It is worth starting this task while writing the first chapter. If you leave it until the last day, you may have trouble locating the cited page, identifying the book edition, or determining which report contains the data used. Simply adding a surname to a paragraph is not enough: the source must actually justify the information cited.
This guide provides rules for source verification, examples of formatting, and a practical plan for correcting a finished document. We distinguish between general rules and the requirements of specific styles. There is no single bibliography format suitable for every bachelor's thesis and master's thesis.
Bibliography, footnote, and in-text reference – what are the differences?
These concepts are related but refer to different elements of the document. In-text reference indicates the source for specific information. In the author-date system, it may appear as “(Surname, year)”, while in the numeric system, it is the number assigned to the publication.
Footnote is located at the bottom of the page. Depending on the rules, it may contain the source description, a supplementary comment, or an additional explanation. Therefore, not every footnote is a bibliographic footnote.
Bibliography or reference list contains an ordered list of source descriptions. The scope of the list is defined by the accepted requirements. In APA, the reference list generally includes sources cited in the text, whereas some types of works may have a separate list of literature used or recommended.
The reader should be able to move from the statement to the reference and then to the publication. If the text contains “Nowak, 2022”, but the list only shows “Nowak, 2020”, this chain is broken. It is unclear whether the date was mistaken or another book was omitted.
Which citation style to choose for a bachelor's or master's thesis?
Start with the current faculty guidelines and agreements with your supervisor. Record the name of the style, its edition, and any local modifications. The instruction “use APA” may require clarification on whether it refers to the seventh edition and the Polish adaptation of the formatting.
You will most often encounter three solutions:
- Author-date system: references contain the surname and date, while the full description is found in the bibliography. APA is an example of this system.
- Numeric system: publications receive numbers that the text refers to. In the system used by ICMJE, sources are numbered in the order in which they are first cited.
- Bibliographic footnote system: source information is placed in footnotes or endnotes. The way subsequent references are abbreviated depends on the adopted rules.
Do not mix description rules, but remember that the presence of footnotes in a thesis using APA does not indicate an error. They may serve an explanatory function. The problem is an inconsistent way of indicating the same types of sources.
Your personal style card should cover the formatting of authors, dates, titles, DOIs, quotations, web sources, and repeated references. Include one approved example of a book, article, and web page in it. Then compare subsequent entries with these examples.
If corrections also include margins, headings, and numbering, check the scope of the service “Bachelor’s and master’s thesis formatting”. Unifying the entire thesis requires the same, unambiguous agreements.
How to check the consistency of the bibliography with footnotes?
Perform the check in two directions. First, go from each reference to the bibliography. Next, check where each item in the list is used in the text. Pay attention to the full identity of the publication, not just the author's surname.
For each source, compare:
- surnames and the order of authors;
- year and any letter designations, such as 2022a and 2022b;
- title of the publication;
- edition, volume, or version of the document;
- DOI identifier, if present;
- consistency of the description with the material you actually read.
Practical example: in a chapter, you have three references to the same report, but once the full institution name appears, once an abbreviation, and once the editor's surname. Before merging these records, open the report and determine its authorship. A similar title does not always mean the same document.
Do not treat the consistency rule as having no exceptions. In APA, personal communication that is not publicly available is indicated in the text but does not appear in the reference list. Conversely, a purely explanatory footnote does not need to correspond to a separate bibliographic entry.
Sources should not be added to increase the length of the list. If, after removing a section of the chapter, a publication is no longer cited anywhere, check whether it should still remain in the bibliography according to the requirements.
If the text lacks source material, first return to searching for and evaluating literature for the thesis. Add references based on publications you have read, rather than matching random titles to existing statements.
If the problem is a lack of sources for an argument, rather than the formatting of known publications, check the service “Literature search and selection for your thesis”. This scope covers preparing all necessary literature and bibliography for agreed topics before references are created in the finished text.
Direct quote and paraphrase – how to indicate the source?
A direct quotation reproduces someone else’s words, while a paraphrase presents someone else’s idea in your own words. Both ways of using publications require a source citation. Replacing a few words with synonyms does not create an independent account.
Check both the wording and location of a quotation. Take the page number from the publication you are using. Page 45 in a printed book may differ from the forty-fifth page displayed by a PDF viewer. Different editions of the same book may also have different pagination.
Template for a short quotation in Polish author-date notation; the abbreviation s. means page:
„[Verbatim quotation, checked against the source]” (Surname, year, s. page number).
Scheme for a paraphrase:
Surname (year) indicates that [your own explanation of the author's idea without changing its meaning].
