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How to Reference: Numeric Style
2014-2015 Edition
How to Reference:
Numeric Style
This help sheet provides guidance on how to reference in the Numeric style. This style is mainly used
by electrical engineering students at LSBU. If you look at other Numeric referencing guides available on
the web or in print form you may notice some slight variation between them. The important thing is to
be consistent and to follow any specific instructions from your lecturers.
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Why do we need to reference? ......................................................................................................... 2
How Numeric style differs from Harvard style .................................................................................. 2
Citing references within the text (i.e. in-text citations) ..................................................................... 2
Citing a direct quote........................................................................................................................... 2
Secondary referencing ....................................................................................................................... 3
Guidelines for listing references at the end of your work ................................................................. 3
Guidelines for referencing online resources...................................................................................... 4
7.1
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) ................................................................................................ 4
8. Books .................................................................................................................................................. 4
8.1
Print book................................................................................................................................... 4
8.2
E-book ........................................................................................................................................ 5
8.3
Chapter in a book ....................................................................................................................... 5
9. Journal articles ................................................................................................................................... 6
9.1
Print journal article .................................................................................................................... 6
9.2
Online journal article ................................................................................................................. 6
10.
Websites ........................................................................................................................................ 7
11.
Reports ........................................................................................................................................... 8
12.
Theses / Dissertations .................................................................................................................... 8
13.
Conference papers ......................................................................................................................... 8
14.
Patents ........................................................................................................................................... 9
15.
Standards ....................................................................................................................................... 9
16.
Government publications .............................................................................................................. 9
17.
Lectures / presentations .............................................................................................................. 10
18.
Personal email messages ............................................................................................................. 10
19.
Weblogs (blogs) ........................................................................................................................... 10
20.
Figures, illustrations, graphs, maps, charts and tables ................................................................ 11
21.
The difference between a Reference List and a Bibliography ..................................................... 11
22.
Further help ................................................................................................................................. 12
Updated: June 2014
How to Reference: Numeric Style
1.
Why do we need to reference?
Referencing is an essential academic skill. You need to reference in order to:
 show evidence of your research
 support your arguments and analysis
 allow readers to identify and locate the sources you’ve used
 acknowledge the work and ideas of others.
If you do not reference properly you will lose marks and risk plagiarising the work of
others. Plagiarism is the act of passing off someone else’s work as your own and is a
form of cheating. For further information, please read Help Sheet 4 on plagiarism
available on the MyLSBU library pages.
NOTE: You need to acknowledge others’ work, even if you’re paraphrasing or putting
their work or ideas into your own words.
2.
How Numeric style differs from Harvard style
There are two main differences:
1. The way material is cited in the text and at the end of the work. In Numeric style,
numbers are used instead of the author’s last name to identify a source in the text
and the list of references at the end is arranged in numerical order rather than
alphabetically by author.
2. The position of the date.
3.
Citing references within the text (in-text citations)
1. In the Numeric style, sources are identified by a number, starting with 1. These
numbers relate to a numbered list of sources (reference list) at the end.
2. The numbers can be placed within brackets or as a superscript, e.g. (1) or [1] or 1
4.
Citing a direct quote
If you quote the exact words directly from a text you must use quotation marks to
indicate this. Include the page number in the in-text citation e.g.
Weber suggested that “the great success of plasma today can be ...” (2, p. 277)
For a long quote (over 40 words), indent the text and leave a line space before and
after the quote rather than using quotation marks.
Example:
Pears and Shields provide the following definition:
Page | 2
How to Reference: Numeric Style
Plagiarism is a specific form of cheating and is generally defined as
presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own. These may be in
printed or electronic format and, in all cases, giving credit to the
original authors by citing and referencing your sources is the only way
to use other peoples work without plagiarising (3, p. 1).
You can leave out any section of a quote as long as you make this clear by inserting an
ellipsis (…).
5.
Secondary referencing
If you want to cite a person’s work which you read in another work, you should try
and track down the original. However, if this isn’t possible, make it clear in your text
where you found the information and only include a reference to the document
you’ve read.
Example:
The findings by Colin Smith cited by Jones (4, p. 167) indicated that …
In your reference list you would only include a reference to Jones.
6.
Guidelines for listing references at the end of your work

Put all your references in one list under the heading ‘Reference list’. Do NOT list
resources by type.

Place a colon (:) after the short title, before a sub-title.
Example:
Rees, A. L. A history of experimental film and video: from the canonical avantegarde to contemporary British practice. London: BFI, 2011.

