Bibliography, Referencing and Bibliographic Citation: What Makes a Difference in Academic/Scholarly Writing?

This is a position paper that discussed academic writing in relation to bibliography, citation, and referencing. It specifically examined what distinguish bibliography from referencing as the two terms are erroneously believed to refer to the same thing. Academic writing as one of the most important issues in the intellectual environment wass critically looked at in the paper as well as its various forms and reasons for it. The three concepts of bibliography, referencing, and citation were also addressed. A highlight of various referencing styles that can be used in scholarly writing was also not left unmentioned. Particular emphasis with samples wass laid on American Psychological Association (APA) style. The paper was concluded by making some recommendations for academic writing scholars.


INTRODUCTION
In everyday life, people engage in writing in response to one demand or another. For the students, writing constitutes an important means of communication, and for the academics, writing is seen as a means of career and self-development. In other words, writings could take different forms and for different purposes. They include essay writing, report writing, academic/scholarly writing etc. As each of these differs in features, so also it shares some similarities with others.
Writing in academics is considered a must for every faculty who desires to reach the peak of his /her teaching career. In fact, to be successful, academics need to be productive writers. Publications propel academic careers. This is in congruence with the dictum that "if you don't publish, you perish". This seems so because writing in academics is often regarded as a means of contributing to the frontiers of knowledge through which human society is advanced/ developed. It is for this reason that faculty are often accorded respect as they are the critical components in any educational programmes.
By academic/scholarly writing, it is meant by a kind of writing that involves investigation, inquiry or research. It is synonymous with such terms as term papers, project reports, dissertations, thesis, conference papers, inaugural lectures/speech depending on the purpose and level of such writings. For clarity sake, academic/scholarly writing is generally referred to as Research Papers. A research paper is one that presents the result of an investigation or experiment in a systematic manner (Chukwuma & Otagburuagu, 1997). Research itself, as described by Adebayo (2008), is the capacity to seek that an unanswered question is worth answering.
Academic writing is a worthy scholarly activity which is highly valued as worthy scholarly achievement of a faculty. It is a long expository essay that is based on a systematic investigation and presentation of ideas. The rationale for academic/scholarly writing ranges from fulfillment of a requirement for the award of a degree (Bachelor, Masters and Ph.D) by students to bringing an ignored facts to the lime-light by the faculty. Other reasons for academic writing or research paper as highlighted by Chukwuma & Otagburuagu (1997) include any of the following; (i) to correct a fact that has been erroneously presented; (ii) to add ideas to an already established facts; (iii) to illustrate, compare, contrast or evaluate facts; and (iv) to make a fresh enquiry into a problem. In academic/scholarly writing, nobody can lay claim to monopoly of knowledge. There is a fact that no one person knows everything. As such, a researcher is expected to consult any existing publications or other sources created by others (Opara, 2007& Nwalo, 2008. In other words, there is a permission to gather information or materials from different sources in academic writing, and these source may include books, journals, articles, newspapers, lectures, conference reports, unpublished materials and internet sources etc. which may be available in the Libraries. What is, however, important is for the researcher to document by acknowledging the source(s) of his/her information consulted. Intellectual stealing should be avoided. The documentation of the sources could take the form of direct quotation of opinions, ideas, facts and their interpretations either summarized or paraphrased. The researcher's opinions or personal contributions must also be reflected in the research reports so as not to turn the reports into a pastiche of ideas from other sources.
Documentation of source of information is a necessity in academic writing as it gives authority to the work, makes us honest researchers and promotes and provokes further research. It also helps to provide the exact source of evidences for other researchers, and to avoid or prevent one from being alleged of plagiarism which is regarded as an academic crime for which one may be heavily punished by either demotion, dismissal, total rejection of the work or withdrawal of the degrees awarded as the case may be. Documentation of works consulted in the body of the research report is what is termed as bibliographic citation whose compilation leads to bibliography and references. It is often common to confuse the use of these terms which seeks for clarification. Opara (2007) submitted that in conventional usage of the terms, there is little or no conceptual distinction between bibliography and references. However, in practical application, significant differences may arise in their structural arrangement and application in academic writings.

