Literature

We explain what a bibliography is, its elements, characteristics and examples. Also, the main bibliographic styles.

What is bibliography?

In the academic or school environment, the bibliography is the organization, classification and description of documents and information sources that nourished a specific investigation, that is, all the material that has been consulted in the preparation of a monograph or a research work of any kind. It is also known as bibliographic references.

When researching and generating knowledge, it is important to be as responsible and ethical as possible. This means that we must provide all the necessary information, since the bibliography allows the reader:

• They can check where the data comes fromideas or references that we incorporate into our work and that are not our exclusive imagination.
• They can reproduce the trajectory of our research and check the logic behind it.
• You can go to the original sources behind our work, in case you are interested investigate the topic.

This section the end of all documents is usually found or texts, so that you reach it once you have read the research, or go directly to it, knowing where it is.

For its formulation, generally methodological or bibliographic standards are followedwhich determine what information to reference and in what specific way. A good bibliography assigns an entry to each source consulted, even when they are from the same author or have common features.

Finally, although its name indicates that it refers to books and written documents (the word comes from the Greek biblion“book”, and graphein“writing”), this section should include any type of source of information consulted in our work: books, magazines and monographs, but also films, recordings, web pages, etc.

See also: Elements of a monograph

Elements of the bibliography

Every bibliography includes a diverse set of elements, depending on what type of source we are addressing. That is to say, the exact same elements are not required to refer to a book, with an author and editors, as a film, with a director and producers, or a website with several possible authors.

However, the logic behind the reference is usually always the same, and always includes the following main elements:

• Author's name. We must indicate to whom the books or documents consulted belong, that is, to whom they are attributed. In the case of films, we will go to the director and/or producer, or to the corresponding information according to the nature of the source.
• Full title. Logically, an author or producer can have many works in charge, so we must explain which of them we are referring to in each case, placing the full title as appropriate.
• Year of publication. This is not a minor fact: the same book may have several editions in different years, or an author may have later regretted what he said at a conference. In some cases, such as web pages, we must refer to the date of information retrieval, that is, when we entered the web page, given that many are not always online.
• Responsible for the publication. This section includes those responsible for publishing the source, who may or may not be the same authors. For example, a book is written by its author, but published by its editors. A film is directed by its director, but released by its producers.
• Place of appearance. This isn't always valid, as things online don't really have a place; but physical objects do have a place of production, that is, where they were made or published. This information is usually referred to by the name of the city, the country, or sometimes both.

Main bibliographic styles

As we said before, there are many bibliographic styles, that is, many methods for preparing a bibliography. Generally each method responds to the interests of a sector of knowledge or academic activity, which organizes the information based on what is usually important for their studies. Thus, the main styles used today are:

• APA style. Developed in 1929 by the American Psychological Association (APA), it is a standard intended for research work in the area of ​​social sciences and behavioral sciences. Its most current version dates back to 2020, and it is one of the most used styles in the world and most preferred by university institutions.
• MLA style. Created by the Modern Language Association of the United States (MLA) in 1977, it is especially aimed at research in humanistic areas, such as philosophy, literature, arts, and also cultural studies. Its most recent version dates from 2016, the edition in which its printing stopped. MLA Handbook.
• Harvard style. This is the name given to the tendency to summarize, in bibliographic references within the research text, the source data (names, year and page number), directly after the cited text, leaving the rest of the data in the bibliography. . In that sense, APA style would be very similar to Harvard. Its name obviously comes from the American university of the same name.
• ISO 690 style. In this case, it is a standard from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), designed to refer to printed or non-printed materials, such as magazines and monographs or parts of them. In this regard, four successive ISO standards have been issued to date: 1975, 1987, 2010 and 2013.

Characteristics of a bibliographic reference

In general, every bibliographic reference is characterized by being:

• Concrete and concise. That is, it goes to the point and includes only the necessary information, according to its methodological style, without redundancies or digressions.
• Formal, thorough and reliable. That is, without omitting important data, falsifying information, or confusing similar information.
• Summarized or entire. Depending on whether it is within the text of the research (in that case it is summarized) or in the final section of the bibliography (in that case it is complete).

Examples of bibliography

As an example, you will find below a couple of bibliography entries in different methodological styles:

• APA style:

– Arébalo, M. (1998). The secret life of worms. Madrid: Animal editions.

– Goliander, S., Gómes, F. and others (2009). “Probabilistic study on the early mating of the Aedes aegypti as a result of the increase in temperature in the Congo.” Pan-African Journal of Infectious Diseasesvol. 12, pp. 20-45.

• MLA style:

– Citizen Kane. Dir. Wells, Orson. RKO Pictures, 1941. Film.

–Douglas, Michael. The impossible genealogy. A study in the shadow of multiculturalism. Buenos Aires: Laika editors, 2009. Printed.

Continue with: Theoretical framework

References

• “Bibliography” on Wikipedia.
• “Preparation of the bibliographic reference page of the text” (video) on Canal UNAC (Adventist University Corporation).
• “How to prepare citations and bibliographies: Bibliographic styles” in DEUSTO Home Library.
• “Citations and preparation of the bibliography” in the Library of the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain).
• “Bibliography” in APA Standards.