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Editorial Manual | Footnotes and other references

II. General instructions on footnotes and text notes

     A.   When to use footnotes and text notes
     B.   Placement of footnotes
     C.   Excessive referencing
     D.   Electronic sources
     E.   Points of style
     

A.   When to use footnotes and text notes (in-line citations)

Footnotes. In resolutions and decisions, all sources are cited in footnotes. In masthead documents, United Nations publications and reports issued as supplements to the Official Records, footnotes may be used to cite the following sources:

• United Nations publications
• Reports of United Nations conferences
• Advisory opinions, judgments and orders of the International Court of Justice
• Documents and publications issued by other organizations and by Governments
• Books, periodicals and articles contained therein
• Working papers and research reports in a published series
• Unpublished papers and dissertations
• Multimedia sources

Footnotes, text notes or references directly in the text. In masthead documents, United Nations publications and reports issued as supplements to the Official Records, references to masthead documents, including summary records and verbatim records, and to supplements, newspaper articles, public statements, interviews, personal communications and material on a website may be given in footnotes, text notes or directly in the text, as appropriate.

Note: Whether sources are cited in footnotes, text notes or directly in the text, information provided in one format should not be repeated in the other formats (see also Excessive referencing below). Within a document, the approach (either footnotes or text notes) should be consistent and logical.

B.   Placement of footnotes

Footnotes to items in the text are placed at the bottom of the page. Endnotes are not used. Footnotes to figures and tables are placed directly below the figure or table (see Tables/Notes to tables). Footnotes to items in a boxed text contained in a document or publication are normally placed within the box.

Footnotes indicated by asterisks and other symbols are placed above footnotes indicated by numbers and lower-case letters when they appear at the bottom of the same page. For additional information, see Footnote indicators/Footnotes indicated by lower-case letters and Footnotes indicated by asterisks and other symbols.

Footnotes in boxed summaries. Footnotes are not given for items in a boxed summary at the beginning of a document if the items can be referenced in the main body of the text. When it is necessary to include a footnote to an item in a boxed summary, the footnote is indicated by a lower-case letter and placed within the box.

C.   Excessive referencing

Authors are reminded that they should cite only sources that are strictly relevant and necessary. Commonly known or easily verifiable facts do not require a source note, nor should embedded hyperlinks be used. Excessive referencing undermines not only the overall readability of documents but also multilingualism, as many references do not exist in the six official languages of the United Nations, and reduces the accessibility of documents to persons with disabilities.

Footnotes should account for no more than 10 per cent of the total word count of the document as submitted. 

Once an item has been referenced, whether in a footnote or text note, the reference should be repeated only when necessary for the sake of clarity or to change a specific element in the reference, such as a section or paragraph number. When it is necessary to repeat a reference in documents and publications, a shortened reference may be used. In resolutions, an item is referenced once only, the first time that it is mentioned, whether in the preamble or the operative part. When it is necessary to repeat a reference, a new footnote should be inserted. For further information, see Repeated references.

General references to sources. There is no need to reference each individual contribution to a document or publication. To acknowledge sources consulted used extensively in preparing a document or publication and substantiate the information reported while avoiding multiple footnotes or text notes, a general reference can be given in a single footnote or at an appropriate place in the text.

Examples:

Footnote:

¹ The analysis in this section is based on the evidence presented in the report of the Secretary-General on … (A/xx/__).

1 Unless otherwise indicated, the findings in the present report are sourced from ____

1  The present report is based on an analysis of the information contained in the responses received. The responses are on file with the secretariat.
 

In text:

The present report is based on documentary material presented under oath to the Special Committee. The material is listed in the annex to the report and is available for consultation.

The present report is based on contributions from __Member States and __United Nations entities. The contributions are on file with the secretariat.

The information contained in the present report is based on available data from the United Nations system, compiled from humanitarian agencies, partners and other relevant sources.
 

Combined footnotes or text notes. The number of footnotes or text notes can sometimes be reduced by combining them, provided that no ambiguity results.

Examples:

Footnotes:

At the 6711th meeting, a draft resolution¹ submitted by 19 Member States² was voted upon but was not adopted owing to the negative votes of two permanent members.³

___________
¹ S/2012/77.
² Bahrain, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and United States of America.
³ The draft resolution received 13 votes in favour (Azerbaijan, Colombia, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Portugal, South Africa, Togo, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and United States of America) and 2 against (China and Russian Federation).

change to:

At the 6711th meeting, a draft resolution submitted by 19 Member States was voted upon but was not adopted owing to the negative votes of two permanent members.¹

____________
1 The draft resolution (S/2012/77), sponsored by Bahrain, Colombia, Egypt, France, Germany, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America,  received 13 votes in favour (Azerbaijan, Colombia, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Morocco, Pakistan, Portugal, South Africa, Togo, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and United States of America) and 2 against (China and Russian Federation). 