CONCEPTUAL CLARIFICATION BIBLIOGRAPHIC CITATION: MEANING
Bibliographic citation refers to a brief indication of the source(s) of information that a researcher writes within the text. According to the Concise Dictionary of Library and Information Science (2000), citation is defined as references to a document from which a page is quoted. Nwalo (2008) regarded citation of literature as the hallmark of scholarship. It helps to show that the idea expressed by a researcher in his/her writing, either in summary or paraphrasing or direct quotation, originates from another researcher(s) whose works are consulted. Citing a source in academic writing indicates the depth and strength of a research work. In citation, the name of the author of the information or ideas consulted and the year (date) the source is published and pages where found must be shown in parenthesis either at the beginning, middle or the end of the idea expressed. Examples are as follows: a. Citation at the begining of the text: Olalude and Busari (2017)  . What could be cited include ideas, facts, figures, theories, statistical data, charts, graphs, tables, and opinions of another person. However, information such as nursery rhymes, folktales etc. are not expected to be cited. Citation is important for certain reasons such as the following: (i) it protects the researcher from being accused of committing plagiarism which, therefore, proves his intellectual honesty. (ii) It helps to give honour to whom it is due through acknowledging the originator of the idea. (iii) It teaches other researchers the skills of integrating the research of others into their own. There are certain rules that guide bibliographic citation. One of such rules indicates that when two authors of a cited work are named in the text, they are joined with the use of "and" followed by the date of publication, for example Olalude and Busari (2016). But when the two names appear in parenthesis, the use of ampersand "&" becomes necessary, for example (Olalude & Busari, 2017).
Secondly, if one is quoting directly from a work, he/she will need to include the author, year of publication, and the page number (where found) for reference.
Thirdly, if a work has between three (3) to five (5) authors, cite all of the authors the first time you refer to the work in your text. The next time you refer to the work, shorten the citation to the last name (surname) of the first author and then put the latin words "et al" indicating "and others". Moreover, if a work has more than six (6) authors, cite only the the last name (surname) of the first author and then put "et al".

BIBLIOGRAPHY DEFINED
Briefly, bibliography is described as the list of books and other information materials, or resources that are consulted by a researcher which are arranged in one alphabetical and chronological sequence during the course of writing a research report. It is also regarded as the compilation of all sources, the writer consulted while writing his report and this may include both cited and uncited sources. Chukwuma and Otagburuagu (1997) added that bibliography is a list of the sources of materials (books, journal articles, and other documents) that are used during investigation.
It is the final listing of all published materials used while writing a particular project. Bibliography, in one words, is sometimes referred to as a list of works consulted, either cited or not. The purpose of bibliography is the same for citation as enumerated above. However, their components differ. The bibliographic components of a book consulted would normally include the following: (a) The Author's Name: The first essential component of a bibliography is the surname of the author of the work consulted which is then followed by his/her initials. In this case, after the surname there is a comma, and then the initials in uppercase. For example, Busari, I. T. this is the same for all the author's www.iiste.org ISSN 2224-5758 (Paper) ISSN 2224-896X (Online) Vol.9, No.9, 2019 when they are up to five in number. However, when they are more than five (5) the entry is made for only the first mentioned author. The word "et al" meaning "and others" are added after the initials of the first author. Such as Busari, I. T, et al. If a bibliography is to be made for such an edited work whereby you want to refer to an article written by one of the contributors it is done as shown below.
Adeolu M. (2017). Evaluation Theory and Development: In W. A. Lawal and A. Akindele (eds) Educational Evaluation: Theory and Practice. Ibadan: Heinemann Pubishers An illustration of the above example shows that Adeolu is the author of the article entitled "Evaluation Theory and Development" and this article appeared in a book compiled by two (2) editors named W. A. Lawal and A. Akindele which is titled "Educational Evaluation: Theory and Practice". It should also be noted that the initials of the editors come before their surnames. This is normal standard practice since those names do not come first in the bibliography.

