Bibliography and Webliography
Chapter -Three
Syllabus topic 7, "Preparation of the Research Design"
Pages 513 to 515 of 543
In one line
The bibliography lists everything the study rests on and the webliography lists the online sources separately, and MU requires both, arranged alphabetically.
In the wording a student can write in an exam: the bibliography is the list of works consulted and relied on in the research, arranged alphabetically and giving the full reference for each, and the webliography is the corresponding list of sources consulted online; the University of Mumbai requires adequate references to be included, with a proper bibliography and webliography, books, articles, journals and research papers being properly cited and arranged alphabetically.
What MU requires
From the guidelines in the notice of 1 July 2026. Adequate references must be included, with proper Bibliography and Webliography, and books, articles, journals and research papers must be properly cited and arranged alphabetically.
Two lists, not one. A separate webliography is not universal practice elsewhere and is required here, so a student should make one.
Alphabetical arrangement, which for a bibliography means by author surname.
What goes in the bibliography
Divided into sections, which is the ordinary Indian practice and makes the list usable.
Statutes and subordinate legislation, in chronological or alphabetical order.
Cases, alphabetically by case name, with the report citation.
Books, alphabetically by author surname.
Articles, alphabetically by author surname.
Reports and official publications.
And where a study has field material, a note of the records and instruments consulted, which belongs here or in the sources of information, chapter 1300.
A student may present the whole list alphabetically without sections and MU's requirement is satisfied either way, but sections are easier for a reader and take five minutes.
What goes in the webliography
Sources consulted online, with the address and the date of access.
And the date matters. A page may change, so a webliography entry without an access date is incomplete, and this book's own practice, recording where and when each source was obtained, is the same discipline, chapter 940.
A judgment about what belongs where. An Act obtained from India Code is a statute, not a website, and belongs in the statutes section of the bibliography with a note of where it was obtained. A blog post or an online article that exists only online belongs in the webliography. A journal article read as a file but published in a journal belongs among the articles.
The distinction is between the nature of the source and the medium of access, and a student who puts every source they read on a screen into the webliography has misunderstood it.
Bibliography, reference list and works cited
Three terms with different meanings, and worth knowing.
A reference list contains only what is cited in the text.
Bibliography and Webliography
A bibliography contains what was consulted and relied on, including works that shaped the argument without being cited.
Works cited is another name for the first.
MU asks for a bibliography, so a work read and relied on may be listed even if no footnote points to it. But a work merely glanced at, listed to lengthen the list, is padding and is detectable, because an examiner at the viva may ask about it, chapter 1430.
Building it as you go
The rule that saves a week. Add every source to the bibliography at the moment it is first used, in full, chapter 940.
Because reconstructing it at the end is the single most tedious task in a dissertation, and it produces the incomplete entries of chapter 1360 that a reader cannot follow.
Keep it in one file, alphabetically, from day one.
And check it against the footnotes at the end: every footnote's source should appear in the bibliography, and every bibliography entry should be one the writer can say something about.
The common defects
Entries too incomplete to find. No year, no publisher, no volume.
Inconsistent form. Three styles in one list, chapter 1360.
Padding. Fifty entries where fifteen were used, which the viva exposes.
Everything in the webliography because everything was read on a screen.
No access dates for online sources.
And a bibliography that does not match the footnotes, which suggests one of the two was assembled separately from the work.
A worked example
A short bibliography, sectioned, in the form a dissertation would carry.
Statutes and subordinate legislation. The Advocates Act 1961, Act 25 of 1961. The Legal Services Authorities Act 1987, Act 39 of 1987. Bar Council of India Rules, Part IV, Rules of Legal Education 2008. National Legal Services Authority (Free and Competent Legal Services) Regulations 2010. National Legal Services Authority (Legal Services Clinics) Regulations 2011. University Grants Commission (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in Higher Educational Institutions) Regulations 2018.
Cases. Bar Council of India v. Bonnie Foi Law College, 2023 SCC OnLine SC 130. Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar, (1980) 1 SCC 98. Khatri v. State of Bihar, (1981) 1 SCC 627. Madhav Hayawadanrao Hoskot v. State of Maharashtra, (1978) 3 SCC 544. Suk Das v. Union Territory of Arunachal Pradesh, (1986) 2 SCC 401.
Reports and official publications. Law Commission of India, 184th Report on the Legal Education and Professional Training (December 2002). Law Commission of India, 266th Report on the Advocates Act 1961 (March 2017). University of Mumbai, Department of Law, Notice, LL.M. (Sem-IV) Dissertation Submission (1 July 2026).
Books and articles. Alphabetically by author.
Webliography. Each online source with its address and date of access.
Bibliography and Webliography
Notice that the cases are alphabetical by case name and the statutes are grouped, and that the University's own circular is listed as an official publication because that is what it is.
Quick revision
MU requires adequate references with a proper bibliography and webliography, books, articles, journals and research papers properly cited and arranged alphabetically.
Bibliography sections: statutes and subordinate legislation; cases, alphabetically by case name; books; articles; reports and official publications; and field material where there is any.
Webliography: online sources with the address and the date of access. The distinction is the nature of the source, not the medium of access, so an Act read on India Code is a statute.
Reference list contains only what is cited; a bibliography contains what was consulted and relied on. MU asks for the second, but padding is exposed at the viva.
Build it as you go, in one alphabetical file from day one, and check it against the footnotes at the end.
Defects: incomplete entries; inconsistent form; padding; everything in the webliography; no access dates; and a list that does not match the footnotes.
Test yourself
1. What does MU require, and what is unusual about it? Adequate references with a proper bibliography and webliography, with books, articles, journals and research papers properly cited and arranged alphabetically. What is unusual is the requirement of a separate webliography, which is not universal practice, so a student must produce two lists rather than one.
2. Where does an Act obtained from India Code belong, and why? In the statutes section of the bibliography, with a note of where it was obtained, because the distinction is between the nature of the source and the medium of access. Only a source that exists online, such as a blog post or an online-only article, belongs in the webliography.
3. Distinguish a reference list from a bibliography. A reference list contains only the works actually cited in the text. A bibliography contains what was consulted and relied on, including works that shaped the argument without being cited. MU asks for a bibliography.
4. Give the rule that saves a week, and the two end checks. Add every source to the bibliography in full at the moment it is first used, keeping one alphabetical file from day one. At the end, check that every source in a footnote appears in the bibliography, and that every bibliography entry is one the writer could say something about if asked at the viva.
The rest of this subject
These notes are cut from the University's printed syllabus. Open the syllabus itself, or the past papers, for the same subject.