how to reference in an assignment uk

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Quick guide to Harvard referencing (Cite Them Right)

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There are different versions of the Harvard referencing style. This guide is a quick introduction to the commonly-used Cite Them Right version. You will find further guidance available through the OU Library on the Cite Them Right Database .

For help and support with referencing and the full Cite Them Right guide, have a look at the Library’s page on referencing and plagiarism . If you need guidance referencing OU module material you can check out which sections of Cite Them Right are recommended when referencing physical and online module material .

This guide does not apply to OU Law undergraduate students . If you are studying a module beginning with W1xx, W2xx or W3xx, you should refer to the Quick guide to Cite Them Right referencing for Law modules .

Table of contents

In-text citations and full references.

• Secondary referencing
• Page numbers
• Citing multiple sources published in the same year by the same author

Full reference examples

Referencing consists of two elements:

• in-text citations, which are inserted in the body of your text and are included in the word count. An in-text citation gives the author(s) and publication date of a source you are referring to. If the publication date is not given, the phrase 'no date' is used instead of a date. If using direct quotations or you refer to a specific section in the source you also need the page number/s if available, or paragraph number for web pages.
• full references, which are given in alphabetical order in a  reference list at the end of your work and are not included in the word count. Full references give full bibliographical information for all the sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

To see a reference list and intext citations check out this example assignment on Cite Them Right .

Difference between reference list and bibliography

a reference list only includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text.

a bibliography includes sources you have referred to in the body of your text AND sources that were part of your background reading that you did not use in your assignment.

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Examples of in-text citations

You need to include an in-text citation wherever you quote or paraphrase from a source. An in-text citation consists of the last name of the author(s), the year of publication, and a page number if relevant. There are a number of ways of incorporating in-text citations into your work - some examples are provided below. Alternatively you can see examples of setting out in-text citations in Cite Them Right .

Example with one author:

Almeroth-Williams, T. (2019) City of Beasts: How Animals Shaped Georgian London . Manchester: Manchester University Press.

RSPCA (2024) Caring for cats and kittens . Available at: https://www.rspca.org.uk/adviceandwelfare/pets/cats (Accessed: 1 August 2024).

Example with two or three authors:

Grayling, A. and Ball, B. (2024) ' Philosophy is crucial in the age of AI', The Conversation , 1 August. Available at: https://theconversation.com/philosophy-is-crucial-in-the-age-of-ai-235907 (Accessed: 1 August 2024).

Chu, M., Leonard, P. and Stevenson, F. (2012) ' Growing the Base for Citizen Science: Recruiting and Engaging Participants', in J.L. Dickinson and R. Bonney (eds.) Citizen Science: Public Participation in Environmental Research . Ithaca: Cornell University Press, pp. 69-81.

Example with four or more authors:

Young, H.D. et al. (2015) Sears and Zemansky's university physics . San Francisco, CA: Addison-Wesley.

Note: You can choose one or other method to reference four or more authors (unless your School requires you to name all authors in your reference list) and your approach should be consistent.

Online module materials

(Includes written online module activities, audio-visual material such as online tutorials, recordings or videos).

When referencing material from module websites, the date of publication is the year you started studying the module.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

OR, if there is no named author:

The Open University (Year of publication/presentation) 'Title of item'. Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Rietdorf, K. and Bootman, M. (2022) 'Topic 3: Rare diseases'. S290: Investigating human health and disease . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1967195 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

The Open University (2022) ‘3.1 The purposes of childhood and youth research’. EK313: Issues in research with children and young people . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1949633&section=1.3 (Accessed: 24 January 2023).

You can also use this template to reference videos and audio that are hosted on your module website:

The Open University (2022) ‘Video 2.7 An example of a Frith-Happé animation’. SK298: Brain, mind and mental health . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=2013014&section=4.9.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

The Open University (2022) ‘Audio 2 Interview with Richard Sorabji (Part 2)’. A113: Revolutions . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/oucontent/view.php?id=1960941&section=5.6 (Accessed: 22 November 2022).

Note: if a complete journal article has been uploaded to a module website, or if you have seen an article referred to on the website and then accessed the original version, reference the original journal article, and do not mention the module materials. If only an extract from an article is included in your module materials that you want to reference, you should use secondary referencing, with the module materials as the 'cited in' source, as described above.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of message', Title of discussion board , in Module code: Module title . Available at: URL of VLE (Accessed: date).

Fitzpatrick, M. (2022) ‘A215 - presentation of TMAs', Tutor group discussion & Workbook activities , in A215: Creative writing . Available at: https://learn2.open.ac.uk/mod/forumng/discuss.php?d=4209566 (Accessed: 24 January 2022).

Note: When an ebook looks like a printed book, with publication details and pagination, reference as a printed book.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title . Edition if later than first. Place of publication: publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.

For ebooks that do not contain print publication details

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title of book . Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date).

Bell, J. (2014) Doing your research project . Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Adams, D. (1979) The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy . Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-ebooks (Accessed: 23 June 2021).

Note: Books that have an editor, or editors, where each chapter is written by a different author or authors.

Surname of chapter author, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of chapter or section', in Initial. Surname of book editor (ed.) Title of book . Place of publication: publisher, Page reference.

Franklin, A.W. (2012) 'Management of the problem', in S.M. Smith (ed.) The maltreatment of children . Lancaster: MTP, pp. 83–95.

Note: When referencing a chapter of an edited book, your in-text citation should give the author(s) of the chapter.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference.

If accessed online:

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal , volume number (issue number), page reference. Available at: DOI or URL (if required) (Accessed: date).

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326.

Shirazi, T. (2010) 'Successful teaching placements in secondary schools: achieving QTS practical handbooks', European Journal of Teacher Education , 33(3), pp. 323–326. Available at: https://libezproxy.open.ac.uk/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/log... (Accessed: 27 January 2023).

Barke, M. and Mowl, G. (2016) 'Málaga – a failed resort of the early twentieth century?', Journal of Tourism History , 2(3), pp. 187–212. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1755182X.2010.523145

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference.

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Newspaper , Day and month, Page reference if available. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Mansell, W. and Bloom, A. (2012) ‘£10,000 carrot to tempt physics experts’, The Guardian , 20 June, p. 5.

Roberts, D. and Ackerman, S. (2013) 'US draft resolution allows Obama 90 days for military action against Syria', The Guardian , 4 September. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/04/syria-strikes-draft-resolut... (Accessed: 9 September 2015).

Surname, Initial. (Year that the site was published/last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Organisation (Year that the page was last updated) Title of web page . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Robinson, J. (2007) Social variation across the UK . Available at: https://www.bl.uk/british-accents-and-dialects/articles/social-variation... (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

The British Psychological Society (2018) Code of Ethics and Conduct . Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/news-and-policy/bps-code-ethics-and-conduct (Accessed: 22 March 2019).

Note: Cite Them Right Online offers guidance for referencing webpages that do not include authors' names and dates. However, be extra vigilant about the suitability of such webpages.

Surname, Initial. (Year) Title of photograph . Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Kitton, J. (2013) Golden sunset . Available at: https://www.jameskittophotography.co.uk/photo_8692150.html (Accessed: 21 November 2021).

stanitsa_dance (2021) Cossack dance ensemble . Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/COI_slphWJ_/ (Accessed: 13 June 2023).

Note: If no title can be found then replace it with a short description.

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• Study and research support
• Referencing

Referencing explained

Why and when to reference.

Referencing is an important part of academic work. It puts your work in context, demonstrates the breadth and depth of your research, and acknowledges other people’s work. You should reference whenever you use someone else’s idea.

View video using Microsoft Stream (link opens in a new window, available for University members only)

These webpages explain what referencing is, why it is important and give an overview of the main elements of how to reference. Our Referencing made simple tutorial opens in a new window and covers how to identify your source and create a reference with interactive examples.

Why reference?

Referencing correctly:

• helps you to avoid plagiarism by making it clear which ideas are your own and which are someone else’s
• shows your understanding of the topic
• gives supporting evidence for your ideas, arguments and opinions
• allows others to identify the sources you have used.

When to reference

Whenever you use an idea from someone else's work, for example from a journal article, textbook or website, you should cite the original author to make it clear where that idea came from. This is the case regardless of whether you have paraphrased, summarised or directly quoted their work. This is a key part of good practice in academic writing.

Read more on:

• academic integrity
• quoting, summarising, paraphrasing, and synthesising
• citing direct quotations in Leeds Harvard or citing direct quotations in Leeds Numeric styles.

University and school policies

The University referencing policy (PDF) sets out the referencing requirements that all taught students and tutors are expected to follow.

Each school in the University requires students to use a specific style of referencing. Check the referencing style used in your school before you begin.

All your citations and references should match the style you are using exactly, including any punctuation, capitalisation, italics and bold, and you should use the same referencing style throughout your assignment.

• Schools & departments

Referencing and citations

Advice and resources to support you with referencing and citations, and avoiding plagiarism.

At university you are expected to read and research, and then use the ideas, information, data and a range of other sources in your own academic work and assignments. However, it is important to make absolutely clear where each idea or piece of information comes from by referencing it (giving your sources) in your own work.

What is referencing? (PDF)

What is referencing? (Word rtf)

When done properly, reference adds credibility and strength to your arguments, as well as demonstrating the effort that you have put into research and reading. There is more information on using your reading and developing your argument in the Reading at university and Academic writing pages.

Reading at university

Academic Writing

Different subjects and disciplines use different referencing styles (or systems). You may even find that different assignments on a course use different styles, depending on the format of the assignment. The different styles, e.g. Harvard, Chicago, OSCOLA, look very different. But when and why you need to reference does not change. There is further information on Different style s in the Go further section of this page.

You need to make sure you know how you are being expected to do this and you should refer to your course, assignment, or programme information provided by your School about what style you are expected to use. If you are unsure, you need to ask someone who teaches you.

Citations vs references

In your work, you need to explicitly indicate and acknowledge when you have used or referred to someone else’s idea or data etc. However, if you were to include the full reference (or bibliographic details) of your evidence, it would disrupt the flow of your argument.

Instead, it is academic convention to give an abbreviated version of the reference details at the point it is being discussed. This is known as a citation or in-text citing. The citation should make an explicit link between the point being presented or discussed, and the evidence you are using.

A reference is the full bibliographic or publication details of a citation. Whilst the in-text citation tells your audience that there is evidence to support your point, the reference gives them all the information they would need to find that evidence and review it themselves. You may cite the same source several times in your argument, however it only needs one reference as it is the same source each time.

Typically, the references of all your citations are collated at the end of a piece of work. Depending on your discipline and the style you are using this may be called a reference list (or works cited ), or a bibliography . Everything you’ve cited in your work must be included in the references or bibliography. However, in some subjects, a bibliography may also include other sources which you have consulted but have not cited in your work. You need to check the information provided by your course or School about what is required.

Tips for accurate referencing (PDF)

Tips for accurate referencing (Word rtf)

Most word processing software has a citation or referencing function so you do not necessarily have to format them all yourself. However you will still need to check that the software has done it properly and in the style that is required. You should be able to find instructions on how to do this for your software in the Help section or by searching online.

It is your responsibility to ensure the accuracy and adequacy of your citations and references. You need to make sure that your citations unambiguously link to the correct reference. You also need to make sure that you have citations everywhere they are needed. If you forget or miss a citation, then the impression you are giving is that the work is your own, when it is in fact someone else’s.

This is called plagiarism and is a form of academic misconduct. Typically plagiarism is due to unintentional, inadequate referencing, but it can also be deliberate.

What is plagiarism? (PDF)

What is plagiarism? (Word rtf)

You should also read the University of Edinburgh’s official guidance and policy on plagiarism:

Academic Services – Plagiarism

The Good academic practice page has additional information and guidance on what’s expected, academic misconduct and support.

Good academic practice

Different styles

The way a reference is abbreviated into a citation, and the format of the bibliographic details at the end of your work differ, depending which style (or system) you are using. Styles generally fall into two categories and relate to what the in-text citation looks like:

• Author-date e.g. APA, Harvard,
• Numeric e.g. Chicago notes and bibliography (NB) format, OSCOLA and Vancouver.

Some styles also include footnotes, which have a distinct purpose and format depending on the style. Be sure to check course or assignment information on if and how to use footnotes.

Information Services provide access to Cite Them Right online, which offers guidance and examples of how to cite and reference different sources (e.g. journal articles, books, web pages) in different styles. If you are not on the University network, you may need to login in via your institution for full access.

Cite Them Right

Reference managers

Once you are accustomed to referencing (including when you need to do it and what it needs to look like), you could start to use a reference manager. Reference management software can automatically format citations and build a reference list or bibliography for you. They can also allow you to store, annotate and group s references in your own personal database. The Academic Support Librarians have put together a Referencing and reference management subject guide with information on the different tools and training available.

Referencing and reference management

This article was published on 2024-02-26

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References, citations and avoiding plagiarism

How to reference.

• Getting Started
• Assignments
• Independent research
• Understanding a reference
• Managing your references
• Acknowledging and referencing GenAI
• Harvard referencing
• Vancouver referencing
• APA referencing
• Chicago referencing
• OSCOLA referencing
• MHRA referencing
• MLA referencing
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Further help

Whenever you directly quote, paraphrase, reproduce or refer to someone else’s idea or work in your own, you must credit the source. To do so, you need key information from the source itself, which depends on the type and form of the original source. You need to present this information in a particular way depending on the referencing style that you are adopting.

When you are referencing a source in your work, follow these steps

1. Identify the type of source you are referencing

2. determine the information you need from that source., 3. establish how to present it in a reference.

In ' Understanding a reference ' we discussed how to determine types of sources from looking at the citation in a reference list or bibliography. When you are citing references yourself, you will need to determine what the type of source is from looking at the source itself. This is important because different types of source may require different information to be included in the citation.

In some cases the type of source may be obvious, but in others it may be harder to determine. If you are not sure you could try:

• Looking at an example of a reference which you think is the same reference type and seeing if you can identify all the relevant pieces of information to cite that source the same way. Look at examples on our Referencing styles pages .
• Seeing if the type of source is indicated in resources that index the source, e.g. in a library catalogue or bibliographic database.
• Finding an example of where that source appears in the reference list of an existing publication. Can you determine from the citation what type of source it is? See  Understanding a reference for more information.

In order to cite sources correctly, you will need to record the following information, as a minimum, from each source:

• Who created the item? (author, artist)
• What is it called? (the title)
• When was it created?
• If part of a larger work?  What is that called?
• Page numbers of any quotations

An understanding of what is required in a reference for each type of source is important.  You can check this information on the 'How to reference' page for your citation style on our Referencing styles pages.

You need to construct your citations within the text of your assignment or other piece of written work following the appropriate guidelines for the citation style you are using.

Please see our Referencing styles page for:guidance on establishing which referencing style you should use.

See guidelines and examples for commonly used referencing styles on our individual referencing styles pages:

• Referencing styles

I'm using reference management software. Do I still need to know how to reference?

Although reference management software is a really useful tool for citing references automatically, it does not always get it right for several reasons. You should always check your references and need to understand the principles of referencing to be able to do this.

Find out more about reference management software

• Reference management software A guide to the ways reference management software can help you to organise and cite your references and the packages available at UCL.
• << Previous: Managing your references
• Next: Acknowledging and referencing GenAI >>
• Last Updated: Sep 11, 2024 9:01 AM
• URL: https://library-guides.ucl.ac.uk/referencing-plagiarism

Citing references

• Introduction
• Using quotes & paraphrases
• Writing citations

The top five: 1. Book

The top 5: 2. journal article, the top five: 3. chapter in an edited collection, the top five: 4. website, the top five: 5. secondary referencing, archival material, company databases, conference papers, figures (such as charts, diagrams and graphs), generative ai outputs, government or corporate body publication/report, legal and parliamentary documents, literary texts, market research report, newspaper articles, personal communications.

• Radio programme

Sacred texts

Social media, teaching materials (posted on blackboard), technical standards e.g. british standards, youtube videos.

• Compiling a reference list or bibliography
• Different styles & systems of referencing
• Which style does your School/Department use?
• Avoiding unintentional plagiarism
• Using Turnitin to develop your referencing
• Managing your references
• Getting help

Example not here? Try this guide

Citation examples

This page lists the details you will need to include when writing citations for various types of source material. The examples given are in the 'Cite Them Right' version of the Harvard style.

For each example:

• Reference list  refers to the way it would be cited in your reference list or bibliography when using the 'Cite Them Right' Harvard style.
• In-text citation  refers to the way that a work would be cited either in the body of the text or in footnotes when using 'Cite Them Right' Harvard style.
• Referencing styles in use in the University Find out which style your Department uses. Please consult your course handbook for definitive guidance on which style to use.
• Styles of referencing Overview of different referencing styles in use at the University.

Note that, whatever the type of source, the title of the containing volume (i.e. the book, journal, collection etc) should always be marked out, usually by being put in italics but sometimes underlined. Whichever you use, be consistent and use the same formatting throughout your citations.

If the source you want to cite is not listed here consult the following book:

Alternatively ask your Academic Liaison Librarian or a Study Adviser for guidance:

• Contact your Academic Liaison Librarian
• Make an appointment with a Study Adviser

Elements to include:

• Authors or Editors
• Year of publication (in round brackets)
• Title (in italics)
• Edition (if applicable)
• Place published
• Series and volume number (if applicable)

Authored book:

Reference list: Ashbourn, J. (2014)  Biometrics in the new world: the cloud, mobile technology and pervasive identity . 2nd edn. London: Springer .

In-text citation:   (Ashbourn, 2014)

Edited book:

Reference list: Nasta, S. and Stein, M.U. (eds) (2020)  The Cambridge history of Black and Asian British writing . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

In-text citation:   (Nasta and Stein, 2020)

Where an e-book looks like a printed book (usually PDFs) with publication information and page numbers - cite it in the same way as a printed book (above). Where specific pagination details are not available use the information you have e.g. %, loc, chapter/page/paragraph. Also add the DOI or web address to the full reference.

Reference list: Prior, H. (2020) Away with the penguins . Available at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Away-Penguins-Hazel-Prior-ebook (Accessed: 20 September 2021).

In-text citation: (Prior, 2020, 74%)

Reference list: Faulkner, W. (2000) Light in August. Available at: https://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=UniReading&isbn=9781446485521 (Accessed: 10 September 2021).

In-text citation: (Faulkner, 2000, ch. 7, p. 105)

• Elements to include
• Print journals or print journals now online
• Online only journals
• Versions in repositories

The information you include in the reference will depend on whether the journal is published in print (but uploaded for electronic access), only published online, or is a version found in an institutional repository. You can usually tell the difference by looking for page numbers. If each article in the journal begins at page 1, or has no page number at all, it is likely to be an online-only journal. 

• Article title (in single quotation marks)
• Journal title (in italics, capitalise the first letter of each word except linking words)
• Volume number
• Issue number (if present, in round brackets)
• Page numbers or article reference number (Include the page numbers of the whole article when writing your full citation, not just the pages you have referred to)
• DOI or web link for online-only articles

See the examples in the other tabs in this box.

Examples for articles in print copies of journal articles or a print journal accessed online (e.g. on JSTOR)

Traditionally all articles were published in print format in issues which then formed part of a volume and this way of citing them (giving volume, issue and page numbers) has been retained even though most are now available online. There is no need to include the DOI or web address for articles with volume numbers and page numbers or an article reference number even if you accessed them online.

A single author:

Reference list:   Gulddal, J. (2020) 'That deep underground savage instinct: narratives of sacrifice and retribution in Agatha Christie's Appointment with Death',  Textual Practice,  34(11), pp. 1803-1821.

In-text citation: (Gulddal, 2020)

Two authors - include them both separated by 'and' or &:

Reference list:  Thomas, D. and Tian, L. (2021) 'Hits from the Bong: the impact of recreational marijuana dispensaries on property values',  Regional Science and Urban Economics,  87, article number 103655.

In-text citation: (Thomas and Tian, 2021)

Three authors - include them all, separate the first two with a comma and use 'and' or & before the third author:

Reference list:  Adeyeye, S.A.O., Ashaolu, T.J. and Idowu-Adebayo, F. (2022) 'Mycotoxins: food safety, consumer health and Africa's food security',  Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds , 42(8), pp. 5779–5795.

In-text citation: (Adeyeye, Ashaolu and Idowu-Adebayo, 2022)

Four or more authors - include them all in the full reference , but for the in-text citation just state the first author, followed by  et al .

Reference list: Moise, L., Gutiérrez, A.H., Khan, S., Tan, S., Ardito, M., Martin, W.D. & De Groot, A.S. (2020) 'New immunoinformatics tools for swine: designing epitope-driven vaccines, predicting vaccine efficacy, and making vaccines on demand',  Frontiers in Immunology,  11, article number 563362.

In-text citation:   (Moise  et al. , 2020)

Examples for online-only journals

If the journal is ONLY available online, you should include the DOI or the URL in the full reference. Online-only journal articles may not have page numbers or reference numbers, or pagination for each article will begin with '1'. The rules for in-text citations are the same as for print articles.

Article with a DOI:

Reference list:  Mair, A., Poirier, M. and Conway M.A. (2021) 'Age effects in autobiographical memory depend on the measure',  PLoS one,  16(10), article number e0259279. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259279

Article without a DOI:

Reference list: Farrell, L.G. (2013) 'Challenging assumptions about IT skills in higher education'. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education , 6. Available at: http://www.aldinhe.ac.uk/ojs/index.php?journal=jldhe&page=article&op=view&path[]=173&path[]=138 (Accessed: 23 June 2021).

Examples for versions of articles found in repositories

Authors will often put versions of their articles into institutional repositories to comply with funding requirements to make the research Open Access. These may be pre-print versions (before peer review has taken place) or post-print versions, also known as author accepted manuscripts (the final version of the text, following peer review, to be published in the journal).

Pre-print example

Allen, R. J., Horowitz, L. W., Naik, V., Oshima, N., O'Connor, F., Turnock, S., Shim, S., Le Sager, P., Van Noije, T., Tsigaridis, K., Bauer, S. E., Sentman, L. T., John, J. G., Broderick, C., Deushi, M., Folberth, G., Fujimori, S. and Collins, B.  (2021) 'Significant climate benefits from near-term climate forcer mitigation in spite of aerosol reductions'. To be published in Environmental Research Letters  [Preprint]. Available at: http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90004988.html (Accessed: 24 June 2021).

For post-prints which are identical in content to the published version, you should cite the published version instead of citing the repository version.

• Chapter author(s)
• Chapter title in single quotation marks
• 'in' followed by book author(s)/editor(s)
• Book title (in italics)
• Publisher's name
• Chapter pagination

Include the page extent of the whole chapter when writing your full citation. Put just the pages you have referred to in the in-text citation.

Reference list: Singh, H., Khurana, L.K. and Singh, R. (2018) 'Pharmaceutical development', in Vohora, D. and Singh, G. (eds)  Pharmaceutical medicine and translational clinical research , London: Academic Press, pp.33-46.

In-text citation: (Singh, Khurana and Singh, 2018, p.35)

You can find many different types of information on the Internet. Check that the item you are referencing isn't a journal article, book chapter, or another type of publication which you should be citing in a different way.

• Author (person or company that created the webpage)
• Year of publication or last update (in round brackets). Scroll to the bottom of the page but if there is no date put (no date)
• Page title (in italics)
• Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Webpage created by a person

Reference list:  Bologna, C. (2018)  What happens to your mind and body when you feel homesick?  Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/what-happens-mindbody-homesick_us_5b201ebde4b09d7a3d77eee1 (Accessed: 24 June 2021).

In-text citation: (Bologna, 2018)

Webpage created by an organisation

Reference list: World Health Organization (2020) Salt reduction . Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/salt-reduction (Accessed: 24 June 2021).

In-text citation: (World Health Organization, 2020)

Further guidance on referencing websites

Have a look at this Study Advice video tutorial (note that the format of the examples may not match the guidance given above):

• Referencing websites (video) Watch this brief video tutorial for more on the topic.
• Referencing websites (transcript) Read the transcript.

A secondary reference is used when you are referring to a source which you have not read yourself, but have seen quoted or read about in another source.  Where possible, you should always try to read the original of anything you wish to refer to ; otherwise you are relying on the author who cited the reference to have interpreted it correctly and not taken it out of context. Use the reference list at the end of the source you are reading to find details of the reference and search for it using the search boxes below.

Find books using the Enterprise catalogue

Just type in the first author's surname and a few words from the title.

Find journal articles using Summon

Just type in the first author's surname and first part of the article title.

If you can't get hold of the original source you'll need to do a secondary reference and you should make clear that you are not using the original source. Only include the source you have used in your list of references following the guidance for citing that type of publication. 

Different Schools/Departments might have different preferred ways of doing this, so do check any advice you are given or ask your course tutor if you are not sure. Otherwise, this is general guidance.

If the author quotes another source:

F rance (2003, quoted in Weingart et al ., 2018, p. 24) provides evidence that hospitals use internal reporting procedures to identify...

If the author summarises another source

In-text citation: According to France (2003, cited in Weingart  et al. , 2018, p. 24) , hospitals use internal reporting procedures to identify...

In both examples only the full reference for the article by Weingart et al . would be included in the reference list.

• Author, initials.
• Year (in round brackets)
• Title of document.
• Date (if avaialble)
• Collection name
• Document number.
• Name of archive
• Location of archive

In-text citation: ( Author , Year)

Reference list: Becket, S. (1974) Letter from Samuel Beckett to Vera Beckett. 1 January 1974. Letters from Samuel Beckett to Vera Beckett series BC MS 5411 B, University of Reading Special Collections, Reading .

