Creating a bibliography

Fact-checked by Benjamin Lohrer, editor at corrected.eu · Last updated: 26 April 2026

Bibliography for your thesis: structure and examples

The bibliography (also called the reference list) comes at the end of your bachelor's thesis and contains every source you have cited in the text. It is sorted alphabetically, set with a hanging indent and formatted in one consistent citation style. That sounds simple, and in principle it is. The pitfalls lie in the fact that every in-text citation needs an entry in the list and the other way round. Every inconsistency stands out at once. We show you step by step how to create the bibliography, what has to go in, how to sort it cleanly and which typical mistakes to avoid. If you like, the citation generator does the legwork: paste the sources, choose the style, copy them sorted.

What goes into the bibliography?

Every source you have cited in the text goes into the bibliography. Sources you have read but not cited do not belong in it. Neither do personal communications, emails or oral information (these are mentioned in the text, but not listed in the bibliography).

Order: always alphabetical

Entries are sorted alphabetically by the family name of the first author. For several works by the same author: chronologically (oldest first, in some styles most recent first). For the same year: a, b, c (Schmidt 2022a, Schmidt 2022b).

Hanging indent

The standard is a hanging indent: the first line is flush left and every further line is indented by 1.27 cm. This keeps the list easy to scan.

Example in APA 7

More examples in our APA guide.

Example in Harvard

More examples in our Harvard guide.

Dividing the bibliography into sections

Some departments require a division, usually by type of source:

• Monographs (books)
• Chapters in edited books
• Journal articles
• Online sources
• Statutes and court decisions (in law theses)

Within each type, sort alphabetically again. A division is standard above all in history, law and some humanities. Check your department's guide.

Tools for managing sources

• Citavi: licensed free of charge at many German universities, very powerful.
• Zotero: open source, cross-platform, many styles.
• Mendeley: free, with cloud sync, good for PDFs.
• EndNote: commercial, widely used in the natural sciences.

Word has its own source manager (the "References" tab), which is enough for an essay. For a bachelor's or master's thesis, Citavi or Zotero is worth it.

Common mistakes in the bibliography

• Source cited in the text but missing from the list: the most common mistake.
• Source in the list but not cited in the text: looks like a superfluous entry.
• Inconsistent formatting: brackets sometimes, sometimes not; italics sometimes, sometimes not.
• Hanging indent missing: looks unprofessional.

Matching text and bibliography is standard in professional editing: we mark every inconsistency.