A bibliography is key to verify one’s claims. It is needed to move from vague claims to an epistemically justified assessment. It is fair to acknowledge our sources, but we cite them also because testimony is a source of knowledge only insofar as it is based on reliable authors.
Since my students keep on doing the same mistakes in their bibliography, I thought that it might be helpful to have a single place to point them to. This will be that place.
1) A bibliography needs to be complete (author, date, title, journal, number, pages OR author, date, title, publisher, book’s editor(s), pages or chapter number).
2) A bibliography needs to be consistent (choose the model you like, be it Chicago or MLA etc.), but stick to it.
3) A bibliography needs to list authors in alphabetical order. If there are more than one title by the same author, list them chronologically.
4) An editor ≠ an author ≠ a translator. You need to list them all, but separately. You don’t attribute Plato’s Republic to “Plato and G. Smith” as if G. Smith had been co-authoring with Plato. Same with book editors, who are not the authors of the individual chapters.
5) DOIs may be added, but are not enough on their own (a study by Nature showed that only 68% are actual identifiers of uniquely located articles and chapters).
6) “Accessed on…” is only needed for webpages. No need to say that you accessed Plato’s Laws on March 15 2025. It surely did not change in the last thousand years.
7) Similarly, web-addresses are only needed for webpages. No need to say that you accessed Plato’s Symposium through your local library. It is a physical book and it does not change from library to library.
8) Similarly, there is no nee to add the web-address of the random depository where you found a certain article. R. Swinburne’s articles, for instance, are published somewhere and it is irrelevant that you found them on JSTOR or the like.