Are you a history undergraduate? Do you get confused by how to format references for footnotes or bibliographies, and don’t know where to turn? Drop in to the staff office in the Upper Radcliffe Camera on any Wednesday during Full Term between 1-2pm, to get some quickfire 1-to-1 advice on the best resources to help you!
We can help with:
Where to find History Faculty guidance on citation and referencing
How to use reference management software
Where to check citation style conventions for particular source types
This is not a proofreading service, and we can’t check or create your footnotes or bibliographies, but we can show you where to find answers to your referencing conundrums. And try to explain why referencing doesn’t have to be a source of anxiety!
Managing citations can be like herding cats! It’s impossible to keep track of them all, they have a mind of their own, are beholden to no one and hide in the most unlikely places!
Beyond that there are also tools to help you generate a citation in a particular style. Library discovery tools (like SOLO) and many databases (e.g. Bibliography of British and Irish History) offer you choice how to format your reference and then copy or export it. Remember, though, that you are still responsible for the accurate presentation of the citations. If you are a student, make sure you know what the tutors expect from you. If you are researcher, publishers will give their own preferred styles. The beauty of using reference management software is that you can easily convert them into other styles.
The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) is the most frequently used citation style in the Humanities, esp. the Notes and Bibliography system. It is an authoritative and popular reference work for writers, editors, proof-readers, indexers, copywriters, designers, and publishers. The 18th edition is most extensive revision in two decades. Major changes include updated and expanded coverage of pronoun use and inclusive language, revised guidelines on capitalization, a broader range of examples, new coverage of Indigenous languages, and expanded advice on making publications accessible to people with disabilities.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2024
The Manual’s traditional focus on nonfiction has been expanded to include fiction and other creative genres on topics such as punctuation and dialogue, and its attention to the needs of self-published authors has also widened.
The guide gives examples for citations in various instances: Bibliography & footnotes or Author-Title styles. It also clearly marks up changes. So even if you are a seasoned CMOS user, this resource is still useful to keep up-to-date and follow the latest standards.
The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th ed. University of Chicago Press, 2024
Oxford researchers and students are now invited to trial the online version of Chicago Manual of Style Online (17th ed.). It is available via SOLO or OxLIP+.First published in 1906 by Chicago University Press, the Chicago Style Manual’s Notes and Bibliographies system is one of the most widely used citation styles in the Humanities. Its Author-Date system is more commonly used in the Sciences and Social Sciences.
The online edition of this authoritative reference work is full-text searchable. It also includes the 16th edition and be read and browsed as a book. The content covers the publishing process, style and usage, and source citations and indexes. When reading the Chapter 4 (Rights, Permissions, and Copyright Administration) please remember that it will refer to the US copyright regulations. A quick guide is available as are Q&As and video tutorials.
EndNote style file shared by user
An EndNote user at the University of Oxford has created a draft EndNote style that meets the style conventions of the History Faculty and made it available to share via the Oxford University IT department.
This is a draft file and has not been created by the Faculty itself. If you use this style, please ensure that you meet the conventions for your course and consult your supervisor/tutor if you have any questions about the citation and bibliography formats.
EndNote training courses
Various courses on how to use EndNote run termly – further details of courses are available on the University’s IT website: courses.it.ox.ac.uk
Keeping track of your references and formatting them correctly for your thesis or publication is a chore. Reference management software makes it easy and is worth investigating. This introductory session gives an overview of how it works and the pros and cons of RefWorks, EndNote and other tools.
The History Faculty Style in RefWorks has been updated today. There are now two versions of the style: ‘History Faculty, Oxford – Notes & bib. (beta)’ and ‘History Faculty, Oxford – Bibliography only (beta)’. The first version is the one you will need to format your footnotes and create a bibliography at the same time using Write-N-Cite. The second version of the style is the one that allows you to create a stand-alone bibliography from a list of references in RefWorks.
N.B. If the History Faculty style was saved as one of your favourites in RefWorks you will now need to resave both versions as it will have been lost from your list during the update.
We have also updated the style to solve the problem of edited works appearing out of sequence at the top of bibliographies. Please note you will need to check your references to make sure the Reference Type is ‘Book, Edited’ and that the editors are in the ‘Editors’ field rather than the ‘Series Editors’ field.
The History Faculty Style in RefWorks has been updated today. It now allows you to create both your citations and bibliography at the same time using Write-N-Cite instead of having to create a separate stand-alone bibliography.
Important: please remember to only put your citations in footnotes with this style as it does not support in-text citations.
If the History Faculty style was saved as one of your favourites in RefWorks you will now need to resave it as it will have been lost from your list during the update.
There will be a RefWorks Introduction training session for History graduates and researchers: Wednesday 10th March, 15:00-16:00, Computing Room, History Faculty, George Street. To book a place click here.
RefWorks is a web-based tool which allows you to collate references from online catalogues and databases, generate a bibliography and link citations to a footnote in Word.
Now that the Faculty style is on RefWorks, why not learn RefWorks? The next training course is at OUCS on 3 December 2009. Booking is required.
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