A Bibliographic Entry

A bibliography is a list of items or "entries".  At the top of this list, we typically find a title such as the following:

Bibliography
BIBLIOGRAPHY
References
R E F E R E N C E S
Works Cited
WORKS CITED
Each bibliographic entry on the list represents the essential citation data for a document, or "work", in a succint and systematic way.  Over the years, the following pattern for a bibliographic entry has become popular in international English-language publications, and this pattern is recommended to you (with the items written smaller being optional):
CREATOR. TITLE. COLLECTION. CITY: PLACE, SERIES, EDITION, DAY MONTH YEAR.
If you are using the Harvard style of in-text citation (rather than footnotes), then this entry style is better:
CREATOR. YEAR. TITLE. COLLECTION. CITY: PLACE, DAY MONTH YEAR2.
CREATOR is the author, editor, compiler, performer, sponsor, or in some other sense maker of the work. CREATOR may be an individual person, a group of two or more persons, or a corporate entity, such as a committee, board, institution, government, or other organization. (If the "original" creator is unknown, or uncertain, then the name of the presumed creator may be used. Moreover, the name of a copyist or publisher may also be used, for a copyist is indeed the "creator" of that copy.)
TITLE is the title of the work. Not every work has a title; "untitled" is normally a description, not a title. Sometimes the popular title is not what the creator called the work. Some titles may be transcribed or transliterated.
COLLECTION is the title of a more encompassing opus of which the work is a part. For example, this can be the encyclopedia of which the work is an article; it can be the book of which the work is one chapter; it can be the film trilogy of which the work is one movie.  Page numbers are often included whenever the work is a section of a book or of a journal.
CITY is the city (with province or country if necessary) where the work can be found now, or where it was created, or where it was witnessed.  This information is often omitted for well-known international journals or other periodicals.
PLACE is the location in CITY where the work is found or was created or was witnessed. For example, this may be the name of an archive, a publishing house, a playhouse, a broadcast channel.  For modern books, the PLACE is usually the PUBLISHER, and this information is often followed by the SERIES and EDITION information.
YEAR, when using the in-text citation style, is the year of the original work's creation by the CREATOR. If reference is being made to a later copy or edition or performance, then that later year too (YEAR2) should be given in the details at the end of the entry. In no event should YEAR be later than the death of the CREATOR.

Here are some examples:

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Example entry for an international journal article

Burkitt, Robert. 1902. "Notes on the Kekchí language". American Anthropologist, 4, 441-463.

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Example entry for a book chapter

Fought, John G.
1985. Patterns of Sociolinguistic Inequality in Mesoamerica. Languages of Inequality, Nessa Wolfson and Joan Manes, eds. Berlin: Mouton, 21-39.

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Example entry for an academic book

King, Arden (1974) Cobán and the Verapaz: history and cultural process in northern Guatemala. New Orleans: Tulane University, Middle American Research Institute, Publication 37.

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Example entry for a translated book

Migliorini, Bruno
1960. Storia della lingua italiana. Firenze: Sansoni. London: Faber and Faber, abridged English edition, The Italian Language, T. Gwynfor Griffith (translator), 1966.

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Example entry for a co-authored book published by two different publishers

England, Nora C.; Stephen R. Elliott. 1990. Lecturas sobre la lingüística Maya. Antigua, Guatemala: CIRMA. South Woodstock, Vermont: Plumsock Mesoamerican Studies.

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Example entry for a book with two editions published by different publishers

Sedat, William (1955) Nuevo diccionario de las lenguas K'ekchi y Española. Guatemala: Alianza para el Progreso, 1955; second edition, Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, 1984.

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Example entry for a nonroman script book

DeChicchis, Joseph (1994)  他言語生活の事態  (Tagengo seikatsu no jittai).  新しい日本観・世界観に向かって (Atarashii Nihon-kan, sekai-kan ni mukatte). John C. Maher and Honna Nobuyuki, eds.  Tokyo: Kokusai Shoin.

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Example entry for a TV broadcast

Peter Jennings. The ABC Evening News. New York: ABC television, 6 pm, 11 November 1998. Rebroadcast by NHK. Kobe: BS1 broadcast satellite channel 7, 9:22 am, 12 November 1998.

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