In-text citation: (Beckett, 1974)

Cite the item you have seen - if you have seen an artwork in a book or catalogue, reference that book or catalogue (use our Images examples .) If you have seen the painting or exhibition, cite that as follows; 

Exhibitions

• Title of exhibition (in italics)
• [Exhibition]
• Location. Date(s) of exhibition

If it's an online exhibition, use [Online exhibition] and add;

In-text citation: ( Title of exhibition , Year)

Example: 

Reference list:  Yayoi Kusama: Infinity mirror rooms  (2021) [Exhibition]. Tate Modern, London. 18 May 2021-12 June 2022.

Reference list: Vida Americana: Mexican muralists remake American art, 1925 - 1945 (2020) [Online exhibition] Whitney Museum of American Art. 17 February 2020 - 31 January 2021. Available at: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/vida-americana (Accessed: 23 January 2021).

In-text citation: ( Yayoi Kusama: Infinity mirror rooms , 2021)

In-text citation: ( Vida Americana: Mexican muralists remake American art, 1925 - 1945 , 2020)

Works of art (paintings, drawings, sculptures, installations.)

• Title of artwork (in italics)
• Medium (e.g. Sculpture, Mixed-media, Video installation, Oil on canvas, etc) in square brackets
• (Viewed: date)

OR if you accessed it online, use the URL as the location

• Available at: URL
• (Accessed: date)

In-text citation: ( Artist , Year)

Reference list: Bacon, F. (1943-4)  Three studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion  [Oil and pastel on board]. Tate Britain, London (Viewed: 30 August 2022).

In-text citation: (Bacon ,  1943-4)

OR if accessed online;

Reference list:  Bacon, F. (1943-4)  Three studies for figures at the base of a crucifixion  [Oil and pastel on board]. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/bacon-three-studies-for-figures-at-the-base-of-a-crucifixion-n06171 (Accessed: 1 July 2021). 

• Publishing organisation  
• Year of publication/last updated (in round brackets)  
• Title of report  (in italics)  
•  Available at: URL or DOI (Accessed: date)

Reference list:  Bureau van Dijk (2020)  Tesco plc company report . Available at: http://fame.bvdep.com (Accessed: 27 May 2021). 

In-text citation: (Bureau van Dijk, 2020)

• Author of paper
• Year of publication (in round brackets)
• Title of paper (in single quotation marks)
• Title of conference proceedings: subtitle (in italics)
• Location and date of conference
• Place of publication: Publisher
• Page references for the paper

Reference list:  Jones, L. (2018) 'Polymer blends based on compact disc scrap',  Proceedings of the Annual Technical Conference - Society of Plastics Engineers.  San Francisco, May 6-9. Brookfield, CT: Society of Plastics Engineers. pp.236-254.

In-text citation:  (Jones, 2018)

• Film from streaming service

You should include the following elements:

• Title of film (in italics)
• Year of distribution (in round brackets)
• Directed by
• [Feature film]
• Place of distribution: Distributor

In-text citation: ( Title of film , Year)

Reference list:  Fahrenheit 9/11  (2004) Directed by M. Moore. [Feature film]. Santa Monica, CA: Lions Gate Films.

In-text citation:  ( Fahrenheit 9/11 , 2004)

For examples of how to cite Films in different formats, please see the examples in the Cite them right e-book in the Harvard Referencing chapter, under "Audiovisual recordings...";

• Available at: DOI or Name of service or URL

Reference list:  Fatherhood  (2021) Directed by P. Weitz. Available at: Netflix (Accessed: 28 June 2021).

In-text citation: ( Fatherhood , 2021)

For examples of how to cite Films in different formats like Blu-ray, DVD, Video Cassette, broadcast and TV series, please see the examples in the Cite them right e-book in the Harvard Referencing chapter, under "Audiovisual recordings...";

See our section on YouTube videos:

• Citing YouTube videos

Figures such as graphs, charts and diagrams that you have used from other sources should be referenced in the same way that you would any other material.

Each one should have a caption below it labelled as 'Figure', sequentially numbered, and given a title. When you refer to it in your writing, use the figure number. Give a full citation in the reference list for the source of the image. See the following example:

Example of referring to a figure in a sentence:

The prebiotics can induce direct or indirect effect on the gut-associated epithelial and immune cells (Figure 3).

Full details for reference list:

Pujari, R. and Banerjee, G. (2021) 'Impact of prebiotics on immune response: from the bench to the clinic'.  Immunology and Cell Biology , 99(3), pp. 255-273.

• General guidance
• Public GenAI generated material
• Private GenAI generated material (e.g. ChatGPT)

You should not use AI, in any of its forms, to produce work that you claim is your own. Where you are permitted to use AI services such as ChatGPT, you should declare this and cite it as a source.

• Citing public GenAI content
• Citing private GenAI content e.g. ChatGPT

For more information on the use of Generative AI tools in your studies consult the University's official guidance and the Study Advice guide linked below.

• Using generative AI tools at University University of Reading guidance on using Generative Artificial Intelligence Tools (GenAI), such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, to support your studies.
• Generative artificial intelligence and university study This guide aims to inform and support you as you navigate the fast-pacing, and potentially confusing, landscape of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology currently available. How can you benefit from such technology in your learning whilst studying for your degree, without breaking academic integrity rules or disadvantaging yourself or others in the process? You can use this guide as a departure point for reflection on these questions and further discussion with your peers and tutors.

Cite publicly available AI-generated material in the same way as an electronic version of a source (e.g. an artwork).

• Creator (name of AI)
• Title of work  (in italics)
• Medium (e.g. Digital art) in square brackets

Reference list:  Canva (2024) A plate full of vegetables  [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.canva.com/design/DAGNR8cKAU8/XrRaUYe-xHkGWYfF7IbnrA/view?utm_content=DAGNR8cKAU8&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=editor (Accessed: 8 August 2024). 

In-text citation: (Canva, 2024)

If the AI-generated content is only available to you, for example use of ChatGPT in conversation, cite this as a personal communication and include a description of the AI-generated material in your in-text citation.

Check your assignment brief, or with your module convenor, for guidance on whether you need to provide a copy of the 'conversation' with the AI tool as an appendix to your work.

• Name of AI tool
• Year of communication (in round brackets)
• Medium of communication.
• Receiver of communication.
• Day / month of communication.

Reference list:  OpenAI ChatGPT (2024) ChatGPT response to Jackie Skinner, 8 August.

In-text citation:  When prompted by the author, ChatGPT responded with a summary of the ‘benefits of prebiotics’ (OpenAI ChatGPT, 2024). A copy of this response is in Appendix 1.

• Name of issuing body
• Place of publication (if in print)
• Publisher (if in print)
• Series (in round brackets) - if applicable

If accessed online:

DOI  or  Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Print publication:

Reference list: Environment Agency (2020)  The flood and coastal erosion risk management strategy action plan 2021.  Bristol: Environment Agency.

In-text citation:  (Environment Agency, 2020)

Publication accessed online:

Reference list: Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (2016)  Vitamin D and health.  Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/537616/SACN_Vitamin_D_and_Health_report.pdf (Accessed: 25 August 2021).

In-text citation:  (Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, 2016)

• Image from a book
• Image from an internet collection / social media
• Image you created yourself
• Image used purely for decoration

Images and photographs that you have seen in books, articles and other published material should be cited in the same way you would cite the source of the image. Add the page number and figure / illustration number if there is one from the source item to your in-text citation (use the same terminology they do to number their illustrations, eg. illus., fig., diagram, table, plate etc.) 

• Year of publication
• Page number and illustration / figure / plate number from the source book or article if they use one.)

You may wish to use the title / subject matter of the image in your sentence or caption for the image;

Reference list: Glaser, M. and Ilić, M. (2017) The design of dissent . Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers.

In-text citation: The We Are Bullet Proof poster by Jon Key created a narrative of strength during Black Lives Matter (Glaser and Ilić, 2017, p. 261)

Any image or photograph from a social media site, online image collection or website can be referenced in this way.

• Photographer (if available)
• (Year of publication) in round brackets
• Title of photograph or collection  in italics
• Available at: DOI or URL 

Reference list:  stanitsa_dance (2021)  Cossack dance ensemble . Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/COI_slphWJ_/ (Accessed: 13 June 2021).

In-text citation:  (stanitsa_dance, 2021)

If the image is one you have created yourself, give it a figure number and title in the caption and add (Source: the author) to show that it is your own work. The image below shows how you would do this;

You do not need to include it in the reference list.

If you have reproduced an image in your work and it is purely decorative you should still acknowledge the creator and source but there is no need to include a full reference.

Underneath the image add the caption:

'Image: [creator] via [website image captured from]'.

For example:    Image: Steve Buissine via Piaxabay

If it is a picture you have taken use this format:

'Image by author'.

• Command papers
• Law reports
• Official records published in Hansard
• Papers (House of Commons/House of Lords)
• Statutes (Acts of Parliament)
• Statutory Instruments

Students studying Law

If you are studying Law, you will be expected to use the OSCOLA system of referencing . You will have advice on this from your School, and can find support on the Law guide:

• Referencing guidance for Law students

Students studying other subjects

If you are not studying Law, but need to refer to legal or Parliamentary documents, the examples in this box give acceptable citation formats for commonly used materials in the Harvard style. We have concentrated on key UK legislative sources here. For guidance on citing other materials, and those from other jurisdictions, see the Cite Them Right guide:

For Bills from the House of Commons and House of Lords you should include the following elements:

• Publication year (in round brackets)
• Parliament: House of Commons or Lords
• Place of publication
• If viewed online replace 5 & 6 with Available at: URL (Accessed: date).

Reference list:

Agriculture Bill  (2019) Parliament: House of Commons, Bill no. 2292. London: The Stationery Office.

Agriculture Bill  (2019) Parliament: House of Commons, Bill no. 2292. Available at: https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/2292 (Accessed: 12 July 2022).

In-text citation:

Mr Gove introduced the Agriculture Bill (2019)...

For Command Papers (including Green and White papers) you should include the following elements:

• Title of report of consultation paper (in italics)
• Command Paper number (in round brackets) preceeded by Cmnd:
• If accessed online replace 5 & 6 with DOI or Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Papers accessed online

Department for Work and Pensions (2021) Shaping Future Support: the Health and Disability Green Paper  (Cmnd. 470). Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/shaping-future-support-the-health-and-disability-green-paper (Accessed: 30 July 2021).

(Department for Work and Pensions, 2021)

Papers accessed in print

Department of Social Security (2000) The Pension Credit: Consultation Paper  (Cmnd. 4900). London: HMSO.

(Department of Social Security, 2000)

Law reports (cases) before 2002

Include the following elements:

• Name of case (in single quotation marks)
• Title of law report (in italics)
• Page numbers

'Bibby Cheshire v. Golden Wonder Ltd' (1972) Weekly Law Reports , 1, pp. 1487-1492.

('Bibby Cheshire v. Golden Wonder Ltd', 1972)

Law reports (cases) from 2002

From 2002 cases have been given a neutral citation. This means that it isn't necessary to include details of the printed law report series in which it was published. When using this type of citation you must give details of the publication in which the case was reported or the database/website you used.

• Name of the parties involved in the case (in single quotation marks)
• Court and case number
• Name of database or website (in italics)
• DOI or Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

'Rees v. Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis' (2021) Court of Appeal (Civil Division), case 49.  BAILII . Available at: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2021/49.html (Accessed: 30 July 2021).

('Rees v. Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis', 2021)

Hansard is the official record of the business of the Houses of the UK Parliament. This includes databases, speeches, answers and statements. References to Hansard follow a similar pattern to journal articles. Include the following:

• Name of speaker/author
• Subject of debate or speech (in single quotation marks)
• Hansard: Name of House of Parliament (in italics)
• Debates/written statement/Westminster Hall or petitions (in italics)
• Day and month
• Volume number, column number or page number

Bonnar, S. (2021) ' Ethics and human rights: climate change ', Hansard: House of Commons debates , 14 July, 699, c. 355. Available at: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2021-07-14/debates/FED21B9A-F4C2-4437-8CFD-3A08E5929C48/EthicsAndHumanRightsClimateChange (Accessed: 30 July 2021).

Steve Bonnar MP (2021) asked if the UK Government would create a climate justice fund.

To cite papers from the House of Parliament or House of Lords include the following elements:

• Parliament, House of...
• Title (in italics) including the Session dates if appropriate.
• Session dates and Paper number (in round brackets) preceeded by HC or HL as appropriate. Note that to distinguish House of Lords papers from the House of Commons paper with the same number the Paper number is enclosed in an extra set of round brackets e.g. (HL 2002-2003, (254))
• Place of publication:

Parliament, House of Commons (2004) The English national stadium project at Wembley, Session 2003-2004. (HC 2003-2004, 254). London: The Stationery Office.

(Parliament, House of Commons, 2004) 

When referencing Acts of Parliament you should use the short title of the Act and year it was enacted. It is not necessary to include the year in brackets as it would duplicate the year in the title. Include the following elements:

• Title of Act - including year and chapter (in italics)
• Country/Jurisdiction (only required if referencing legislation from more than one country)

Food Safety Act 1990, c. 16 . Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1990/16/contents (Accessed: 20 July 2021).

As stipulated in the Food Safety Act 1990...

When citing Statutory Instruments (SIs) include the following information:

• Name/Title and year  (in italics)
• SI year and number (in round brackets)

Children (Performances and Activities) (Wales) Regulations 2015 (SI 2015/1757). Available at:  https://www.legislation.gov.uk/wsi/2015/1757/contents/made (Accessed: 23 July 2021).

Referring to the  Children (Performances and Activities) (Wales) Regulations 2015...

• Lines within plays
• Line of a poem within an anthology

These examples use Harvard style. If you are studying in English Literature , you will have separate guidance from your department on using MHRA style for referencing. See the link below for more information:

• English Literature citing references guidance Guidance on using the MHRA style for students studying English literature.

To cite a novel use the same format as for an authored book

• Citing an authored book
• Title  (in italics)
• Edition information 

Reference list: Shakespeare, W. (2008) Twelth night or what you will. Edited by K. Elam. London: Cengage.

In-text citation: (Shakespeare, 2008, 1.3: 13).

• Author of the poem
• Title of poem in single quotation marks
• 'in' followed by book author(s)/editor(s)/compiler(s) 
• Book title  (in italics)
• Poem pagination

Include the page extent of the whole poem when writing your full citation. Put just the pages you have referred to in the in-text citation.

Reference list: Orr, J. (2002) 'The dying African', in Basker, J. (ed.) Amazing grace: an anthology of poems about slavery, 1660-1810 . New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 533-535.

In-text citation: (Orr, 2002, p. 533)

• Name of author or issuing body
• Title of map (in italics)
• Sheet number or tile (if applicable)
• Scale (if available)
• Series or section in Digimap if appropriate (in round brackets)

Available at DOI  or URL (Accessed: date)

Reference list: Ordnance Survey (2012)  Reading & Windsor: Henley-on-Thames & Bracknell , sheet   175, 1:50 000. Southampton: Ordnance Survey (Landranger series).

In-text citation: (Ordnance Survey, 2012)

Reference list:  Dower, J. (1832)  A map shewing the parliamentary representation of England & Wales, according as the same are settled by the Reform Act passed 7th June 1832,  1 inch to 35 miles. London: J. Gardner.

In-text citation: (Dower, 1832)

Reference list:  Ordnance Survey (2020)  Whiteknights , Reading,  1:10 000. (Digimap Ordnance Survey) Available at http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/ (Accessed: 20 June 2021).

In-text citation:  (Ordnance Survey, 2020)

If you have any queries about citing maps, contact your Academic Liaison Librarian

• Organisation / author.
• Title of report (in italics)
• Available at: URL (if you have to login with a username and password to access the report, then use the homepage of the database or a permalink) (Accessed: date)

Reference list: Mintel (2019)  Sports and energy drinks - UK.   Available at: http://www.academic.mintel.com (Accessed: 5th July 2021).

In-text citation: (Mintel, 2019)

• Articles with an author (byline)
• Articles without an author
• Author’(s) surname and initials
• Title of article (in single quotation marks)
• Title of newspaper (in italics - capitalize first word of each word in title except for linking words such as and, of, the, for)
• Edition if required (in round brackets)
• Section and Page reference if available

If accessed online: DOI or  Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Printed article

Reference list: Graham, K. (2020) 'The biggest tree and the smallest axe',  The Guardian , 31 August, pp.21-22.

In-text citation: (Graham, 2020)

Online article

Reference list: Pinkstone, J. (2021) 'Mountains set the pace of evolution, not climate change, say scientists', The Daily Telegraph , 2 September. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/02/mountains-set-pace-evolution-not-climate-change-say-scientists/ (Accessed: 3 September 2021).

In-text citation: (Pinkstone, 2021)

• Title of newspaper  (in italics - capitalize first word of each word in title except for linking words such as and, of, the, for)
• Page reference if available

Note: if you are using the online version of a newspaper, which often varies from the print edition, you would omit page reference and instead include Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Printed article:

Reference list: The Daily Telegraph (2021) 'Walking on wooden floors could help to generate power', 2 September, p. 12.

In-text citation: ( The Daily Telegraph , 2021, p. 12)

Online article:

Reference list: The Guardian  (2021) 'We cannot allow inequality to increase within the education system', 2 September. Available at: https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/inequality-education-exams-schools-private-b1900252.html (Accessed: 4 September 2021).

In-text citation: ( The Guardian , 2021)

• Inventor(s)
• Authorising organisation e.g. UK Intellectual Property Office, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
• Patent number
• If online - Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Online patent

Reference list: Cox, A. and Lee, J. (2021) Water remediation system.  UK Intellectual Property Office Patent no. GB2591282A. Available at: https://worldwide.espacenet.com/ (Accessed: 2 September 2021).

In-text citation: (Cox and Lee, 2021)

Printed patent

Reference list: Kruger, L.H. (1989)  Degradation of granular starch.  US Patent no.: US4838944.

In-text citation: (Kruger, 1989)

If you have obtained information which is not publically accessible you should cite it as a personal communication. This can include conversations taking place in person, by phone or by online means (such as Zoom, Teams, Skype). It can also be written communications such as letters, email, text messages, WhatsApp messages, SnapChat messages etc.

Include the following information:

• Sender / speaker / author

Reference list: Chen , B. (2022) Conversation with Lucy Atkins, 30 July

In-text citation: (Chen, 2022)

Reference list: Garcia, C. (2022) WhatsApp message to Anna Jaworska, 12 July

In-text citation: (Garcia, 2022)

• Radio programme online
• Title of programme (in italics)
• Year of broadcast (in round brackets)
• Radio station
• Date of transmission (DD Month) and time

In-text citation: ( Programme title , Year)

Reference list: Kermode and Mayo's Film Review  (2021) BBC Radio 5 Live, 25 June, 14:30.

In-text citation:   Presenters and Wittertainees say hello to Jason Isaacs ( Kermode and Mayo's Film Review , 2021)

• Year of original broadcast (in round brackets)
• Day and month of original transmission (if available)
• Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date)

Bibliography:  Elvenquest  (2011) BBC Radio 4, 7 November. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b016vn8f (Accessed: 2 July 2021).

In-text citation: ( Elvenquest, 2011)

• Title (not in italics)
• Translator and edition, if required (in round brackets)
• publisher (if in print)

Reference list: The Holy Bible: new international version (1981) London: Hodder and Stoughton,

In-text citation:  (The Holy Bible, 1981, John 14: 27)

Reference list: The Qur'an: a new translation (2015) (Translated by M. A. S. Abdel Haleem.) Oxford: Oxford University Press

In-text citation: (The Qur'an, 2015, 20: 26)  

Reference list: The Torah: the five books of Moses (1962) Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America.

In-text citation: (The Torah,1962, Devarim 4: 2)

• General guidance: posts
• General guidance: pages

There are many different forms of social media.  Here is some general guidance for citing specific social media posts.

• Author of post  
• Year posted (in round brackets)  
• Title or description of post (in single quotation marks) 
• [Name of platform]  
• Day/month posted  
• Available at: URL (Accessed: date) 

Reference list: Financial Times (2021) ‘The London luxury property market was slowed down by the pandemic, but it is likely to bounce back soon’. [Facebook] 2 July. Available at: https://www.facebook.com/financialtimes/posts/10159435194305750 (Accessed: 6 July 2021). 

In-text citation: (Financial Times, 2021) 

There are many different forms of social media.  Here is some general guidance for citing a social media page, rather than an individual post.

• Author (if available; if not use title)  
• Year site was last updated (in round brackets)  
• Title of site (in italics)  
• [Name of platform]  

Reference list: University of Reading Library (2022) [Facebook]. Available at:  https://www.facebook.com/universityofreadinglibrary (Accessed: 20 July 2022). 

In text: (University of Reading Library, 2022) 

• Year tweet posted (in round brackets)
• Title or description of Tweet
• Day/month tweet posted

Reference list: Harvard Business Review (2021) ‘In this large-scale study of military performance measures, negative words — like selfish, passive, and scattered — were much more frequently applied to women’. [Twitter] 4 July.  Available at: https://twitter.com/HarvardBiz/status/1411692276888317952 (Accessed: 6 July 2021). 

In-text citation: (Harvard Business Review, 2021) 

When citing an Instagram Post, please use the guidance below.  When citing a photograph or image specifically, please see our citing an image from social media guidance .

• Author (Instagram account/poster)
• Year posted (in round brackets)
• Title of post in single quotation marks
• [Instagram]
• Day/month of posted message

Reference list:  University of Reading (2022) 'Say hello to Reading's Climate Stripes bus!' [Instagram] 27 July. Available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/CghAmV4Mre-/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link (Accessed: 2 August 2022). 

In-text citation: (University of Reading, 2022)

Table taken directly from another source

Tables should be sequentially numbered in your work with the title above the table - as in the following example in the Harvard referencing style. When referring to the table in your writing use the table number. 

A citation should be included at the end of the table title and a full citation added to your reference list for the source. 

Example of referring to a table in a sentence:

The macronutrient content of the diets used in the study is shown in Table 2. 

Mitchell, N.S. and Ard, J.D. (2021) 'Weight loss, lifestyle, and dietary factors in cardiovascular diseases in African Americans and Hispanics', in Ferdinand, K.C., Taylor, H.A. and Rodriguez, C.J. (eds)  Cardiovascular disease in racial and ethnic minority populations . Cham: Humana Press, pp. 167-182.

Table you have compiled yourself from multiple sources

If you are taking information from multiple sources and compiling your own table you still need to acknowledge those sources. 

Once again your table will need to be numbered in sequence with other tables in your work and have a title. For example:

Table 1: Turnover of Tesco PLC 2017-2021

You can then add a, b, c etc next to the statistics in the table (or the columns depending on how your data is arranged, see the example linked below) and then add a matching lettered list of citations for the sources at the bottom of the table:

Sources: a Tesco PLC (2017); b Tesco PLC (2018) etc

 Then in your reference list the end of your work, you would add the full reference for each source. For example:

Tesco PLC (2017)  Annual report and financial statement . Available at:  https://www.tescoplc.com/investors/reports-results-and-presentations/reports-archive/  (Accessed: 10 November 2022).

Tesco PLC (2018) Annual report and financial statement . Available at:  https://www.tescoplc.com/investors/reports-results-and-presentations/reports-archive/  (Accessed: 10 November 2022).

 See the following example where a & b has been added to the columns, as everything in that column has come from the same source:

• Example of citing multiple sources used in a table

The other option is to arrange it with the brief citations in the table. See Table 1 in the following example. The full references would go into your reference list at the end of the work in the same way as Method 1.

• How to cite sources in a table (Method 2) This example is in the APA referencing style but the same approach would work with Harvard.

It is strongly recommended that you use published sources such as books and journal articles in your assignments instead of materials posted by academics on Blackboard. Always check with the academic who has set the assignment whether you are allowed to include citations for their materials in your work.

PowerPoint presentations

• Author or lecturer
• Title of presentation (in single quotation marks)
• [Presentation slides]
• Module code: module title (in italics)
• Institution name
• Available at: https://bb.reading.ac.uk (Accessed: date)

Reference list: Hartl, F. (2022) 'Advanced electrochemical and electroanalytical methods' [Presentation slides]. CH4AN1: Advanced analytical techniques for the molecular sciences . University of Reading. Available at: https://bb.reading.ac.uk (Accessed: 6 July 2022).

In-text citation: (Hartl, 2022)

Recorded lecture

• Year (in round brackets)
• Title of lecture (in single quotation marks)
• Medium [in square brackets]
• Institution

Reference list: Bull, S. (2021) 'Anatomy of taste' [Recorded lecture]. FB3QSF: Advanced food quality and sensory . University of Reading. 21 February. Available at: https://bb.reading.ac.uk (Accessed: 1 July 2021).

In-text citation: (Bull, 2021)

• Name of authorising organisation
• Number and title of standard (in italics)
• Available at: URL (if online)
• Accessed: date (if online)

Print standard:

Reference list: British Standards Institution (2020)  BS ISO 21543:2020: Milk and milk products - guidelines for the application of near infrared spectroscopy.  London: British Standards Institution.

In-text citation: (British Standards Institution, 2020)

Online standard

Reference list: British Standards Institution (2020)  BS ISO 21543:2020: Milk and milk products - guidelines for the application of near infrared spectroscopy. Available at: https://bsol.bsigroup.com (Accessed: 6 July 2021).

In-text citation:  (British Standards Institution, 2020)

• Name of author
• Year of submission (in round brackets)
• Title of thesis (in Italics)
• Degree statement (eg PhD thesis, MSc thesis, MA thesis)
• Name of the University or degree awarding body
• If accessed online: DOI or Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Print thesis

Reference list: Lalani, B. (201 7)  Economics and adoption of conservation agriculture in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.  PhD thesis. Reading University.

In-text citation: (Lalani, 2017)

Online thesis

Reference list:  Alarifi, S.N.M. (2017)  In vitro studies on gum acacia and its potential as a prebiotic in an elderly population.  PhD thesis. University of Reading. Available at: https://centaur.reading.ac.uk/76135/ (Accessed: 11 July 2022).

