Help! Is My Reference List Actually a Bibliography in Disguise?

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Simply googling ‘reference list or bibliography’ brings up an impressive list of respected sources explaining the difference between the two terms. Most clarify that a list showing all the sources used in writing a work is titled References, and a list of all the works the author may have consulted, as well as cited, is the Bibliography.

While this is substantially correct, there are nuances that are useful to know. Whether a list is titled References or Bibliography also depends on the referencing system being used. The main aim of referencing is to guide the reader to the source(s) of information in the text, and several established systems exist, and each has its own variants. However, the main points can be summed up as in the table below.

Main organisation points for the major systems of references in academic works

Referencing System	In-text	Works referenced	Extra Works (not referenced in text)
Author-Title system	Superscript showing a number or symbol cue	In a list of references, showing full bibliographical details in the first instance, and then a short author-title reference in subsequent references to the same work. A list of all works cited, organised in alphabetical order by the surname of the main author, and titled Bibliography, is placed at the end of the work.	In a List of Further Readings that follows the Bibliography
Author-Date system	Author(s)’ surname and date of publication in brackets	Full bibliographical details in a list of references organised in alphabetical order, by the surname of the main author	In a Bibliography that contains the works cited as well as extra works the author may have consulted but not cited
Author-Number system	Number in square brackets on the line or as a superscript, showing the chronological place of the particular reference amongst all the works referenced	List of all the references, organised in the sequence in which they are cited in the work	No editorial comments or recommendations for further reading

The Author-Title System

The Author-Title system is most handy for humanities because it permits the inclusion of editorial notes in the References. Although using these notes for bringing up extra, and loosely-related, topics of discussion should be avoided, they do provide a place for acknowledgements and short directions to/discussion of other sources that is most effective in this branch of academics.

Using an application like MS Word, it is easy to create the superior number in the text that is the cue for a footnote at the bottom of the page, or an end note at the end of the chapter, or at the end of the book. Cite full bibliographic details the firs time a source is cited, e.g., ‘Vincent A. Smith, The Early History of India: From 600 B.C. to the Muhammadan Conquest (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924), p. no.,’ and any comments the author may wish to provide such as ‘Smith’s views are opposed in many ways by the nationalist historians’.

It is best to title a list like this Notes and References rather than only References. Collect all the references at the end of the work in an alphabetical list, organised by the surname of the first or the main author, titled Bibliography.

In this system only, the author(s) may provide a list of Further Readings that follows the Bibliography and includes works that have not been cited, but may have been consulted, and are useful for background reading on the subject. A Further Readings list, when included in an authoritative source on a subject, is a beneficial resource for researchers.

The Harvard Style

In the Author-Date system (often called the Harvard style), it is the Bibliography, rather than a list of Further Readings, which carries titles that have not been cited in the text, and there is no list of Further Readings. This is because the in-text references in this system are signalled by the author’s surname and date of publication given in brackets, e.g., ‘This has been well-established by now (Smith, 1924)’. Full bibliographic details are given in a list of References, organised by the main author’s surname, in alphabetical order, at the end of the article or chapter.

The function of the Bibliography in this system is to collect all the references from chapter-end lists, add any extra works that have not been cited in text, which the author wishes to include, and provide them to the reader in one place. This system is favoured by the natural and social sciences.

Any editorial comments in the Author-Date system need a second system of notes with superior cues in the text and footnotes or end notes as in the Author-Title system.

The Vancouver System

When using the Author-Number, or Vancouver, system most common in medical and biomedical publishing, there can be no editorial comments or the listing of non-cited sources. It is meant for references only. In this system, the in-text references are cued by a number in brackets, e.g., ‘This has been well-established by now [1]. The evidence is presented in The Early History of India [2].’

The full bibliographic details of references should be in a list of References ordered by the sequence of their occurrence in the text, e.g.,

Jones, M. title, place: publisher, date.
Smith, V.A. title, place: publisher, date.

And a last point is that Bibliographies can also have short annotations, in which case they are called Annotated Bibliography. The purpose is to provide an evaluative analysis of the works cited in text and included in the Bibliography.

In compiling or editing any of the lists of sources, consistency and logical order are the most important aspects. While there are both free and paid tools to help organise the lists, collect all the relevant information about the sources at the time of consulting them to avoid sloppily evidenced writing and unconvinced readers later on.

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How Do You Use Orphan Works After Brexit? Here’s How

What Are Orphan Works?

It is not unusual for authors and editors to quote from a literary work or find an image that fits their use perfectly, only to discover that they cannot identify the copyright holder to grant them required permission. Under copyright law, if a work is still in copyright (copyright term is different for different types of works), permission is needed to use the work, even partially, in a new work. It is possible that the quote or image can be used under one of the exceptions to the copyright law’s expansive provisions but more often than not permission will be needed.

In some cases, the work may fall in the Orphan Work category. ‘Orphan works’ are works in which copyright still subsists, but where the rightholder, whether it be the creator of the work or successor in title, cannot be located.’

Using Orphan Works

Early in the second decade of the 21st century, there was a movement towards assessing the untapped value represented by orphan works, held largely in cultural institutions like libraries and archives . The Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property & Growth (2011) in the U.K. recommended that there should be a regime to enable limited exploitation of such works. However, until 2013 it was not possible to copy orphan works legally. This made it impossible not only for individuals but also for institutions, such as libraries, to copy such works even for the works’ own preservation (p.68).

Since 2014, an orphan works’ licensing scheme has been in existence in the U.K. Under it, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) can licence an orphan work for use by charging a fee that is reserved for the copyright holder to claim over the next 7 years. The process of licensing, however, can be long and expensive, so it should be carefully considered whether a substitute work can serve the purpose instead.

Prior to applying for a licence for an orphan work, a ‘diligent search’ needs to be undertaken to locate the copyright holder or all the copyright holders, if there is more than one. A diligent search can be a waste of time and resources in some situations, but a sleuthing adventure piecing together disparate clues in others. This usually depends on the time, budget, manpower and inclination involved. For further insight on the way that this is done, see a detailed example from Kerry Patterson, Ronan Deazley and Victoria Stobo of the process involved when they tried to clear rights for the digitization of Edwin Morgan Scrapbooks. For the end result, including identification of source and assessment of risk, which still remains an important part of rights clearance, see a page from the scrapbook as displayed on the internet.

Records need to be kept of the diligent search for presenting at the time of applying for the licence. There are long, but not exhaustive, checklists of sources to search, broken down into different categories of works, available from the IPO. These can prove very useful as guides.

The licence granted by the IPO will last for up to 7 years and will be non-exclusive. It will also require an acknowledgement of the missing copyright holder. The IPO licence can be granted for the use of one or more orphan works in a commercial or non-commercial work. The fees set are fairly reasonable but they do vary depending on the type of work being licenced.

Changes Due to Brexit

Brexit has impacted the using of orphan works by individuals and institutions in the U.K. Since 1 January 2021, it is no longer legal for cultural institutions to make orphan works available under the Orphan Works exception of the earlier EU law that governed this area. They need to apply for a licence from the IPO for such use. Even works made available prior to this change fall under the new provision and licensing needs to be carried out afresh for their continued placement online. Limiting access to U.K. users can mean avoiding infringement of copyright laws in EEA countries. It is, however, still possible to rely on other copyright exceptions for making works available online beyond the U.K. borders and the matter should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

Disclaimer: The advice on this page is based on my long experience in the publishing industry; it does not substitute for legal advice.

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