The references given in this section are either the source references for rock terms or are subsidiary references used in the petrological descriptions. Following each reference, in square brackets, is a list of the rock terms thought to have occurred first in that reference. If a rock term is printed in italics, then the reference is only to be found in the petrological description of the term and is not the source of a new occurrence of the term.

To avoid any possible ambiguity and confusion in the future, the Subcommission decided to give the references in full in the bibliography, including full journal titles. This was done because many of the references cited in the early literature were so abbreviated that a considerable amount of time and effort was wasted in trying to locate them in the various libraries throughout the world when they were being checked. The style of the journal titles is, wherever possible, that found in the Natural History Museum, London.

The 1st edition contained 791 references from 377 different journals and publishers. This edition now contains 809 references from 390 different journals. The Subcommission has always taken a great deal of effort to check as many as possible of the references, a task which has taken an enormous amount of time. In the first edition, only 15 of the references were not able to be located. In this edition the number is down to 4 – a truly remarkable effort by the editorial team.