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Reference List vs Bibliography: Which One Do You Need?

A reference list holds only the works you cited. A bibliography may also list works you read but never cited. APA 7 titles the cited-only page References. MLA 9 titles it Works Cited. Chicago 18 uses Bibliography with notes and References with author-date citations. This page is the naming decision. The how to write a bibliography page is the hanging-indent and alphabetizing how-to. If the words citation and reference themselves are the problem, start with referencing vs citing.

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Quick Answer: Reference List or Bibliography?

Write the list your style names and put in it only what that style allows. If the brief is silent, APA, MLA, Chicago author-date, Harvard (Cite Them Right), Vancouver, and IEEE all expect a cited-only list. Chicago notes-bibliography and some Harvard or OSCOLA briefs allow a bibliography that can include consulted works you never cited. Never pad a cited-only list with background reading. A full bibliography still has to include every work you did cite unless the heading is a narrower Selected Bibliography.

What each style calls the end list

APA 7:

References — cited, recoverable works only (Reference if the list has one item)

MLA 9:

Works Cited — cited works only; a list that also includes uncited reading is Works Consulted

Chicago 18, notes-bibliography:

Bibliography — usually cited works; may add consulted works, or omit tangential cited works if the heading is Selected Bibliography

Chicago 18, author-date:

References (or Works Cited) — every parenthetical citation must have a matching entry

Harvard (Cite Them Right 13):

Reference list / References — cited works only; a separate Bibliography only if the brief asks

OSCOLA 5th:

Table of cases, table of legislation, then a Bibliography of secondary sources — in longer work; footnotes do the citing

Vancouver, IEEE:

References — numbered in order of first citation, cited works only

This Page Versus the Formatting How-To

Searchers type "reference list vs bibliography" when they need a naming rule, not a hanging-indent tutorial. This URL answers which product APA, MLA, Chicago, Harvard, and OSCOLA actually want. How to write a bibliography answers how to title the page, indent it, and alphabetize it. Annotated bibliography is the paragraph-after-each-entry assignment. Do not paste this page's decision table into a formatting brief, and do not put Bibliography on an APA paper because a classmate used that word.

Official Definitions

Reference list

A reference list is the set of full entries for every source you cited in the text, and nothing else. Each in-text citation matches one entry, and each entry is cited at least once. APA calls this list References. Chicago author-date calls it References or Works Cited. Harvard sheets call it Reference list or References. The official APA handout is the shortest statement of the rule.

APA Style, Creating an APA Style Reference List (23 February 2022)

The reference list contains all the works you cited in the text of your paper.
In general, there should be a one-to-one correspondence between the works cited in the text and the works listed in the reference list.
If you read a work while doing your literature search but did not end up citing it in the text of your paper, do not include it in the reference list.
Use the section label “References” (not “Works Cited” or “Bibliography”).
It is acceptable to use “Reference” as the label when you cited only one source in your paper.

The Publication Manual (7th ed., §9.1) draws the same line: a reference list cites works that specifically support the ideas, claims, and concepts in a paper; a bibliography cites works for background or further reading and may include descriptive notes. APA papers use the reference list. Personal communications are the named exception: they are cited in the text only (APA 7 §8.9) and never appear on the list. Opened the Creating-list PDF on 18 September 2026.

Bibliography

A bibliography lists the works relevant to the piece: everything you cited, plus — when the style or brief allows — works you read for background. It is alphabetical. In Chicago notes-bibliography the bibliography is the standard end list. In Harvard, Cite Them Right treats a bibliography as a separate document from the reference list. Because bibliography also names the discipline of describing books, assignment briefs sometimes use it loosely to mean any end list. When the required style is APA or MLA, read that loose wording as References or Works Cited.

Chicago Manual of Style, Citation Quick Guide

In the notes and bibliography system, sources are cited in numbered footnotes or endnotes. Each note corresponds to a raised (superscript) number in the text. Sources are also usually listed in a separate bibliography.
In the author-date system, sources are briefly cited in the text, usually in parentheses, by author’s last name and year of publication. Each in-text citation matches up with an entry in a reference list, where full bibliographic information is provided.

The live Quick Guide is CMOS 18 (chapters 13–14). Opened 18 September 2026. A CMOS Shop Talk FAQ still labeled as relying on the 17th edition states the contents rule more sharply than the Quick Guide does:

Chicago Manual of Style Q&A, bibliography versus reference list

But we reserve the term reference list for sources that have been cited using Chicago’s author-date style; each source in a reference list corresponds to at least one parenthetical reference in the text.
Another difference is that bibliographies may list sources that haven’t been directly cited in the text; conversely, sources cited in the text don’t always need to be included in a bibliography.