REFERENCES -WHAT DOES IT IMPLY?
References could be described as the list of sources cited by an author in the course of writing a research report. References, just like bibliography and citation, are necessary in academic writing to acknowledge the sources of any information that is not the researcher's own. This can also be viewed as the list of all books or other written works which a person has directly used while writing a project, and which are arranged in one alphabetical and chronological sequence.
Prytherch (2005) considered references as a list of publication to which an author has made specific reference to and which is usually placed at the end of an article or a chapter or at the end of a book. Briefly speaking, it is a list of cited sources. Rules of referencing are as follows: i. Author's Names are inverted (last name comes first). State the last name and initials of all authors of a particular work unless the work has more than six authors. ii. If the work has more than six (6) aouthors, list the first-six authors with their initials, then put "et al" after the sixth author's name to indicate the rest or others. iii. Reference list should be arranged alphabetically according to the last name (surname) of the first author of each work.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES: ANY DIFFERENCES?
Ordinarilly, both references and bibliography are used when preparing a project or research report. They are both ordered or arranged alphabetically by authors' names and then chronologically by years of publications. In the course of writing, one is expected to consult various sources of information such as books and journals. In doing so, one would normally put down the details of the books or journals used. At the end of the report, one would compile a list of all the sources. Now a list of all sources of publications of sources that are actually used and cited in the body of the report would constitute the references.
On the other hand, if you include other relevant materials in the compilation, whereas you did not cite some of them in the report, you would refer to this list as the bibliography. In short, a bibliographical list is made up of both the materials you refered to in the report and those you did not refer to, but which you consider equally useful.
As observed earlier there is no conceptual distinction between the two terms. Significant difference only arises in their practical applications and structural arrangement, which depend on referencing style used by the researchers.

REFERENCING STYLES
There are firm conventions governing citations, reference and bibliography. These are called manuals of styles which Adefimirin (2008) regarded as the compilation of a set of rules for scholarly publications. As described by Raji (2006) cited in Wusu (2015), referencing style or manual of style refers to a collection of guidelines for the graphical representation of ideas, essays, journals, books and other materials consulted in the course of academic research. From the foregoing, referencing style is a method of bibliographical documentation of sources of information. They are also called style sheets, style guides and reference manuals. Referencing styles are of different types and each with its peculiarities which distinguish it from others. Among the well-known styles include the following: . These styles are not static as they are constantly reviewed. No one of them is superior to the other. A researcher is, therefore, at a liberty to use any of them in his/her academic writing. What is, however, important to note is strict adherence to the rules of any of the styles adopted or recommended by the publishing outfit or journal association to which one is subscribing. There must be consistency in the use of these styles. In recent time, American Psychological Association (APA) style is becoming more popular among researchers globally. The style was invented about Eighty (80) years ago by a group of Social Scientists who desired to establish sound standard of communication. It is mostly used in Social and Behavioural Sciences.
Examples of style of referencing using APA format for books, journals, magazines, newspapers, and other common sources including electronic sources are below. This is as contained in the sixth (6 th ) edition of the style:

IN-TEXT CITATIONS
Basic format for using quotations, summarizing, and paraphrasing.
Schlosser (2002) believes that "the twenty-first [century] will no doubt be marked by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power" (p.104). Since 1987 the British government has been concerned about the possibilities of a tainted meat supply (Schlosser, 2002, p.84). Two authors According to Sothern and Gordon (2003), "Environmental factors may contribute as much as 80% to the causes of childhood obesity" (p-104). Obese children often engage in limited physical activity (Sothern & Gordon, 2003, p.104). Unknown author (use an abbreviated form of the title to replace the author) Children struggling to control their weight must also struggle with the pressures of television advertising that encourages the consumption of junk food while also celebrating thin celebrities ("Television", 2002). Two works by same author (designate "a", "b", etc. in References list to differentiate sources) Research by Durgin (2003b) has yielded new findings about the role of counseling in treating childhood obesity.
Electronic source, unknown date (use "n.d." when no date is given) Attempts to establish a definitive link between television programming and children's eating habits have been problematic (Magnus, n.d.).

Work cited in another source
Former surgeon general Dr. David Satcher described "a nation of young people seriously at risk of starting out Obese and dooming themselves to the difficult task of overcoming a tough illness" (as cited in Critser, 2003, p.4).

RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on the foregoing, researchers writing for academic purpose should note that scholarly writing is not a child's play as it deserves every concentration. As a result, researchers need to be meticulous and serious minded. They should be wary of committing serious academic crime tagged plagiarism by their failure to acknowledge the source(s) of information for their research works. Moreover, researchers have the freedom to use any of the standard citation and referencing styles. They should, however, be constistent in the use and adhere strictly to the rules of the particular style chosen or recommended by the publishing body or institution to which they are subscribing.

CONCLUSION
Academic writing, as we have noted, is a difficult task or rigorous intellectual activity, and at the same time it is an intellectually stimulating exercise. It has to be learnt so that future writings as academics will be easy. This is because academic writing must be clear, precise and straight to the point. It is a way of learning in academic where one is expected to grow in knowledge through independent work. Academic writing may also involve constant visit to the libraries to get a share of the best that has been said or written/documented in the world of knowledge and extensive reading of available literature on the chosen topic.