The University of Delhi has no single referencing style. Its PhD ordinance names none, its guidelines for four-year undergraduate dissertations mark "proper referencing" without naming one, and its library points students to APA Style and the Chicago Manual of Style. Departments set the rest: Political Science accepts APA 7th edition or its own author-date style, and Sanskrit publishes a numbered style built on MLA.
EdCitation is not affiliated with the University of Delhi; this follows its public documents, checked on 2 October 2026. That day we also read DU's PhD ordinance, thesis checklist and Semester VIII guidelines, and four department and journal documents; where DU's servers refused our connection, we read an archived copy, linked below. For the national picture see citation in Indian universities and the UGC plagiarism regulations; this guide stays with DU.
EdCitation publishes this guide; near the end, its free Cite a source and Verify references are run on sources a DU student would cite, with every result quoted, faults included.
Which referencing style does the University of Delhi use?
The one your department or supervisor names: no university-wide DU document we read sets a style.
| DU document | What it says about referencing | Source and page |
|---|---|---|
| Library (DULS), Research Assistance | Two citation styles, APA (linked to the APA Style site) and the Chicago Manual of Style Online, plus EndNote, Mendeley and Zotero | Delhi University Library System (n.d.) |
| Ordinance VI, PhD (amended 2023) | No style; the thesis must be "satisfactory as far as its language and presentation are concerned" (M.8), after a plagiarism check verified by the University Library (M.6) | University of Delhi (2023), p. 16 |
| PhD thesis submission checklist | The thesis PDF carries its references and bibliography (item 19); similarity index "Less Than 10%" (item 15) | University of Delhi (2021), p. 2 |
| Semester VIII guidelines, four-year UG | "Proper referencing" marked within the 80-mark final report; for translations, "adherence to prescribed style manual or referencing guidelines" | University of Delhi (2026), pp. 2, 5 |
| Political Science, PhD proposals | APA 7th edition or the department's own style | Department of Political Science (2026), p. 3 |
| Sanskrit, doctoral proposals | A numbered house style on MLA lines | Department of Sanskrit (2015), pp. 2-9 |
| DU undergraduate research journal | APA sixth edition, author-date-page, no footnotes | Delhi University Journal of Undergraduate Research and Innovation (2015), p. 2 |
| Commerce, its journal's authors | APA sixth edition | Department of Commerce (n.d.) |
| Building each entry | Cite a source, free, in six styles | EdCitation |
When your DU document names no style
Ask your supervisor for the style, its edition and one model entry before you start: the Semester VIII guidelines mark referencing but leave the "prescribed style manual" to the programme. "Follow the library" means APA or Chicago. EdCitation builds six styles (APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard, IEEE and Vancouver); Chicago's footnotes are not among them and are written by hand.
What referencing rules do DU departments set?
The department's indicative guidelines for PhD research proposals, dated 13 March 2026, are the most detailed DU referencing rules we found. Applicants "may either follow APA 7th edition" or a house style the department sets out by example (Department of Political Science, 2026). Sanskrit's guidelines are the other full set (Department of Sanskrit, 2015).