That second sentence is why a Chicago Selected Bibliography can omit a cited source that is tangential to the topic. Student papers still usually list every cited work. Do not treat the CMOS exception as permission to drop a source you actually used in an APA or MLA paper.

Works Cited

Works Cited is MLA's name for a reference list. The heading is literal. The MLA Style Center post on list titles still quotes the eighth-edition handbook and points readers to the ninth edition for current guidance. The wording it reprints is the one instructors still use:

MLA Style Center, “Works Cited,” “Bibliography,” and “References” (17 May 2019)

the list titled ‘Works Cited’ identifies the sources you borrow from—and therefore cite—in the body of your research project
If you wish to list additional works and your instructor has no objection, create a separate list titled “Works Consulted.”
For simplicity, the MLA recommends using the titles “Works Cited” or “Works Consulted,” even if the source list contains only printed works.

Chicago also accepts Works Cited as a heading for a cited-only list in either of its systems. MLA still uses the singular Work Cited when the list has one entry; that heading rule lives on the formatting page.

Annotated bibliography

An annotated bibliography is a list in which each entry is followed by a short paragraph that summarises and evaluates the work. It is usually a stand-alone assignment. Despite the name, it can be cited-only or consulted-only, depending on the brief. CMOS 18 §13.65 names it as one bibliography type. How to write an annotated bibliography covers the annotations; the annotated bibliography maker formats the entries.

Reference list

Contains:

Only works cited in the text, tables, figures, or notes.

Purpose:

Lets a reader follow every citation to a recoverable source.

Test for each entry:

Can I point to the sentence that cites it? If not, remove it.

Usual headings:

References, Reference, Reference list, Works Cited, Work Cited

Styles that require it:

APA, MLA, Chicago author-date, Harvard, Vancouver, IEEE

Bibliography

Contains:

Cited works and, where the brief allows, works consulted but not cited.

Purpose:

Shows the reading behind the work and can point a reader to further sources.

Test for each entry:

Did I read it, and is it relevant? Cited works stay in a full bibliography.

Usual headings:

Bibliography, Selected Bibliography, Works Consulted, Further Reading

Styles that use it:

Chicago notes-bibliography, OSCOLA longer work, Harvard when the brief asks, MLA as Works Consulted

Which Style Requires Which List

End-list heading and the rule on uncited works.
StyleHeadingUncited works allowed?Order
APA 7References (or Reference)No. Personal communications are cited in the text only.Alphabetical by first element, then year
MLA 9Works Cited (or Work Cited)No. Use Works Consulted if the brief wants them.Alphabetical by first element, then title
Chicago 18, notes-bibliographyBibliographyYes, if the brief allows. Selected Bibliography can also omit tangential cited works.Alphabetical by first element
Chicago 18, author-dateReferences or Works CitedNo. Every parenthetical citation needs an entry.Alphabetical by first element, then year
Harvard (Cite Them Right 13)Reference list or ReferencesNo. Put extra reading in a separate Bibliography if asked.Alphabetical by author, then year
OSCOLA 5thTable of cases, table of legislation, BibliographyThe bibliography lists cited secondary sources. Tables list cited primary sources.Cases and statutes alphabetical; books and articles by surname
Vancouver and IEEEReferencesNoNumbered in order of first citation

APA 7: a reference list, never a bibliography

APA student and professional papers end with References, bold and centred, on a new page. Every recoverable work in the list must be cited in the text. Do not add titles you only read. Do not list a personal email, a live lecture, or an unrecorded webinar — those stay in the text as personal communications. General mentions of a whole website, common software, or an app also skip the list when you are not quoting a specific page. The Creating an APA Style Reference List guide (23 February 2022) and the Common Reference Examples handout (3 March 2026) are the official sources.

MLA 9: Works Cited, not Bibliography

MLA's list is headed Works Cited, centred, not bold. It contains the works you quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise borrowed from. If you also want to show background reading, the Style Center's answer is a second list headed Works Consulted, not a longer Works Cited. Entries are built from the core elements — author, title of source, title of container, other contributors, version, number, publisher, publication date, location — and are ordered alphabetically by whatever fills the first slot. Opened the Style Center list-title post on 18 September 2026.