In-text citation:  (Alarifi, 2017)

• Author (name or person/organisation posting the video)
• Year video posted (in round brackets)
• Title of film or programme (in italics)
• Date uploaded (if available)

If you need to refer to a specific point in a video, use the format minutes:seconds in your in-text citation to note the time code e.g. (TEDx Talks, 2018, 2:34).

Reference list:  TEDx Talks (2018)  The Power of an entrepreneurial mindset: Bill Roche.  20 March. Available at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ihs4VFZWwn4  (Accessed: 5 July 2021).

In-text citation:  (TEDx Talks, 2018)

• << Previous: Writing citations
• Next: Compiling a reference list or bibliography >>
• Last Updated: Aug 29, 2024 2:55 PM
• URL: https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/citing-references

Covid-19 Information for students and staff on Library services and facilities, opening hours and the safe use of the Library.

The University recommends the use of face coverings in busy or crowded areas.

Vancouver Referencing: Guide

• Artwork - Not Reproduced
• Artwork - Reproduced
• Books with author(s)
• Books with editor(s)
• British National Formulary
• British Pharmacopoeia
• Chapters of Edited Books
• Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
• Command Papers
• Committee Reports
• Commission Reports
• Company Reports or Accounts
• Computer Games
• Computer Programmes
• Conference Papers
• Confidential Material
• Discussion Lists
• Dissertations
• European Directives
• European Regulations
• Exhibition Catalogues
• Foreign Language Materials
• Graphs, Images, Illustrations, Photos - Not Reproduced
• Graphs, Images, Illustrations, Photos - Reproduced
• Journal articles
• Generative AI
• NICE Guidelines
• Newspaper Articles
• Personal Communications
• Policy Documents
• PowerPoint presentations
• Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN)
• Statutory Instruments
• Unpublished Works
• Videos (Online)

Referencing and RefWorks

Vancouver Referencing

This guide is for the newly refreshed Vancouver style that is in use from September 2024. If you are looking for the older information and templates please look at the RGU Vancouver Guide .

Referencing is a critical element in any academic assignment. During your studies at RGU you will be required to reference your sources according to the Library guidelines. .

Remember that you need to follow the examples exactly - using capital letters, italics and the correct punctuation as shown in the examples.

Referencing has changed!

This guide is for the newly refreshed Vancouver style that is in use from September 2024. If you are looking for the older information and templates please look at the Classic Vancouver Guide .

Most students should use the refreshed guidance and templates. Students who are in their final year, or students on one-year courses that started in January 2024, can usually choose which version to use. Please check with your course leader or lecturers if you need advice on which version of Vancouver you should use.

Why Reference?

Plagiarism is theft of intellectual property. You can avoid accusations of plagiarism by referencing all the sources of information you have used in assignments.

The University has a very strict policy against plagiarism and dealing with students accused of it. This guide explains the Vancouver style of referencing. Following the information in this guide will help you to avoid any risk of plagiarism.

For more information on academic honesty and plagiarism, see RGU Study Skills' guide to Academic Honesty (via Moodle) .

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is when you take someone else's ideas, theories, opinions, etc. and write them in your own words. This is great because you can show your understanding of the concept, but that doesn't mean it is your own original idea. So, you must reference the originator of the idea. If you don't, it will constitute plagiarism.

Directly Quoting

This is when you copy the exact words from a book, journal article, website, etc. It’s ok to include quotations here and there in your assignments, but try not to overdo it, as too many quotations might get frowned upon. It is your work as well! A few things to keep in mind:

• short quotations can be contained in your paragraph and should always be “enclosed within quotation marks”
• longer quotations should appear as a separate paragraph and do not require quotation marks
• don’t forget to reference all your quotations!
• the citation after the quote will have to mention the exact page where you took the extract from. The exception is when there are no pages, like webpages or Kindle books, where page numbers vary depending on text size.

All quotations need to be referenced properly.  If they are not this constitutes plagiarism .

The Stages of Referencing

• Reference List
• Bibliography
• appears at the end of your work giving the full reference details of works from which you have quoted or to which you have referred in your text
• is arranged numerically by the citation numbers in your text and should be headed References
• can sometimes be called an Endnote in different instructional guides

Take a look at a sample Reference List

• appears at the end of your work following the Reference list and should be headed Bibliography .
• includes anything which you have read but not referred to or quoted in your text, e.g. background reading. The Bibliography will contain different items than those included in the Reference list
• is arranged alphabetically by author. If it contains more than one work by the same author they are arranged alphabetically by title.

Take a look at a sample Bibliography

The citation is inserted into your text where you have quoted from, or referred to, someone else's work.

• consists of a number either in brackets (1) [1] or in superscript¹
• the numbers run consecutively throughout your work
• if you quote from, or refer to, the same source more than once, use the same citation number each time.
• if you have quoted directly from an item that has page numbers (e.g. a book or a journal article) you should include the page number after the citation number.

There are some examples of citations in the table below and more can be found in the Templates for different media types.

Further support for Vancouver referencing

If you're not sure which template is right for your source or if you're struggling to identify the information you need then you can email the team for support. Remember to tell us that you're using Vancouver as most students use Harvard. We can also take a look at your reference list and provide some guidance but please give us at least one week's notice and ensure you've helped yourself as much as possible prior to sending us your list. This includes looking at the templates and ensuring that you have adhered to these as much as possible.

The Library don't offer a proof-reading or correction service . As referencing is a marked part of most assignments your lecturers are expecting to see your own work. We may be able to highlight areas that you need to look at and point you in the direction of the correct templates to use.

Appointments, workshops and email support are available during the Academic Support Team working hours of Monday-Friday 9am-5pm.

Appointment and email response times will depend on team availability and demands on the service. If you have an urgent deadline then please make us aware of that when you contact us and we’ll do our best to assist. The more notice you give us the better!

• Scan a portion of your reference list, provide useful comments where we notice issues, and point out areas requiring improvement. However, we don't carry out a full proofreading or correction service and we can't write references for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Referencing a source that has referenced something else.

This is called secondary referencing .

You must make the situation clear in your text, eg: Chandler, in a letter quoted by Hiney (1), claimed that most people could do without literature “far more easily than they could do without coffee or whisky”.

1. Hiney T. Raymond Chandler: a biography. London: Vintage; 1998.

Citing several sources to support the same point

If you need to cite more than once source at the same time then you should include the number for each source in the citation. List them in numerical order. e.g. (1, 2) or (6, 12, 15)

When citing more than two sources, which are numbered consecutively, use a hyphen instead of a comma (2-4).

Finding when a webpage was last updated

When you are referencing webpages, or other online resources, using Vancouver, you should include a date when the webpage or online resource was last updated - as well as the date cited (the date you looked at it).

On some pages, for example BBC News online reports, a date when a page was last updated may be given at the top of the page.

If no date is given at the top of a page, scroll down to the bottom of the web page - you may find a copyright or "last updated" date there.

If you cannot find a full date for when the page was last updated anywhere but can find a month and year or just a year use that information instead.

If you cannot even find a year, but the page you are looking at, and the rest of the website, seems to be continually updated and there are no indications that the page is older, you can use the current year as your date last updated. If you do not think the page has been recently updated you may use n.d. (meaning no date).

How many references should I use?

Unless you have been specifically told by your marker, or it is noted in the assignment requirements, that you require a certain number of references, there is no exact answer to this question.

The number of references will be determined by the nature of the assignment, what you have written and the sources you have consulted.  If you have concerns about the number of sources you have used we would suggest you seek guidance from whoever is marking your assignment.

Can I get help with referencing?

If you need further assistance, or have a particular item you are struggling to reference, you may wish to come along to one of our drop-in sessions . Our timetable provides details of the drop-in times.

Alternatively, please feel free to contact us by email on [email protected] . Remember to tell us that you are using the Vancouver style of referencing as most students use Harvard.

• Next: Examples: A-C >>
• Last Updated: Sep 9, 2024 5:33 PM
• URL: https://library.rgu.ac.uk/vancouver-essentials

London Metropolitan University Library Guides

Referencing, academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism: referencing, what is referencing, what referencing style should i use, how do i reference, guidance for each referencing style, referencing faqs.

• Cite Them Right Online
• Academic integrity and misconduct
• Avoiding plagiarism
• Zotero: reference management software
• Help and support

Learn to reference with Cite Them Right

Cite Them Right   is an online platform that can help you with your referencing.  It provides clear guidance on how to reference with lots of examples.  

Referencing is a way of acknowledging that you have used the ideas and written material belonging to another author. It shows that you have undertaken an appropriate literature search and that you have carried out appropriate reading in order to show your knowledge, understanding and analysis of your topic.

By referencing your sources you are demonstrating to your tutors the breadth of your research and reinforcing your own arguments. Using a wide range of sources is excellent academic practice and can improve your marks.

All information, ideas and quotations from anything you have consulted in order to write an assignment at University must be correctly referenced. Correct referencing enables your tutors and assessors to access your source material.

Particular referencing styles are preferred by particular academic disciplines because they work better with the kind of texts that are most commonly used in that discipline.

The University supports four main referencing styles, Harvard, MHRA, APA and OSCOLA. 

With a few exceptions, most London Met courses use Harvard.

• Courses in the School of Art, Architecture and Design:  MHRA or Harvard
• Courses in the School of Computing and Digital Media:  Harvard or IEEE (optional style)
• Courses in the School of Human Sciences : Harvard or Vancouver (optional style)
• Law : OSCOLA
• Music courses in the School of Computing and Digital Media : MHRA or Harvard
• Psychology : APA

Find guidance for each of the styles below.

• a ' Learn how to reference anything ' tutorial
• video guides
• citation and referencing examples for a huge range of sources- follow the examples to create your own

Log into Cite Them Right via your institution and search for London Metropolitan University to log in off campus.

• They can advise you on avoiding plagiarism and referencing correctly.
• Vancouver (optional style)
• IEEE (optional style)

Most of the courses at London Met use Harvard, with a few exceptions.

• Harvard Referencing- quick guide 2024 Harvard referencing can vary in format. This guide provides examples based on the style in the book Cite Them Right.
• Cite Them Right - Harvard basics
• Cite Them Right - citing different sources using Harvard
• Cite Them Right - MHRA 4th basics
• Cite Them Right - citing different sources using MHRA 4th
• Official MHRA Style Guide
• MHRA referencing tutorial by Cardiff University
• MHRA referencing tutorial by the University of Leeds
• APA style and grammar guidelines
• Cite Them Right - APA basics
• Cite Them Right - citing different sources using APA
• APA referencing video tutorials
• OSCOLA Quick Reference Guide
• OSCOLA Referencing Complete Guide
• Cite Them Right - OSCOLA basics
• Cite Them Right - citing different sources using OSCOLA
• OSCOLA Referencing A-Z Examples Created by Cardiff University Library Service.
• OSCOLA Referencing Online Tutorial Created by Cardiff University Library Service.
• OSCOLA Homepage From the Oxford Faculty of Law.
• European Case Law Identifier
• Cite Them Right - Vancouver basics
• Cite Them Right - citing different sources using Vancouver
• Guide to using the Vancouver style (Imperial College)
• IEEE Referencing Guide (IEEE)
• Cite Them Right - IEEE basics
• Cite Them Right - citing different sources using IEEE
• IEEE guide (University of York)
• Next: Cite Them Right Online >>

• Aberystwyth University
• Referencing & Plagiarism Awareness
• 8. Referencing Examples

Referencing & Plagiarism Awareness: 8. Referencing Examples

• 1. Introduction
• 2. What is referencing and citation?
• 3. How to insert citations into your assignment.
• 4. What is plagiarism?
• 5. Referencing Artificial Intelligence Outputs
• 6. Consequences of plagiarism
• 7. Plagiarism in the news
• 9. Reference management tools
• 10. Submitting your work using Turnitin
• 11. How to interpret your Turnitin similarity report
• 12. Further help

Referencing Style Examples

Aberystwyth University does not promote the use of a universal referencing style as some styles are better suited to a particular subject discipline than others. Individual Departments will therefore have a preferred referencing style.

Select the relevant examples below for your Departmental referencing style.  

• Check your module handbook for further advice on referencing.
• Decide whether to create your references manually or to use a reference management tool .
• If you need any help or guidance contact your librarian at:  [email protected]

Further Tips:

• Look at the marking scheme for your assignment - how many marks can you gain for your reference list and what are the criteria you need to meet?
• Ensure you have allowed enough time in your assignment planning for the reading and the referencing.
• Read widely: start with the Aspire reading list in your Blackboard module and develop your subject searching skills during your course.
• Organise and save your references while you are researching for your essay.

Art - MLA 8th edition (Modern Language Association)

• Introduction
• Chapter from book
• Art work in exhibition/collection

A detailed description of how to use MLA 8th edition has been produced by the School of Art which should be referred to by students in that department.  This guide provides examples of commonly cited sources.

The MLA quiz at the end of this LibGuide is based on the School of Art's stylesheet.

In text citations should include the author's name and page reference.  Do not include date or 'pp.'

Examples of In-text citations:

• On the subject of identity, Andrews remarks : ‘ Landscape in art tells us, or asks us to think about, where we belong ’ ( 8 ).
• Th e ‘ Gothic ... is a genr e that glorifies transgression ’ ( Cohen 883) .

Creating the Works Cited list: When referencing a book follow this order:

• Authors; surname followed by first name/initials
• Title, in italics
• Year of publication

Example: Book, one author:

Works cited list:

Cruise, Colin. Pre-­‐Raphaelite Drawing . Thames and Hudson, 2011.

Heuser, Harry. Immaterial Culture: Literature, Drama and the American Radio Play, 1929 -­‐ 1954 . Peter Lang, 2013

Meyrick, Robert. John Elwyn . Ashgate, 2000

Book, more than one author:

Martineau, Jane, et al. Shakespeare in Art . Merrell, 2003.

Meyrick, Robert, and Harry Heuser. The Prints of Stanley Anderson RA . Royal Academy of Arts, 2015

In text citations follow same pattern as physical book should include the author's name and page reference.  Do not include date or 'pp.'

Creating the Works Cited list: When referencing an e book  follow this order:

• DOI (if available), otherwise URL or permalink
• Date Accessed.

Example: eBook, one author:

Harvey, John. Image of the Invisible : the Visualization of Religion in the Welsh Nonconformist Tradition. University of Wales Press, 1999. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=27384&site=ehost-live. Accessed 30 April 2020. 

When referencing a chapter or section from an edited book, follow this order:

• Author of the chapter/section. 
• 'Title of the chapter/section' (in single quotation marks)
• Title of the book (in italics)
• Editor of book (in format 'edited by...'). 
• Date of publication
• Page reference

Example: Chapter from a book

In text-citation:

(Harvey 55)

(Heuser 29)

Harvey, John. “The Ghost in the Machine: Spirit and Technology.” Ashgate Research Companion to Paranormal Cultures, edited by Olu Jenzen and Sally R. Munt, Routledge, 2013, pp. 51-64.

Heuser, Harry. “‘Please don’t whip me this time’: The Passions of George Powell of NantEos.” Queer Wales, edited by Huw Osborne, U of Wales P, 2016, pp. 45-64.

Note: Provide the entire page range for the essay/article. In your essay, state only the page(s) from which the quotation or paraphrase was derived. While the author of the essay is mentioned first, the editors of the book in which the essay appears are named after the title of the book.

When referencing a journal article, the entry in the works cited should include:

• "Title of Article." 
• TItle of journal ( in italics )

Example: journal article (print)

Heuser, Harry. “Bigotry and Virtue: George Powell and the Question of Legacy.” New Welsh Reader, no. 110, Winter 2015, pp. 18-29.

 If you used an online database instead of a physical library such as Hugh Owen to retrieve the source, identify the database, URL/DOI/permalink and state the access date (see example below). The access date must be the day on which you retrieved the article.

Example: journal article (electronically accessed)

Ward, Maryanne C. “A Painting of the Unspeakable: Henry Fuseli’s The Nightmare and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.” Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association, vol. 33, no. 1, 2000, pp. 20-31. JSTOR , www.jstor.org/ stable/1315115. Accessed 30 Sept. 2016.

References to art works in your works cited list should include:

• Artist's name
• Title of artwork ( In italics )
• location of artwork (in collection or exhibition.  If in a temporary exhibition, note exhibition title in italics and exhibition dates. See examples below).

Croft, Paul. Minokami Idol . Lithograph on hot pressed rag paper, 1993, School of Art Gallery and Museum, Aberystwyth University.

Taeuber-Arp, Sophie. Tête Dada . Painted wood with glass beads on wire, 1920, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Whall, Miranda. Untitled. (Birds on my Head #2) . German etch on watercolour paper, 2011, Shifting Subjects: Contemporary Women Telling the Self through the Visual Arts , Abbey Walk Gallery, Grimsby, 2 Sept.-31 Oct. 2015.

Note: The medium may be omitted in the Works Cited entry if it is mentioned in the essay or stated in a caption for a reproduction of the object in question. When a work of art/object of visual culture is discussed in an essay, the medium should be identified. 

When referencing a web page, produced by an organisation or individual follow this order:

Example: Web page (no named author)

• Title of web page "in speech marks"
• Website/publication
• Access date

In text citation:

("Landscape Painting in Chinese Art.")

“Landscape Painting in Chinese Art.” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/clpg/hd_clpg.htm. Accessed 20 Sept. 2016.

The University guidelines state that "presenting work generated by AI as if it were your own" is a form of plagiarism and therefore constitutes unacceptable academic practice. Full details on the University's guidelines on unacceptable practice can be found  here.  

Guidance on the ethical and effective use of AI for learning is found in our LibGuide  AI and the Library

Business - Harvard Style

• Book (print)
• Chapter from edited book
• Article (Print)
• Article (Online)
• Thesis or Dissertation
• Conference papers
• Maps: Print, Digimap and Google Earth
• Refinitiv Workspace
• Newspaper article (Print)
• Newspaper article (Online)
• Students' own work
• Images (Print)
• Images (Online)
• Social media posts
• Et al. (three or more authors)

The quiz at the end of this guide is based on the examples given here but there are different versions of Harvard so always use your department’s guidance.

Business students can find their Departmental referencing guide on Blackboard. 

Use each tab to discover examples of how to correctly acknowledge different sources in your assignments.

When referencing a printed book, follow this order:

• Author/editor.  (Surname, followed by initials)
• (Year of publication). (in brackets)
• Title . (in italics)
• Edition. (don't include if it's the first edition)
• Place of publication: publisher
• Series and volume number (if available)

Example: Book (one author)

In -text citation

(Affelt, 2019)

Affelt (2019) suggests that ...

If a direct quote:

If a direct quotation (include the page number):

'It is unlikely that those sharing fake news content are carefully considering their audience' (Affellt, 2019, p. 35).

Reference list

Affelt, A. (2019). All that's not fit to print. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.

Example: Book (two authors) 

If the work has two authors, include all names in your citation..

In-text citation

(Pears and Shields, 2013)

According to Pears and Shields (2013)...

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2013). Cite them right: the essential referencing guide . London: Palgrave.

When writing your assignments, it is important to adhere to the guidelines outlined in your department's handbooks on referencing.

Example: Book (three or more authors)

If a book has three or more authors, only the first author's name should be listed in-text followed by ' et al. ', meaning 'and others'. However, all authors should be listed in the reference list in the order they are credited in the original work.

You must place a full stop at the end of al. and italicise: et al. 

(Dym  et al. 2009)

This was discussed by Dym et al . (2009)…

Dym, C.L., Little, P., Orwin, E.J., and Spjut, R.E. (2009). Engineering design: a project-based introduction . 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 

Example: Book (no author)

You may come across a book with no recognisable author. When the name of an author or authoring body is not shown, cite the reference by its title and the year.  Use the first few words if the title is too long. 

To be made up of:

• Title ( in italics).
• Year of publication (in round brackets).
• Edition (only include the edition number if it is not the first edition).
• Place of publication: publisher.
• Series and volume number (where relevant) .

I n-text citation:

(Medicine in old age, 1985)

It is maintained that medicine has greatly improved ( Medicine in old age, 1985)…

Reference list:

Medicine in old age (1985) 2 nd ed. London: British Medical Association.

If the ebook has page numbers and publication details, then use the book format to reference.

Follow this order;

• Author/editor. (Surname, followed by initials)
• (Year of publication) (in brackets)
• Title (in italics)
• Series and volume number (if available).

See the Harvard style 'Book (print)' examples on the previous tab.

If you refer to a chapter of a book by a contributor in an edited book, you cite just the contributor, not t he editor.

• Author of the chapter/section. (Surname, followed by initials)
• Edited by (first name, last name)

in-text citation

(Briassoulis, 2004)

Research by Briassoulis (2004) highlighted the fact...

Briassoulis, H., (2004). 'Crete: endowed by nature, privileged by geography, threatened by tourism?' in  Coastal mass tourism: diversification and sustainable development in Southern Europe . Edited by Bill Bramwell, pp. 48-62. Clevedon: Channel View.

If there is more than one contributing author who wrote the chapter, you must list all authors in the reference list at the end of your work e.g. Jones, A., Jones, B. and Jones, C., (2010) etc...

When referencing an article found in a print journal, follow this order:

• Author. (Surname, followed by initials)  Tip: If multiple authors - follow the guidance on the Book (print) tab.
• (Year of publication). (in round brackets).
• 'Title of article', (in single quotation marks).
• Title of journal, (in italics – capitalise first letter of each word in title, except for linking words such as and, of, the, for).
• Just volume number (no issue num ber):  Innovation, 19, pp. 18-27. 
• Volume number and issue number:   International Information and Library Review, 32 (1), pp. 39-62.
• Page reference.

Example: Print journal article

(Marcella, 2001)

Marcella (2001) investigated....

'A significant proportion of respondents stated that they had used electronic networks in accessing European information in the past' (Marcella, 2001, p.509).

Marcella, R. (2001). ’The need for European Union information amongst women in the United Kingdom: results of a survey', Journal of Documentation , 57 (4) pp. 492-518.

When referencing an article, follow this order:

• Author. (Surname, followed by initials)
• 'Title of the article', (in single quotation marks)
• Title of the journal (in italics - ensure the first letter of each word is a capital except for the linking words)
• Issue information - volume (issue number)  (all in round brackets - except the volume)
• Digital Object Identifier (doi) if available.

Example: Online journal article

(Zimerman, 2012)

Zimerman discusses in detail the review of the literature on digital natives (2012) ...

Zimerman, M. (2012). 'Digital natives, searching behavior and the library', New Library World , 113(3/4), pp. 174-201. doi: 10.1108/03074801211218552.

Example: Web page (individual author/organisation)

• Author ( Surname, followed by initials) OR organisation
• (Year that the site was published/last updated). (in brackets)
• Title of the webpage (in italics)

Available at: URL

• (Accessed: date).

In text citation

(Environment Agency, 2019)

The Environment Agency (2019) identifies the ...

Environment Agency (2019). Swim healthy. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/swim-healthy-leaflet/swim-healthy (Accessed: 16 January 2020).

Example: Web page (no author) ​

Replace what would be the author with the title. 

• Title of web page (in italics)
• Year of publication (in brackets)

A rewilding project ( Farmers 'misunderstand' Wales rewilding project,  2019) has been met...

Farmers 'misunderstand' Wales rewilding project  (2019). Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-49666610 (Accessed: 23 September 2019). 

Example: Web page (no date)

If you cannot identify the publication date of a web page, cite it using n.d. (no date).

(Allen n.d.)

Allen, J. n.d. No Shopping for A Month: What I Learned From My Month in Exile. Available at: https://www.stayathomemum.com.au/my-money/money-saving-tips/no-shopping-for-a-month-what-i-learned-from-my-month-in-exile/   (Accessed: 24 March 2020).

When referencing a blog, use this order:

• Author. (Surname, followed by initials.)
• Year that the site was published/last updated. (in round brackets)
• 'Title of message', (in single quotation marks).
• Title of website, (in italics).
• Day/month of posted message
• Available at: URL.
• (Accessed: date). (in brackets)

Example: Blog

In-text citation:

(Marikar, 2018)

Marikar (2018) suggested...

Marikar, S. (2018). ‘The First Family of Memes', The New Yorker, 1 October. [Blog]. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/the-first-family-of-memes (Accessed: 22 January 2019).  

To reference a thesis or dissertaion, follow this order:

• Author. (Surname, then intitials)
• Year of submission. (in round brackets).
• Title of thesis (in italics).
• Degree statement.
• Degree-awarding body.

If viewed online, add:

(Brennan, 1993)

Research by Brennan (1993) suggests that…

Brennan, S.M. (1993) Aspects of Equine Pituitary Abnormality . MSc. Aberystwyth University. 

When referencing conference papers, follow this order:

• Author. (Surname, and then initials)
• (year of publication). (in brackets)
• ‘Title of paper’,
• Title of Conference. (in italics)
• date of conference.
• Place of publication:
• P age numbers.

In-text citation: (Jones, 1994)

Jones (1994) says ...

Jones, J. (1994). ‘Polymer blends based on compact disc scrap’, Proceedings of the Annual Technical Conference – Society of Plastics Engineers. San Francisco, 1–5 May. Brookfield, CT: Society of Plastics Engineers, 2865–7.

Online conference papers

• Author. (Surname, then initials)
• (year of publication) (in brackets)
• ‘Title of paper’ (single quotation marks)
• Available at URL
• (Accessed date).

(Jones, 1999) 

Jones (1999) says ...

Jones, D. (1999) ‘Developing big business’, Large firms policy and research conference . University of Birmingham, 18-19 December. Leeds: Institute for Large Businesses. [Online] Available at: http://www.bigbusinesses.co.uk/jonesd (Accessed: 15 April 2018).