| Rule | DU form | Source, page |
|---|---|---|
| Citing in the text | Surname and year: (Sarkar, 1919) | Political Science, 2 |
| Footnotes | "Avoid footnotes and stick to in-text citation" | Political Science, 2 |
| What to cite | Every source, even one used indirectly; "it is better to over-cite" | Political Science, 2-3 |
| The list | Bibliography, alphabetical, last name first | Political Science, 3 |
| Author and year | Doyle, M.W. (1983), initials closed up, comma after the bracket | Political Science, 3 |
| Article or chapter title | Double quotation marks, headline capitals, then a comma | Political Science, 3 |
| Journal | Title and volume (issue) in italics, pages in full: 12 (3): 205-235 | Political Science, 3 |
| Chapter | in J.M. Welsh (ed.), Book (pp. 11-28). Oxford: Oxford University Press. | Political Science, 3 |
| Government publication | Title in italics; online, "Retrieved from" and the address, no accessed date | Political Science, 3 |
| Quotations | "single spaced, left indented and double quoted" | Political Science, 3 |
| Sanskrit: in the text | (Sharma, 2015); several authors, (Valerie et al., 1991) | Sanskrit, 3-4 |
| Sanskrit: the list | Numbered, at least 10 entries, editions given, access dates for online sources "a must" | Sanskrit, 2 |
| Sanskrit: a journal | Cox, Gordon. “A Newfoundland Christmas Caroling Tradition.” Folk Music Journal 3.3 (1977): 242-60. | Sanskrit, 7 |
| Building it | Cite a source, then the changes below | EdCitation |
What the documents leave out, and where they disagree
Political Science gives no rule on et al., page numbers in citations or DOIs, and none of its examples carries a DOI; where it is silent, follow APA 7, its other option. Sanskrit contradicts itself on one page: the list is "arranged in ascending order (Alphabetical A-Z)" and also "in the same order that they have been cited". Ask which. Its examples also split names, turning "Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason" from its first example into "Grenfell and Wilfred Thomason", so copy its patterns, not its entries.
The undergraduate research journal adds single quotation marks, indented quotations above 50 words and British spelling, and its examples use placeholders such as www.xyzsd.org. For APA sixth edition, see the rules that changed between editions.
What does a DU Political Science bibliography look like?
Four real sources, two of them the department's own examples, set in its house style. In the text:
Doyle (1983) traces the peace among liberal states to Kant's "pacific union". In India, Varshney (2013) argues that strong states and a strong centre can coexist, and Centre-State relations, President's Rule included, sit with one division of the Home Ministry (Ministry of Home Affairs, n.d.). A national survey found one in four Indians admitting that they practise untouchability (Chishti, 2014).
Under "Bibliography":
Chishti, S. (2014, November 29), “Biggest Caste Survey: One in Four Indians Admit to Practising Untouchability”, The Indian Express, New Delhi, p. 5.
Doyle, M.W. (1983), “Kant, Liberal Legacies, and Foreign Affairs”, Philosophy and Public Affairs, 12 (3): 205-235.
Ministry of Home Affairs (n.d.), Centre State Division. Retrieved from https://www.mha.gov.in/en/divisionofmha/centre-state-division
Varshney, A. (2013), “How Has Indian Federalism Done?”, Studies in Indian Politics, 1 (1): 43-63.
What each entry shows
- Chishti and Doyle: as the department prints them. Doyle's article is in volume 12, issue 3, pages 205 to 235 (Doyle, 1983).
- Ministry of Home Affairs: the government pattern, italic title, with the web pattern's "Retrieved from". The page carries no date of its own, only a "Last Updated" line in the site's footer, so we treated it as undated; the department shows no undated example, and "(n.d.)" is borrowed from APA.
- Varshney: italic "1 (1):", pages in full with a hyphen, and no DOI, as in all the department's examples (Varshney, 2013).
In Sanskrit's style the same article becomes: Varshney, Ashutosh. "How Has Indian Federalism Done?" Studies in Indian Politics 1.1 (2013): 43-63. Read online, it adds "Web." and the date you read it, and no address unless your supervisor asks for one.
Which EdCitation style is closest, and what do you change?
Harvard, for Political Science's house style: it opens every entry as the department does, "Doyle, M.W. (1986)", and puts the place before the publisher.