Begin titles with a capital letter. The rest of the title should be in lowercase,
unless it contains a proper noun (the name of a place, person or thing). The
exceptions are journal and newspaper titles which should have all major words
capitalised.

If there are three or more authors, you can use et al. after the first author.

When trying to find the date of a source, look for the copyright © date. If there is
no date available, state [no date] in the reference where you’d normally put the
date.

The title should be italicised. NOTE the title of a chapter in an edited book and the
title of an article in a journal or newspaper are not italicised or underlined.
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How to Reference: Numeric Style
7.

The place of publication is usually a city or town. Only include the first place
acknowledged.

If you add information which does not actually appear in the original, this must be
in square brackets. Example: [no date], [no page numbers]
Guidelines for referencing online resources
In general, if an online source is also available in print then just provide the print
reference. This is particularly advisable for e-books and e-journal articles on LSBU
subscription databases.
If an online resource doesn’t have the same publication information of a print version,
or you’re unsure whether it is available in print, include the URL and the date you
accessed the source.
e.g. … Available from: URL [Accessed dd month year].
If an online source has a long URL (e.g. longer than one line), it is acceptable to shorten
the URL up to the first forward slash.
7.1
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Many online journal articles, papers and e-books have DOIs. A DOI is unique to a
source and can be added to a reference in place of the URL and accessed date. A
reader can find a source by copying and pasting its DOI into a search engine, such as
Google. As DOIs are permanent identifiers (unlike URLs) you do not need to include
date of access in the reference.
Example:
(6)
Serebryannikov, S. V. The Moscow power engineering institute (Technical
University): from 1930 to 2010. Thermal Engineering, 2010, 57 (12), pp. 12-30.
DOI: 10.1134/S0040601510120025.
8.
Books
8.1
Print book
Format:
Author’s (or editor’s) surname and initials. Title of book, Edition (other than 1st).
Place of publication: Publisher, year.
If referring to an edited book, put (ed.) after the Editor’s surname.
Page | 4
How to Reference: Numeric Style
Examples:
(7)
Hambley, A. R. Electrical engineering: principles and applications, 5th ed. London:
Pearson, 2011.
8.2
(8)
Brown, R. B. (ed.) Practical foundation engineering handbook, 2th ed. New York:
McGraw-Hill, 2001.
(9)
Attenborough, M. P. Mathematics for electrical engineering and computing.
London: Newnes, 2003.
E-book
If an e-book doesn’t have the same publication information of a print version, or
you’re unsure whether it is available in print, include the URL and the date you
accessed the source.
e.g. … Available from: URL [Accessed dd month year].
Alternatively, if the e-book has a digital object identifier (DOI), include this in place of
the URL and date of access. See section 7.1 for more information about DOIs.
Format:
Author’s surname, Initials. (Year of publication) Title of e-book. Edition if later than the
first. Place of publication if available: Publisher if available. Available from: URL
[Accessed date].
If you are accessing an e-book on an e-book reader, you may find it helpful to mention
this in your reference, especially if you’re directly quoting from it.
Format:
Author’s surname, Initials. Title of book. Edition if later than the first. Place of
publication: Publisher. [Name of e-book reader edition].
Example:
(10)
Bird, J. Electrical and electronic principles and technology, 5th ed. London:
Routledge, 2013. [Kindle edition].
If no pagination is available use the information you do have to cite a direct quote e.g.
e.g. loc, %, or chapter.
Example in-text citation: (4, 34%)
8.3
Chapter in a book
Format:
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How to Reference: Numeric Style
Author’s (or editor’s) surname and initials. Chapter title. In: editor’s surname
and initials (ed.) Title of book. Edition (other than 1st). Place of publication:
Publisher, year, page range of chapter.
Example:
(11)
Farkas, M. Implementing network security in a local bank. In: Grande, R. (ed.)
Enterprise resource planning system: a theoretical perspective, 3rd ed. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2003, pp. 23-42.
9.
Journal articles
9.1
Print journal article
Format:
Author’s surname and initials. Title of article. Journal Title, Year, volume (issue
number), page range of article.
Example:
(12)
Basar, E. et al. A reliable successive relaying protocol. IEEE Transactions on
Communications, 2014, 62 (5), pp. 1431-1443.
9.2
Online journal article
If an online journal article doesn’t have the same publication information as a print
version, or you’re unsure whether it is available in print, include the URL and the date
you accessed the source.