When referencing standards, use this order:

• Organisation.
• Title of the standard, (in italics)
• Publisher. 

Example: Standards

In-text citation: (BSI 8001, 2017)

BSI 8001 (2017) says ...

R eference list: British Standards Institution (2017). BS 8001: Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations: Guide , London: British Standards Institution. 

Note: if you find the standards online, add the following after the title:

• (Accessed date) .

For example:

British Standards Institution (2005) BS EN ISO 17707: Footwear. Test Methods for Outsoles. Flex Resistance, British Standards, [Online]. Available at https://bsol-bsigroup-com. libezproxy.open.ac.uk/en/Bsol-ItemDetail-Page/?pid=000000000030105824 (Accessed 10 May 2017).

There are many different versions of maps. Look through the following examples and follow the order provided.

Printed map 

Ordnance Survey map

• Ordnance Survey
• (Year). (in brackets)
• Title of map, (in italics)
• Edition (if not first).
• Map/sheet number,
• Map series if appropriate.

Example: 

(Ordnance Survey, 2016)

Ordnance Survey (2016). Aberystwyth and Machynlleth. Ed C. 135, 1:50 000. Landranger series. Southampton: Ordnance Survey.

Online maps

• Map publisher
• Title/description of map. (in italics)
• Source (Map Product).
• Created online: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap
• (Created on date).

(Ordnance Survey, 2011)

Ordnance Survey, (2011) . Aberystwyth University: Gogerddan Campus, 1:1.500. EDINA Digimap. [online] Available at: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/  (Accessed 31 August 2011).

Google Earth Maps

• Google Earth version (if applicable),
• (Year data released). (in brackets)
• Image details - location, co-ordinates, elevation. (in italics)
• Data set (if applicable).
• Available: URL
• (Accessed date). 

In-text citation (Google Earth, 2008)

Google Earth 6.0. (200 8).  Hylands House and estates 51°42'39.17"N, 0°26'11.30"W, elevation 60M . 3D map, Buildings data layer [online] Available at: http://www.google.com/earth/index/html  (Accessed 23 September 2019).

Refinitiv Workspace is a financial database.

Follow this order:

• Publishing organisation
• Year of publication/last updated (in round brackets) this is often the current year
• Title of extract (in single quotation marks) or use the heading at the top of the screen that indicates what the data is or alternatively write your search of how you obtained the data eg. 'Search results for...'
• Available at: URL  ( if available)
• (Accessed: date)

Refinitiv (2023) noted an increase in 50% in the market for the coffee industry....

Reference List

Refinitiv (2023) 'Sporting Goods Manufacturing in the UK'.  Available at: https://clients1.ibisworld.co.uk/reports/uk/industry/default.aspx?entid=2120   (Accessed: 2 November 2022).

IBISWorld (2018) noted problems in the market for the coffee industry....

IBISWorld (2018) 'Sporting Goods Manufacturing in the UK'.  Available at: https://clients1.ibisworld.co.uk/reports/uk/industry/default.aspx?entid=2120   (Accessed 2 November 2019).

When referencing an article from a print newspaper, follow this order:

• Author.  (Surname, followed by initials)
• (Year published). (in brackets)
• 'Article title'. (in single quotation marks).
• Newspaper , (in italics)

Example: print newspaper article

(Browne, 2010)

Browne (2010) mentions...

Browne, R. (2010). ' This brainless patient is no dummy'. Sydney Morning Herald , 21 March, p. 45.

When referencing an article from an online newspaper, follow this order:

• Year of publication. (in brackets)
• 'Title of article'. (in single quotation marks)
• Newspaper title. (in italics)
• Date published. (day and month)
• Available at:URL

Example: online newspaper article

(Ough, 2015)

Ough (2015) questions...

Ough, T. (2014). 'It's so easy to focus on what you can't do after a stroke, rather than what you can'. The Times . 31 December. Available at: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/GYEXJD027471504/TTDA?u=uniaber&sid=TTDA&xid=f84faf80 (Accessed 23 March 2019).

When referencing your own work, use this order:

•   Name. (Surname, followed by initials.)
•   Year of submission. (in round brackets)
•   'Title of work', (in single quotation marks).
•    Module code: module title (in italics).
•    Institution
•    Unpublished essay/assignment

  Example: Student's own work

(Smith, 2019)

The assignment written looked at water quality (Smith, 2018)  with the environmental impact...

Smith, S. (2019). ‘Water quality in Welsh rivers', MM56340: Business Impacts. Town University. Unpublished essay.

A document found on the web can be a government report or policy documents.  When referencing an online document, follow this order:

• Author (Surname, then initials). 
• (Year of publication if given).  (in brackets)
• Title of document (in italics)
• Place of publication,

Example: online document

(Munafò, 2019)

Munafò (2019) states …  

Reference list: Munafò, M. (2019).  Scientific Ecosystems and Research Reproducibility. [Online] Royal London, Society of Biology.  Available at: https://www.rsb.org.uk/policy/groups-and-committees/asg/asg-membership/animal-science-meetings/animal-science-meeting-2019-report (Accessed: 23 March 2019).

When referencing an image found in a book, follow this order:

• Title. (in italics)
• Edition (don't include if it's the first edition)
• Place of publication: Publisher

If the image is taken from another work (e.g. book) it should be treated and cited as part of that book (print).   Reference an image in a book using the book format, adding the page number to the citation.

Example: Print image

(Campbell  et al,  2015)

C ampbell et al. (2015) have clearly illustrated how a plant cell functions.

Note: If you were to include this in your essay, the caption and citation below the image would look similar to this:

Figure 7. The functions and flow of genetic information within a plant cell (Campbell et al., 2015, pp. 282-283).

Campbell, N.A., Reece, Jane B., Urry, Lisa A., Cain, Michael L., Wasserman, Steven A., Minorsky, Peter V., Jackson, Robert B. (2014). Biology : a global approach . Tenth edition. Boston: Pearson.

When referencing an online image, follow this order:

Person responsible for the image. (Surname, followed by initials) OR Corporate Author.

Year published. (in brackets)

Title/description . (in italics)

[format]  (image/photograph etc.)

( Accessed Day Month Year). (in brackets)

Example: Online image

(Rana, 2013)

The image by Rana (2013) depicts...

Rana, S. (2013). Library Levitation. [image] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/saharranaphotography/13178176575/  [Accessed 23 March 2020].

• Author of post
• Year posted (in round brackets)
• Title or description of post (in single quotation marks)
• [Name of platform]
• Day/month posted
• Available at: URL (Accessed: date)

Example: Twitter

(Aberystwyth University, 2023)

Aberystwyth University (2023) are ...

Aberystwyth University (2023) 'Scientists are in Switzerland investigating the increase in rock cover.' [Twitter] 6 July. Available at: https://twitter.com/AberUni/status/1676496158691082248 (Accessed: 6 July 2023).

How to cite an AI:

A prompt is the input given to the AI in the form of text, for example it is what the user types in their 'chat box' to provide inputs to ChatGPT.  If the input provided by the user is not text, it should be listed and explained in the tool use statement.

(Author, date of access) eg: (ChatGPT, 2023)

End Reference List:

• Author (AI programme inc. version)
• Date (in brackets)
• AI provider company (in italics)
• Web address
• Date of last access.

ChatGPT v3 (2023) Open AI . Available online at https://chat.openai.com/. Accessed 24/08/23.

Prompts used within AI to generate responses should not be detailed in the end reference list but should be entered in the tool-use statement, which MUST then be an appendix to ALL assignments.

A few points to remember when using et al .:

• Regardless of source type and format (book, e-book, article, conference papers, online newspaper article etc.), use ‘ et al .’ if the work has three authors or more.
• E t al. is the Latin term for 'and others'.
• Et al. should be italicised when used in a written text.
• Given that ‘e t al .’ is a shortening it is important to remember the full stop at the end of ‘ al .’ to indicate that.
• (First author surname et al ., + year of publication: + p. with the page number where the quote can be found)
• (Huws et al ., 2013, p.14)
• Don't use et al . in the reference list - all the authors' names must be included in your reference list, in the same order that they are listed in the original source. 

Torrington et al . (2014) demonstrated...

(Torrington et al . 2014)

" Aside from storage, the rumen is also a fermentation vat." (Huws et al ., 2013, p.14).

Reference Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. and Atkinson, C. (2014). Human resource management . 9th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

Computer Science - Any referencing style can be used - consistency is the key

• Computer Science

Full information on referencing in the Department of Computer Science can be found here .

Criminology - Harvard Style

Journal articles.

• Chapter in an edited book
• Legislation

Webpage with author

Webpage with no author

Conference paper

Research report

• Organisational report/briefings
• Newspaper articles
• Publications of international organisations
• Online video

Students of Criminology should refer to and save the Aberystwyth University Harvard Referencing for Criminology Guide which can be found on Blackboard.

• Author (surname followed by initials)
• Year of publication (in round brackets)
• Series and volume number (where relevant)

Example In-text citation (Brooks, 2012)

Reference list entry Brooks, T. (2012) Punishment . London: Routledge.

Journal article:

• Title of article (in single quotation marks/inverted commas)
• Title of journal (in italics – capitalise first letter of each word in title, except for linking words such as and, of, the, for)
• Issue information - volume (unbracketed) and, where applicable, issue number (in round brackets)
• Page reference (if available)

For online only journals, then:

• Available at: URL (if required) (Accessed online at: date) OR doi (if available)

(Antonaccio and Tittle, 2007)

Reference list entry: Antonaccio, O. and Tittle, C. R. (2007)'A Cross-National Test of Bonger’s Theory of Criminality and Economic Conditions', Criminology , Vol. 45(4): 925-958.

(NB: the ‘and’ between the names could be replaced by ‘&’; the colon (:) after the issue number could be replaced by ‘pp.’. This holds for all reference presentations, but be consistent).

Note that the citation is the chapter author not the book editors.

• Chapter author (surname followed by initials)
• Title of chapter (in inverted commas)
• ‘in’
• Author/editor of whole book
• Title of book (in italics)

Example In-text citation (Johnstone and Ness, 2007)

Reference list entry Johnstone, G. and Van Ness, D. (2007) ‘The meaning of restorative justice. In G. Johnstone and D. Van Ness (eds) Handbook of Restorative Justice . Cullompton: Willan Publishing, pp.1- 23.

• Title of Act including year and chapter number (in italics)
• Country/jurisdiction (only if referencing more than one country's legislation)
• Available online at URL
• [Accessed on date]

Example In-text citation ( Crime and Disorder Act 1998 ) Reference list entry Crime and Disorder Act 1998 , c. 5. Available online at www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/37/section/5 [Accessed on 22 July, 2019].

• Year that the site was published/last updated (in round brackets)

Example citation:

(Bateman and Hazel, 2014)

Example reference list entry:

Bateman T. and Hazel N. (2014) Youth Justice Timeline. Available online at www.beyondyouthcustody.net/wp-content/uploads/youth-justice-timeline.pdf [Accessed on 22 July, 2019].

• Title of the web page (in italics)

( Protecting children from trafficking and modern slavery , 2019)

Example reference list entry

Protecting children from trafficking and modern slavery (2019) Available online at https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/child-abuse-and-neglect/child-trafficking-and-modern-slavery/ (Accessed on 22 July, 2019).

• Author of paper (surname followed by initials)
• Title of paper (in single quotation marks)
• Title of conference: subtitle (in italics)
• Location and date of conference
• Place of publication: publisher (or URL as per online sources)
• Page references for the paper (if available)

Example citation

(McCold, 2000)

McCold, P. (2000) ‘Overview of Mediation, Conferencing and Circles’. Paper Tenth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and the Treatment of Offenders , Vienna, April 10-17. Available online at https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/432663/files/A_CONF.187_15-EN.pdf (last accessed 22 July, 2019).

• Author of report (surname followed by initials)
• Year of publication (round brackets)
• Title of report (italics)
• Either: place of publication: publisher (hard copy) or URL as per online sources (online)

(Liddle, et al. 2016)

Liddle, M., Boswell, G., Wright, S. and Francis, V. with Perry, R. (2016) T rauma and Young Offenders: A Review of the Research and Practice Literature. Available online at www.beyondyouthcustody.net/wp-content/uploads/Trauma-and-young-offenders-a-review-of-the-research-and-practice-literature.pdf [Accessed 23 July, 2019].

Named author:

• Title of report (in italics)
• Organisation name

(Hollis, 2017)

Reference list entry:

Hollis V. (2017) The profile of the children and young people accessing an NSPCC service for harmful sexual behaviour. NSPCC. Available online at https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1088/the-profile-of-the-children-and-young-people-accessing-an-nspcc-service-for-harmful-sexual-behaviour-summary-report-regular-text-version.pdf [Accessed 23 July, 2019].

No named author:

(Prison Reform Trust, 2018)

Prison Reform Trust (2018) Prison: the facts. Bromley Briefings Summer 2018 . Available online at www.prisonreformtrust.org.uk/Portals/0/Documents/Bromley%20Briefings/Summer%202018%20factfile.pdf [Accessed 23 July, 2019].

Newspaper article (with identified author/byline)

• Author/byline
• Title of article (in single quotation marks)
• Title of newspaper (in italics – capitalise first letter of each word in title, except for linking words such as and, of, the, for)
• Edition if required (in round brackets)
• Day and month
• Available online at URL (if required) [Accessed on date] OR doi (if available)

(Spillet, 2019)

Reference list entry

Spillett R. (2019) ‘Lawless Britain: Shocking figures reveal there are now two killings a DAY on UK streets as number of homicides soars to highest level for TEN YEARS... and fewer criminals are being caught!’ Daily Mail , 25 April. Available online at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6958493/Number-killings-Britains-streets-hits-10-year-high-amid-knife-epidemic.html (Accessed on 22 July, 2019).

Newspaper article (no identified author/byline)

• Page reference or web reference if online

( The Guardian , 2019) (page number after year, if available)

The Guardian (2019) ‘The Guardian view on policing youth violence: knives are a public health issue’, 15 July. Available online at www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jul/15/the-guardian-view-on-policing-youth-violence-knives-are-a-public-health-issue (Accessed on 22 July, 2019).

• Name of organisation or institution
• Place of publication: publisher (or if accessed online - Available online at URL [Accessed on date]

(United Nations, 1985)

United Nations (1985) Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (Beijing Rules) . Available online at www.ohchr.org/Documents/ProfessionalInterest/beijingrules.pdf [Accessed on 22 July, 2019].

• Name of person posting video
• Year video posted (in round brackets)
• Title of film or programme (in italics)

(Cambridge University, 2015)

Cambridge University (2015) Jogging with Jody – the experts view. Available online at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_RiP_KI77Q [Accessed on 23 July, 2019].

Education - Harvard Style

Education department students can find their departmental referencing guide on Blackboard.

Browne, R. (2010). ' This brainless patient is no dummy'. Sydney Morning Herald , 21 March, 45.

• Title of web page (in italics).

A rewilding project (2019) has been met...

Farmers 'misunderstand' Wales rewilding project. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-49666610 (Accessed: 23 September 2019). 

• (Huws et al ., 2013: p.14)

" Aside from storage, the rumen is also a fermentation vat." (Huws et al ., 2013: p.14).

• Just volume number (no issue num ber):  Animal Science, 33, 44-50.
• Volume number and issue number:   The Veterinary Clinics of North America: Equine Practice , 24 (2), 365-373.  

(Reimers and Eftestol, 2012)

Reimers and Eftestol (2012) investigated....

Reimers, E., and Eftestol, S. (2012). 'Response behaviors of Svalbard reindeer towards humans and humans disguised as polar bears on Edgeoya'. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research , 44, 483-489.

Zimerman, M. (2012). 'Digital natives, searching behavior and the library', New Library World , 113(3/4), 174-201. doi: 10.1108/03074801211218552.

Briassoulis, H., (2004). 'Crete: endowed by nature, privileged by geography, threatened by tourism?' in  Coastal mass tourism: diversification and sustainable development in Southern Europe . Edited by Bill Bramwell, p. 48-62. Clevedon: Channel View.

See the Harvard style 'Book' examples on the previous tab.

Please note that the following example is drawn from the referencing guidelines for the Department of International Politics. Whilst this example will be helpful to you in completing the quiz, it must be remembered that other departments using the Harvard referencing style may use ' et.al .' differently. When writing your assignments, it is important to adhere to the guidelines outlined in your department's handbooks on referencing.

English & Creative Writing - MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association)

• Citing: mentioning a source
• Referencing: quoting from a source
• Long quotations
• Verse quotations
• The bibliography & resource type examples

The English & Creative Writing department's Stylesheet for Essays, Dissertations and other Coursework can be found in Blackboard. This is a summary of the advice and examples provided there. H ave the stylesheet  to hand while you work and r efer to it for more detail . Your work should be double-spaced and you are advised to be guided by the punctuation in the example references. The stylesheet is based on the MHRA Style Guide (3rd edition).

Citing means mentioning the titles of books and other items in your work

• When you mention the title of a self-contained publication (For example, a book, a journal, or a newspaper), you italicise the title.
• When you mention the title of something which is only part of a self-contained publication (For example, a chapter, a single poem, or an article) you enclose the title in single inverted comms

C. J. Atkin, in a recent article called ‘Busy Old Fools’ in Essays in Criticism , discusses Donne’s ‘The Sun Rising’, relating it to several aspects of Shakespeare’s Hamlet . Her conclusions are different from those she reached a few years ago in her book Renaissance Resonances , in which Chapter Seven, ‘Donne Speaks to Shakespeare’, deals more briefly with the same topic.

In the example

• ‘Busy Old Fools’ is a single article in a journal
• Essays in Criticism is a journal
• ‘The Sun Rising’ is the title of a single poem
• Hamlet is a complete play
• Renaissance Resonances is a book
• ‘Donne Speaks to Shakespeare’ is a chapter in a book

A full reference to each citation must be included in the bibliography.

Short quotations can be anything up to 40 words and are enclosed single inverted commas.

The first quotation from a source

The first quotation from a source is referenced with a footnote.  How do I insert a footnote into an MS Word document?

If there are subsequent quotations from the same source in the work, the first reference is followed by a sentence explaining how subsequent references will be referred to. 

It has been argued that 'history first ended at the beginning of the nineteenth century.'¹ ________

¹Jerome Christensen, ‘The Romantic Movement at the End of History’, Critical Enquiry , 20 (1994), 452-76 (p. 456). Subsequent references to this source are given in the text as ‘Christensen’ followed by the page number.

• The author’s name is given as ‘first name surname’
• A specific page or page range is provided, lower case ‘p.’ for ‘page’ and ‘pp.’ for ‘pages’, to provide the location of the quotation
• You can replace the author’s name in the ‘Subsequent references…’ sentence with a short title of the source if you are quoting several sources by the same author in your work.

Subsequent quotations from the same source

A subsequent quotation from the same source is referenced by a brief reference in brackets within the work as shown in the example.

For the Romantics, an acute ‘sense of cultural belatedness’ (Christensen, p. 467) co-existed with their equally strong sense of being cultural pioneers.

Long quotations are

• more than 40 words
• introduced by a colon in your work
• separated by a blank line (double-spaced) before and after
• indented throughout from the left-hand margin but not centred
• referenced in the same way as short quotations; the brief reference in bracket in the example below indicates this is not the first quotation from Boland in this work

Boland has argued that the trope of ‘woman-as-nation’ often led to stylized and idealised depictions of Irish womanhood:

The women in Irish male poems tended to be emblematic and passive, granted a purely ornamental status. Once the feminine image in their poems became fused with a national concept then both were simplified and reduced. It was the absence of women in the poetic tradition which allowed women in the poems to be simplified. (Boland, p.47)

Later in the same essay, Boland gives a number of examples of this process by which ‘woman’ has often been ‘simplified’ in Irish poetry.

Verse is treated in a similar way to other quotations however there are some differences.

• The reference needs to be to the line(s) (where available), rather than the page(s). Verse quotations get: ‘l.’ for ‘line’ and ‘ll.’ for ‘lines’. 

Short verse quotation

A short verse quotation is two lines of verse from a poem or play

• Indicate a line break with a forward slash /

Example (not the first reference Chaucer’s  Canterbury Tales  as indicated by the brief reference in brackets)

‘Whan that Aprill with his shoures soote / The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote’ (Chaucer, ll. 1-2).

Long verse quotation

Follow the lineation of the original. This means that you neither add the ‘/’ to indicate line breaks, nor do you run lines together into a block of prose.

The bibliography is a list of ALL of the sources cited or referenced in your essay, but does not include those you have only consulted.

• Details matter. Even seemingly minor ones such as punctuation.
• Your bibliography should start on a new page at the end of your essay.
• There is no full stop at the end of each entry.
• The bibliography lists sources in alphabetical order by author’s surname. 
• Be consistent throughout. 

Example: A critical edition of a primary work

Wordsworth, William and Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads , 2nd edn, ed. by R. L. Brett and A. R. Jones (London: Routledge, 1991)

Example: a single-authored (or co-authored) book

Turner, Marion, Chaucerian Conflict: Languages of Antagonism in Late Fourteenth-Century London (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2007) 

Example: An essay or chapter in an edited collection / book

Ferguson, Frances, ‘Malthus, Godwin, Wordsworth, and the Spirit of Solitude’, in Literature and the Body: Essays on Populations and Persons , ed. by Elaine Scarry (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1998), pp. 106-24

Example: an article in a journal

Christensen, Jerome, ‘The Romantic Movement at the End of History’, Critical Enquiry , 20 (1994), 452-76

Example: An article in a scholarly journal published exclusively online

Franey, Laura, 'Terror and Liberation on the Railway in Women's Short Stories of 1894', NineteenthCentury Gender Studies , 14.1 (2018), <https://www.ncgsjournal.com/issue141/franey.htm> [accessed 10 September 2018]

Example: An article accessed on a website

Flood, Alison, ‘ Cloud Atlas “astonishingly different” in US and UK editions, study finds’, The Guardian (2016), <http://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/10/cloud-atlas-astonishinglydifferent-in-us-and-uk-editions-study-finds> [accessed 23 August 2018]

Example: a film / movie

Metropolis , dir. By Fritz Lang (UFA, 1927) 

Geography & Earth Science - Harvard Style

Healthcare education - apa 7th edition (american psychological association).

• Healthcare Education APA 7th edition Referencing Guide
• In-text citations
• How to format your APA 7th ed. reference list (70 second video)

Quotations (definition examples)

Paraphrasing and Summarising

• Chapter from an edited book
• Documents and Policy
• Legal Sources

The NMC Code

• Secondary referencing (Gibbs example)
• Newspaper article
• Social Media

Clinical Practice References

More examples

• Frequently asked referencing questions
• Healthcare Education Student Academic Supervision Policy

Things to remember - the basics

One of the major features of academic writing is acknowledging the books, journal articles and other information sources that you have used, by citing them one-by-one in your assignment and listing them all at the end in a reference list. Often there are many marks for doing this correctly so it is a skill worth learning as soon as you can.

If you don't acknowledge your sources you might pass off someone else's ideas, quotations etc. as your own. This is plagiarism which is not permitted by the University and can have serious consequences for you.

Contact Simone [email protected]  / [email protected]  your Subject Librarian if you need any further advice or help.

Book a Healthcare Education APA 7th edition refresher appointment  here .  If I am unavailable, please  click here to make an appointment with another member of the library team

Healthcare Education LibGuide

Referencing & Plagiarism Awareness LibGuide

Please refer to the:  Department of Healthcare Education APA 7th Edition Referencing Guide

APA 7th Edition  apastyle.apa.org/

This style uses an author-date format for the in-text citations and then the full source details are listed A-Z in the reference list.

• As part of the narrative e.g. Adams (2019) argues that...
• Directly following a phrase e.g. The current guide provides an overview of APA (Adams, 2019).

If you are citing a direct quote , make sure to use "quotation marks" and to include the page number after the year:  (Adams, 2019, p. 61).

If you are citing a book or article which has several authors, follow these rules:

2 authors : always cite them both (Polit & Beck, 2017) 

3-20 authors : Cite the first authors’ last name followed by et al (Perry et al., 2020)

Note the difference between narrative and parenthetical citations.​ According to Chambers  and  Ryder (2018) compassion is….​ …compassion is a key aspect of nursing care (Chambers  &  Ryder, 2018).

Abbreviations example:

First citation: Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC, 2018)...or...(Nursing & Midwifery Council [NMC], 2018).

Subsequent citations:  NMC (2018)...or...(NMC, 2018).

See the following tabs for advice on creating the reference list.

The APA advise to use direct quotations sparingly. If you are citing a direct quote, make sure to use "quotation marks" and to include the page number after the year: (Adams, 2019, p. 61).

One example of when to use a quotation, rather than paraphrasing, is when you are reproducing an exact definition.

 “Admission is the formal acceptance of a patient into a service” (National Health Service, 2019, p.8).

National Health Service. (2019).  Admission, transfer, and discharge policy for inpatient services . https://www.dtgp.cpft.nhs.uk/FileHandler.ashx?id=794

When the author and publisher are the same, omit the name of the publisher to avoid repetition.

“The act or process of allowing someone to enter a hospital as a patient, because they need medical care” (Cambridge University Press, n.d.).

Cambridge University Press. (n.d.). Hospital Admission. In Cambridge dictionary . Retrieved February 22, 2024 from https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hospital-admission

When an online reference work is continuously updated and not archived use "n.d." and include a retrieval date. Most references do not include retrieval dates.

APA: Quotations

APA: Dictionary Entry References

Creating the reference list: When referencing a book follow this order:

• Authors, surnames followed by initials
• Year of publication, in brackets
• Edition of book (if not first edition)

Examples: Book

Barber, P., & Robertson, D. (2020). Essentials of pharmacology for nurses (4th ed.). Open University Press.