Chicago 18: bibliography with notes, reference list with author-date

Chicago has two systems and they answer this question differently. In notes-bibliography the notes do the citing and the Bibliography lists sources alphabetically. The manual lets that bibliography include works that were consulted but not cited, and it lets a Selected Bibliography or Works Cited heading signal a narrower list. In author-date the end list is a References list of every source cited in the parenthetical citations, and only those. The notes-bibliography guide and author-date guide show the same sources in each. Turabian, the student version of Chicago, follows the same split. CMOS 18 §14.30 no longer requires a place of publication for current books.

Harvard: reference list, plus a bibliography only when asked

Cite Them Right, 13th edition (Pears and Shields, 2025), is the Harvard variant most UK universities teach. Its online database has a dedicated "Reference list vs bibliography" explainer behind a login. University sheets that restate it agree: the reference list holds the works cited in the text; a bibliography also includes background reading. University of Westminster tells students to head the page references or list of references (not bibliography) and to include "all sources that you have provided an in-text reference for (and no others)." Most assignments want only that list. A few briefs ask for both. University sheets vary more here than anywhere else in Harvard, so read yours. The Harvard referencing guide covers how to identify which variant you have. Cite Them Right 13, like APA 7 and CMOS 18, no longer asks for a place of publication.

OSCOLA: tables of authorities and a bibliography

OSCOLA, the Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (5th ed., published 25 March 2026), cites everything in footnotes. A short essay often needs no end list at all. Longer work ends with tables of the primary sources cited, then a bibliography of secondary sources. The official wording is in §1.6–1.7 of the faculty PDF. Entries in that bibliography should not end with a full stop, and books and articles stay in one alphabetical sequence.

OSCOLA 5th edition §§1.6–1.7 (Faculty of Law, University of Oxford)

A longer work, such as a book or a thesis, generally has in the preliminary pages a list of abbreviations and tables of all the cases, legislation and other primary legal sources cited in the work. Shorter works, such as articles and essays, only require footnotes.
In longer works, such as theses and books, a bibliography listing secondary sources should be provided after the main body of text and any appendices (primary sources do not need to be included since they will be captured by the tables at the start of the work). It need not be indexed.
Items in bibliographies take the same form as other citations in OSCOLA, with three exceptions. First, the author’s surname should precede his or her initial(s), with no comma separating the surname from the initial(s), but a comma after the final initial. Second, initials should be used instead of forenames. Third, the titles of unattributed works should be preceded by a double em-dash.
Entries in bibliographies should not end with a full stop.

Opened the OSCOLA 5th edition PDF on 18 September 2026. Cases go in a table of cases, not in the bibliography. Statutes go in a table of legislation. The law citation guide and the OSCOLA generator cover the footnote forms.

Vancouver and IEEE: numbered References

Numeric styles still use a cited-only list. They just order it by first appearance instead of by author. ICMJE / Vancouver and IEEE both head the page References. Do not alphabetize. Do not add unread background titles to make the numbered list look longer. If you need the medical or engineering entry templates, use the medical citation guide or the engineering citation guide.

The Same Reading as a Reference List and as a Bibliography

Suppose a paper cites two official CMOS Quick Guide books — Charles Yu, Interior Chinatown, and Amy J. Binder and Jeffrey L. Kidder, The Channels of Student Activism — and the writer also read Liu Xinwu, The Wedding Party, without citing it. The author-date reference list has two entries. A notes-bibliography list that the brief allows to include consulted works has three. None of these titles is invented; all three are live CMOS 18 Quick Guide examples, opened 18 September 2026.

Chicago 18 author-date References (cited works only)

Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. 2022. The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today. University of Chicago Press.

Yu, Charles. 2020. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books.

Chicago 18 notes-bibliography (cited works plus one consulted work)

Binder, Amy J., and Jeffrey L. Kidder. The Channels of Student Activism: How the Left and Right Are Winning (and Losing) in Campus Politics Today. University of Chicago Press, 2022.

Consulted, not cited:

Liu Xinwu. The Wedding Party. Translated by Jeremy Tiang. Amazon Crossing, 2021.

Yu, Charles. Interior Chinatown. Pantheon Books, 2020.

Liu appears in the bibliography because the writer consulted the book and the brief allowed a full bibliography. In the author-date list, and in any APA or MLA list, that third line would be an error. Notice the date position: author-date moves the year after the author; notes-bibliography keeps the year at the end. CMOS 18 dropped the place of publication in both systems.

The same cited-only rule in APA uses official Common Reference Examples (3 March 2026). If the paper cites Niepel et al. and Levenson et al., and the writer also read the WHO neglected-tropical-disease report without citing it, the APA list has two entries.

