Q. Sometimes a work will cite a series of annual publications: The Annual Report on Stuff for 1993–1997, 1999, and 2001–2004, say. Does the bibliography or reference list need a separate entry for each year’s volume, or is there an appropriate way to combine them into one entry? If they can be combined, how can breaks in the sequence be handled? Sometimes I feel silly putting eleven basically identical entries in a reference list, but if eleven volumes of the report were consulted . . . ?
A. Use one entry and note the range of years. There’s no need to indicate in the bibliography which years you consulted—you’ll do that in the notes. If the annual was not published in every year in the range, you can add the word “intermittently” after the range.