Jasper, M. (2013). Beginning reflective practice (2nd ed.). Cengage Learning.

When referencing an e-book follow this order:

• Authors or editors (Eds.), surnames followed by initials.
• Year of publication, in brackets.
• Title of book, in italics.
• Edition (if not the first edition)
• URL or DOI link

*If the ebook is from an academic research database and has no DOI or stable URL, end the book reference after the publisher name. Do not include the name of the database in the reference. The reference in this case is the same as for a print book.

Examples: e-book

Loschiavo, J. (2015). Fast Facts for the School Nurse: School Nursing in a Nutshell (2 nd ed.). Springer.  https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826128775

Cottrell, S. (2019). The study skills handbook (5th ed.). Red Globe Press.

When referencing a chapter from an edited book follow this order:

• Chapter authors, surname first, followed by initials.
• Chapter title
• In + authors of the whole book (Initials followed by surname), + Eds.
• Title of the book
• Pages of chapter

Examples: chapter from a book

Grayer, J., Baxter, J., Blackburn, L., Cooper, J., Curtis, E., Dvorjez, L., Finn, L., Gaynor, D., Henderson, B., Jagger, C., Keating, L., Leigh-Doyle, J., Lister, S., Mathiah, R., & Mohanmmed, A. (2021). Communication, psychological wellbeing and safeguarding. In S. E. Lister, J. Hofland & H. Grafton (Eds.),  The Royal Marsden manual of clinical nursing procedures  (10th ed., pp. 133-204). Wiley-Blackwell.

Smyth, M. J., & Filipkowski, B.K. (2010). Coping with stress. In D. French, K. Vadhara, A.A. Kaptein, & J. Weinman (Eds.),  Health Psychology  (pp. 271-283). Blackwell Publishing.

*When including this as an in-text citation , you would just cite the chapter authors and not the editors. For example:  Smyth and Filipkowski (2010) state that… or…(Smyth & Filipkowski, 2010).

When referencing an article follow this order:

• Authors, surnames followed by initials.
• Title of the article.
• Journal title, in italics.
• Volume of the journal, in italics.
• Issue of the journal, in brackets.
• Page range of the article.
• DOI of the article, if available.

Examples: Journal article

Edwards, A. A., Steacy, L. M., Siegelman, N., Rigobon, V. M., Kearns, D. M., Rueckl, J. G., & Compton, D. L. (2022). Unpacking the unique relationship between set for variability and word reading development: Examining word- and child-level predictors of performance. Journal of Educational Psychology , 114 (6), 1242–1256. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000696

Jones, A., Rahman, R.J., & O, J.A. (2019). Crisis in the Countryside - Barriers to Nurse Recruitment and Retention in Rural Areas of High-Income Countries: A Qualitative Meta-Analysis. Journal of rural studies, 72, 153–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2019.10.007

Journal Article Reference Checklist

When referencing a webpage follow this order:

• Author surname, followed by initials OR name of organisation. Title of webpage if there's no author.
• Year of publication (in brackets).

Example: webpage

World Health Organisation. (2019). WHO updates global guidance on medicines and diagnostic tests to address health challenges, prioritise highly effective therapeutics, and improve affordable access . https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/09-07-2019-who-updates-global-guidance-on-medicines-and-diagnostic-tests-to-address-health-challenges-prioritize-highly-effective-therapeutics-and-improve-affordable-access

A  document on the web can include government reports or policy documents. 

• Authors, including initials.
• Title, in italics.

Nursing & Midwifery Council. (2018). The Code: Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses, midwives and nursing associates. https://www.nmc.org.uk/globalassets/sitedocuments/nmc-publications/nmc-code.pdf

Powys Teaching Health Board. (2017).  The Health and Care Strategy for Powys: A vision to 2027 and beyond.   https://pthb.nhs.wales/about-us/key-documents/strategies-and-plans/health-and-care-strategy-for-powys-2017-2027-summary/

Welsh Government. (2018).  A Healthier Wales: our Plan for Health and Social Care.  https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/publications/2021-09/a-healthier-wales-our-plan-for-health-and-social-care.pdf  

Welsh Government. (2022).  Quality statement for palliative and end of life care for Wales .  https://www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/pdf-versions/2022/10/5/1665148261/quality-statement-palliative-and-end-life-care-wales.pdf

Acts/Measures/Statutes

(Mental Health (Wales) Measure, 2010) or  Mental Health (Wales) Measure, (2010)

Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010 . https://www.legislation.gov.uk/mwa/2010/7/contents  

(Children Act, 1989) or Children Act (1989)

Children Act 1989, c. 41. https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41

Supreme court case

( Montgomery v. Lanarkshire Health Board,   2015) or  Montgomery v. Lanarkshire Health Board  ( 2015)

Montgomery v. Lanarkshire Health Board,  UKSC 11  (2015).  https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2013-0136-judgment.pdf

Remember to write out the Nursing & Midwifery Council in full the first time it appears in your assignment. 

First citation: Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC, 2018)  or  (Nursing & Midwifery Council [NMC], 2018).

Subsequent citations: 

NMC (2018)  or  (NMC, 2018).

It would appear once in your reference list:

When it is useful to include the section of the code that you are referring to, the  Ethics Code References, from the APA website  suggests that you should format your in-text citations as follows:

Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC, 2018, Section 7.3) or (Nursing & Midwifery Council [NMC], 2018, Section 7.3).

Secondary referencing  

Within APA referencing  you are always encouraged to go to the original source. However, sometimes this is not always possible perhaps because of a lack of access to the original source or simply because the original source is unavailable. In these instances, you would cite and reference these works slightly differently as presented below.

In-text citation Gibbs’ reflective cycle (1988) as cited in Jasper (2013) indicates that...

A seminal theory in reflective practice, is Gibbs’ reflective cycle (Gibbs, 1988, as cited in Jasper, 2013).

In the reference list Jasper, M. (2013).  Beginning reflective practice  (2nd ed.). Cengage Learning.

Find this book in Primo

APA - Secondary sources

Use newspaper articles as a starting point for research. They are not considered academic sources. Use the following format:

• Author surnames, followed by initials.
• Year, month and date of publication, in brackets.
• Title of article.
• Newspaper title, in italics.
• Page range OR URL, if an online article.

Example: Newspaper article:

Duggan, C. (2022, September 5). Aberystwyth Uni nursing degree to encourage Welsh speakers. BBC . https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-62779992

Sisley, D. (2020, February 22). Can science cure a broken heart?.  The Guardian.   https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/22/can-science-cure-a-broken-heart

Creating a reference to ChatGPT or other AI models and software using APA 7th Edition referencing

Guidance on the ethical and effective use of AI for learning is found in our LibGuide:  AI and the Library: What is AI?

APA policy on the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in scholarly materials

Social media posts, such as Twitter and Facebook, are not considered academic sources. Use them as a starting point and reference to your academic research. Use the following format:

• Username or group name
• Date as year, month, day. In brackets. If there's no date put (n.d.)
• Post title, followed by type of source in [ ] brackets.
• Retrieved, followed by month, day, year,

Examples: Social Media post

Barack Obama. (2009, October 9). Humbled [Facebook update]. Retrieved May, 14, 2020, from http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=6815841748&share

YouTube Video

University of Oxford. (2020, November 23). Oxford University’s ‘vaccine for the world’ is effective [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHJ_RqeXXy0

*In-text citation quote  “The vaccine is shown to protect against hospitalisation and severe disease” (University of Oxford, 2020, 0:18).

https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/references/examples/clinical-practice-references

Reference examples

Sample papers

How do I reference the 6Cs? NHS England. (2016). Compassion in practice: Evidencing the impact . London. https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/cip-yr-3.pdf

How do I reference a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guideline? National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. (2023).  Hypertension in adults: Diagnosis and management  (NICE Guideline NG136).  https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng136

How do I reference the practice assessment document and ongoing record of achievement?

All Wales Pre-Registration Nursing and Midwifery Group. (2020).  All Wales practice assessment document and ongoing record of achievement for pre-registration nursing programmes . Health Education and Improvement Wales.  https://heiw.nhs.wales/files/once-for-wales/documents/all-wales-practice-assessment-document/

How do I reference the Francis report?

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry. (2013). Report of the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry: Executive summary (HC 947). The Stationery Office. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/279124/0947.pdf

How do I reference the NEWS tool?

Royal College of Physicians. (2017).  National Early Warning Score (NEWS) 2: Standardising the assessment of acute-illness severity in the NHS.  https://www.rcplondon.ac.uk/projects/outputs/national-early-warning-score-news-2

Why can't Healthcare students access help with referencing for 7 days prior to an assignment due date?

History & Welsh History - MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association)

• Primary sources
• Chapters in edited collections
• Websites, theses and other sources

References and Footnotes

When you first refer to an item in a footnote, provide the full reference. On the second and every succeeding reference to the same item, use a short title. Fuller guidance may be found on the departmental ‘Style Guide’ in the undergraduate and postgraduate folders on Blackboard.

Bibliographies

All assessed coursework should include a bibliography of works consulted at the end of the main text. If you have used both primary and secondary sources in your work, you should subdivide the bibliography into sections: primary sources, secondary sources, websites. A fuller version of this guidance may be found on the longer departmental ‘Style Guide’ in the undergraduate and postgraduate folders on Blackboard.

Primary sources When you first refer to an item in a footnote, provide the full reference. On the second and every succeeding reference to the same item, use a short title.

Footnote examples:

Manuscripts: Home Intelligence Report, 16-23 July 1941, INF1/292, The National Archives: Public Record Office, Kew. George Whitefield to Howel Harris (28 December 1738), The Trevecka Letters, Calvinist Methodist Archive, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

Printed: Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes , ed. Karsten Friis-Jensen and trans Peter Fisher, 2 vols (Oxford, 2015), II: 86-7.

Bibliography examples:

CAB and FCO files, The National Archives: Public Record Office, Kew. School log books 1939-45, Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth. Daily Mirror, February-August 1910, National Library of Wales. J.A. Hobson, Imperialism: A Study (London, 1902). Saxo Grammaticus, Gesta Danorum: The History of the Danes , ed. Karsten Friis-Jensen and trans. Peter Fisher, 2 vols (Oxford, 2015).

When you first refer to an item in a footnote, provide the full reference, including:

• Author name (first name or initial first, then surname)
• place and date of publication (in brackets)
• page number(s) (use p. to reference a single page; pp. to reference a range of pages

On the second and every succeeding reference to the same item, use a short title : surname, short version of the article or book title, and page number.  

Examples: Full reference: 1 Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England (London, 1971), p. 94.

Short title: 4 Thomas, Religion and Magic , pp. 106-20.

Bibliography:

Books (single author, or edited collection with single editor) Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic: Studies in Popular Beliefs in Sixteenth and Seventeenth-Century England (London, 1971). Smith, Harold J., ed., War and Social Change (London, 1986).

Ebooks Jacobs, Nicolas, Early Welsh Gnomic and Nature Poetry (London, 2012). Google ebook.

Books (multiple authors or edited) Lambert, Peter, and Schofield, Phillipp, eds, Making History: An introduction to the history and practices of a discipline (Abingdon, 2004).

When you first refer to an item in a footnote, provide the full reference as in the bibliography but in a slightly different order, and with commas rather than full stops in between, as follows:

• name of author of article (first name or initials, surname)
• article title (plain text, in single quotation marks)
• title of journal (in italics)
• volume number of journal (in Arabic or roman numerals)
• year of publication (in brackets) ( place of publication NOT required for articles )
• page number(s) (use p. to reference a single page; pp. to reference a range of pages)

On the second and every succeeding reference to the same item, use a short title: surname, short version of the article or book title, and page number.  

First reference: 1 A. G. Hopkins, ‘Economic imperialism in West Africa: Lagos 1880- 1893’, Economic History Review , xxi (1968), p. 590. Short title: 6 Hopkins, ‘Economic imperialism’, p. 600.

Layout for articles in journals follows the same basic rules as books, but with a few additions:

• name of author of article (surname, first name or initials)
• year of publication (in brackets) (place of publication NOT required for articles)
• full page reference for article

Hopkins, A. G. ‘Economic imperialism in West Africa: Lagos 1880- 92’, Economic History Review , xxi (1968), 580-606.

When you first refer to an item in a footnote, provide the full reference as in the bibliography but in a slightly different order, and with commas rather than full stops in between.

Example: footnote for article in edited collection

Sarah Hanley, ‘Family and state in early modern France: the marriage pact’, in Connecting Spheres: Women in the Western World, 1500 to the Present , eds Marilyn J. Boxer and Jean H. Quataert (New York, 1987), p. 61.

Layout for chapters in edited collections* again follows the same basic rules, as follows:

• name of author of chapter (surname, first name or initials)
• chapter title (plain text, in single quotation marks)
• editor name(s) (surname, first name or intials)
• title of edited collection (in italics)
• place and year of publication
• full page reference for chapter

*Nb., if you are listing more than one chapter from the same edited collection in your bibliography it is best practice to list the edited collection only, not the separate chapters.

Example: bibliography entry for article/chapter in edited collection:

Hanley, Sarah, ‘Family and state in early modern France: the marriage pact’, in Boxer, Marilyn J., and Quataert, Jean H., eds., Connecting Spheres: Women in the Western World, 1500 to the Present (New York, 1987), pp. 61-72.

Webpags and websites:

Give a full document description including date, the url of the webpage on which the document appears, and the date it was accessed.

Flora Malein, ‘Can history help us in the COVID-19 epidemic?’, March 2020, British Society for the History of Medicine website, https://bshm.org.uk/can-history-help-us-in-the-covid-19-epidemic/, accessed 18 September 2020.

Harvey, I. M. W., ‘Popular revolt and unrest in England during the second half of the reign of Henry VI’, (PhD, Aberystwyth University, 1988).

Information Studies - Harvard Style

• Government publications
• Primary Sources
• Et al. (four or more authors)

The quiz at the end of this guide is based on the examples given here but there are different versions of Harvard so always use your department’s guidance.

Information Studies students can find their Departmental referencing guide on Blackboard Learn Ultra - Study Skills area.  (A copy is also available below).

• Citation Guidelines - Information Studies (2023) Produced by the Information Studies Department.

• (Year of publication) (in round brackets).

Marcella, R. (2001) ’The need for European Union information amongst women in the United Kingdom: results of a survey', Journal of Documentation , 57 (4) pp. 492-518.

• (Year of publication) (in brackets)
• If accessed online - Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date). 

Zimerman, M. (2012) 'Digital natives, searching behavior and the library', New Library World , 113 (3/4), pp. 174-201. Available at: https://mental.jmir.org/2018/1/e8/  (Accessed: 7 August 2024).

Affelt, A. (2019)  All that's not fit to print. Bingley: Emerald Publishing.

Example: Book (two or three authors) 

If the work has two or three authors, include all names in your citation..

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2013)  Cite them right: the essential referencing guide . London: Palgrave.

Example: Book (four or more authors)

If a book has four or more authors, only the first author's name should be listed in-text followed by ' et al. ', meaning 'and others'. However, all authors should be listed in the reference list in the order they are credited in the original work.

Dym, C.L., Little, P., Orwin, E.J., and Spjut, R.E. (2009)  Engineering design: a project-based introduction . 3rd ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. 

If the ebook has page numbers and publication details, then use the book (print) format to reference.

See the  'Book (print)' examples on the previous tab.

Briassoulis, H., (2004) 'Crete: endowed by nature, privileged by geography, threatened by tourism?' in  Coastal mass tourism: diversification and sustainable development in Southern Europe . Edited by Bill Bramwell, pp. 48-62. Clevedon: Channel View.

Government publications could be Command Papers (Green and White papers) or Departmental publications.

Command Papers

When referencing, follow this order:

• Name of committee or Royal Commission
• Paper number (in brackets)

If you have viewed the online version , follow this order:

• Paper number (in round brackets after title)

Example: Command Papers

Summarised advice on archives (Lord Chancellor's Department, 1999; Ministry of Justice, 2013) ...

Lord Chancellor's Department (1999) Government policy on archives . London: The Stationery Office (Cm 4516).

Ministry of Justice (2013) Transforming rehabilitation: a strategy for reform (Cm 8619). Available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228744/8619.pdf (Accessed: 31 July 2023).

Departmental publications

• Name of government department
• Series (in brackets) - if applicable
• (Accessed: date)  

Example: Departmental publications

Summarised advice on inequalities (Ministry of Justice, 2020) ...

Ministry of Justice (2020) Knife and offensive weapon sentencing statistics: July to September 2020 . Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/knife-and-offensive-weapon-sentencing-statistics-july-to-september-2020 (Accessed: 31 July 2023).

• Year that the site was published/last updated (in round brackets)

Marikar, S. (2018) ‘The First Family of Memes', The New Yorker, 1 October. [Blog]. Available at: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/10/01/the-first-family-of-memes (Accessed: 22 January 2019).  

• (year of publication)  (in brackets)

Jones, J. (1994) ‘Polymer blends based on compact disc scrap’, Proceedings of the Annual Technical Conference – Society of Plastics Engineers. San Francisco, 1–5 May. Brookfield, CT: Society of Plastics Engineers, 2865–7.

R eference list: British Standards Institution (2017) BS 8001: Framework for implementing the principles of the circular economy in organizations: Guide , London: British Standards Institution. 

• (Year) (in brackets)

Ordnance Survey (2016)  Aberystwyth and Machynlleth. Ed C. 135, 1:50 000. Landranger series. Southampton: Ordnance Survey.

Ordnance Survey, (2011)  Aberystwyth University: Gogerddan Campus, 1:1.500. EDINA Digimap. [online] Available at: http://edina.ac.uk/digimap/  (Accessed 31 August 2011).

• (Year data released) (in brackets)

Google Earth 6.0. (200 8)   Hylands House and estates 51°42'39.17"N, 0°26'11.30"W, elevation 60M . 3D map, Buildings data layer [online] Available at: http://www.google.com/earth/index/html  (Accessed 23 September 2019).

Manuscripts

When referencing, follow this order;

• Year (in round brackets)
• Title of manuscript (in italics)
• Date (if available)
• Name of collection containing manuscript and reference number
• Location of manuscript in archive or repository

If author not known , follow this order;

• Title of manuscript (in italics)
• Year (if known, in round brackets)

Parish registers

• Name of person (in single quotation marks)
• Year of event (in round brackets)
• Baptism, marriage or burial of ...
• Full name of person (forenames, surname)
• Day/month/year of event
• Title of register (in italics)  

Military records

• Title of publication (in italics)
• Publication details

• (Year published) (in brackets)

Browne, R. (2010)  ' This brainless patient is no dummy'. Sydney Morning Herald , 21 March, 45.

• Year of publication (in brackets)

Ough, T. (2014) 'It's so easy to focus on what you can't do after a stroke, rather than what you can'. The Times . 31 December. Available at: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/GYEXJD027471504/TTDA?u=uniaber&sid=TTDA&xid=f84faf80 (Accessed 23 March 2019).

• (Year that the site was published/last updated) (in brackets)

(International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, 2019)

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (2023) identifies the ...

International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (2023)  A Supportive Environment for Libraries. Available at: https://www.ifla.org/units/supportive-environment-for-libraries (Accessed: 25 July 2023).

Farmers 'misunderstand' Wales rewilding project (2019)  Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-49666610 (Accessed: 23 September 2019). 

•   Year of submission (in round brackets)

Smith, S. (2019) ‘Water quality in Welsh rivers', MM56340: Business Impacts. Town University. Unpublished essay.

• (Year of publication if given)  (in brackets)

Reference list: Munafò, M. (2019)   Scientific Ecosystems and Research Reproducibility. [Online] Royal London, Society of Biology.  Available at: https://www.rsb.org.uk/policy/groups-and-committees/asg/asg-membership/animal-science-meetings/animal-science-meeting-2019-report (Accessed: 23 March 2019).

Campbell, N.A., Reece, Jane B., Urry, Lisa A., Cain, Michael L., Wasserman, Steven A., Minorsky, Peter V., Jackson, Robert B. (2014)  Biology : a global approach . Tenth edition. Boston: Pearson.

Year published (in brackets)

Rana, S. (2013)  Library Levitation. [image] Available at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/saharranaphotography/13178176575/  [Accessed 23 March 2020].

• Regardless of source type and format (book, e-book, article, conference papers, online newspaper article etc.), use ‘ et al . ’ if the work has four authors or more.

Reference Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. and Atkinson, C. (2014)  Human resource management . 9th ed. Harlow: Pearson.

International English Centre - Harvard Style

International politics - footnote/endnote style.

• Journal Articles
• Document or publication produced by a Government, International Organisation, NGO etc.
• Newspaper Article or Magazine
• Television or Radio Broadcast
• Websites, Blogs and Twitter
• Secondary Referencing

(Please note: this information is taken from the Writing and Referencing in InterPol handbook which can be found here )

Using the Footnote/ Endnote System

There is much greater similarity between the two components of the footnote-endnote system than is the case with the Harvard/ in-text system.  The reference in the bibliography will normally be the same as the reference in the footnote/ endnote but without the need to refer to a specific page reference.    First component

In the footnote/endnote system, the references are marked by a superscript number in the text and placed either at the bottom of the page (footnotes) or at the end of the essay (endnotes).   For example, in the text of your essay a reference number, normally superscripted, should be added: ...in such a system war is said to be inevitable. 1

Please note that this reference number is placed after the full-stop not before. At the bottom of the page or the end of the essay should appear a list corresponding to the reference numbers in the text. References should be in full the first time they are mentioned.   Thereafter the author's name and an abbreviated title should be used (do not use op. cit. or ibid. as this can cause confusion if the text is revised later). For example: Hence it is the system structure which is claimed to be the crucial variable. 2     Second component The second component of the footnote/endnote system is a complete list of references given at the end of the essay, arranged in alphabetical order of the author’s last name. You should provide a reference for all sources consulted during the researching and writing of the essay even if you have not cited them directly in the essay. The references should conform to the format given in the examples on the following pages.

Books   Footnote/ endnote: Waltz, K. Theory of International Politics (London, McGraw Hill, 1979), p. 117.   Bibliography: Waltz, K. Theory of International Politics (London, McGraw Hill, 1979).

Chapters in edited volumes   Footnote/ endnote:  Grieco, J. 'Anarchy and the Limits of Cooperation', in Neorealism and Neoliberalism : the Contemporary Debate, edited by David Baldwin (New York, Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 126.   Bibliography: Grieco, J. 'Anarchy and the Limits of Cooperation', in Neorealism and Neoliberalism : the Contemporary Debate, edited by David Baldwin (New York, Columbia University Press, 1993), pp. 116-42.  

Journal articles   Footnote/ endnote: Wendt, A. 'The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations Theory', International Organization , 41 (1987) p. 49.   Bibliography: Wendt, A. 'The Agent-Structure Problem in International Relations Theory', International Organization , 41 (1987) pp. 35-70.    

Referencing a document or publication produced by a Government, International Organisation, Corporation or NGO   Footnote/ endnote House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, ‘Cultural Diplomacy’ (London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1987), p. 7.   Bibliography: House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, ‘Cultural Diplomacy’ (London, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1987)    

Referencing an article in a newspaper or magazine   Footnote/ endnote: Freedland, J. ‘For dictators, Britain does red carpet or carpet-bombing’. The Guardian (London), 1 March 2011, p. 17.   Bibliography: Freedland, J. ‘For dictators, Britain does red carpet or carpet-bombing’. The Guardian (London), 1 March 2011.   If you have accessed the article online, make this clear in the footnote/ endnote and in the bibliography:    Freedland, J. ‘For dictators, Britain does red carpet or carpet-bombing’. The Guardian, 1 March 2011.  Available at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/01/dictators-britain-armstrade-hypocrisy [Accessed 24 October 2011].    

Referencing a television or radio broadcast   Same for footnote/ endnote and bibliography:   Panorama, BBC2, 30 January 2011, 20.00

Websites/Blogs/Twitter   Same for footnote/ endnote and bibliography:   BBC News, North Korea Country Profile. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/country_profiles/1131421.stm [Accessed 23 July 2011].   Davies, M. ‘IR Theory: Problem-Solving Theory Versus Critical Theory’, E-IR, 19 September 2014 [Blog], Available at: http://www.e-ir.info/2014/09/19/ir-theoryproblem-solving-theory-versus-critical-theory/ [Accessed 30 September 2014].   Obama, B. “We have to work together as a global community to tackle this global threat before it is too late.” – President Obama , 23 September 2014 [Twitter]. Available at: https://twitter.com/BarackObama/status/514462253605609472 [Accessed 30 September 2014].  

Referencing material accessed by an e-book reader (e.g. Kindle, etc.)

If page numbers are not available on ebook readers, use the chapters instead for indicating the location of a quoted section   For the footnote/ endnote and the bibliography, include the following information:

• author name and initial  
• title (in italics) 
• the type of e-book version you accessed (two examples are the Kindle Edition version and the Adobe Digital Editions version). 
• year (date of Kindle Edition) 
• accessed day month year (the date you first accessed the ebook) 
• the book’s DOI (digital object idenitifer) or where you downloaded the ebook from (if there is no DOI). 

  For example:    Smith, A, The Wealth of Nations (Kindle version, 2008). Accessed 20 August 2010 from Amazon.com.   Smith, A, The Wealth of Nations (Adobe Digital Editions version, 2008). Accessed 20 August 2010, doi:10.1036/007142363X.  

Secondary Referencing    Secondary referencing means referencing a book or article that you haven’t read yourself but which you have seen quoted in another person’s work.  When using the footnote/ endnote system, follow the following guidelines:   Enter a footnote or endnote citing the author you are quoting but make it clear that you have found the reference in another book.   For example:   Ninkovich, F. The Diplomacy of Ideas (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 1, cited in Vaughan, J. Unconquerable Minds. The Failure of American and British Propaganda in the Middle East, 1945-1957 (Houndmills, Palgrave, 2005), p. 2.   In the bibliography, you would only enter the book in which you found the reference, in the case of the above example:   Vaughan, J. Unconquerable Minds. The Failure of American and British Propaganda in the Middle East, 1945-1957 (Houndmills, Palgrave, 2005).

Law - OSCOLA - Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities

• Books & ebooks
• Law reports
• Websites and blogs

Students of Law should refer to the OSCOLA 4th edition and its Quick Reference guide.  

This page provides examples of commonly cited sources.

This style uses footnote format for the in-text citations.  Full source details are listed bibliography in a slightly different format.

When referencing a printed book in a footnote, follow this order:

• Author - in same form as in publication*
• Edition information, publisher, date (in brackets)

If you are using an eBook, you should normally create a reference in the same way as if you were using the print version.  If it is published online only, you should follow the guidance for referencing websites as far as possible.

Examples: Book (one author)

Footnote citation

[1] Geoffrey Rivlin, First Steps in the Law (7th edn. OUP 2015) 76

[2] Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan (first published 1651, Penguin 1985) 268

• Bibliography

Hobbes, T. Leviathan (first published 1651, Penguin 1985)

Rivlin, G. First Steps in the Law (7th edn. OUP 2015)

When referencing a book chapter/contributions to edited collections follow this order:

• Author name
• in + editor(s) of the book
• title of the book (in italics )
• Publisher date (in brackets)
• if pinpointing add page reference of pinpoint after a comma

Example: chapter from a book

In footnote:

Francis Rose, ‘The Evolution of the Species’ in Andrew Burrows and Alan Rodger (eds), Mapping the Law: Essays in Memory of Peter Birks (OUP 2006), 54.

In bibliography:

Rose, Francis ‘The Evolution of the Species’ in Andrew Burrows and Alan Rodger (eds), Mapping the Law: Essays in Memory of Peter Birks (OUP 2006).

• authors, first name/initials followed by surname
• article title 'in single quotation marks'
• date - [square brackets if this indicates volume], (round brackets if separate volume number)
• journal title in abbreviated form (check Cardiff Index to Legal Abbreviations ) with no full stops
• page number of first page of article

Example: Journal article

In footnote, with pinpoint:

JAG Griffith, 'The Common Law and the Political Constitution' (2001) 117 LQR 42, 64.

Griffith, JAG. 'The Common Law and the Political Constitution' (2001) 117 LQR 42

Standard citation of law reports contain the following elements:

For cases before 2001/2002, include:

• Party names
• Date - Square brackets to denotes date is essential to locate report
• Volume number
• Abbreviation of law report
• Page reference - first page of report
• If pinpointing a specific quotation or passage

[1] Johnson v Rea [1962] 1 QB 373

[2] Carlill v Carbolic Smoke Ball Co [1891] 1 QB 256, 262

Cases after 2001/2002 should contain the following elements:

• Neutral citation
• Date - square brackets if required to find report (i.e. annually repeating instead of consecutive volume numbers)

[1] Dingmar v Dingmar [2006] EWCA Civ 942; [2007] Ch.109 

[2] Callery v Gray [2001] EWCA Civ 1117, [2001] 1 WLR 2112 [42], [45]

In tables of cases:

If using many cases, organise into groups by jurisdication and alphabetise by first significant word in the citation.

For further guidance on citing case law including unreported cases and EU law, see the full OSCOLA Guide , pp.17-22

If all the information needed by the reader is included in your text, you do not need to provide a footnote to the legislation

Example: where no footnote is required

For example, this sentence in an essay would not require a footnote as it clearly indicates the legislation being discussed.

Section 63 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 established powers to remove persons attending or preparing for a rave

However, if you do not indicate in your writing the name of the Act or the relevant section, a footnote is required.

Example: footnote required

In an essay, the following sentence would require a footnote:

Legislation concerning raves has stated that '"music" includes sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.' [1].

Footnotes citing legislation should include:

• Short title of the Act, capitalising major words
• Date with no comma between short title and date
• Relevant sections and subsections as required to pinpoint

Example: primary legislation

[1] Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 s 63 (1)(b)

Table of legislation:

List legislation used in your assignment alphabetically by first significant word in the short title.

• Author (in footnote, first name then surname; in bibliography surname, first name/initials).  If no author, cite organisation/institution responsible as author
• Title of webpage/article in single quotation marks
• Title of website, italicised,  and date (if available) in round brackets.
• URL <in angled brackets>
• accessed date.

Sarah Cole, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ ( Naked Law , 1 May 2009) <http://www.nakedlaw.com/2009/05/index.html> accessed 19 November 2009.

Cole, Sarah, ‘Virtual Friend Fires Employee’ ( Naked Law , 1 May 2009) <http://www.nakedlaw.com/2009/05/index.html> accessed 19 November 2009.

Lifelong Learning - Harvard Style

Life sciences & bvsc veterinary science - any referencing style can be used - consistency is the key.

• Life Sciences & BVSc Veterinary Science

Unless instructed otherwise by a member of staff, you may use whatever referencing system you choose, as long as you format citations and reference list entries consistently. You must provide full bibliographic information, sufficient to enable a reader to find the reference in a library.

Using References

• Always refer to your departmental and module handbook for further advice on referencing
• All except well established facts need a reference
• All citations in the text MUST appear in the reference list
• The reference must say what you claim it says

** The examples given in the Life Sciences and BVSc Veterinary Science quiz in Blackboard are for the Harvard referencing style. If you use a different style than Harvard, for example, MLA, APA or MHRA, select the corresponding style and department to complete the quiz.   

Maths - Any referencing style can be used - consistency is the key

Full information on referencing in the Department of Mathematics can be found here

Modern Languages - MLA 8th edition (Modern Language Association)

If you are a Modern Languages student, you must follow the referencing guidance supplied by your department when citing and referencing in your written work.

Physics - IoP Journal Guidelines

• Conference Proceedings

SPIE Proceedings, AIP Conference Proceedings and IEEE Transactions

• Conference Series

Lecture Notes

• Accepted or Submitted

In preparation

Non-bibliographic text.

Please note, this information is taken from the Institute of Physics Author Guidelines for IOP Journals .

"References

We encourage the use of the Harvard or Vancouver reference systems. However, you can use any reference system providing it is sensible and consistent throughout the paper. We will ensure your references adhere to house style during the production process, whatever format you submit them in.

A reference should give your reader enough information to locate the article, and you should take care to ensure that the information is correct so that DOI links can be made.

Ensure that all references are cited in the text and that all citations have a corresponding reference" (IOP, n,d,, n.p.)

References to journal works should include:

• Author(s): surname(s) and initial(s)
• [Title of article (optional, but see below)]
• Standard abbreviated journal title (in italics)
• Part of journal (e.g. A, B, etc, if appropriate)
• Volume number (in bold)
• Page number, page range or article number
• Cantillano C, Mukherjee S, Morales-Inostroza L, Real B, Cáceres-Aravena G, Hermann-Avigliano C, Thomson R R and Vicencio R A 2018  New J. Phys.   20  033028

For more than ten authors, the name of the first author should be given followed by  et al .

Note that the article title is not mandatory, except for  Journal of Neural Engineering  ( J. Neural Eng.) ,  Measurement Science and Technology  ( Meas. Sci. Technol.) ,  Physical Biology  ( Phys. Biol.) ,  Physiological Measurement  ( Physiol. Meas.)  and  Physics in Medicine and Biology  ( Phys. Med. Biol.).

If no individual is named as the author, the reference may be by a collaborative group of authors or by a corporate body, e.g.:

• The ASDEX Upgrade Team 2002 Theory-based modelling of ASDEX Upgrade discharges with ECH modulation  Nucl. Fus .  42  L11

If a collaboration is appended to one or more authors, the name of the collaboration must come before the year, e.g.:

• Nakamura K (Particle Data Group) 2010  J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys .  37  075021

References to a book should include:

• Full title (in italics, the initial letter of each significant word should be upper case; note that if a word is hyphenated then both parts should have an initial capital letter; for example, Non-Classical Mechanics)
• Town of publication
• Whelan C T 2018  Atomic Structure  (Bristol: IOP Publishing)

References to a book may include (optional):

• Chapter title (lower case roman; caps only for first word and proper nouns)
• Edition (e.g. 1st edn) (if any)
• Volume number (if any, given after the contraction ‘vol’)
• Editor(s) (if any, initials before the surname(s) and preceded by the contraction ‘ed’ [no full point] even if more than one editor)
• Chapter and/or page number(s) (if appropriate)
• Leung C-W and Ng C-K 2018 Spectra of commutative non-unital Banach rings  Advances in Ultrametric Analysis  ( Contemporary Mathematics  vol 704) ed A Escassut et al (Providence, RI: American Mathematical Society) p 91

Conference proceedings

References to conference papers should include:

• Title of conference (in italics, initial letter of each significant word should be upper case)
• Mahanta N K and Abramson A R 2012  13th Intersociety Conf. on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems

References to a conference proceedings may include (optional):

• Paper title
• Place and date (month and/or year) of conference (in italics and within parentheses, separated by commas)
• Page numbers/other paper designations

These should be treated as journals:

• Levin A D and Shmytkova E A 2015  Proc. SPIE  9526  95260P
• Smith M 2004  AIP Conf Proc.   94  340–9
• Stoffels E  et al  2008  IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.   36  1441–57

Conference series

Conference series should include the title of the conference and the title of the series but not the publisher.

The exceptions are  Journal of Physics: Conference Series  ( J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. ),  IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science  ( IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci. ) and  IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering  ( IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng. ), which should be set as journal references, e.g.:

• Barry R Holstein 2009  J. Phys.: Conf. Ser.   173  012019
• V V Kramarenko  et al  2016  IOP Conf. Ser.: Earth Environ. Sci.   43  012029
• S Adarsh  et al  2016  IOP Conf. Ser.: Mater. Sci. Eng.   149  012141

Only permanent or persistent web links should be used in reference lists. Examples of acceptable links include:

• Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
• PubMed identifier (PMID)
• PubMed Central reference number (PMCID)
• SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS) Bibliographic Code
• arXiv e-print number

References to pre-prints should include:

• Pre-print number
• Jones R and Brown A 2011 arXiv:0912.1470

References to theses should include:

• Author surname and initials
• Type of thesis
• Institution
• Roberts P 1970  MSc Thesis  University of Manchester
• Dobson C T J 1968 Magnetic transport in reaction–diffusion phenomena  PhD Thesis  Brunel University, London

The title is optional.

References to lecture notes should include:

• Lecture title
• Chandrasekhar J R 2003 Modelling aspects of model based dynamic qos management by the performability manager  Lecture Notes  Institute of Technology Delhi, India

Accepted or submitted

References to articles that are accepted or submitted should include:

• Either ‘accepted’ or ‘submitted’
• Jones R and Brown A 2011  Class. Quantum Grav.  accepted

References to articles that are in preparation should include:

• Year of preparation
• Article title
• ‘In preparation’ (within parentheses)
• Jones R and Brown A 2011  Class. Quantum Grav.  in preparation

References that do not contain bibliographic information (i.e. they do not refer to other pieces of work) should be set as a footnote within the text and cited at the appropriate location.

Psychology - APA 7th Edition (American Psychological Association)

The tabs above provide examples of commonly cited sources. You can also refer to the APA Departmental guide here:

• APA guide The department's APA guide to referencing and citations

The APA  also provides useful information on APA 7 referencing:  apastyle.apa.org/

Please see important information on referencing and plagiarism in our Referencing & Plagiarism Awareness Guide .

If you are citing a  direct quote , make sure to use "quotation marks" and to include the page number after the year: (Adams, 2019, p. 61).

If you are citing a book or article which has several authors , follow these rules:

2 authors : always cite them both (Polit & Beck, 2017)

3-20 authors : Cite the first authors’ last name followed by et al. (Perry et al., 2020)

Smyth, T.R. (2004).  The principles of writing in Psychology.  Palgrave MacMillan.

Example: e-book

When referencing a book chapter follow this order:

• Volume of the journal.

Beaman, P.C., & Holt, J.N. (2007). Reverberant auditory environments: the effects of multiple echoes on distraction by 'irrelevant' speech.  Applied Cognitive psychology , 21(8), 1077-1090. https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.1315

World Health Organisation. (2019). WHO updates global guidance on medicines and diagnostic tests to address health challenges, prioritise highly effective therapeutics, and improve affordable access. https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/09-07-2019-who-updates-global-guidance-on-medicines-and-diagnostic-tests-to-address-health-challenges-prioritize-highly-effective-therapeutics-and-improve-affordable-access

A  document on the web can include government reports or policy documents. They are referenced differently to a webpage:

Example: Document on the web

Howe, C., Mercer, N. (2007).  Children's social development, peer interaction and classroom learning.   https://cprtrust.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/research-survey-2-1b.pdf

Sisley, D. (2020, Feb 22). Can science cure a broken heart?.  The Guardian.   https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/feb/22/can-science-cure-a-broken-heart

Example: Social Media post

Barack Obama. (2009, October 9). Humbled [Facebook update]. Retrieved May, 14, 2020, from http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?   id=6815841748&share_id=154954250775&comments=1#s154954250775 

Theatre, Film & Television - Harvard Style

TFTS-STYLE-HANDBOOK-2019.pdf (aber.ac.uk)

If you are a Theatre Film and Television Studies student, you must follow the Harvard (author-date) referencing style guide as supplied by your department when citing and referencing in your written work.

Citation order:

• Title of film (in italics)
• Year of distribution (in round brackets)
• Directed by
• Place of distribution: distribution company

Movies have been used as quasi-biographical to examine famous lives ( Citizen Kane , 1942).

Citizen Kane (1942) Directed by Orson Welles [Film]. California: RKO.

Films on DVD/Blu-ray

Movies have been used as quasi-biographical to examine famous lives ( Citizen Kane , 2004).

Citizen Kane (2004) Directed by Orson Welles [DVD]. California: Universal Pictures.

Department of Welsh & Celtic Studies - Llên Cymru Style

• Citing sources
• Quoting poetry
• Citing websites

(Note: this information have been taken from the referencing and citation workshop in the module CY13120 Sgiliau Astudio Iaith a Llên

This is the style recommended by the Department of Welsh and Celtic Studies. The general pattern when referencing a source is:

• Author’s name,  Book title (Place of publication, Date) Page number(s)

Citing a book by an author

Gwyn Thomas, Y Traddodiad Barddol (Caerdydd, 1976), t.60 [if your quotation is on a single page, or] tt.92-93 [if the quotation is on more than one page]

When citing a source for the first time, include the publication details in full.  The next time you cite the same source, the author’s surname, title of the book and page number(s) are sufficient, e.g.

Thomas, Y Traddodiad Barddol, t.60

Sometimes a book will have an editor or editors, e.g.

B.F. Roberts a Morfydd Owen (goln), Beirdd a Thywysogion: Barddoniaeth Llys yng Nghymru, Iwerddon a’r Alban (Caerdydd, 1996).

In subsequent citations, you can use a shortened title, e.g.:

Roberts ac Owen (goln), Beirdd a Thywysogion, t.180

Citing a chapter/article from an edited volume

Gruffydd Aled Williams, ‘Owain Cyfeiliog: Bardd-Dywysog?’, yn B.F. Roberts a Morfydd Owen (goln), Beirdd a Thywysogion: Barddoniaeth Llys yng Nghymru, Iwerddon a’r Alban (Caerdydd, 1996), tt.180-21.

Subsequent footnotes citing the same article:

Williams, ‘Owain Cyfeiliog: Bardd-Dywysog?’, t.187.

Citing an article from a journal or periodical

Follow the pattern:

• Author, ‘Title of article’, Title of publication , Volume/issue number, Page numbers

Example: Mererid Hopwood, ‘Waldo: Bardd Plant Cymru’, Llên Cymru , 38 (2015/16), 75-94  

When including a short quotation of a few words or a single sentence, you can include it in the body of your essay, using single ‘quotation marks’.

Ym marn Thomas Parry, llwyddodd y genhedlaeth o ferirdd a oedd yn rhan o gylch Lewis Morris i ‘achub barddoniaeth Gymraeg mewn amser argyfyngus yn ei hanes.’ 1 Llwyddodd i ddangos y gallai barddoniaeth for yn gyfrwng i drafod pynciau gwahanol ac adlewyrchu bywyd a theimladau pobl.

• Thomas Parry, Hanes Llenyddiaeth Gymraeg hyd 1900 (Caerdydd, 1979), t.215.

If you are using a longer quotation, more than four lines, you should indent the quotation in a block instead of using quotation marks.  This applies to prose and poetry.

Fel dywedodd Thomas Parry

Teg yw dywedyd i’r to o feirdd a gysylltir â Lewis Morris achub barddoniaeth Gymraeg mewn amser argyfyngus yn ei hanes. Dangosasant fod i awen waith heblaw moli boneddigion, a heblaw difyrru a dysgu gwerin hefyd. 1

If you are quoting a couplet, you can do so in the body of your essay. 

Enghraifft o ormodiaith a geir ar ddiwedd y gerdd pan ddywed y bardd y byddai peidio â gweld y ferch yn achosi ei farwolaeth: ‘Oni chaf fwynaf annerch, / Fy nihenydd fydd y ferch.’ 1

• Dafydd Johnston et al (goln), Cerddi Dafydd ap Gwilym (Caerdydd, 2010), cerdd 45, llinellau 29-30

If you are quoting more than a couplet, indent the quotation in a block as shown:

Yr wylan de gar lanw, dioer,

Unlliw ag eiry neu wenlloer,

Dilwch yw dy degwch di,

Darn fel haul, dyrnfol heli 1

• Johnston et al (goln), Cerddi Dafydd ap Gwilym, cerdd 45, llinellau 1-4.

If you are citing a source more than once, as in the above example, you can use a shorter format the second and subsequent times by nodding the author’s surname and the title of the source.

Provide the name and address of the website, and the date you viewed the page.

http://www.seintiaucymru.ac.uk, cyrchwyd / darllenwyd Mai 2019. http://www.dafyddapgwilym.net, cyrchwyd / darllenwyd Mehefin 2019. http://geiriadur.ac.uk, cyrchwyd / darllenwyd Awst 2019. http://www.gutorglyn.net cyrchwyd / darllenwyd Medi 2019.  

The principle of a bibliography is to list everything you used in preparing your essay – books, articles, and other publications in print and electronic format, including websites.

At the end of your essay, you should list the publication details in alphabetical order (by author’s surname).  If you have used more than one work by the same author, list them in order of date.

Bowen, D. J., ‘Dafydd ap Gwilym a Cheredigion’, Llên Cymru , 14 (1983-4), 163-209.

Bowen, D. J. (gol.), Gwaith Gruffudd Hiraethog (Caerdydd, 1990).

Roberts, Enid, ‘Teulu Plas Iolyn’, Trafodion Cymdeithas Hanes Sir Ddinbych , 13 (1964), 38-110.

Roberts, Enid, Y Beirdd a’u Noddwyr ym Maelor (Darlith Lenyddol Eisteddfod Genedlaethol Wrecsam, 1977).

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Referencing Information

This section tells you what referencing is, why it is so important and how to do it.

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Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is about truth, honesty and fairness in regard to academic work. Upholding these values protects the credibility of the qualifications you will earn at UEL.

Our policy and regulations aim to ensure that the work submitted for assessments is the genuine and original work of that person and not plagiarised (taken from others) or a result of collusion (created with others but submitted as your own). There is a sliding scale of penalties for students who do not follow UEL's academic misconduct regulations when submitting work.

Our policy and regulations aim to ensure that the work submitted for assessments is the genuine and original work of that person and not plagiarised (taken from others) or a result of collusion (created with others but submitted as your own).

There is a sliding scale of penalties for students who do not follow UEL's academic misconduct regulations when submitting work.

What do you need to do?

• Reference all your work correctly and cite every source you have used. See the Plagiarism and Referencing pages for help with this.
• Run your draft assignments through Turnitin - a tool which checks your work for matching text on the internet and in other students’ submissions. For help, see the Turnitin guide on the UEL E-learning website.
• Read the academic integrity policy on the UEL academic integrity website
• Talk to your tutor if there is anything you are not sure about.

Plagiarism is taking another person's words or ideas and using them as if they were your own. You are responsible for ensuring your work does not contain any plagiarised words or ideas.

Plagiarism does not just apply to written text. Plagiarism is also using another person's ideas, concepts, spoken words, images, diagrams, tables or other data without referencing the original source. 

Plagiarism could apply to any form of assessed work, for example, using parts of an existing computer program to create your own program.

Academic work requires that you use and gather ideas from a variety of sources and refer appropriately to these sources within your work. This is known as ‘referencing'.

Referencing is essential in maintaining academic integrity standards. It involves naming all sources of information used in your work. This includes paraphrased ideas and concepts, direct quotations and any other information used, such as maps, diagrams, tables, interviews, etc.

Referencing properly is important for many reasons:

• to acknowledge the work of other writers and avoid plagiarism
• to demonstrate the body of knowledge on which you based your discussion and argument
• to enable other researchers to trace your sources and lead them on to further information.

See How to Reference for an explanation of citations, reference lists and bibliographies. Follow the links to Harvard referencing and APA referencing for guidance and examples of the two referencing styles used at UEL.

You need to name all your sources in two ways: by identifying them within the body of your text (known as 'citing') and in an alphabetical list at the end of your work.

There are specific formats you must follow for identifying all sources in your citations and in the reference list at the end of your work. At UEL, we use the Harvard referencing style. There are many variations of Harvard referencing so we have adopted a standardised format known as 'Cite Them Right'. 

A different style called APA referencing is used in the Field of Psychology. Follow the links for more information on how to reference in each style.

For each assignment, check with your tutor whether they require you to produce a reference list or bibliography or possibly both.

Reference List

A reference list only includes the named sources you have cited within the text of your assignment. In the Harvard style, your list should be arranged alphabetically by the author's surname, or by the title if there is no author. There should be just one list for all your references. Do not split the list into separate sections for books, journals, websites etc.

Bibliography

A bibliography includes all your in-text citations plus any other sources of information you have used in preparing your assignment. So your bibliography repeats everything in your reference list plus all other sources you read or consulted but did not cite. You should use the same full reference format for your bibliography as for your reference list.

It is essential that you learn the 'Cite Them Right' style of Harvard referencing used at UEL. You must use this standard format in all your assignments.

Harvard referencing emphasises the author and date of a source. In-text citations are linked to a final reference list making it easy for a reader to locate the original information used in your assignment.

Download the guide to find out how to format in-text citations and full references for different kinds of information. You can also try the quizzes to check you can do this correctly.

There is more detailed information and guidance available to all students in the 'Cite Them Right' website and book.

APA is another referencing style used by the Field of Psychology at UEL.

If you are studying in the Field of Psychology, you will need to use another referencing style known as APA which stands for American Psychological Association. 

APA referencing also uses an author-date format like Harvard and full details of sources are listed alphabetically in a reference list at the end of your work.

See the 'Referencing using APA' guide for a brief outline of how to use this style. A more detailed online guide is available here.

Observing Copyright

Most printed and electronic resources are protected by copyright restrictions. Make sure you have the right permission to copy or download any resource you plan to use.

Copyright restrictions are not just guidelines, they are law. You do not automatically have the right to copy or download books, articles, images, photos, diagrams, newspapers and magazines, videos, tables of data, etc. 

The copyright agreement may give you limited rights, e.g. to copy a single chapter of a book, or use some information for non-commercial purposes. 

In some cases, you can not use a resource at all without specific permission from the author or publisher.

Download the 'Copyright Basics' guide for a summary of the basic restrictions affecting students. The library's  online copyright guide  also answers common questions on copyright. If you're still in doubt, ask a librarian for advice.

Remember, observing copyright is not the same as referencing. You still need to cite every resource you have used correctly in all your assignments.

Need other help?

Be proactive in seeking help if you need it. There are many people and services in the university that offer guidance on all kinds of areas related to your studies.

When you are researching your first assignment you may well find that you need other kinds of help and support. You just need to know who to ask or where to look and then make time to find what you need. The most important thing is that you take responsibility for your own learning. Many people are there to help you but only you can do it!

Check the 'Where to find help?' guide for information on library enquiries, the European Computer Driving Licence, study skills, English language skills, IT queries, pastoral and personal support and other issues.

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For information on how to reference this website for non-academic purposes, see the SkillsYouNeed referencing guide .

Citing and referencing information can be daunting for students who do not understand the principles.

There are numerous ways to reference. Different institutions, departments or lecturers may require different styles so check with your teacher, lecturer or instructor if you are unsure.

Bad referencing is a common way for students to lose marks in assignments so it is worth taking the time and effort to learn how to reference correctly.

Why Do We Cite and Reference?

When writing any academic essay, paper, report or assignment, you need to highlight your use of other author's ideas and words so that you:

• Give the original author credit for their own ideas and work
• Validate your arguments
• Enable the reader to follow up on the original work if they wish to
• Enable the reader to see how dated the information might be
• Prove to your tutors/lecturers that you have read around the subject
• Avoid plagiarism

Referencing Styles

There are many different styles of referencing, including Harvard, APA (from the American Psychological Association), Chicago and Vancouver. The Harvard referencing system is of the most popular styles and the remainder of this article deals with this system. However, your university may prefer the use of a different system so check with your lecturer or in your course information as to which referencing style to use.

What is Plagiarism?

• Presenting another's ideas as if they are your own – either directly or indirectly
• Copying or pasting text and images without saying where they came from
• Not showing when a quote is a quote
• Summarising information without showing the original source
• Changing a few words in a section of text without acknowledging the original author

Plagiarism is a serious academic offence.  You are likely to be awarded 0% for an assignment which has evidence of plagiarism. If you continue to plagiarise then you may be excluded from your course.

Most universities will want a signed declaration with submitted work to say that you have not plagiarised. 

Universities use anti-plagiarism software to quickly find plagiarised work. This software usually draws on huge databases of web sources, books, journals and all previously submitted student work to compare your work to so you will be found out.

Therefore, if you plagiarise, you are likely to be caught so don't take the risk and reference properly.

Be Organised

When writing an essay, report, dissertation or other piece of academic work, the key to referencing is organisation. As you go along, keep notes of the books and journal articles you have read and the websites you have visited as part of your research process.

There are various tools to help here. Your university may be able to provide you with some specialist software (Endnote – www.endnote.com ) or you can simply keep a list in a document or try Zotero ( www.zotero.org ) a free plugin for the Firefox browser.

What Needs to be Recorded?

Record as much information as possible in references to make finding the original work simple.

Include the author/s name/s where possible. You should write the surname (last name) first followed by any initials.  If there are more than three authors then you can cite the first author and use the abbreviation 'et al', meaning 'and all'.

For one, two or three authors: Jones A, Davies B, Jenkins C

For more than three authors Jones A et al.

For some sources, especially websites, the name of the author may not be known. In such cases either use the organisation name or the title of the document or webpage.

Example:  SkillsYouNeed or What Are Interpersonal Skills.

Date of Publication

You should include the year of publication or a more specific date if appropriate, for journal or newspaper articles/stories. For webpages look for the when the page was last updated. Include dates in brackets (2020) after author information. If no date can be established, then put (no date).

Title of Piece

Include the title of the piece; this could be the name of the book, the title of a journal article or webpage. Titles are usually written in italics . For books you should also include the edition (if not the first) to make finding information easier. Often when books are republished information remains broadly the same but may be reordered, therefore page numbers may change between editions.

Publisher Information

Usually only relevant for books, but for these you should include the publisher name and place of publication.

Page Numbers

If you are referencing a particular part of a book, then you should include the page number/s you have used in your work. Use p. 123 to indicate page 123 or pp. 123-125 to indicate multiple pages.

URL and Date Accessed

For webpages you need to include the full URL of the page (http://www... etc.) and the date you last accessed the page. The web is not static and webpages can be changed/updated/removed at any time, so it is therefore important to record when you found the information you are referencing.

Once you have recorded the information, you have everything you need in order to reference correctly. Your work should be both referenced in the text and include a reference list or bibliography at the end. The in text reference is an abbreviated version of the full reference in your reference list.

Direct Quotes

If you are directly quoting in your text you should enclose the quote in quotation marks, and include author information:

"Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place to another." SkillsYouNeed (2019)

For longer direct quotations it may be neater to indent the quotation in its own paragraph.

Your reference list should then include the full version of the reference:

SkillsYouNeed (2022) What is Communication? [online] available at www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html (Accessed October 14 2022)

For a book you would use, in your text:

“Long before the twelfth century rhetoricians had collected quotations, particularly from classical authors, into anthologies called florilegia…” (Clanchy, M.T, 1993)

The reference list would then include the full reference:

Clanchy, M.T. (1993) From Memory to Written Record England 1066 – 1307 Oxford, Blackwell, p. 115

The same rules also apply when you are referencing indirectly and you have not included a direct quote. If you have used the ideas of another source, reference both in your text at the relevant point and in your reference list or bibliography at the end of your document.

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Additional Information

When quoting you may sometimes want to leave out some words , in which case use … (three dots).

"Communication is … transferring information from one place to another"

If you need to add words to a quote for clarity, then square brackets are used:

“Communication is simply the act [in communication skills] of transferring information from one place to another.”

You can use [sic] to note an original error and/or foreign spelling , SkillsYouNeed is a UK site and therefore uses UK spellings:

"The color [sic] of the water..."

Continue to: Common Mistakes in Writing Sources of Information

See Also: Note-Taking for Reading What is Theory? | Writing an Essay | Punctuation

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• A Guide To UK Referencing Styles
• Posted:  September 21, 2023
• To:  Essay Writing

When writing any assignment for your studies, you will need to ensure you are properly referencing the points you make. In the UK, several different referencing styles are used. As such, you will need to know the right referencing style to use, and how to use it both in text and in your sources list at the end of your essay. Here is everything you need to know about UK referencing styles, and how to use them to ensure you are given the best grade on your work.

Table of contents

Why is referencing so important, what referencing styles are used in the uk, how referencing is done, references at the end of your essay, referencing faq.

Why is referencing your work so important in any assignments? Firstly, you will see that properly referencing your work will count towards your final grade. Good references are looked for when professors are marking your work, so you want to make sure that you are referencing evidence correctly to get the best grade possible. You should see this in the grading guides that comes with your syllabus, so make sure you read this carefully. This will show you exactly what your professors are looking for.

Proper referencing is also important, as if you are doing it correctly, it shows the marking professor that you are taking the work seriously. If there are errors in the way you are referencing a source, it can reflect badly on the rest of the work you have done.

As well as this, it’s also vital to reference your work correctly because you do not want to be accused of plagiarism. Right now, it’s never been easier for students to try and take shortcuts and plagiarize their work from other sources. Of course you won’t be doing that because you want to get the best grades, but even if you are writing your own work, it’s easier than you think to be accused of plagiarism.

Most education institutes now will use some form of plagiarism detection software. This software is advanced enough it can see if work is plagiarized even if a student has taken care to hide that fact. However, if you are not citing your sources correctly when writing, it will also pick this up as plagiarism. This means that you will be pulled up on plagiarism and you will have to defend your work from this accusation. Of course you don’t want to have to do this, so knowing how to reference your work is absolutely essential.

Finally, you also need to be citing your sources, as you need to be showing where you have got the evidence for the points you make. This is vital to your education, as citing sources shows that you’re not only can make the points you want to make, but you can also back them up with relevant evidence. This ties into the first point about getting the best grades, as proper citation shows professors that you know the source material when you’re writing.

These are just a few reasons why you need to properly reference and site your sources in text. Now that you know this you’ll need to know how to use the proper referencing style for your university, and use it correctly to get the grade you want.

With all this in mind, you now need to know what referencing style your university uses. There are several referencing styles that are used with UK universities and each university will have a different one that they expect you to use.

If you are a brand new student you should have been informed of what referencing style you will be expected to use in all your work. If you’re not sure which one you should use, then you can look up which referencing style is requested of you in your syllabus or your university documents.

There are several different styles that you may be asked to use as a student. These include the following:

Harvard : The Harvard style is the most common referencing method used by universities right now in the UK. You may see it referenced as the ‘author date’ system. In text, typically you will just use the author and the date in brackets to reference the work you’re using, and the full details are only put in the bibliography at the end.

MRHA : The MRHA, or Modern Humanities Research Association style, will use numbers in the text, and these are linked to footnotes or end notes in your essay. These are most commonly used in English literature and similar essays. Alternatively, you may see name and year in text citations used, which is often done by film and theatre and television students in their essays.

MLA : The MLA, or Modern Languages Association Referencing style, is typically used for subjects that cover languages such as English. You may also see it used in any humanities subject. Like the Harvard system, it also uses the author and page number in text, while the full citation will be in your referencing list at the end of the essay.

Oxford : The Oxford referencing style is one that’s also very common in UK universities. Unlike the Harvard system, Oxford referencing will use footnotes at the bottom of the page as opposed to the in text citation style you’ll see here. As such, you will need to add superscript numbers to insert them alongside the authors work that you are referencing in text.

Once you know the referencing style that you should use your essays, you now need to know how you can use it in your essay itself. There are actually several ways that you can reference of the works by other authors, so you will need to decide which way is best for you that works with the citation style that you are required to use.

There are three main ways you may reference another person’s work in your essay, these include:

Quoting the author: You may want to directly quote the author in this evidence you’re using, to bolster a point that you are making in your own writing. This method allows you to directly show the reader what that author said, so you can then use that to to show the evidence behind the point you are making.

If you do choose to quote the author, it’s important that you only choose the quotes that directly supports your points. As such a quote that is around two or three lines long is usually best. Don’t be tempted to add in more and more detail from that quote, even if it’s very tempting to bolster your word count. You directly need to pull out the quotes that support your points with no extra ‘fluff’.

Paraphrasing the author: Another option you have is to paraphrase the author, rather than quoting them directly. This is often a good idea if using a quote from your author would be too long to add into an essay.

Instead, you will take that quotes and boil it down to the most important points. This is why citation is so important, as without it this could appear to plagiarism software as if you’re taking the idea and presenting it as your own.

Referencing the main point of the author: Finally, rather than paraphrasing the author as you did in the above point, you may wish to just reference their main points.  For example, you may want to point out one authors idea, while comparing it to another author’s.

As such, you will still need to cite that source when you make that reference to the author. Depending on the citation style you are using, that may be just adding the author and the year of publication in brackets. Whichever reference style you use, you will need to make sure that you are doing this.

As well as in text citations, you will also need to reference all the sources you have used at the end of your essay. You will see this list either referred to as a reference list or a bibliography. While they may look like the same thing, there’s actually some differences that you need to be aware of.

A reference list will actually list all the sources that you have used in your essay. If you have cited a source in your writing it will need to be included here. A bibliography on the other hand, will be a list of all the different sources that you consulted as you were writing your essay . That includes anything you cited in the essay, and anything else you read to properly understand the subject at hand.

You will need to check whether you are required to write a reference list or a bibliography at the end of your work. This should be made clear in the assignment brief you are given, but if you are not sure you check with your professors.

With these basics in mind, you’ll now need to know exactly how to use these referencing styles. Here is your guide to the most common referencing styles in the UK right now, and how you are to use them in your essays.

It’s hard to overstates just how important it is, that you use citations in your essay writing. As noted above, there are many reasons why your professors will expect you to use citations. Using citations correctly will show that you have done the research for your essay, and know how to credit authors correctly.

It’s also essential that you cite your essays correctly, to avoid accusations of plagiarism. As universities use anti-plagiarism software to look for plagiarism, if you are not citing sources correctly, that can flag your essay as being plagiarized, even if it isn’t. Using citations correctly is essential for you to get the best possible grade on your work.

While there are lots of different citation styles out there, your university will typically have one that they use for all their written work. This should have been made clear to you when you began as a student at your university. If you are not sure which citation style you should be using, you can check your syllabus which should list it. You can also talk to your professors if you’re not sure. Remember that you should only be using one citation style throughout all of your writing work.

If you are a new student, there are some issues around citations that may be confusing. If you are paraphrasing what an author has written i.e. putting it in your own words, then it may feel like you’re plagiarizing it rather than referencing it.

However, it’s very common to reference work in this way in your essays. In some cases come out it will make more sense to paraphrase the author, rather than quoting them directly. As long as you are adding the correct citation after your paraphrasing, then you are referencing that author correctly.

The difference between in-text citations and reference list citations lies in where they are used. With in-text citations, you are putting those references in the body of the essay itself. These are used to show which ideas are from different authors, and to show where you have done your research.

With reference lists or bibliographies, these are designed to show all of the sources that you have used in writing your paper. In a reference list, you will list all the sources that are directly referenced in text, and did a bibliography, you will list all the sources that you use whether they are in text or were used as research during the research part of your essay writing.

Both in text citations and footnotes are used to site sources within your paper. You will typically only use one or the other, and which one you use depends on the citation formats that you’re using.

In text citations are used with the Harvard referencing system and the MLA system. Footnotes on the other hand, are used in the Oxford referencing system and the MRHA system.

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• Citing sources

How to Cite Sources | Citation Generator & Quick Guide

Citing your sources is essential in  academic writing . Whenever you quote or paraphrase a source (such as a book, article, or webpage), you have to include a  citation crediting the original author.

Failing to properly cite your sources counts as plagiarism , since you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

The most commonly used citation styles are APA and MLA. The free Scribbr Citation Generator is the quickest way to cite sources in these styles. Simply enter the URL, DOI, or title, and we’ll generate an accurate, correctly formatted citation.

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Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text.

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Table of contents

When do you need to cite sources, which citation style should you use, in-text citations, reference lists and bibliographies.

Scribbr Citation Generator

Other useful citation tools

Citation examples and full guides, frequently asked questions about citing sources.

Citations are required in all types of academic texts. They are needed for several reasons:

• To avoid plagiarism by indicating when you’re taking information from another source
• To give proper credit to the author of that source
• To allow the reader to consult your sources for themselves

A citation is needed whenever you integrate a source into your writing. This usually means quoting or paraphrasing:

• To quote a source , copy a short piece of text word for word and put it inside quotation marks .
• To paraphrase a source , put the text into your own words. It’s important that the paraphrase is not too close to the original wording. You can use the paraphrasing tool if you don’t want to do this manually.

Citations are needed whether you quote or paraphrase, and whatever type of source you use. As well as citing scholarly sources like books and journal articles, don’t forget to include citations for any other sources you use for ideas, examples, or evidence. That includes websites, YouTube videos , and lectures .

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Usually, your institution (or the journal you’re submitting to) will require you to follow a specific citation style, so check your guidelines or ask your instructor.

In some cases, you may have to choose a citation style for yourself. Make sure to pick one style and use it consistently:

• APA Style is widely used in the social sciences and beyond.
• MLA style is common in the humanities.
• Chicago notes and bibliography , common in the humanities
• Chicago author-date , used in the (social) sciences
• There are many other citation styles for different disciplines.

If in doubt, check with your instructor or read other papers from your field of study to see what style they follow.

In most styles, your citations consist of:

• Brief in-text citations at the relevant points in the text
• A reference list or bibliography containing full information on all the sources you’ve cited

In-text citations most commonly take the form of parenthetical citations featuring the last name of the source’s author and its year of publication (aka author-date citations).

An alternative to this type of in-text citation is the system used in numerical citation styles , where a number is inserted into the text, corresponding to an entry in a numbered reference list.

There are also note citation styles , where you place your citations in either footnotes or endnotes . Since they’re not embedded in the text itself, these citations can provide more detail and sometimes aren’t accompanied by a full reference list or bibliography.

A reference list (aka “Bibliography” or “Works Cited,” depending on the style) is where you provide full information on each of the sources you’ve cited in the text. It appears at the end of your paper, usually with a hanging indent applied to each entry.

The information included in reference entries is broadly similar, whatever citation style you’re using. For each source, you’ll typically include the:

• Author name
• Publication date
• Container (e.g., the book an essay was published in, the journal an article appeared in)
• Location (e.g., a URL or DOI , or sometimes a physical location)

The exact information included varies depending on the source type and the citation style. The order in which the information appears, and how you format it (e.g., capitalization, use of italics) also varies.

Most commonly, the entries in your reference list are alphabetized by author name. This allows the reader to easily find the relevant entry based on the author name in your in-text citation.

In numerical citation styles, the entries in your reference list are numbered, usually based on the order in which you cite them. The reader finds the right entry based on the number that appears in the text.

Scribbr Citation Checker New

The AI-powered Citation Checker helps you avoid common mistakes such as:

• Missing commas and periods
• Incorrect usage of “et al.”
• Ampersands (&) in narrative citations
• Missing reference entries

Because each style has many small differences regarding things like italicization, capitalization , and punctuation , it can be difficult to get every detail right. Using a citation generator can save you a lot of time and effort.

Scribbr offers citation generators for both APA and MLA style. Both are quick, easy to use, and 100% free, with no ads and no registration required.

Just input a URL or DOI or add the source details manually, and the generator will automatically produce an in-text citation and reference entry in the correct format. You can save your reference list as you go and download it when you’re done, and even add annotations for an annotated bibliography .

Once you’ve prepared your citations, you might still be unsure if they’re correct and if you’ve used them appropriately in your text. This is where Scribbr’s other citation tools and services may come in handy:

Plagiarism Checker

Citation Checker

Citation Editing

Plagiarism means passing off someone else’s words or ideas as your own. It’s a serious offense in academia. Universities use plagiarism checking software to scan your paper and identify any similarities to other texts.

When you’re dealing with a lot of sources, it’s easy to make mistakes that could constitute accidental plagiarism. For example, you might forget to add a citation after a quote, or paraphrase a source in a way that’s too close to the original text.

Using a plagiarism checker yourself before you submit your work can help you spot these mistakes before they get you in trouble. Based on the results, you can add any missing citations and rephrase your text where necessary.

Try out the Scribbr Plagiarism Checker for free, or check out our detailed comparison of the best plagiarism checkers available online.

Scribbr Plagiarism Checker

Scribbr’s Citation Checker is a unique AI-powered tool that automatically detects stylistic errors and inconsistencies in your in-text citations. It also suggests a correction for every mistake.

Currently available for APA Style, this is the fastest and easiest way to make sure you’ve formatted your citations correctly. You can try out the tool for free below.

If you need extra help with your reference list, we also offer a more in-depth Citation Editing Service.

Our experts cross-check your in-text citations and reference entries, make sure you’ve included the correct information for each source, and improve the formatting of your reference page.

If you want to handle your citations yourself, Scribbr’s free Knowledge Base provides clear, accurate guidance on every aspect of citation. You can see citation examples for a variety of common source types below:

And you can check out our comprehensive guides to the most popular citation styles:

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

The abbreviation “ et al. ” (Latin for “and others”) is used to shorten citations of sources with multiple authors.

“Et al.” is used in APA in-text citations of sources with 3+ authors, e.g. (Smith et al., 2019). It is not used in APA reference entries .

Use “et al.” for 3+ authors in MLA in-text citations and Works Cited entries.

Use “et al.” for 4+ authors in a Chicago in-text citation , and for 10+ authors in a Chicago bibliography entry.

The Scribbr Citation Generator is developed using the open-source Citation Style Language (CSL) project and Frank Bennett’s citeproc-js . It’s the same technology used by dozens of other popular citation tools, including Mendeley and Zotero.

You can find all the citation styles and locales used in the Scribbr Citation Generator in our publicly accessible repository on Github .

APA format is widely used by professionals, researchers, and students in the social and behavioral sciences, including fields like education, psychology, and business.

Be sure to check the guidelines of your university or the journal you want to be published in to double-check which style you should be using.

MLA Style  is the second most used citation style (after APA ). It is mainly used by students and researchers in humanities fields such as literature, languages, and philosophy.

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• 301 Academic Skills Centre
• Study skills online

Formatting your assignments

Illustrated step-by-step guides to help you understand the formatting and presentation expectations of university assignments.

Introduction 

Although formatting your essay, report or dissertation can feel like a lesser priority than the process of research and writing itself, it is an important way to ensure your ideas are given the spotlight through visually accessible, professional presentation. Formatting can be a minefield, especially when you’re formatting at the last minute; it’s important to leave a few days at the end of your essay writing process for working on your formatting, and to spend some time familiarising yourself with the different aspects of formatting.

301 Recommends:

Our Essay Structure and Planning workshop will outline how to analyse your essay question, discuss approaches logically structure all your ideas, help you make your introductions and conclusions more effective, and teach how to link your ideas and ensure all essay content flows logically from the introduction.

Below, you will find some general introductions to the key areas. 

Action: know the rules 

Because formatting rules can vary greatly depending on your department or assignment, it’s crucial to check the formatting specifications in your assignment description/rubric, and any general departmental presentation standards, as a first port of call. Many referencing systems also have specific rules about how to format your work, so make sure to familiarise yourself with the university library’s referencing guides . Many referencing systems also have more detailed style guides available via their websites.

Formatting key information  

Assignment cover sheets .

In some departments, you may be expected to include a cover sheet on the front page of your assignment. This is a page including key information about your assignment, such as your module number, student registration number, essay title, and submission date.

You may be asked to submit a plagiarism declaration and to make your markers aware of any disabilities through the yellow sticker system . If you are asked to include a cover sheet in your assignment, your department should make you aware of where you can access this.

Assignment titles

Place your assignment title at the top of your first page, either centre or left aligned, in bold font. At university, you may be assigned a pre-designed essay title/question, or asked to select from several possible titles. You may also be asked to design your own essay title. Here are some top tips on designing your own title:

• To bring focus to your essay, draft a working title at the essay planning stage. You can come back and review this title in light of your finished essay draft.
• Make sure to use action words in your essay title that reflect the skills your assessors are looking for, both in the assignment description and the marking criteria you have been given. For example, if heavy emphasis is placed on critical analysis, you could use a title like ‘Analyse the effect of…’ See this glossary of essay terms , containing examples that you can use in your own titles. 
• The action words you choose can also help you to reflect the structure of the essay in your question. For example, an essay using the action word ‘Discuss’ might use a for/against/conclusion or advantages/disadvantages/conclusion structure, or an essay using the term ‘Analyse’ might break an issue down into parts, e.g. into key themes, to understand its meaning as a whole. Think about the type of essay you want to write: do you want it to be comparative, look at several topics equally, or do you have a clear argument that you want to put forward? You can then create a question that gives you the opportunity to approach the topic from your own perspective.
• Make sure to include the main terminology you are working with in your assignment title.
• Make sure your question has a realistic scope, without being so broad that you cannot answer it within the limitations of your essay. To limit your question, you could include any limiting factors you are working with, such as specific time periods, geographical regions or sub-themes within the overall topic area. For example, in the title ‘Evaluate the proposition that a global monoculture will destroy diversity and difference’, the broad topic of global monoculture is limited down through a specific sub-focus on diversity and difference.

Stating word counts 

Depending on the instructions you have been given, you may be asked to state your word count, either on your cover sheet or at the beginning of your essay. If you are asked to include this information, make sure your word count accurately reflects the assessment guidance: for example, are references included in your word count?

Visual clarity  

Line spacing .

Most assignment descriptions specify that you should increase the space between each line on the page, from the standard 1.0 spacing to either 1.5 or 2.0 spacing. You are asked to do this to make the essay more visually accessible and easier to read, by breaking up the number of lines on each page. 

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to line spacing in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Fonts 

All non-examination based assignments should be word processed rather than handwritten. Most assignment descriptions will specify that for visual clarity, and to ensure a professional appearance, you should use a plain, sans-serif font such as Arial. For readability, this should be in 11 or 12 point size. Check your departmental or assignment guidance for any specific rules about font choices. 

Page numbering, headers and footers  

Including page numbers in your assignments makes them more accessible. Depending on the departmental guidance you have been given, you may be asked to include these in either the header or the footer of your essay (the blank space above and below where the text would go on a normal page in a word processor). It may also be helpful to include your registration number and the module code of the essay in the same header or footers that specify the page number. 

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to adding page numbers and using headers and footers in Microsoft Word and Google Docs. 

Page layout   

Margins .

A margin is the amount of blank space on either side of a paragraph in a normal word processor. Traditionally, assignment descriptions specified that the margins should be made wider at the binding edge (the left hand side) of the page, to allow for easier reading of printed essays. However, with the shift to online essays, you might not be asked to do this any more and the default settings on your word processor are likely to be sufficiently wide.

For printed dissertations and theses, you may receive specific guidance about the suitable layout of margins, as these are more likely to be printed: see this university guide on formatting PhD theses . 

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to adjusting margins in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Paragraph alignment 

Most formatting instructions specify that paragraphs should be lined up in a straight line (aligned) on the left hand edge, but left jagged on the right hand edge (like this page). This is called left alignment, or flush-left style, and should be the default alignment setting for your word processor. This style can be helpful for visual accessibility, but check any specific instructions you have been given by your department to see which style of alignment you have been asked to use. 

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to adjusting paragraph alignment in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.  

Paragraph indentation

You may be asked to add indents to your paragraphs: an indent is an additional small gap between the margin and the beginning of a paragraph (it makes a ‘dent’ in the first line of your paragraph). Indents are used to provide extra clarification that the reader is starting a new paragraph after finishing the last one: therefore, they should not be used in the first paragraph of your essay. Indents are not always required, and whether you are expected to use them may depend on your referencing style , and any formatting instructions you have been given by your department.

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to indenting paragraphs in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Formatting referenced material 

Footnotes and endnotes .

Some referencing systems require you to use footnotes or endnotes to format your references (make sure to check the library’s referencing guide to familiarise yourself with the expected format of your referencing style). Inserting a footnote into your word document when you have cited from a source adds a superscript number (a number formatted in a smaller font) to the sentence. It creates a note with a matching number at the bottom of the page you are working on (in the footer), which you can add the reference information to.

Endnotes work in the same way, but instead of appearing at the bottom of the page, the reference list appears at the end of the document.

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to manually inserting footnotes and endnotes in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.  

References and bibliographies  

Instead of, or alongside footnotes/endnotes, some referencing systems ask you to include a bibliography and/or a reference list at the end of the essay (make sure to check the library’s referencing guide to familiarise yourself with the expected format of your referencing style). A reference list is a list of all the sources you have directly referred to in the essay, which could be ordered numerically or alphabetically, depending on your referencing style.

A bibliography could be used alongside, or instead of, a reference list, depending on your referencing style; here, you list all the sources you have consulted that have influenced your ideas, whether they are included in the essay or not. The way this is ordered also depends on your referencing style. 

If you auto-generate your citations in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, you can auto-generate your bibliography instead of creating it manually: instructions for doing so are in the resource below. If you use a different reference manager, such as Mendeley, Zotero, or Endnote, these have their own specific instructions for auto-generating bibliographies. See the reference management resources offered by the university. 

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to manually or automatically formatting a bibliography or reference list in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Block quotations  

When you need to include a quotation in your essay that is three or more lines long, you can add this as a block quotation. A block quotation appears on a separate line to the other parts of the paragraph, and is indented (i.e. there is a wider gap between a block quotation and the left-hand margin than there is between the rest of the paragraph and the left-hand margin). Block quotations aren’t placed in quotation marks, so the indentation is used to indicate that you are using a quotation.