| DU asks for | Start in EdCitation's | Then fix by hand |
|---|---|---|
| Political Science house style | Harvard | Comma after the year, double quotation marks, headline capitals, 1 (1):, hyphens, "Retrieved from": see below |
| APA 7th (Political Science, the library) | APA 7 | Editors and names the record lacks; capitals of names lowered in titles |
| Sanskrit's numbered style | MLA 9 | Volume.issue (year): pages; publisher, city, then year; "Web." and the date you read it; (Sharma, 2015) in the text |
| APA sixth (DU journals) | APA 7 | The older edition's rules |
| Chicago (the library) | Chicago 18 author-date | Footnotes are not built |
| Anything else | Not built | Write it from the department's document |
The Harvard changes, from our runs on 2 October 2026:
| EdCitation's Harvard printed | For DU Political Science |
|---|---|
| Doyle, M.W. (1986) ‘Liberalism and World Politics’, | Doyle, M.W. (1986), “Liberalism and World Politics”, |
| ‘How has Indian Federalism Done?’ | “How Has Indian Federalism Done?” |
| Studies in Indian Politics, 1(1), pp. 43–63. Available at: https://doi.org/… | Studies in Indian Politics, 1 (1): 43-63. |
| ‘Limiting Sovereignty’, Humanitarian Intervention and International Relations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 11–28. | “Limiting Sovereignty”, in J.M. Welsh (ed.), Humanitarian Intervention and International Relations (pp. 11-28). Oxford: Oxford University Press. |
| Ministry of Home Affairs (no date) Centre State Division. Available at: … (Accessed: 2 October 2026). | Ministry of Home Affairs (n.d.), Centre State Division. Retrieved from … |
How do you build a DU reference list, step by step?
- Find the rule in your department's document, or ask your supervisor for the style and edition. EdCitation's free Check your paper reads an assignment's instructions into a checklist, citation style included, each rule beside its sentence.
- Search for sources in Find sources, which covers about 300 million published works.
- Build each entry in Cite a source from its DOI, title, ISBN or address: Harvard for Political Science's house style, MLA 9 for Sanskrit's, APA 7 otherwise.
- For a web page, correct the author, site and date in the form before the entry is built.
- Make the changes in the tables above, adding any editor the record lacks.
- Paste the list into Verify references and open the source behind every "check this" and "could not check".
What did Cite a source and Verify references return?
EdCitation is the right place to start a DU bibliography because it looks every source up and never writes one: each entry below came from Crossref's record or the page itself, and the check found the publisher's year for one of the department's own examples. Cite a source builds six styles and screens each source for retraction; it and Verify references are free, with no account. EdCitation never writes any part of a student's paper: it finds, cites and checks the sources, and the reading, the argument and every sentence stay the student's own.
Cite a source on four sources
For 10.1177/2321023013482787, from the Indian journal Studies in Indian Politics, APA returned a correct entry and no retraction:
Varshney, A. (2013). How has Indian federalism done? Studies in Indian Politics, 1(1), 43–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/2321023013482787
For 10.2307/1960861, Harvard gave the pages in full, "1151–1169", while Chicago shortened them to "1151–69": write every digit for DU. For the chapter 10.1093/0199267219.003.0002, APA gave "Shue, H. (2003). Limiting sovereignty. In Humanitarian intervention and international relations (pp. 11–28). Oxford University Press." The record names no editor, so add J. M. Welsh by hand (Shue, 2003).
For the Ministry of Home Affairs page, APA first gave "Centre state division. (n.d.). Ministry of Home Affairs. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://www.mha.gov.in/en/divisionofmha/centre-state-division". With the ministry as organisation author and "Government of India" as the site, it became "Ministry of Home Affairs. (n.d.). Centre state division. Government of India." Give the division's name back its capitals.
Verify references on the department's examples
We pasted the department's article, chapter, newspaper and web examples as printed, with our Varshney entry. Verify references answered:
- Varshney: verified, "Title, year and first author match a published record."
- Shue (2004): "check this", "The work was published in 2003, not 2004; the record has no date in 2004." The publisher's record dates the book 18 December 2003; use the year on your copy's copyright page.
- Doyle (1983): "check this", "A record with this title exists, but it was published in 2017, not 1983." Here the tool is wrong: that record is a 2017 reprint in an edited collection, and the 1983 article, which has no DOI, is genuine. Keep 1983.
- Chishti: not found, "No publisher's or registry's record matches this reference." Add the address of the online copy, and the entry is checked at the page itself.
- Kak (2018), a Medium page: "could not check", "The site at this address turns automated readers away, so the page could not be read here." It said so rather than calling the page missing.
