| 1 | Have you checked if your lecturer has any special referencing requirements, for example, page numbers for all citations or no hyperlinks? |
| If your lecturer states specific requirements for referencing, these override CDU Harvard style. Check in your Learnline unit information or with your lecturer directly. |
| 2 | Do your references appear at the end of your document, on a new page? |
| References are listed at the end of your document. Insert a page break to start the references on a new page. |
| 3 | Are your references headed by the title References, centred and bold? |
| This is the exact formatting required. |
| 4 | Are your references in alphabetical order by first-named author or title if there is no author? |
| Sequentially top to bottom. Ignore the words ‘A’, ‘An’, and ‘The’ when alphabetising by title. |
| 5 | Are your references left aligned? |
| Regardless of the alignment required for assignments, you must align the references. |
| 6 | Have you followed CDU Harvard rules and format examples in this guide? |
| See specific examples of citing different sources in the guide. Pay attention to punctuation, spaces, italics, commas, parenthesis, etc. |
| 7 | Have you followed the rule of capitalisation for your titles and journal titles? |
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In titles and subtitles, capitalise only the first letter of the first word of the title, the subtitle and proper nouns. Watch the video A capital idea: https://youtu.be/DAaYJVY1rRI. |
| 8 | Do all your references have a matching in-text citation and vice versa? |
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References cited in-text must appear in the reference list and vice versa. The only exceptions to this rule are ‘Personal communication’ and ‘Traditional knowledge’. The reference entry has all the information your reader needs to find the source. |
| 9 | Have you shortened URLs that are longer than two lines using a URL shortening service? |
| Try https://tinyurl.com/. Reminder: check ALL URLs work before submitting |
| 10 | For authors with multiple middle names, only include the first two initials. |
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Example: Robert Mark Smith = Smith, RM Example: Ruby Mary Ann Sanderson = Sanderson, RM |
| 11 | If your resource did not have a date, did you use n.d. (no date)? |
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Example of reference: Author n.d., Title, URL |
| 12 | If you have resources with the same author, but different dates, have you listed the references in chronological order (oldest first)? |
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Example of reference list entry: Hong, BH & Yeung, KL 2001, … Hong, BH & Yeung, KL 2009, … If both resources used in the same sentence (Hong & Yeung 2001; 2009) |
| 13 | If you have resources with the same author and the same date, have you added a letter after the date? Have you added the same letter in the matching in-text citation? |
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Example of reference list entry: Smith, JR 2008a, Ancient civilisation… Smith, JR 2008b, Roman times… Example of in-text citation: (Smith 2008b) |
| 14 | If you have resources with the same author and no date, have you added a hyphen and a letter after n.d.? Have you added the same hyphen-letter in the in-text citation? |
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Example of reference: St John n.d.-a, Burns, URL St John n.d.-b, Scalds, URL Example of in-text citation: (St John n.d.-a) |
| 15 | Do you have multiple resources with 3+ authors where the first named author is the same, and the resources have the same date? |
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Reference list example: Smith, A, Butler, J, Jones, T & Walker, T 2017, Smith, A, Butler, J, Miller, S, Lowe, K & Turner, J 2017, Both these citations shorten to (Smith et al. 2017). To avoid confusion when citing them both, cite them as follows: (Smith, Butler, Jones et al. 2017) (Smith, Butler, Miller et al. 2017)
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| 16 | Have you used personal communications like conversations, personal interviews, phone conversations, emails, etc. as resources for your assignment? |
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‘Personal communications’ are resources that are accessible to you, but not your reader. For this reason, you only cite them in-text, without including a reference. See the Personal communication & Traditional Knowledges page for more information. Video: Personal Communication https://youtu.be/TPKxKYVzXzw |
| 17 | Have you used Traditional Knowledge or Oral Traditions that are not accessible by your reader, as a resource in your assignment? |
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If you speak with an Indigenous person directly, follow the ‘personal communication’ in-text citation example. There are some additional elements you need to include in the in-text citation, but still, no reference entry is included. See the Personal communication & Traditional Knowledges page for more information. |
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