APA 7 References (cited works only; Common Reference Examples, 3 March 2026)

Levenson, H., Jinich, S., Vaz, A., & Rousmaniere, T. (2025). Deliberate practice in emotionally focused couple therapy. American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000436-000

Niepel, C., Hausen, J. E., Weber, A. M., & Möller, J. (2025). Understanding mean-level and intraindividual variability in state academic self-concept: The role of students’ trait expectancies and values. Journal of Educational Psychology, 117(5), 772–788. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000946

The WHO report — World Health Organization. (2025). Global report on neglected tropical diseases — would belong on this list only if a sentence actually cited it. Reading it in a literature search is not enough. That is the Creating-list rule quoted above.

When an Assignment Asks for Both

Some Harvard, Chicago, and law briefs ask for a reference list and a bibliography. The sensible reading is: reference list for the works you cited, bibliography for the wider reading. Two conventions exist for the overlap, and your sheet decides which. Under the first, the bibliography lists everything you read, so every reference-list entry is repeated in it. Under the second, the bibliography lists only the works not in the reference list, sometimes under a heading such as Bibliography (works consulted) or Further reading. If the sheet is silent, choose the second, say so in one line under the heading, and keep the format of every entry identical to the reference list.

  1. Finish the text first, then build the reference list from the citations. Every citation gets an entry; nothing else does.
  2. Read the brief again for the words bibliography, works consulted, or further reading. If none appears, stop: you need only the reference list.
  3. If a bibliography is required, list the works you read that are not cited, in the same style and order as the reference list.
  4. Decide, from the sheet or your tutor, whether the bibliography repeats the cited works or excludes them, and head it so the reader knows which.
  5. Put the reference list first and the bibliography after it, each starting on a new page, each alphabetical, each in the same format.
  6. Check that no work appears in the bibliography under a different form from the reference list: same spelling of the author, same year, same edition.

The Harvard examples below use titles from the live Westminster Cite Them Right 13 sheet, opened 18 September 2026. Pears and Shields is the current handbook. LaRochelle and King is that sheet's journal-article example. Freud is that sheet's reprint/translation example, used here only as the consulted-not-cited line.

Layout when both are required (Harvard, non-repeating convention)

Reference list

LaRochelle, J. M. and King, A. R. (2011) ‘Avoiding plagiarism’, *Hospital Pharmacy*, 46 (12), pp. 917–919. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1310/hpj4612-917
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2025) *Cite them right: the essential guide to referencing*, 13th ed. Macmillan.

Bibliography (works consulted but not cited)

Freud, S. (1915) *The unconscious*. Translated by Graham Frankland. Penguin, 2015.

OSCOLA Worked Split

OSCOLA does not put cases in the bibliography. The official Quick Reference Guide and §1.6.2–1.7 examples make the split visible. Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd belongs in the table of cases. Fisher's book belongs in the bibliography, with the surname-first form.

OSCOLA 5th edition official examples

Table of cases:

Corr v IBC Vehicles Ltd [2008] UKHL 13, [2008] 1 AC 884

Footnote (secondary source):

Elizabeth Fisher, Risk Regulation and Administrative Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing 2007).

Bibliography:

Fisher E, Risk Regulation and Administrative Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing 2007)

Formatting Differences That Follow the Name

Once you know which list you are writing, the house formatting is mechanical. The bibliography how-to walks through hanging indents and letter-by-letter order. The short version that changes with the name of the list is below.

House formatting for the end list in each style.
StyleHeadingSpacingHanging indentStarts on a new page?
APA 7References, bold, centredDouble-spaced throughout, no extra space between entriesYes, 0.5 inYes
MLA 9Works Cited, centred, not boldDouble-spaced throughoutYes, 0.5 inYes
Chicago 18 (Turabian student papers)Bibliography or References, centredOften single-spaced entries with a blank line between themYes, 0.5 inYes
Harvard (Cite Them Right 13)Reference list or References; Bibliography for the wider listSet by the university; commonly single-spaced with a line between entriesOnly if the sheet asksUsually
OSCOLATable of Cases, Table of Legislation, BibliographySet by the universityNo; tables and bibliography are flush leftYes, in longer work
Vancouver / IEEEReferencesSet by the journal or universityNo; numberedYes

Alphabetise by the first author's surname, letter by letter. An organisation files under the first significant word of its name, not under The. A work with no author files by its title, ignoring A, An, and The. For several works by one author, APA and Harvard order by year; MLA orders by title and may replace the repeated name with three hyphens; Chicago 18 repeats the name and orders by title. The bibliography alphabetiser applies these rules to a pasted list. Apply a hanging indent with paragraph settings, never with spaces or tabs; the hanging indent formatter prepares a list for pasting.

