As mentioned previously, how the Reference list is compiled and presented depends on the citation style that you use. If you use the number system, then the references are listed in the order that they have been cited. On the other hand, if you cite publications using the name-year system, the references should be listed alphabetically. Whichever citation system you use, you have to stick to one convention, otherwise the inconsistency will confuse the reader.

The Reference list is related closely to the Literature Review chapter and is therefore also quite an important part of your dissertation. Examiners have been known to scrutinise the list to find out if it contains the most relevant and important publications. It is also a good idea to include the publications of your examiners, if you know beforehand who they are especially if they are working in the same research area. However, do not go overboard and try to impress by including all sorts references. This can be counter-productive. List only those publications you have cited. If you have read other supporting articles that have helped in the research, but have not cited them in the dissertation, place them in a separate "Bibliography" section. The publications in both Reference and Bibliography lists are presented in the same manner.

There are a number of types of publications, and they can be broadly classified as follows:

• articles published in journals
• conference proceedings
• books
• dissertations; theses and research reports
• company reports and manuals
• information from the world-wide-web
• personal communications

Each category requires a different presentation. Let us consider each type in turn:

Journal Articles

These are the most common sources of cited material, and include specialist technical journals as well as trade journals. Use the following format to present articles from technical journals:

Author(s), (year). Article title, Name of journal, Volume Number, Issue Number, page range.

For example:

Chidambaram, M. and Malleswararao, Y. (1992). Model reference control of nonlinear systems with relative rrder two: application to a semibatch reactor, Journal Proc. Cont., 2, 1, pp 9-15.

McLellan, P.J. (1994). A differential-algebraic perspective on nonlinear controller design methodologies, Chem. Eng. Sci., 49, 10, pp 1663-1679

Instead of issue numbers, some journals have a month of issue. In such cases, substitute the month for the issue number.

The author(s) surname appears first, followed by initials. The year is enclosed in parenthese and terminated with a full-stop. The first letter of the title is capitalised while the rest are in lower case. You may use an abbreviated form for the journal name, but make sure that it is the recognised one. Most journals will have the "official" abbreviated title printed at the top of its pages.

Conference Proceedings

Papers presented at conferences are also common sources of research information. Use the format below when listing them:

Author(s), (year). Article title, Name of conference, Location of conference, page range.

For example:

Dore S.D., Perkins, J.D. and Kershenbaum, L.S. (1994). Application of geometric nonlinear control in the process industries - a case study, Proc. IFAC Symposium, ADCHEM '94, Kyoto, Japan, pp 501-506.

Again, the author(s) surname appears first, followed by initials. The year is enclosed in parenthese and terminated with a full-stop. The first letter of the title is capitalised while the rest are in lower case. You may use an abbreviations to indicate the type of publication and the name of the conference. For example "Proc." is usually used in place of "Proceedings"; "Pre." for "Preprints"; "Conf." for "Conference"; "Symp." for "Symposium" and so on.

Books

To list books, use the following format:

Author(s), (year). Title of book in italics. Edition number, Name of publisher, place of publication.

For example:

Rawlings, J.O. (1988). Applied Regression Analysis: a research tool. Wadsworth and Brooks, California.

Turk, C. and Kirkman, J. (1996). Effective Writing - improving scientific, technical and business communication. 2nd Edition, E & FN SPON, London.

The format for author(s) is identical to the above, but the the first letter of key words in the main title are in capitals, and the title is in italics. There is not need to indicate the edition of the book if it is the first edition.

Some books are compilations of articles from different authors. For such cases, the format used is a cross between that for journal articles and books,

Author(s), (year). Title of article in book, In: Name of book, Edition number, Chapter number, Name(s) of editors, Name of publisher, place of publication.

For example:

Rumelhart D.E., Hinton G.E. and Williams, R.J. (1987). Learning internal representations by error propagation, In: Parallel Distributed Processing: Vol. 1, Ch. 8, D.E. Rumelhart and J.L. McClelland [editors], MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

Note the use of the word "In:" and the difference in which the names of the authors and the names of the editors are presented: editors' names are listed with their initials first. However, when you list the book withour reference to authors of particular chapters, editors are considered the authors, in which case the item will be listed as:

Rumelhart, D.E. and McClelland, J.L. [editors], (1987). Parallel Distributed Processing: Vol. 1, MIT Press, Cambridge MA.

Dissertations; Theses and Research Reports

Dissertations, theses and academic research reports are listed using the format below:

Author(s), (year). Title in italics. Type of publication, Research Group, Name of institution, Country.

For example:

Peel, C. (1995). Aspects of Neural Networks for Modelling and Control. PhD Thesis, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.

Bloggs, J. and Other, A.N. (1998). The Effects of Vodbull on Class Attendance. Research Report No. 123, Social Impact Research Group, Smirnoff Institute of Technology, Vladistock, Russia.

When listing a research report, include the report number where applicable.

Company Reports and Manuals

Sometimes, you may need to cite material contained in publications by companies and from manuals. In such cases, there are no named individuals for authors. Use the format below:

Name of company or organisation, (year). Title in italics. Place of publication.

For example:

Mathsoft Inc., (1999). Mathcad 2000 Reference Manual. Cambridge, MA.

Information from the WWW

Nowadays, much information can be obtained from the internet, typically websites but sources include newsgroups and on-line forums. The format to use for such publications is:

Name of Author(s) or company or organisation, (year), Title of article, URL, date found.

The URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is the full internet address of the article. Due to the transient nature of on-line information, it is important to include the date when you found the information. For example:

Tham, M.T., (1997). Distillation: an introduction, http://lorien.ncl.ac.uk/ming/distil/distil0.htm, 30 May 2001.

Personal Communications

Sometimes, you may have used information passed on to you by a colleague or another person, via a phone conversation; letter; email or other forms of communication. You can, and should, include these in the reference list. The format to use is:

Name, (year). Personal communication, Affiliation of named person.

For example:

Blogg, J. (1996). Personal communication, University College London, UK.

That is about all, where the format for listing publications in the Reference list is concerned. You should be aware that the material presented here is not exhaustive; there are many variations. However, in the absence of other instructions, and as long as you are consistent, the guidelines presented above should be sufficient.