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Unknown or anonymous authors

Authors are sometimes not identified or they are given as 'Anonymous'.

  • When the author is given as 'Anonymous', Anonymous takes the place of the author's name in the in-text citation and in the reference list.

Example:

(Anonymous 2020)

  • When the author is not identified at all, include the title and the year of publication in the in-text citation. Bear in mind that the author may not be an individual but an organisation of some form (see further sections).
  • If the title is long, shorten it for the in-text citation. If the title is italicised in the reference list, italicise it in the in-text citation.

Example:

The book titled "Empireland: How imperialism has shaped modern Britain" could be shortened to simply ‘Empireland’.

(Empireland 2021)

If the title is not italicised in the reference list, use quotation marks in the in-text citation.

Example:

("Interpersonal Skills" 2020)