e.g. … Available from: URL [Accessed day month year].
Alternatively, if the article has a digital object identifier (DOI), include this in place of
the URL and date of access. See section 7.1 for more information about DOIs.
Format:
Author’s surname and initials. Title of article. Journal Title, Year, volume (issue
number), page range of article. Available from: URL [Accessed day month year].
Examples:
(13)
Weber, R. and Staiger, D. Cloud computing: a cluster of complex liability issues.
Web Journal of Current Legal Issues, 2014, 20 (1). Available from:
http://webjcli.org//article/view/303/418 [Accessed 5 June 2014].
(14)
Page | 6
Rosenberg, J. The future is open. Think Quarterly, 2012, October. Available from:
http://www.google.co.uk/think/articles/the-future-is-open.html [Accessed 3
June 2014].
How to Reference: Numeric Style
(15)
10.
Serebryannikov, S. V. The Moscow power engineering institute (Technical
University): from 1930 to 2010. Thermal Engineering, 2010, 57 (12), pp.12-30.
DOI: 10.1134/S0040601510120025.
Newspaper articles
The format is similar to that of a journal article except that details of volume and issue
numbers are not required as you provide the specific date the article was published.
You also need to indicate if your reference is from a particular section of the paper.
Format:
Author’s surname, Initials. Title of article. Title of Newspaper, (details of supplement if
relevant), day, month, year published, page number(s). Include URL and accessed date
if online.
Examples:
(16)
Tobin, L. The crush starts here, The Guardian (Education Supplement), 8 June
2010, p. 1.
(17)
11.
Vincent, J. Scientists achieve quantum teleportation breakthrough that could
prove Einstein wrong. The Independent, 30 May 2014. Available from:
http://www.independent.co.uk/ [Accessed 5 June 2014].
Websites
Remember that anyone can publish anything on the web, so free web material may
not be academic or even trustworthy. Signs of academic content include references,
evidence and qualifications of the author.
Format:
Author’s surname, Initials or name of organisation. Title of web page/document.
Available from: URL [Accessed dated].
The format will depend on the webpage or document that you are referencing. For
example, if you are referencing a news article, follow the same format for a print
newspaper article and include the URL and accessed date.
Examples:
(18)
IEEE. New technology connections: future directions, 2014. Available from:
http://www.ieee.org/about/technologies/index.html [Accessed 14 May 2014].
(19)
BBC. E-books to outsell print by 2018 says new reports. BBC News: Entertainment
& Arts, 4 June 2014. Available from: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainmentarts-27694650 [Accessed 16 May 2014].
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How to Reference: Numeric Style
12.
Reports
Reports can be published by statutory authorities, professional bodies or commercial
suppliers. In most cases, you can reference a report as you would a book.
Format:
Author’s surname and initials or name of corporation. Title of publication. Report
number and other information where relevant. Place of publication: Publisher, Date of
publication. Include URL and accessed date if online.
Examples:
(20)
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Information economy
report 2013: the cloud economy and developing countries. New York: United
Nations, 2013. Available from: http://www.unctad.org/ecommerce/ [Accessed 20
July 2014].
(21)
13.
Tutt, L. (ed.) Mobile phones: market report 2013, 9th ed. Teddington: Key Note,
2013. Available from: http://www.keynote.co.uk [Accessed 6 June 2014].
Theses / Dissertations
Format:
Author’s surname and initials. Title of thesis. Degree, awarding body, year. (Include the
location of the institution if it is not clear from the name alone).
Example:
(22)
Brenner, A-A. Automated NDT robotic system for inspection of test objects with
unknown geometry. PhD Thesis, London South Bank University, 2008.
14.
Conference papers
The proceedings of conferences are sometimes published as books, usually with
an editor. If this is the case, reference a paper the same way you would
reference a chapter within an edited book but include the location and date of
the conference.
Format:
Author’s surname and initials. Title of paper. In: Editor’s surname and initials (ed.) (if
available). Title of conference, location of conference, date of conference. Place of
publication: publisher (if available), year, page number(s). Include URL and accessed
date if online.
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How to Reference: Numeric Style
Example:
(23)
Marnat, L. and Shamim, A. Liquid crystal polymer (LCP) based antenna for
flexible system on package (SoP) applications. In: 15th International Symposium
on Antenna Technology and Applied Electromagnetics (ANTEM), Toulouse, 25-28
June 2012, pp. 1-4.
15.
Patents
Format:
Inventor’s surname and initials. Title of patent document. Patent code. Patent number
and date. Include URL and accessed date if online.
Example:
(24)
Philip Morris INC. Optical perforating apparatus and system. European patent
