Library Assist: Answers

Students occasionally come across sources that are not in the public domain and wish to reference them for their assignments. Examples of items may include those found on organisational intranets, shared storage drives or behind a firewall (such as hospital trust policies and internal school reports), or hard copy documents distributed only to certain teams or people. It is possible to reference these sources but bear in mind that your reader will likely not have access to consult the original document.

When dealing with these types of sources, the first thing to consider is whether there are any confidentiality implications to using the document. If so, you may need to anonymise details so that the person(s) or institution(s) involved cannot be identified. If there are no concerns about confidentiality, you will still need to acknowledge that your source is unpublished. 

Example of an unpublished source that doesn't need to be kept confidential

Citation order:

• Author or organisation
• Year produced (in round brackets)
• Title of report, document or file (in single quotation marks)
• Name of organisation
• Unpublished

In-text citation: Jones (2020, item 3.1) suggested work shadowing.

Reference list: Jones, T. (2020) ‘Minutes of staff development committee meeting 23 February 2020’. Western Health Trust, Shrewsbury. Unpublished.

Taken from Cite Them Right section 'About unpublished and confidential information (Harvard)' - (login required)

Example of an unpublished source where details cannot be disclosed due to confidentiality

Citation order:

• Anonymised institution/agency (in square brackets)
• Year produced (in round brackets)
• Anonymised title (in italics) (use square brackets for the anonymised part)
• Location - use the county if giving the town or city would identify the specific organisation
• Anonymised producer (in square brackets)
• Unpublished

In-text citation: The records produced (Placement hospital, 2020) ...

Reference List: [Placement hospital] (2020) [Placement hospital] examination criteria for elderly patients. London: [Placement hospital]. Unpublished.

Taken from Cite Them Right section 'Confidential information (Harvard)' - (login required)