These are templates to be completed, not actual quotations or descriptions of existing publications. In the finished thesis, replace every placeholder with details from a verified source.
For a paraphrase, whether a page number is needed depends on the style and local requirements. In APA it is optional, but it can help readers locate a specific passage in a long publication. This does not permit you to omit the source itself.
Long quotations may require a separate block rather than quotation marks. Use the threshold and format specified by the adopted style. Do not lengthen a quotation merely to increase a chapter’s word count: explain its significance for your argument after quoting it.
If you are correcting citations after an anti-plagiarism check, also see how to interpret a JSA report and distinguish similarity from AI indicators. This will help you determine what the note refers to before you start changing the text.
Where to place the reference in the paragraph?
Place it so there is no doubt which information it refers to. If you compare two positions, assign a source to each. Do not place a single reference at the end of a long paragraph containing data from several publications and your own conclusions.
You can structure the paragraph in this order: the first author's position, the second author's position, your own comparison. This allows the reader to see both the source basis and your contribution to the interpretation.
What if a source has no page numbers or you know it only through another publication?
If there are no page numbers, do not invent them. When quoting a web page, use a locator permitted by the style, such as a section name and paragraph number. A timestamp can help with audiovisual material. The citation should let readers find the specific passage.
A web page is different from a publication downloaded from the internet. A PDF article may have normal page numbering, while a report may use numbered chapters and points. Examine the document before deciding how to identify the relevant passage.
Secondary source citation occurs when you encounter an author’s claim in another author’s publication. First, try to obtain the original. If it remains unavailable, acknowledge the secondary source in the required style.
Template using the Polish adaptation of APA; za: means as cited in:
Original author (year, za: Author of the publication read, year) presents [the position being discussed].
In the bibliography, list the publication you actually read. Do not imply that you checked the original study if you know it only through another author’s account. If you obtain the original, compare the context before changing the citation.
How to record a book, article, and chapter in the bibliography?
First, identify the document type. A chapter in an edited book has its own author; the volume editor is not automatically the author of every chapter. A journal article does not become a web page simply because you download it through a browser.
The templates below show the main elements of Polish notation based on APA 7. They do not replace the full rules for author numbers, unusual documents and formatting. Replace the square-bracketed placeholders with actual details. Book titles, journal titles and journal volumes need the appropriate italics in the final reference. Polish notation is retained: W: means In, red. denotes the editor and s. denotes pages.
Book
Surname, I. (year). [Book title]. [Publisher].
Check the title page and editorial information of the relevant edition. Do not automatically copy data from the first edition if you are using a later, revised one. In APA 7, the city of publication is not added; in other systems, it may be required. Its absence is therefore not a universal error.
Scholarly article
Surname, I. (year). [Article title]. [Journal title], [volume]([issue]), [page range or article number]. [DOI URL, if assigned].
Distinguish the pages of the entire article from the page of a specific citation. The former identify the publication in the bibliography. The latter appears with the quoted fragment. If the journal uses an article number, do not add a fictitious page range.
Chapter in an edited book
Author's surname, I. (year). [Chapter title]. W: I. Editor’s surname (red.), [Book title] (s. [chapter page range]). [Publisher].
In this case, you check two levels: the authorship of the chapter and the data of the entire volume. If you cite findings from a specific chapter, the description of the edited book alone may not indicate their author precisely enough.
Institutional report
Collect the name of the individual or institutional author, the date, the full title, the series designation or report number if present, and the publisher data and address required by the style. Do not assume that the logo on the cover determines authorship. Check the footer and the information about the preparation of the document.
Web sources, DOI, and access date – what must be provided?
The address alone does not explain who prepared the material or what it concerns. For a website, establish the author, the date referring to its content, the title, and the appropriate URL. Do not provide the institution's homepage if you are using a specific statement, report, or summary.
The access date is not mandatory for every source found on the internet. In APA, it is used, among other things, for non-archived content designed to change over time. Other guidelines may require it more broadly. Therefore, the presence of a date for one item and its absence for another does not necessarily indicate inconsistency.
Do not replace the publication date with the file download date. If the document does not provide a date, use the designation provided by the style. The year in the footer of the entire website does not have to be the publication year of the specific material.
DOI is a persistent document identifier. If a publication has one, compare the identifier with the publisher's website or the document. Check whether it leads to the correct title and authors. A working link to a different article is still an incorrect link.