Text notes:

In the report of the Secretary-General on the role of the United Nations in supporting security sector reform (S/2008/39), gender-sensitive security sector reform was recognized as the key to developing non-discriminatory security sector institutions (ibid., para. 37), and the delivery of security services to address and prevent sexual violence was specifically recommended (ibid., para. 45 (e)).

change to:

In the report of the Secretary-General on the role of the United Nations in supporting security sector reform, gender-sensitive security sector reform was recognized as the key to developing non-discriminatory security sector institutions, and the delivery of security services to address and prevent sexual violence was specifically recommended (S/2008/39, paras. 37 and 45 (e)).

Author-date and keyed references. In publications, the number of footnotes can be reduced by using the author-date system or keyed references. For further information, see Reference lists and bibliographies/Author-date system and Keyed references.

D.   Electronic sources

     Citing Internet sources
     Dates of accessing material
     Sources available in print and electronic form
     United Nations sources available online

Basic guidelines are provided in this section for citing sources accessed over the Internet. For instructions on citing specific types of electronic source material and examples, including references to Internet sources, CD-ROMs and e-books, see United Nations sources and Outside sources.

Citing Internet sources

Style. Internet sources are identified by a uniform resource locator (URL), an electronic address, which is written in standard (roman) font, not italics, and without angle brackets (< >). They are usually introduced by the words "available at" or "see". In footnotes, a full stop is placed after URLs.

Prefixes. URL prefixes (protocols), such as "http", "https" and "ftp", are always followed by a colon and two forward slashes (http://, https:// and ftp://). The prefix may be deleted when the URL contains "www" (e.g. ). In other cases, the prefix must be included to ensure that the URL will work (e.g. ). The editor or author should check to see whether the URL works without the prefix.

References to material posted on a website. If the material cited is easily found using a search engine, a reference to a website in a footnote is unnecessary; the publishing data are enough. If it is necessary to use a URL, a reference to a website's home or search page is often sufficient. When the source cannot easily be located from that page, a complete URL directing readers to the specific page or document on the website may be provided; however, given the speed at which specific URLs become obsolete, this practice should be avoided to the extent possible. An alternative is providing a description so that the reader can navigate to the material from the main website.

Example:

          The Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice,

          Taking note of the new module produced by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on investigative approaches to the smuggling of migrants,¹

__________
¹ Available from the eLearning section of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime website ().

Disclaimer. For publications with footnotes containing many URLs, the following disclaimer may be used:

Information on uniform resource locators and links to websites contained in the present publication are provided for the convenience of the reader and are correct at the time of issuance. The United Nations takes no responsibility for the continued accuracy of that information or for the content of any external website.

References to a website as a whole. When readers are referred to a website as a whole for information or when a website is specifically mentioned in a document or publication, the URL can be given either directly in the text or in parentheses after the name of the website.

Examples:

For additional information on the impact of AIDS on older people and their families, see .

* * *

The speaker gave a demonstration of the United Nations terminology portal ().

In resolutions and decisions of United Nations bodies, the URL for a website, if required, is always given in a footnote.

Example:

          The General Assembly,

          . . .

          1. Calls upon the Secretary-General to continue his efforts towards updating the two publications and making them available electronically in all their respective language versions, and welcomes the establishment of a new website for the Repertory;¹

__________
¹ .

Dates of accessing material

In most documents, there is no need to include the access date if no date is provided; the date of issuance of the document in which the reference is cited should suffice. For publications, where the period from drafting to issuance may be longer, the access date may be included at the discretion of the author and/or the editor.

When citing Internet material that is likely to be revised, in particular time-sensitive information that may be updated (such as information contained in databases), authors should provide the date on which they retrieved the information. The date is given in parentheses at the end of the footnote.

Example:

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has collected information on 18 trafficking in persons cases relating to Albania.¹

__________
¹ UNODC, Sharing Electronic Resources and Laws on Crime (SHERLOC), Case Law Database (accessed on 17 November 2017).