Our Ministry entry in the house style came back "check this": "The address works, but the page there has a different title." In APA form it came back verified: "The page is at this address, and its title matches." So check web pages in APA form first. Since the department asks you to cite every source you draw on, Pro ($8 a month, see pricing) adds References from a file, which matches every in-text citation in the uploaded paper to the list.
Quick questions
Does Delhi University use APA style?
Not across the university. DU's library links to APA Style and the Chicago Manual, Political Science accepts APA 7th edition for PhD proposals, and DU's undergraduate research journal asks for APA sixth. Your department decides.
What is the DU PhD thesis format for references?
Ordinance VI names no style; it asks for satisfactory language and presentation and a library-verified plagiarism check, and the submission checklist sets a similarity index under 10%. Your department sets the style.
Can I use footnotes in a DU Political Science research proposal?
No. The department's guidelines say to avoid footnotes and cite in the text, surname and year in brackets, as (Sarkar, 1919).
Does EdCitation build DU's house styles or footnotes?
Not directly. EdCitation's Cite a source builds six styles, none of them a DU house style: start Political Science's from Harvard and Sanskrit's from MLA 9, and write footnotes by hand.
Does EdCitation write any part of my DU dissertation?
No. EdCitation finds sources, builds each reference from its record and checks your list; the research, the argument and every sentence you submit are yours.
References
- Delhi University Journal of Undergraduate Research and Innovation. (2015). Submission guidelines [PDF]. University of Delhi. https://journals.du.ac.in/ugresearch-SubmissionGuidelines-Journal.pdf
- Delhi University Library System. (n.d.). Research assistance [Archived copy, 13 March 2026]. University of Delhi. https://web.archive.org/web/20260313172157/https://duls.du.ac.in/duls/node/143
- Department of Commerce. (n.d.). Guidelines for authors [Archived copy]. The Journal of Commerce and Business Studies, University of Delhi. https://web.archive.org/web/20260314142451/https://journal.commerce.du.ac.in/guide.html
- Department of Political Science. (2026). Notice for PhD admissions, 2025-26 Phase-II, with indicative guidelines for research proposal [PDF, archived copy]. University of Delhi. https://web.archive.org/web/20260327221820/https://admission.uod.ac.in/userfiles/downloads/2026/14032026-PhD%20Notice-PHASE%202%20-Pol%20Science%202025-26.pdf
- Department of Sanskrit. (2015). Referencing guidelines for doctoral research proposal [PDF]. University of Delhi. https://sanskrit.du.ac.in/userfiles/downloads/PhDDoc/ReferencingGuidelinesSanskrit.pdf
- Doyle, M. W. (1983). Kant, liberal legacies, and foreign affairs. Philosophy & Public Affairs, 12(3), 205–235. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2265298
- Ministry of Home Affairs. (n.d.). Centre State Division. Government of India. https://www.mha.gov.in/en/divisionofmha/centre-state-division
- Shue, H. (2003). Limiting sovereignty. In J. M. Welsh (Ed.), Humanitarian intervention and international relations (pp. 11–28). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0199267219.003.0002
- University of Delhi. (2021). List of documents required at the time of submission of the Ph.D thesis [PDF]. Examination Branch. https://www.exam.du.ac.in/userfiles/downloads/pdf/Guidelines%20for%20Ph.D%20Thesis%20Submission-Nov2021.pdf
- University of Delhi. (2023). Amendments to Ordinances: Ordinance VI, procedure for award of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree [PDF, archived copy]. https://web.archive.org/web/20250901112024/https://www.du.ac.in/uploads/new-web/08082025_OrdinanceVI.pdf
- University of Delhi. (2026). Guidelines for assessment of learning outcomes and supervision, VIII semester [PDF, archived copy]. https://web.archive.org/web/20260521195057/https://www.du.ac.in/uploads/2026/09012026-ugcf-Guidelines%20for%20Assessment%20of%20Semester%20VIII%20tracks.pdf
- Varshney, A. (2013). How has Indian federalism done? Studies in Indian Politics, 1(1), 43–63. https://doi.org/10.1177/2321023013482787