application. 0021165 A1, 1st July 1981.
16.
Standards
Format:
Author of the standard (usually a corporate author). Standard number and year
(separated by a colon). Title of the standard. Place of publication: Publisher,
year.
Example:
(25)
British Standards Institution. BS EN 60598-2-24: 2013. Luminaires. Particular
requirements. Luminaires with limited surface temperatures. London: BSI, 2013
17.
Government publications
Format:
Author (usually a Government department). Title of document. Place of publication:
Publisher (usually The Stationery Office), year. Include URL and accessed date if online.
Example:
(26)
Department of Health. Choosing health: making choices easier. London: The
Stationery Office, 2004.
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How to Reference: Numeric Style
18.
Lectures / presentations
Format:
Lecturer’s surname and initials. Title of the lecture / presentation. Lecture delivered in
/ Speech presented at Unit name, Unit code / Conference name. Place, Organiser /
conference information, date of the lecture / presentation.
Examples:
(27)
Lunn, C. The basic properties of electronic circuits and systems. Lecture delivered
in Introduction to electrical and electronic systems 1, unit code: EEE_1_101.
London South Bank University, 30 Oct 2005.
19.
(28)
Brown, B. WiFi for everyone? Speech presented at the Conference on wireless
network in the future, Frankfurt, Germany, 7 October 2006.
(29)
Viscardi, K. Managing human resources in engineering context. Lecture notes.
Professional engineering in context, unit code: EIS_3_204. London South Bank
University, 10 May 2014.
Personal email messages
Format:
Sender’s surname and initials. Message subject / Title. Personal e-mail to: name of
recipient, date of message.
Example:
(30)
Darlington, J. RE: New passwords for off-campus access. Personal e-mail to:
Smiths, B., 1 Nov 2014.
20.
Weblogs (blogs)
Note: Evaluate carefully the contents of blogs before referencing them. Blogs are
user-contributed pages where the information has not been peer reviewed.
Format:
Author's surname and initials. Title of blog entry. Title of the blog, date of the
entry. Available from: URL address [Accessed Date].
Example:
(31)
Sellwood, P. A room with a view! The carbon challenge, 22 February 2008.
Available from:
http://carbonchallenge.typepad.com/carbon_challenge/2008/02/a-room-with-av.html. [Accessed 1 March 2014].
Page | 10
How to Reference: Numeric Style
21.
Figures, illustrations, graphs, maps, charts and tables
If you include figures, graphs, photos etc. that are not your own work, you need to
provide an in-text citation and a full reference to the source from where they were
taken.
Within the text:
Reference list:
…………………… Fig. 2 below shows the
communication between a receiver and a
transmitter as illustrated by The Fiber Optic
Association [11] ………………………………
10…………
Figure 2. Fibre optic transmissions between
receiver and transmitter [11]
11. The Fiber Optic Association. User’s guide
to fiber optic system design and
installation: 2: Understanding fiber optic
communications, 2007. Available from:
http://www.thefoa.org/user/ [Accessed
20 May 2014].
12.…………..
p.35
22.
p.103
The difference between a Reference List and a Bibliography
Reference list – a list of sources cited in the text arranged in the order they appeared
within the text. It is usually put at the end but references could also appear in a
footnote (at the bottom of the page).
Bibliography – a separate list of sources consulted but not cited in the work including
background reading. Not all assignments require a bibliography in addition to a
reference list so check any instructions you receive from lecturers.
The bibliography is arranged alphabetically by the author’s last name.
Otherwise, the citation style remains the same. For example:
Department of Health. Choosing health: making choices easier. London: The Stationery
Office, 2004.
Farkas, F. Implementing network security in a local bank. In: R. Grande (ed.) Enterprise
resource planning system: a theoretical perspective, 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2003, pp. 23-42.
Pears, R. and Shields, G. Cite them right: the essential referencing guide, 9th ed.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Page | 11
How to Reference: Numeric Style
23.
Further help
Please contact the Information Adviser for your subject if you have any enquiries
about referencing or to arrange a one-to-one appointment. Contact details of
Information Advisers are available on the Library’s web pages.
Alternatively, visit the Research Help Desk on level 3 bridge in the Perry Library. This
help desk is open week days during term-time.
You may also find it useful to consult the following book which is available in LSBU
library, especially if you want to reference a source that isn’t covered in this guide:
Pears, R. and Shields, G. Cite them right: the essential referencing guide, 9th ed.
Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013. CLASS NUMBER: 808.027 PEA
Produced by LLR June 2014
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