Common Mistakes

  • Heading an APA or MLA list Bibliography. The official headings are References and Works Cited, and markers notice.
  • Adding unread or uncited works to a reference list to make it look longer. In APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago author-date this is an error.
  • Treating every bibliography as a dump of extra reading that can omit cited works. A full bibliography includes every cited work. Only a Chicago Selected Bibliography may omit a tangential cited title.
  • Splitting a reference list by source type: books, then articles, then websites. Every style listed here except OSCOLA uses one alphabetical or numbered sequence. OSCOLA separates cases and legislation from secondary sources on purpose.
  • Numbering an alphabetical list. Numbers belong to Vancouver and IEEE, where the order is order of citation.
  • Putting personal communications, such as an email from a lecturer, in an APA reference list. They are cited in the text only.
  • Using a different format in the bibliography from the reference list, for example spaced initials in one and unspaced in the other.
  • Forgetting that a Works Consulted list in MLA and a full bibliography in Chicago are supersets, not alternatives to the cited works.

Finish the list your style actually named

Once you know whether you are writing References, Works Cited, or a Bibliography, use the formatting how-to for hanging indents and order, then paste the finished entries into the alphabetiser or hanging-indent tool.

How to write a bibliography →Bibliography alphabetiser →Hanging indent formatter →

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography?
A reference list contains only the works you cited in the text, so a reader can follow every citation. A bibliography contains those works and, when the style allows, works you consulted but did not cite. APA, MLA, Harvard, and Chicago author-date want a cited-only list. Chicago notes-bibliography and some Harvard and OSCOLA briefs allow the wider bibliography.
Is Works Cited the same as a reference list?
Yes. Works Cited is MLA's name for the cited-only list, and Chicago also accepts it as a heading for a cited-only list. It is not the same as a bibliography, which may include uncited works. MLA calls that longer list Works Consulted.
Does APA use a bibliography?
No. APA papers end with a reference list headed References. The Creating an APA Style Reference List guide (23 February 2022) says to use that label, not Works Cited or Bibliography, and to omit works you read but never cited. Personal communications stay in the text only.
Do I need a bibliography in Harvard referencing?
Usually not. Cite Them Right 13 uses a reference list of cited works, and most UK assignments ask for that alone. Westminster's sheet heads the page references or list of references, not bibliography. Write a bibliography only if the brief asks for one, and check whether it should repeat the reference-list entries or list only the additional reading.
Can a bibliography include sources I did not cite?
In Chicago notes-bibliography and in Harvard when the brief asks for a bibliography of works consulted, yes. In APA, MLA, and Chicago author-date, no. In OSCOLA the bibliography lists cited secondary sources; uncited background reading is not what §1.7 describes. A full bibliography must still contain every work you did cite.
Can a Chicago bibliography omit a source I cited in a note?
Sometimes. A CMOS FAQ on bibliography versus reference list says sources cited in the text do not always need to be included in a bibliography, which is the Selected Bibliography case. Student papers usually still list every cited work. If the heading is simply Bibliography, include them.
Should my reference list have a hanging indent?
In APA, MLA, and Chicago, yes, at half an inch. In Harvard it depends on the university: Cite Them Right does not require one, and many UK sheets set entries flush left. Numbered lists in Vancouver and IEEE do not use one. See the bibliography formatting guide for Word and Google Docs steps.
What is an annotated bibliography?
A list in which each entry is followed by a short paragraph that summarises the work and judges its usefulness. It is normally a separate assignment rather than an appendix to an essay. CMOS 18 §13.65 names it as one bibliography type. Its entries use the ordinary reference format of the style.
What if my assignment asks for both a reference list and a bibliography?
Put the reference list first with every cited work, then a bibliography with the additional reading. Ask whether the bibliography should repeat the cited works or list only the uncited ones, head it so the reader can tell, and keep the formatting of every entry identical across the two lists.
Where do cases go in OSCOLA — the bibliography or a table?
In a table of cases. OSCOLA 5th edition §1.6 puts cases, legislation, and other primary sources in preliminary tables. The bibliography in §1.7 lists secondary sources only, with the author's surname before the initial and no comma between them, as in Fisher E, Risk Regulation and Administrative Constitutionalism (Hart Publishing 2007). Bibliography entries do not end with a full stop.