Author-date system of referencing

The author-date system is an alternative way of referring to the Harvard system of academic referencing. It seems a better name, for two reasons.

First, it is more logical. The name author-date points to one of the distinguishing features of this way for academics to refer to their sources. It is designed to interrupt a paper as little as possible, and aims to limit the information to two words in the first instance: the name of the author, and the date of publication of the source being cited. These two words point to a List of References at the end of the paper or book being written. The Reference List gives all the bibliographical information needed for the reader to track down the source being used, whether to check it or to find further information.

The second reason for preferring the name author-date system is that Harvard University (in the United States) does not universally recognise this name. The way of referring to a source in the abbreviated way of using only these two pieces of information seems to have been used first at Harvard; but according to at least one of the staff ('Faculty') there, "It sounds like what we call the Social Science system". The referencing system was apparently first used[1] by Edward Laurens Mark (1847-1946), professor of anatomy and director of the zoological laboratory at Harvard University in a paper published in 1881.[2] The system was developed by Mark from the cataloguing system of the library in the laboratory of which he was director

References

1 Chernin, Eli. "The "Harvard System: a mystery dispelled," British Medical Journal vol 297 October 22, 1988, 1062-1063.

2 Mark, Edward Laurens. "Maturation, fecundation, and segmentation of Limax campestris', Binney, Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 1881;6 (part 2, No 12): 173-625.