The encyclopaedia title is written in italics.
The web address must be given.
The date for web access to the article is important, because articles are often updated. Date
information is placed within square brackets.

Web pages
Moxnes, H. (2007) Halvor Moxnes hjemmeside. Forskning og forskningsinteresser.
Universitetet i Oslo. Det teologiske fakultet.
http://folk.uio.no/hmoxnes/forskningsinteresser.htm [26.2.07]
- Web pages differ from printed publications; they come and go and they change continaously.
Neither do they follow the same strict rules for bibliographic descriptions as printed material,
and it is often difficult to give an accurate bibliographic description.
- Give the title, or at least what seems to be the title of the web page. The title is written in
italics.
- If the web page is linked to an institution, give the name of the institution.
- The web address must be given.
- The date for web access to the web page is important, because pages are often updated. Date
information is placed within square brackets.