Sources available in print and electronic form

When an outside source is available in both print and electronic form, authors should normally cite the version that they actually used. When the publication dates of the print and electronic versions differ, the date of the version used should be given in the reference.

United Nations sources available online

Material available on the Official Document System website. United Nations masthead documents and supplements to the Official Records are issued in print and on the Official Document System (ODS) website (). They should always be cited as described under United Nations sources. While the latest version issued on ODS is considered definitive, the ODS website should not be included in any references.

Material not available on the Official Document System website. Many United Nations documents and publications are issued in print, and made available online, but not on the ODS website. See United Nations sources for the style to be followed when citing such sources.

Guidelines on Internet publishing. For guidelines on Internet publishing in the United Nations and on publishing in an electronic format, see administrative instructions  and .

E.   Points of style

     Authors
     Titles and subtitles
     Capitalization
     References to specific elements in a source
     Use of "see"
     Use of "e.g." and "i.e."
     Abbreviations

Authors

The names of authors are normally given as they appear on the work cited. The form used (full first and middle names or initials and last name) should match that on the title page of the book or on the article cited. When a work has more than three authors, only the first author is listed, followed by “and others”.

Organization as author and publisher. When an organization is both author and publisher (no separate publisher is indicated on the title page of the book or publication), the name is normally given in the author’s place and omitted from the publishing data. The name of the organization is spelled out, not abbreviated, unless the abbreviation has been defined in a previous footnote, previously in the text or in a list of abbreviations at the beginning of the text. In a multi-author publication or a publication with discrete parts, the name of the organization is spelled out at first mention in every chapter or paper.

Titles and subtitles

When a work has a title and subtitle, both are normally included in footnotes. Titles and subtitles are separated by a colon. A second subtitle is separated by an en dash.

Titles of books, publications, periodicals and newspapers are italicized. Titles of articles, internal documents, unpublished works (i.e. those for which there is no ISBN or ISSN) and most research reports are set in standard (roman) font and enclosed in quotation marks. The titles of databases, websites and most series (not the Official Records series or the Treaty Series) are set in standard font without quotation marks. However, titles of unpublished works and research reports with more than 50 pages are italicized.

Works not translated. The title of a work that has not been translated into the language of the document in which the reference appears is normally given in the language of publication. Titles of Arabic, Chinese and Russian works are transliterated when they appear in texts issued in other languages. Titles in other non-Latin alphabets are transliterated where possible.

Titles of works in another language are set out in the standard manner (e.g., the title of a book, periodical or unpublished work or research report with more than 50 pages is italicized and the title of an article is enclosed in quotation marks). A translation of the title may be given in parentheses after the title of the published language version. The translated title is not italicized or enclosed in quotation marks.

Capitalization

Titles and subtitles of books, publications, periodicals, newspapers, series, databases, websites and unpublished works with more than 50 pages are capitalized. Initial capital letters are used for all words except articles, conjunctions and prepositions unless they are the first or last word in the title or subtitle.

In references to any other sources, including masthead documents, articles in a book or periodical, material on a website and unpublished works with 50 pages or less, only the first word of the title (but not the subtitle), proper nouns and adjectives and recognized geographical names are capitalized.

References to specific elements in a source

References used to substantiate statements or identify items mentioned in a text should be as specific as possible, indicating the relevant paragraphs or chapter and section, annex, appendix, table or figure in the source.

Given that page numbers may vary across language versions and formats, they should be avoided where possible. Page numbers can be given when there is no alternative, however, as in a reference for a source that does not contain numbered sections or paragraphs. Page numbers are always used in references to advisory opinions, judgments and orders of the International Court of Justice.

Use of "see"

When the statement or item being referenced does not correspond to the whole of the final element cited (e.g. to the entire section of the report), the reference should be introduced by "See". Examples are given throughout these instructions. "See" is not used when the reference is to a page or paragraph number.

"See" is also used in cross references and in explanatory footnotes.
 

Use of "e.g." and "i.e."

The phrases "for example" and "that is" (or "namely") are not abbreviated to  "e.g." or "i.e." in sentences, including in the running text of footnotes. The abbreviations may be used, without a comma after them, if they are enclosed within parentheses.

Abbreviations

The words listed below designating parts of a work are abbreviated as shown when they are used in footnotes, text notes and other references. They should never be abbreviated when they occur in a sentence or when used without a numeral.

The following should never be abbreviated:

annex
Article (of the Charter of the United Nations)
document
figure
part
preamble
resolution
supplement

References to page and paragraph numbers in the plural are given as shown: