Referencing
What is referencing?
Why do I need to reference in my assignment?
When should I reference?
What is plagiarism?
How do I include references and quotations in my assignment?
How to compile your reference list
Interactive tutorials
Different styles of referencing
Reference Manager
What is referencing?
Referencing is a way of crediting all sources of information and ideas that you have used in any piece of academic work.
Why do I need to reference in my assignment?
In your assignments, you will use ideas and information from other sources to support points and arguments you want to make. When you use someone else's ideas in your work, either by using your own words or making a direct quotation, you must reference the source, in order to:
- show you are aware of other people's ideas and are including them
- acknowledge other people's ideas
- support points and arguments you want to make
- allow the reader to find the original material you have used
When should I reference?
You must reference whenever you use or directly quote from someone's work, including diagrams, illustrations and tables. You must also reference when you summerise ideas and information from someone's work, or when you paraphrase by putting someone else's ideas in your own words. Failure to do any of the above is considered to be plagiarism.
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What is plagiarism?
The Student Handbook at Queen Margaret University defines plagiarism as "The presentation by an individual of another person's ideas or work (in any medium, published or unpublished) as though they were his or her own" (QMU 2007, p.42). Plagiarism is considered to be a major breach of academic regulations. If you are unsure about how to reference, and fail to reference correctly in an assignment, it will still be regarded as plagiarism, even though you did not sent out with the intention of plagiarising.
For detailed information on plagiarism, and how to avoid it, click here.
How do I include references and quotations in my assignment?
There are two key aspects to referencing:
You cite a reference when you refer in the text of your assignment to any use you have made of the work of others.
- creating a reference list
A reference list is an alphabetical list by author, which you provide at the end of your work. It must contain full details of all the sources you have cited in your text. If you cite something in the text and do not include it in the reference list this is considered plagiarism. It is important that the references you cite within your writing link accurately to the reference list at the end of your work, via the name of the author.
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How to compile your reference list
A reference list must be included at the end of your assignment, before any appendices (if you have any). A reference list is an alphabetical list, organised by the surname (family name) of the author. Only those works you have cited in your text should appear in your reference list.
The first two elements of each reference in your reference list (author and date) will appear in the text of your work. The reader of your work can then easily check the citation in your text against your reference list.
Your reference list may include references to materials in different formats, including print and online resources. Generally all references require similar elements. Consistency is the key - always try to find an author or editor, a date of publication, a title and/or a source title and a publisher.
Correct and consistent punctuation is important:
- the first word in the title of the books, chapters and journal articles starts with a capital letter
- authors' names and initials, journal titles, publishers' names and places should also start with a capital letter
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Different styles of referencing
There are many different referencing styles available. Queen Margaret University has developed a guide to provide staff and students with a common referencing style called Write and Cite. Some subject areas follow a different referencing style - such as our Psychology department who use the APA referencing style - so it is essential you follow the guidelines in your course handbook.
This web page provides links and some examples of how to reference the most common resources.
Write and Cite: the QMU Guide to the Harvard System of Referencing
APA Referencing style from the American Psychological Association
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The comprehensive guide to citing sources of information from print through to electronic, including lectures, images, conferences, audio visual and much more is available here and can also be purchased from the LRC Service Desk for £2.00.
Here are some of the most popular:
Details required for a book can be found on the front and reverse of the title page which is usually the first or second unnumbered page inside the book. Details for a book should be set out in the following order and with the punctuation as indicated:
Author/Editor surname, Initial(s).
Year.
Title of the book. (in italics)
edition. (if later than the first and abbreviated to ed.)
Series and volume number. (if available)
Place of publication:
Name of publisher.
Fiske, J. 2011. Television culture. 2nd ed. Abingdon: Routledge.
Ramble, J. ed. 2006. Using simple hygiene rules to combat MRSA. Health Education Series, 42. Bristol: Magpie Publishing.
Hart, R. and Rollins, J. H. 2011. Therapeutic activities for children and teens coping with health issues. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Llewellyn, A., Agu, L. and Mercer, D. 2008. Sociology for social workers. Cambridge: Polity.
Please note:
- only give details of the edition if it is later than the first. No edition statement means that it is the first edition
- use the abbreviation 'ed' for both edition and editor
- use eds for more than one editor
- make sure the edition detail matches the year of publication. For example, a book might be published originally in 1987 but a second edition is published in 2011. In this case, you put the year of publication as 2011. See the example of Fiske, J. above
- when referring to the number of the edition use 2nd or 3rd etc.
- a reprint is not a new edition and so the year of publication is the date of the last edition
A common mistake is to confuse the name of a contributer to a book of collected writings with that of the editor. It is important to include the editor of the book in the reference list as this is the information needed by anyone wanting to find that piece of work. If you have referred to or used a specific chapter, you need to give details of that chapter in the following order and with the punctuation as indicated:
Author of the chapter (as cited in your text).
Year of publication.
Title of chapter.
In: Author/Editor of the collected work.
Title of the collected work. (in italics)
Place of publication:
Name of publisher,
page number(s) of the chapter referred to.
Porter, M. 1998. What is strategy? In: Segal-Horn, S. ed. The Strategy Reader. Oxford: Blackwell in association with the Open University, pp.73-99.
Author/Editor surname, Initial(s).
Year.
Title of the book. (in italics)
edition. (if later than the first and abbreviated to ed.)
online book [in square brackets]
Place of publication: (if available)
Name of publisher. (if available)
Available at: followed by Internet address
Date accessed. [in square brackets]
Madnelstam, M. 2005. Community care practice and the law. 3rd ed. [online book] London: Jessica Kingsley. Available at: http://site.ebrary.com/lib/qmuc/Doc?id=10090670 [Accessed July 15 2011].
Details for a journal article can usually be found on the contents list, front cover or article itself. Details for a journal article should be set out in the following order and with punctuation exactly as given:
Author/Editor surname, Initial(s).
Year.
Title of article.
Name of journal, (in italics)
Volume (part number) Month or season, (if available)
page number(s) of article.
Bonen, A. and Shaw, S. M. 1996. Recreational exercise participation and aerobic fitness in men and women: analysis of data from a national survey. Journal of Sports Science, 13 (4), August, pp.297-303.
McCord, S., Fredriksen, L. and Campbell, N. 2002. An accessibility assessment of selected web-based health information resources. Library Hi Techn, 20 (2), pp.188-198.
Most journal articles accessed online are also available in print format, so they may be referenced in the same way above as an article in print format. However, if an article is only available online follow the guidance on "How to reference an ejournal (online journal) article" in Write and Cite.
An online document is a separate document, accessed as a PDF via a link on a website.
Author/Editor surname, Initial(s).
Year.
Document title. (in italics)
edition. (if later than the first and abbreviated to ed.)
online [in square brackets]
Place of publication: (if available)
Name of publisher. (if available)
Available at: followed by Internet address
Date accessed. [in square brackets]
Scottish Executive Health Department. 2000. Our national health: a plan of action, a plan for change. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive. Available at: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/158732/0043081.pdf [Accessed July 15 2011].
UNESCO. 2008. Medium-term strategy 2008-2013 [online] Paris: UNESCO. Available at: http://portal.unesco.org [Accessed July 15 2011].
If a document is contained within a large and complex web site (such as that for a university or a government agency), you should provide the host organisation and the relevant programme or department before giving the Internet address for the document itself.
You should reference a website, or section of a website, using the same elements that you would reference a book. In addition, you should include the Internet address and date accessed - including punctuation - as indicated:
Author/Editor/Organisation (as appropriate).
Year. (current year if no other available)
Section title/heading. (in italics)
online [in square brackets]
Available at: followed by the Internet address
Date accessed. [in square brackets]
BBC. 2009. BBC News. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news [Accessed July 15 2011].
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APA Referencing style from the American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association produces it's own guides. Notably:
The APA Style Blog is another valuable source where you can browse or find the answer to a specific query. Here are links to some of the more popular reference types:
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Interactive tutorials
The University of Sheffield have made available a set of interative tutorials to help dyslexic students with reading, writing and acknowledging sources:
Reference Manager
Reference Manager is a bibliographic tool that can help you keep track of the references that you will find and use as part of your studies and research. References can be exported directly from databases such as Medline and Scopus, imported from text files as well as added manually.
Reference Manager can be accessed on campus and off campus via Remote Access. Workshops on 'Getting started with Reference Manager' are run regularly throughout the academic year.
Support materials
Support materials are available from the producers of Reference Manager - Adept Scientific - website:
Introduction tutorial
Online user manual
Importing text files
Not all databases offer direct exporting of references. When this happens, you need to save your references to a text file and import them using a filter.
RefManTraining's YouTube channel explains how to save and import text files into Reference Manager in their video: Importing text files.
For information and guidance on importing references to Reference Manager from databases available at Queen Margaret, click here.
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