MRHA Referencing

Posted: October 12, 2023
To: Essay Writing

The MRHA referencing system was created by the Modern Humanities Research Association. Currently, universities are working from the third edition of the style guide, but there may be some differences at your university. As such, you may want to check with your professors or your syllabus before you go ahead and create your references.

In Text Citations

Much like the Oxford referencing system, this referencing system also uses footnotes. You will be required to add a reference number in superscript after the information or the end of the sentence, and then you will add the full reference in your footnotes.

So in your essay a reference could look like the following:

Anderson points out that distance learning has become the ideal way to learn for a lot of students. 1

And then in your footnotes you will add the full reference in the following format:

Author first name and surname, title of publication (place of publication: Publisher, year of publication) page number.

So as an example your reference could look like this:

James Anderson, The Importance Of Distance Learning (London: Harper Collins: 2005) pg. 34

Journal articles

Again journal articles will most likely be a useful reference for you when writing essays using this system. There is a specific way to reference these when using the MRHA referencing system. Your reference in your reference list or bibliography will look like the following:

Author first name and surname, ‘Title of journal article’, Journal name, journal volume number (year of publication), page numbers, <website address> [Access date]

It’s important to note that if possible you should always use the physical version of the journal in your reference list. If the journal is only available online, that is when you will use the website address and access dates. An example of a journal being referenced would look like such:

James Anderson, ‘The Importance Of Distance Learning’, Early Years Education, 34 (2005), pgs. 4556, <www.onlinelibrary.com/doi/45.1111> [Accessed 12^th April 2034]

Chapter or article in an edited book

When using the MRHA referencing system, you will also commonly use chapters or articles from a larger edited book. As this is the case, you will need to know how to reference these as well. When referencing a chapter in a large book in your bibliography, it should be laid out like this:

Author surname, first name, ‘Title of chapter or article’, in Title of book, ed. by name of editor (Place of publication: name of publisher, year of publication), page numbers.

As such your reference should look like the following:

Anderson, James, ‘The Importance Of Distance Learning’ in Early Years Education, ed. By Amy Cauldwell (London: Harper Collins, 2005), pgs. 45 to 56