Citing Dramatic Works
Under the Copyright Act authors hold moral rights in their work, including the right to be attributed as the author. You must acknowledge any literary work that you use.
You are not required to use a particular citation style. If the author or copyright owner asks to be acknowledged in a particular way, you should follow their request. If you are using material for a teaching or academic purposes, you should use an academic citation style.
For dramatic works, a simple attribution would include some or all of the following:
- Author/s
- Title of the play, script etc.
- Publication details including publisher, place and date or publication
- Pages/ section used
- If the work has been sourced from a website the URL for the image's website and the date the website was accessed.
- Copyright or licensing information as appropriate, for example a link to the Creative Commons licence or a statement indicating if permission has been granted by the copyright owner.
| Some examples of citations for dramatic works: |
|---|
Wilde, Oscar, 'The Importance of Being Earnest' in The Complete Plays of Oscar Wilde, Penguin, London; 1974 |
| Buffy The Vampire Slayer: The Script Book, Season One, Volume 1, New York: Pocket Books, 2000. |
| From a website: |
| Shakespeare, William, Anthony and Cleopatra, http://shakespeare.mit.edu/cleopatra/ Accessed 19/07/10 |
The source of the material may not include all the necessary details to complete a full citation. If so, include as many details as possible and statement that the information is unknown. For example:
- 'Author, title, publication details (or source) all unknown. All reasonable attempts have been made to identify or locate this information. If you are the author or know who they are please advise us'.
- 'Citation information unknown. Please advise us if you are the author or know who they are.'
The acknowledgement should be clear and legible. if it is not possible to include the acknowledgement with the item, use a bibliography or list of sources that clearly identifies which citation accompanies which item.
Updated 10/08/11(HT)