bibliographies: author’s name

List a maximum of three names of people or groups of people responsible for the content of the work. Give the author’s name exactly as it appears on the title page of the work. Do not abbreviate a name that has been given in full.

Omit an author’s titles, affiliations or degrees.

One author

The author’s name may be the name of a person or persons or the name of a corporate body. The last name is given first, followed by the given name or initials. The article (A, An or The) at the beginning of a corporate author’s name is usually omitted, as is any term identifying the nature of the enterprise, such as Inc. or Co.:

• Carpenter, Thomas. Profiles in Canadian Genius. Camden East, Ont.:
  Camden, 1990.
• Canada. Public Service Commission of Canada. Selection Standards. Ottawa,
  1989.

If there are multiple entries by the same author, begin the second and subsequent entries with a 3-em dash and a period:

• Atwood, Margaret. Wilderness Tips. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1991.

  - - -. The Robber Bride. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1993.

Two or three authors

Open the entry with the first name mentioned in the document. Only the first name listed is inverted; the rest are transcribed as they appear in the document, separated by a comma:

• Eagleson, Alan, and Scott Young. Powerplay: The Memoirs of Hockey Czar Alan Eagleson. Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1991.

More than three authors

When there are four or more authors responsible for a single work, the entry should begin with the name of the first author, inverted, followed by a comma, a space and "et al." (short for et alii), meaning "and others":

• Klassen, Paul, et al. The Butterflies of Manitoba. Winnipeg: Manitoba Museum, 1989.

Editor

An editor may have primary responsibility for a work or may share it with a writer. In the former case, the editor’s name is placed first in the bibliographic entry, followed by a comma and the abbreviation ed. (eds. for more than one editor). In the latter case, the editor’s name, preceded by "Edited by," follows the title of the work:

• Tortelli, Anthony B., ed. Sociology Approaching the Twenty-first Century. Los Angeles: Peter and Sons, 1991.
• Moodie, Susannah. Roughing It in the Bush, Or, Life in Canada. Edited by Carl Ballstadt. Ottawa: Carleton University Press, 1990.

Corporate author

List documents lacking a specified author or editor under the title of the sponsoring body, which may be a country or its government; a department, board, agency or commission; an association, company, institution or firm; or even a sporting event or exhibition.

In the interest of clarity, cite the full name of the corporate author, not its abbreviated form. If the organization is better known by its acronym or by some other shortened version of its name, choose the more familiar, reduced form, as in "Unesco" instead of "United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization."

The name of a superior governing authority is usually listed first in a bibliographic entry, unless the corporate author’s name includes a term indicating the organization’s dependence. Thus, the name“Unesco” would not need to be preceded by “United Nations” (which is already part of the organization’s name):

• Unesco. Adult Education Section.

not

• United Nations. Unesco.

In the case of government publications, begin the entry with the name of the country, province, state or municipality issuing the document:

• Canada. Department of the Environment. Trademarks on Base-Metal Software. Ottawa: Canada Communication Group, 1991.

When listing a court of law, indicate the political entity under which it exercises its power, as in "Canada. Supreme Court" or "Manitoba. Court of Queen’s Bench."

Pseudonyms and anonymous works

Authors better known by a pseudonym than by their real name should be listed under that pseudonym. Where required, give the author’s real name or place "pseud." in brackets after the pseudonym. In the case of anonymous works for which the author’s identity has been established, place the author’s real name in square brackets. Otherwise, list the work by its title followed by the rest of the bibliographic information. Do not use "anonymous" or "anon." unless the author really is unknown:

• Carroll, Lewis [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]. Through the Looking Glass. New York: Random House, 1946.
• Eliot, George. Middlemarch. Norton Critical Editions. New York: W.W. Norton, 1977.
• [Horsley, Samuel]. On the Prosodies of the Greek and Latin Languages. 1796.
• "Summer is Icumen In." In Immortal Poems of the English Language. Edited by Oscar Williams. New York: Pocket Books, 1954.

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Outils d'aide à la rédaction – Writing Tips
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