College of Graduate Studies

Theses & Dissertations: References

1. Always start your references on a new page.  Use the page break function to insert a blank page; do not use the Enter key multiple times.
2. Type REFERENCES (all caps option) or References (title case option) on the first line. Be sure to use the style option for section headings to format it properly; see Content/Chapters for more information about headings. Master of Arts in English will also use this page title even though it is not MLA standard.
3. Start listing your references on the next line.
4. References use a hanging indent, which means the beginning of a reference starts all the way at the left and additional lines of that same reference are indented 0.5".  See Microsoft Word's instructions to format a hanging indent; do not use the Enter key and space bar.
5. Use the same font, spacing, indentation, etc. for all your citations.
6. Hyperlinks are allowed in your reference list. 
   1. Links can be plain text or formatted (e.g., blue text, underlined). If formatted, all links should be formatted the same way.
   2. Do not manually insert line breaks into DOI's or URL's. Allow breaks in DOI's or URL's to be applied automatically by your word-processing program.
7. The reference page should not include any bold words other than the page title.
8. Make sure your citations are in alphabetical order (or numerical order for LaTeX papers).

Follow APA style unless otherwise noted below for specific majors and LaTeX users:

• APA style users:
  • APA in-text citations guide
  • APA references page guide
• LaTeX users: follow the APA references page guide when you type your references
• Chemistry students: use the ACS Style Guide (as approved by your advisor) for in-text citations and the references page
• English students: use the MLA in-text citations guide and MLA references page guide
• Manuscript-style students: follow the style guide of the journal where their work will be published

The examples below use APA formatting.