Check your referencing guide and any departmental guidance to learn more about the specific rules on formatting block quotations in your department. Because they take up large chunks of your word count, and break up the flow of your texts, make sure to use block quotations sparingly: they are especially helpful when you are going to perform close analysis of a large section of text. For more information on different types of quotation and how to use them, see our workshop on paraphrasing and using academic sources.

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to formatting block quotations in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Advanced formatting 

Headings and contents tables .

Most standard short essays do not include headings, other than the essay title and reference list and/or bibliography. Section headings may be required for some longer or more structured types of academic writing, such as reports; reports often follow a very closely prescribed structure, so it is essential to pay very careful attention to the specific guidelines issued with your brief. Make sure that any system you use for numbering your headings and subheadings is consistently applied throughout the document.

Depending on the advice you have been given, and the length and complexity of a lab report, you may also be required to include a table of contents to help the reader navigate between headings. Contents tables are generally standard practice in longer assignments such as dissertations and theses. Make sure to check any departmental guidance you have been given about formatting reports.

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to formatting headings and contents tables in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

301 Recommends: Scientific Writing and Lab Reports Workshop

This workshop  will help you to familiarise yourself with some of the specific expectations associated with this assignment format.

Figures and tables 

Some kinds of essays, dissertations and reports will require you to make use of figures (pictures, diagrams, and graphs) and tables (any data in a table format). Figures and tables are normally numbered in sequence, e.g. ‘Table 1’, ‘Figure 4’, and are directly referred to in the text according to their number, rather than according to their location on the page (e.g. ‘as shown in Table 2’ rather than ‘as shown below’). 

If your text is of dissertation or thesis length, or if your text has several figures, it may also be helpful to include a list of figures immediately after the table of contents. Some referencing guides have specific rules about presenting and referencing tables and figures, so make sure to familiarise yourself with these and carefully read any specific instructions about figures and tables in your assignment brief. 

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to inserting figures and tables and creating lists of figures/tables in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Top tips for formatting tables and figures:

• Make sure that any tables or figures you use are placed below the paragraph where you refer to them, and that you have directly referred to all figures and tables in the text of the essay.
• The caption for a table usually acts as its title, so this is placed above the table in the document. The caption for a figure is usually placed underneath the figure. Do not include unnecessary additional titles in the graph image itself, if the title is already included in your image caption. 
• Make sure to label your captions consistently, choosing between ‘Fig.’ or ‘Figure’ and consistently using either a full stop or a colon after the label (i.e. ‘Figure 1:’ or ‘Fig. 1.’) 
• Your caption should clearly and succinctly explain what the figure or table is. If the figure is taken from an external source, you must provide a reference that accurately reflects its copyright status (see these university library guides to inserting and attributing images and figures in university work). 
• Make sure to include legends in any charts you use (a key that helps to explain the data in the chart). Any data series you use should be clearly distinguishable from each other (e.g. avoid printing a report with coloured graphs in black and white!) If you are only using one series of data, a legend is not always necessary. 
• Make sure tables are clear and easy to read, using sans serif fonts, a readable font size, and avoiding unnecessary use of colour. 
• Make sure graphs are clear and easy to read, with clearly and appropriately labelled axes. Be wary of 3D effects that may obscure the clarity of a graph.
• Make sure to avoid presenting the same information in a graph and a table.
• Images and figures in printed essays, such as dissertations and theses, should be large enough for the text and numbers to be legible on the printed copy. Make sure they do not extend beyond the print margins of the document. 

301 Recommends: Displaying Data in Graphs and Tables Workshop

This workshop will provide more technical advice on using graphs and tables in your work. See also this Engineering department guidance on formatting graphs and tables in Engineering lab reports.

Appendices 

Appendices commonly appear in dissertations, theses, and lab reports. An appendix provides supporting information that gives the reader a better understanding of the essay, but that might be too long, detailed or awkward to insert into the main body of the essay without breaking up its flow. Interview questions or transcripts, sample questionnaires, raw data, figures, photographs, large/complex datasets, and diagrams are all examples of information that could be included in an appendix, if it is relevant to do so.

The reader should be able to understand the essay without reference to this supporting information, as all the most important and relevant information needed to answer the question should be included in the body (i.e., the appendix should not be used to make room for content that doesn’t fit within your word count). Your appendices must be clearly signposted and explained in the body of your report, highlighting any information that is essential for your reader to understand. Do not include any appendices that are not referenced in the text itself.

The appendices should be placed in numerical or alphabetical order, and signposted according to this specific system (e.g. ‘Appendix B indicates that…’) They should be clearly labelled, using headings that match up to the in-text reference. Appendices usually appear at the very end of the assignment, after your references/bibliography. Make sure to list any appendices used in your table of contents; if you have been instructed to do so by your department or within your referencing system, you could include a list of appendices separate to your contents list. 

The specific format of the appendix heading, and the reference made to the appendix in the text, depends on your referencing style , so make sure to carefully review this information before you design your appendices.

Download this step-by-step illustrated guide to inserting appendices and creating lists of appendices in Microsoft Word and Google Docs.

Tips and resources

• Use this 301 proofreading checklist to check over your work when you are finished.
• Use the University Library referencing guide for advice about referencing and formatting that is specific to your referencing style. If you need extra clarification about formatting rules, it is often possible to download an extended style guide from the official website for a specific referencing system. 
• For further training on referencing, using reference generators, and using images in your work, see the University Library workshop programme .

Related information

Academic Writing

Proofreading

Essay structure and planning

Scientific writing and lab reports

Creating accessible Word documents

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Take advantage of our curated Level Up Your Skills packages and start working through resources for your upcoming level of study, or use study skills online to find specific topics you want to work on.

Scribbr Referencing Generator

Accurate Harvard, APA, MLA, and Chicago references, verified by experts, trusted by millions.

Reference sources in seconds with Autocite

Look up your source by its title, URL, ISBN, or DOI, and let Scribbr do the rest! The reference generator will automatically find all the necessary information to generate a perfect reference, including the author(s), publication date, and publisher.

Perfectly formatted references every time

Inaccurate references can cost you points on your assignments, so our seasoned referencing experts have invested countless hours in perfecting Scribbr’s reference generator algorithms. We’re proud to be recommended by teachers and universities across the UK.

Enjoy a referencing generator without flashy ads

Staying focused is already difficult enough, so unlike other reference generators, Scribbr won’t slow you down with flashing banner ads and video pop-ups. That’s a promise!

Citation Generator features you'll love

Look up your source by its title, URL, ISBN, or DOI, and let Scribbr find and fill in all the relevant information automatically.

Harvard, APA, MLA, Chicago

Generate flawless references according to the official Harvard , APA , MLA, or Chicago style rules. More referencing styles will be available soon!

Export to Word

When your reference list is complete, export it to Word. We’ll apply the official formatting guidelines automatically.

Lists and folders

Create separate reference lists for each of your assignments to stay organized. You can also group related lists into folders.

Export to Bib(La)TeX

Are you using a LaTex editor like Overleaf? If so, you can easily export your references in Bib(La)TeX format with a single click.

Custom fonts

Change the typeface used for your reference list to match the rest of your document. Options include Times New Roman, Arial, and Calibri.

Industry-standard technology

Scribbr’s Referencing Generator is built using the same citation software (CSL) as Mendeley and Zotero, but with an added layer for improved accuracy.

Annotations

Describe or evaluate your sources in annotations, and Scribbr will generate a perfectly formatted annotated bibliography.

Referencing guides

Scribbr’s popular guides and videos will help you understand everything related to finding, evaluating, and referencing sources.

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• Introduction
• Finding sources

Evaluating sources

• Integrating sources

Referencing sources

Tools and resources, a quick guide to working with sources.

Working with sources is an important skill that you’ll need throughout your academic career.

It includes knowing how to find relevant sources, assessing their authority and credibility, and understanding how to integrate sources into your work with proper referencing.

This quick guide will help you get started!

Finding relevant sources

Sources commonly used in academic writing include academic journals, scholarly books, websites, newspapers, and encyclopedias. There are three main places to look for such sources:

• Research databases: Databases can be general or subject-specific. To get started, check out this list of databases by academic discipline . Another good starting point is Google Scholar .
• Your institution’s library: Use your library’s database to narrow down your search using keywords to find relevant articles, books, and newspapers matching your topic.
• Other online resources: Consult popular online sources like websites, blogs, or Wikipedia to find background information. Be sure to carefully evaluate the credibility of those online sources.

When using academic databases or search engines, you can use Boolean operators to refine your results.

Generate Harvard, APA, MLA, and Chicago style references in seconds

Get started

In academic writing, your sources should be credible, up to date, and relevant to your research topic. Useful approaches to evaluating sources include the CRAAP test and lateral reading.

CRAAP is an abbreviation that reminds you of a set of questions to ask yourself when evaluating information.

• Currency: Does the source reflect recent research?
• Relevance: Is the source related to your research topic?
• Authority: Is it a respected publication? Is the author an expert in their field?
• Accuracy: Does the source support its arguments and conclusions with evidence?
• Purpose: What is the author’s intention?

Lateral reading

Lateral reading means comparing your source to other sources. This allows you to:

• Verify evidence
• Contextualize information
• Find potential weaknesses

If a source is using methods or drawing conclusions that are incompatible with other research in its field, it may not be reliable.

Integrating sources into your work

Once you have found information that you want to include in your paper, signal phrases can help you to introduce it. Here are a few examples:

Following the signal phrase, you can choose to quote, paraphrase or summarize the source.

• Quoting : This means including the exact words of another source in your paper. The quoted text must be enclosed in quotation marks or (for longer quotes) presented as a block quote . Quote a source when the meaning is difficult to convey in different words or when you want to analyze the language itself.
• Paraphrasing: This means putting another person’s ideas into your own words. It allows you to integrate sources more smoothly into your text, maintaining a consistent voice. It also shows that you have understood the meaning of the source.
• Summarizing : This means giving an overview of the essential points of a source. Summaries should be much shorter than the original text. You should describe the key points in your own words and not quote from the original text.

Whenever you quote, paraphrase, or summarize a source, you must include a citation crediting the original author.

Referencing your sources is important because it:

• Allows you to avoid plagiarism
• Establishes the credentials of your sources
• Backs up your arguments with evidence
• Allows your reader to verify the legitimacy of your conclusions

The most common citation styles in the UK are APA, MLA, Harvard, Vancouver, MHRA, and Oscola. Each citation style has specific rules for formatting citations.

Scribbr’s free Reference Generator can generate perfect references and in-text citations in both APA and MLA styles. More citation styles will be available soon!

Scribbr and partners offer tons of tools and resources to make working with sources easier and faster. Take a look at our top picks:

• Reference Generator: Automatically generate Harvard and APA references .
• Plagiarism Checker : Detect plagiarism in your paper using the most accurate Turnitin-powered plagiarism software available to students.
• Proofreading services : Have a human editor improve your writing.
• Knowledge Base : Explore hundreds of articles, bite-sized videos, time-saving templates, and handy checklists that guide you through the process of research, writing, and citation.

Referencing Generator

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• Select style:
• Archive material
• Chapter of an edited book
• Conference proceedings
• Dictionary entry
• Dissertation
• DVD, video, or film
• E-book or PDF
• Edited book
• Encyclopedia article
• Government publication
• Music or recording
• Online image or video
• Presentation
• Press release
• Religious text

What Is Cite This For Me’s Reference Generator?

Cite This For Me’s open-access generator is an automated citation machine that turns any of your sources into references in just a click. Using a reference generator helps students to integrate referencing into their research and writing routine; turning a time-consuming ordeal into a simple task.

A referencing generator accesses information from across the web, drawing the relevant information into a fully-formatted bibliography that clearly presents all of the sources that have contributed to your work.

If you don’t know how to reference a website correctly, or have a fast-approaching deadline, Cite This For Me’s accurate and intuitive reference generator will lend you the confidence to realise your full academic potential. In order to get a grade that reflects all your hard work, your references must be accurate and complete. Using a citation machine not only saves you time but also ensures that you don’t lose valuable marks on your assignment.

Not sure how to format your citations, what citations are, or just want to find out more about Cite This For Me’s reference generator? This guide outlines everything you need to know to equip yourself with the know-how and confidence to research and cite a wide range of diverse sources in your work.

Why Do I Need To Reference?

Simply put, when another source contributes to your work, you have to give the original owner the appropriate credit. After all, you wouldn’t steal someone else’s possessions so why would you steal their ideas?

Regardless of whether you are referencing a website, an article or a podcast, any factual material or ideas you take from another source must be acknowledged in a citation unless it is common knowledge (e.g. Winston Churchill was English). Failing to credit all of your sources, even when you’ve paraphrased or completely reworded the information, is plagiarism. Plagiarising will result in disciplinary action, which can range from losing precious marks on your assignment to expulsion from your university.

What’s more, attributing your research infuses credibility and authority into your work, both by supporting your own ideas and by demonstrating the breadth of your research. For many students, crediting sources can be a confusing and tedious process, but it’s a surefire way to improve the quality of your work so it’s essential to get it right. Luckily for you, using Cite This For Me’s reference generator makes creating accurate references easier than ever, leaving more time for you to excel in your studies.

In summary, the citing process serves three main functions:

• To validate the statements and conclusions in your work by providing directions to other sound sources that support and verify them.
• To help your readers locate, read and check your sources, as well as establishing their contribution to your work.
• To give credit to the original author and hence avoid committing intellectual property theft (known as ‘plagiarism’ in academia).

How Do I Cite My Sources With The Cite This For Me Referencing Generator?

Cite This For Me’s reference generator is the most accurate citation machine available, so whether you’re not sure how to format in-text references or are looking for a foolproof solution to automate a fully-formatted bibliography, this referencing generator will solve all of your citing needs.

Crediting your source material doesn’t just prevent you from losing valuable marks for plagiarism, it also provides all of the information to help your reader find for themselves the book, article, or other item you are citing. The accessible interface of the reference generator makes it easy for you to identify the source you have used – simply enter its unique identifier into the citation machine search bar. If this information is not available you can search for the title or author instead, and then select from the search results that appear below the reference generator.

Don’t know how to reference a website? The good news is that by using tools such as Cite This For Me’s reference generator, which help you work smarter, you don’t need to limit your research to sources that are traditional to cite. In fact, there are no limits to what you can cite, whether you are referencing a website, a YouTube video or a tweet.

To use the reference generator, simply:

• Select your style from Harvard, APA, OSCOLA and many more*
• Choose the type of source you would like to cite (e.g. website, book, journal, video)
• Enter the URL , DOI , ISBN , title, or other unique source information to find your source
• Click the ‘Cite’ button on the reference generator
• Copy your new citation straight from the referencing generator into your bibliography
• Repeat for each source that has contributed to your work.

*If you require another style for your paper, essay or other academic work, you can select from over 1,000 styles by creating a free Cite This For Me account.

Once you have created your Cite This For Me account you will be able to use the reference generator to create multiple references and save them into a project. Use Cite This For Me’s highly-rated iOS or Android apps to generate references in a flash with your smartphone camera, export your complete bibliography in one go, and much more.

What Will The Reference Generator Create For Me?

Cite This For Me’s reference generator will create your citation in two parts: an in-text citation and a full citation to be copied straight into your work.

The reference generator will auto-generate the correct formatting for your bibliography depending on your chosen style. For instance, if you select a parenthetical style the reference generator will generate an in-text citation in parentheses, along with a full citation to slot into your bibliography. Likewise, if the reference generator is set to a footnote style then it will create a fully-formatted citation for your reference list and bibliography, as well as a corresponding footnote to insert at the bottom of the page containing the relevant source.

Parenthetical style examples:

In-text example: A nation has been defined as an imagined community (Anderson, 2006).* Alternative format: Anderson (2006) defined a nation as an imagined community.

*The reference generator will create your references in the first style, but this should be edited if the author’s name already appears in the text.

Bibliography / Works Cited list example: Anderson, B. (2006). Imagined Communities. London: Verso.

What Are Citation Styles?

A citation style is a set of rules that you, as an academic writer, must follow to ensure the quality and relevance of your work. There are thousands of styles that are used in different academic institutions around the world, but in the UK the most common are Harvard, APA and Oscola.

The style you need to use will depend on the preference of your lecturer, discipline or academic institution – so if you’re unsure which style you should be using, consult your department and follow their guidelines exactly, as this is what you’ll be evaluated on when it comes to marking. You can also find your university’s style by logging into your Cite This For Me account and setting your institution in ‘My Profile’.

Citing isn’t just there to guard against plagiarism – presenting your research in a clear and consistent way eases the reader’s comprehension. Each style has a different set of rules for formatting both the page and your references. Be sure to adhere to formatting rules such as font type, font size and line spacing to ensure that your work is easily legible. Furthermore, if your work is published as part of an anthology or collected works, each entry will need to be presented in the same style to maintain uniformity throughout. It is important to make sure that you don’t jump from one style to another, so follow the rules carefully to ensure your reference list and bibliography are both accurate and complete.

If you need a hand with your citations then why not try Cite This For Me’s reference generator? It’s the quickest and easiest way to cite any source, in any style. The reference generator above will create your citations in the Harvard referencing style as standard, but it can generate fully-formatted references in over 1,000 styles – including university variations of each style. So, whether your lecturer has asked you to adopt APA referencing , or your subject requires you to use OSCOLA referencing , we’re sure to have the style you need. To access all of them, simply go to Cite This For Me’s website to create your free Cite This For Me account and search for your specific style such as MLA or Vancouver .

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Typically, a reference list starts on a new page at the end of the main body of text and includes a complete list of the sources you have actually cited in your paper. This list should contain all the information needed for the reader to locate the original source of the information, quote or statistic that directly contributed to your work. On the other hand, a bibliography is a comprehensive list of all the material you may have consulted throughout your research and writing process. Both provide the necessary information for readers to retrieve and check the sources cited in your work.

Each style’s guidelines will define the terminology of ‘reference list’ and ‘bibliography’, as well as providing formatting guidelines for font, line spacing and page indentations. In addition, it will instruct you on how to order each list – this will usually be either alphabetical or chronological (meaning the order that these sources appear in your work). Before submitting your work, be sure to check that you have formatted your whole paper according to your style’s formatting guidelines.

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• Find a book, journal, website or other source that will contribute to your work
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• Repeat for each source that contributes to your work.
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• HM Revenue & Customs

Contentious Issues Panel: Terms of reference

Published 12 September 2024

© Crown copyright 2024

This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: [email protected] .

Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.

This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/issues-board-remits/contentious-issues-panel-terms-of-reference

1. Terms of Reference

1.1. background.

The HMRC Contentious Issues Panel ( CIP ) is part of the HMRC governance framework for decisions in resolving tax disputes.

The HMRC Code of Governance requires cross- HMRC decision-making bodies to make decisions about our approach to resolving major disputed points arising, or expected to arise, in multiple cases.

For major contentious issues arising in relation to tax, the CIP has been authorised by the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs to:

• decide HMRC ’s strategy for handling major contentious issues
• agree an approach for resolving such issues in accordance with the Litigation and Settlement Strategy

1.2. Operational principles

The following principles underpin the operation of the CIP :

deciding our approach to resolving a disputed point that arises (or is expected to arise) in multiple cases and applying it consistently is an important part of the even-handed and fair administration of the tax system

decisions on contentious issues will be subject to challenge and scrutiny by representatives from multiple areas of HMRC

our tax professionals should be able to understand and consistently apply HMRC ’s governance processes, including how governance bodies fit with their own roles in taking decisions in tax disputes

all governance processes should be proportionate, effective and efficient, and should not adversely impact operational delivery and customer experience

1.3. How the CIP will operate

The CIP will ensure that cases with the same major contentious issue are handled in a co-ordinated and consistent manner across HMRC .

The CIP will take referrals from issue owners. The issue owner will normally be the policy owner even if the referral was requested by another governance board. However, the CIP will accept a referral from another governance board if there is a good reason for that board to make the referral.

The CIP will decide the strategy for handling the major contentious issue submitted by the issue owner. Decisions in individual cases with the same major contentious issue must take the agreed strategy into account.

Where a major contentious issue is present in a case, which is also within the remit of the Tax Disputes Resolution Board ( TDRB ) or any other case governance body in a line of business, any proposals to resolve the specific dispute in that case must still be referred to that body, subject to any exception process in place. Decisions of the TDRB and other case governance bodies will take account of the strategy the CIP has agreed.

Any decision of the CIP in relation to agreeing a handling strategy for a major contentious issue needs to be made unanimously by panel members in attendance at the relevant meeting. Where the CIP cannot reach a decision it may, where appropriate, request that further work is undertaken by the issue owners or refer the issue to the Commissioners.

The Chair of the CIP will on occasion refer an issue to the Tax Assurance Commissioner or to HMRC Commissioners as described below:

where, exceptionally, the CIP cannot reach a decision and it is not appropriate to refer the issue in question for further work, the Chair will refer the issue for decision to the Tax Assurance Commissioner and the Director General for the relevant line of business - if those Commissioners believe it would be helpful, a third Commissioner may be asked to take part in making the decision

where, exceptionally, the CIP agrees that a basis for resolving an issue represents the best outcome for the Exchequer but this is not consistent with the Litigation and Settlement Strategy, the Chair will refer the proposed basis for resolution to the Tax Assurance Commissioner for their view before the basis is adopted

the Chair may refer any other issue to the Commissioners for decision if they think it is appropriate in the circumstances

1.4. Definition of ‘major contentious issue’ – criteria for referral

The CIP considers issues involving points of law or practice which:

• might have a significant and far-reaching impact on HMRC policy, strategy or operations
• affect multiple cases
• result in major litigation

It is not necessary to refer every issue described above to the CIP . Issues only need to be referred if they are ‘major’ and ‘contentious’.

An issue will be regarded as contentious if there is something difficult or sensitive about the decision-making process from a governance point of view. For example, the legal point might be finely balanced or there might be grounds for uncertainty as to whether to implement a position retrospectively or prospectively.

There is no requirement for a minimum amount of tax at risk for referral to the CIP . However, the amount can be taken into consideration in determining whether the issue is major enough to need to be referred.

It is likely that a referral will be required in any of the following circumstances, even if the amount of tax at risk is low:

• key internal stakeholders, for example the policy team and operational colleagues, cannot reach agreement about how to proceed
• there is perceived risk of unfairness to taxpayers
• there is risk of reputational damage
• there is any other difficulty or sensitivity about determining the handling strategy that merits CIP involvement to ensure a fair and even-handed application of the tax system

Every effort should be made to resolve any internal disputes before referral and all stakeholders’ views should be represented in the referral documentation.

1.5. Examples of issues that do not need to be referred

the policy owner intends to defend what is clearly longstanding published policy with good prospects of success. There is nothing difficult or sensitive about the policy owner’s proposal from a governance point of view, for example all stakeholders are in agreement and there is no risk of unfairness or reputational damage

the policy owner intends to concede a point disputed by a handful of taxpayers on the basis of counsel’s advice that we are likely to lose in court. There is minimum tax at risk and no effect on future cases as the law has since been amended. There are no special circumstances that would justify maintaining the position

The secretariat should be contacted if there is any doubt as to whether an issue should be referred to the CIP .

2. CIP Operating Procedures

2.1. composition of the hmrc cip.

A Director from Customer Strategy and Tax Design.

Any of the deputy directors who are members of the Panel may deputise as Chair, or the Chair may choose to co-opt another director to the panel to deputise.

Members of the CIP

Deputy Directors Business, Assets and International (x2)

Deputy Director Indirect Tax

Deputy Director Borders and Trade

Deputy Director Individuals Policy

Deputy Director Solicitor’s Office and Legal Services

Deputy Director Large Business

Deputy Director Compliance Operations Directorate

Deputy Director Wealthy and Mid-Sized Business Customers

Deputy Director Individual and Small Business Customers

Deputy Director Counter Avoidance Directorate

Deputy Director HMRC Strategies

Deputy Director Tax Administration Directorate

Commissioners’ Advisory Accountant

2.2. Administration of the CIP

The CIP shall not be authorised to make a decision unless there are a minimum of 5 panel members or their deputies present at a meeting (see exception below for urgent issues). Further, no decision is to be taken on any issue where a member (or their deputy) from the relevant directorate for that issue is absent.

A member may be represented at a panel meeting by a deputy.

Deputy Directors (SCS1) (or their nominated deputies) who are not members may be co-opted to the panel when an issue has been referred to the CIP from their Directorate, or where they hold a significant stakeholder interest.

Conflict of interest

Before any contentious issue is discussed, any person who is present at a CIP meeting will declare any conflict of interest. In this context a conflict of interest is deemed to include any prior contribution to discussions with customers or HMRC issue owners as to the basis on which a contentious issue might be resolved. Conflicts of interest are to be clearly noted.

Arrangements for urgent issues

The Chair will decide when a matter might be dealt with outside of the normal CIP meeting schedule, but such occasions will be rare.

For exceptionally urgent matters the secretariat will seek to arrange a meeting between panel members or their deputies sufficient in number to form a quorum under item 1. Alternatively, the Chair may choose to co-opt two other directors to the CIP to consider an exceptionally urgent issue, in which case the 3 Directors will be authorised to decide the matter provided key stakeholders are represented.

The CIP may also make decisions by correspondence where it is appropriate to do so. Where CIP business is dealt with by correspondence, usual CIP procedures will apply.

Arrangements for meetings

Meetings of the CIP will usually be held monthly or at such times as the Chair may decide.

Referrals must be made using the CIP submission template (unless agreed otherwise with the CIP secretariat) and sent to the CIP secretariat. The secretariat will aim to make papers available to panel members five working days before the CIP meeting.

All referrals, including requests for advice, must be made via the CIP secretariat. All referrals must carry appropriate security markings.

Update to the Tax Assurance Commissioner

A short note summarising each individual issue considered by the CIP will be sent to the Tax Assurance Commissioner after every meeting.

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