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How to distinguish between an electronic and a printed journal article

 

  • Most journal articles, even if accessed online, are also available in print, therefore it is acceptable to reference them as printed journal articles. For example, if you are using a PDF version you have downloaded, you can usually treat this as a printed journal article for referencing purposes, but check with your module tutor whether this is acceptable.

 

  • If it is clear from the data you have that the journal is available only electronically as part of a website or a database, then use the guidance below.

 

 

How to reference an electronic journal article

 

In-text citation

 

Write the surname of the author of the article and the year the journal was published in brackets.

  • Whenever you make reference to a specific point in the article, add the page number/s preceded by a colon.

  • For sources with more than three authors, use the surname of the first author followed by ‘et al.’

 

Examples

Lungu (2008) discusses the common points between the spatial theories of Frederic Jameson and Henri Lefebvre.

There are some common points between the spatial theories of Frederic Jameson and Henri Lefebvre (Lungu 2008).

 

Reference

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Option 1

 

Give the author’s surname and initials then the year in brackets. Put the title of the article within single quotation marks followed by a full stop. Give the title of the journal in italics then write ‘online’ in square brackets. Give the volume number, then the issue number in brackets if there is one, and finally, after a comma, give the page numbers in between which the article is found, followed by a full stop. Write ‘available from’, and give the full web site address or the subject directory address or the database address, starting with < and ending with >. Finally, give the date of access in square brackets.

 

Be careful when using electronic databases. Give full details so that a reader can locate exactly the source you have used. It is not sufficient to give vague information about the database in general.

 

Example

Lungu, A. (2008) ‘Marx, Postmodernism and Spatial Configurations in Jameson and Lefebvre’ CLCWeb: Comparative Literature

and Culture [online] 10 (1), 55-88. available from <http://dx.doi.org/10.7771/1481-4374.1327> [10 January 2016]

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Option 2

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Electronic academic articles can also be identified by a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number instead of an URL.

 

Example

Lungu, A. (2008) 'Marx, Postmodernism and Spatial Configurations in Jameson and Lefebvre’ CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and 

Culture [online] 10 (1), 55-88. DOI: 10.7771/1481-4374.1327

 

Note: magazine articles accessed online can be referenced in the same manner!

Fig.1 Sample electronic journal article
 
Note that the journal is described as 'open access' (i.e. freely available online) and that the recommeded citation requires a web link.

© 2016 by Centre for Academic Writing and Coventry University

Based on Deane, M. (2006) Coventry University Harvard Reference Style Guide. Unpublished booklet. Coventry: Coventry University. Version 3.0.4. September 2016. Produced in collaboration with Ray Summers (Illustrations), edited by Catalina Neculai with the assistance of Lisa Ganobcsik- Williams and Erik Borg, and with input from the Coventry University Harvard Reference Style Working Party.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License and cannot be reproduced, edited, or distributed without the prior permission of CAW, Coventry University.

 

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