In APA records, the DOI takes the form of an address starting with "https://doi.org/". Do not invent an identifier for a book that does not have one. The absence of a DOI itself does not indicate low publication quality.
Also evaluate the role of the source. A forum post may be research material in the analysis of online communication, but it does not thereby become scientific evidence of the effectiveness of a specific method. Reliability and usefulness depend on what claim you use the material for.
How to cite legal acts, tables and figures?
Legal acts
For a legal act, verify the full title, date, publication reference, and the version corresponding to the legal situation under analysis. When discussing a specific provision, also indicate the article, paragraph, or other relevant unit. A link to a legal database does not replace the identification of the document.
Do not copy an old Journal of Laws reference from another thesis without verification. In the official ELI system, the act's page allows you to check related documents, including information on consolidated texts and amendments. The date of the original act and the date of the subsequent consolidated text publication do not mean the same thing.
If you describe a historical situation, do not replace the former wording of provisions with the current one without consideration. The reader must know to which point in time the analysis refers. Determine the method of abbreviating titles and separating legal acts in the bibliography according to the thesis requirements.
Tables and figures from your own research
The caption should identify where the data came from. If local requirements call for source captions, you can use this template: ‘Source: author’s own work based on survey results.’ It indicates both that you prepared the table or chart yourself and that you used your own research material.
Drawing a chart from someone else’s data is different. In that case, identify the specific report, table or dataset rather than simply writing ‘author’s own work’. The presentation of these results is also covered in the guide on analysing and presenting your own research results.
Reproduced or adapted material
Distinguish between redrawing someone else's illustration and creating your own visualisation based on data. In the first case, do not present the entire graphic idea as your own. In the second, clearly indicate the source of the data. The form of the annotation and information about the licence depend on the rules for using the material and the thesis style.
The caption “GUS data” is often too general. Record the title of the compilation, the period, the table or variable identifier, and other information needed to reproduce the search. The reader should be able to find exactly the data on which the figure is based.
‘Tamże’ (‘ibid.’), shortened footnotes and bibliography order
Use abbreviations only if the requirements allow them. ‘Tamże’ (‘ibid.’) usually refers to the same source as the immediately preceding footnote. If the page changes, give the new location. If the preceding footnote contains several sources, the abbreviation may be ambiguous.
When repeatedly citing several books by the same author, the surname and ‘dz. cyt.’ (‘op. cit.’) alone may not be enough. A shortened title distinguishes the publications. Do not automatically apply these rules to APA, which handles bibliographic citations differently.
After moving a paragraph, recheck the neighbouring footnotes. A previously correct ‘tamże’ may now point to a different source. Check abbreviations again after the final changes to the text structure.
The bibliography is not always alphabetical. In a numerical system based on the order of citations, changing the list to alphabetical without updating the references would break the links to the text. In APA, alphabetical order is used, along with additional rules for publications by the same authors.
Do not divide sources into books, articles, and internet sources solely for aesthetics. Apply such a division only if it follows the guidelines. An e-book and an article with a DOI do not need to go into a separate “netography” just because of the access method.
How to use Zotero and bibliography generators?
A reference manager can reduce manual work, but it uses saved metadata. If the import incorrectly recognises the author or document type, the tool may generate an elegant but incorrect description.
After adding a publication, check its basic data in the original. Do not automatically accept the website name as the author or the downloaded file name as the title. If two records describe the same publication, organise them before further citation.
In Zotero, it is best to correct publication data in the library and then refresh citations in the document. Manually correcting individual parts of the generated bibliography may disrupt later updates. The Unlink Citations function removes the possibility of automatic refreshing, so use it only on a final copy if necessary, keeping a version with active fields.
Apply the same check to descriptions generated by AI. Before adding an entry, open the publication, verify its existence, and read the passage on which you base your claim. A correctly formatted title, page number, or DOI is not proof that the source exists and contains the indicated thesis.
How to organise the bibliography and footnotes step by step?
Keep a copy of the document and collect requirements
Work on one clearly labelled version. Attach current guidelines and supervisor comments. If you use a bibliography manager, keep the document with active citation fields.
Check what was actually used
Review references in chapters, table captions, appendices, and footnotes. Collect missing files or addresses. Pay special attention to working notes such as “add source,” “page?,” and “author to check.”
Verify quotes and the meaning of references
Compare quotes with the original. For paraphrases, check whether the author's conclusion has been extended beyond what follows from the publication. For example, describing the results of one group of respondents does not automatically justify a claim about all students.
