AGLC4 Rule 4.1.1: Author: General Rule

Authors and editors are named as the title page shows them, with three adjustments: initials are run together without full stops, post-nominals are left out, and honorifics are generally left out. Sir, Dame and peerage titles are kept when the source uses them, and judges are governed by rule 4.1.5. Honorifics and conventional titles may still be used when a person is mentioned in discursive text.

AGLC4 page 83

Formatting

  • The name is reproduced in the form shown on the title page.
  • Initials take no spaces between them and no full stops.
  • Post-nominals, such as honours and degrees, are omitted.
  • Honorifics such as the Hon, Dr, Professor and Associate Professor, and conventional titles such as Ms and Mr, are omitted from citations.
  • Sir, Dame and peerage titles such as Lord, Baroness and Viscount are kept where the source shows them.
  • The author's name is roman and is followed by a comma before the title.
  • In discursive text, in the body or in footnotes, honorifics and conventional titles may precede a name.

Example

Quoted from the Guide, page 83
  1. 1
    Justice KM Hayne, ‘Directors’ Duties and a Company’s Creditors’ (2014) 38(2) Melbourne University Law Review 795. [Not: The Hon Justice KM Hayne AC …]

Not

Quoted from the Guide, page 83
  • [Not: The Hon Justice KM Hayne AC …]
    the honorific the Hon and the post-nominal AC are left out of the cited name

The same people referred to in discursive text and as cited authors

Quoted from the Guide, page 83
Referring to an individual discursively in the text or footnotes:Referring to an author in a citation:
Associate Professor Katy BarnettKaty Barnett
Dame Nellie MelbaDame Nellie Melba
Lord NichollsLord Nicholls
Professor Ian MalkinIan Malkin
Baroness HaleBaroness Hale
Dr CockburnJohn Cockburn
Ms Sharon RodrickSharon Rodrick
Mr Gageler SCStephen Gageler
HLA HartHLA Hart
Chief Justice Susan KiefelChief Justice Susan Kiefel

See also

Check your footnotes against these rules

Paste your paper into the free AGLC4 checker and each footnote is graded against the Guide, with the rule it breaks. To write a citation from scratch, use the AGLC4 citation generator.

AGLC4 citation checker AGLC4 citation generator

Formats, examples, passages, tables and the forms marked Not are quoted from the Australian Guide to Legal Citation (4th ed, Melbourne University Law Review Association, 2018), with the page of the Guide they appear on. Titles, summaries and explanations are our own.