Complete data and correct entries
Correct authors, dates, titles, and publishing data. Apply the appropriate scheme for each type of source. Do not fill in gaps based on assumptions. If information cannot be determined, return to the rules for handling missing data in the chosen style.
Check consistency with the rest of the thesis
Sources of methods and tools should correspond to what is described in the research chapter. In case of doubt, return to the guide on research methodology. The bibliography will not fix discrepancies between the tool actually applied and the tool named in the text.
If the problems also concern the order of chapters, use the guide on thesis structure. Make changes to the text organisation before the final check of shortened footnotes and numbering.
Review the PDF version
Check how footnotes flow across pages, line breaks in long URLs, italics, indentation and spacing. Make sure footnotes have not become ordinary text annotations and that readers can move from a number in the text to the correct explanation. The final file may look different from the document while you are editing it.
Checklist before submitting the thesis
- I have recorded the citation style, its edition, and local requirements.
- Sources in the text correspond to the correct entries in the bibliography, taking style exceptions into account.
- Authors, dates, editions, and titles match the publications.
- Quotes have been compared with the original and have appropriate locators.
- Paraphrases have references, and their meaning corresponds to the sources.
- Secondary source citation is clearly identified.
- DOIs and URLs lead to the correct documents.
- Access dates have been applied according to the style and requirements.
- Figure captions distinguish own results from others' data.
- For legal acts, the version relevant to the analysis has been checked.
- Shortened footnotes remain unambiguous after text changes.
- The order of the bibliography follows the adopted system.
- Generated descriptions have been checked, and working entries have been removed or completed.
- I have reviewed the final PDF.
Frequently asked questions about bibliography and footnotes
Does a paraphrase require a source citation?
Yes, when it presents someone else's idea or finding. We check source attribution for both paraphrases and direct quotes. Verifying that a quote matches the original requires access to the cited publication.
Putting a sentence in your own words does not remove the need to acknowledge the source. However, this does not mean you must add a footnote to every sentence that sets out your own argument.
Is the absence of a place of publication in the bibliography an error?
Not always. It depends on the style. APA 7 does not require the place of publication for books. In another system or local guidelines, this element may be necessary.
Do all items in the reference list have to be cited?
It depends on the guidelines and the type of list. The cited literature includes sources referenced in the text, with exceptions allowed by specific styles. Some universities allow a broader bibliography that includes materials used to familiarise oneself with the topic. We do not automatically remove such items.
A working list of found publications is not yet the final reference list. Do not add unread sources just to increase the number of items. In APA, the reference list essentially corresponds to the in-text citations.
Is a link to the publication enough? What about an incomplete source description?
A link alone is usually not enough. You need a bibliographic description that matches the type of publication and the required style, including the author, title, and relevant book or journal details.
We check whether the source can be clearly identified and supplement verifiable data. If information cannot be established, we flag it as missing for clarification. We do not add unverified authors, dates, or page numbers.
Are correct footnotes enough to make the text your own work?
No. Citations show where information comes from. Producing your own work also requires engaging properly with the content: understanding sources, comparing them, and clearly separating quotations from your own discussion. Simply adding a bibliography to a chapter assembled from borrowed material does not solve this problem.
Do footnotes and the bibliography need organising?
Send the document and the required citation style. I will help identify where entries are inconsistent, publication data is missing, or references do not match the source list.
Reference list and citation corrections for your thesis covers standardising entries and checking links to sources. If the layout of the entire file also needs improvement, we can combine this scope with the service “Bachelor’s and master’s thesis formatting”.
- Attach an editable document and the name and edition of the required style.
- Provide the supervisor's comments and the publications needed to check quotes.
- State the deadline and whether you use a reference manager.
Bibliography and guide sources
- Skimina, E., Harasimczuk, J., Cieciuch, J. (2022). Podstawowe standardy edytorskie naukowych tekstów psychologicznych w języku polskim na podstawie reguł APA 7. Wydawnictwo Liberi Libri. DOI: 10.47943/lib.9788363487560. Polish publication used when distinguishing APA rules from local requirements and checking examples.
- International Committee of Medical Journal Editors. Preparing a Manuscript for Submission to a Medical Journal, References section. Source of the principle of numbering by order of citation.
- Zotero. Using the Zotero Word Plugin. Documentation used when describing metadata updates and unlinking citations.
- ELI, the official legal information system. Record for Ustawa z dnia 6 września 2001 r. o dostępie do informacji publicznej (the Polish Act of 6 September 2001 on access to public information). Used as an example to check how the document, amendments and consolidated-text information are made available, not as a basis for legal analysis.
