Referencing, also known as a citation, is defined as the method of acknowledging and recognizing someone for their work, which you used in your research to support your idea.
A reference normally includes the name of the author/s, date of publication, name and location of the publishing company, title of the journal or book, title of the research or chapter's name, and Digital Object Identifier (DOI).
In your academic writing, referencing takes place in two ways, in-text citation and end-text citation. The in-text citation is a brief reference in the body of the text and end-text citations are the full references which are found at the end of the document, in the form of a list.
You may be wondering why you need to reference, well referencing helps other people, who read your academic report, find the original source of work so that they may access the material and try to interpret it in their own way.
Referencing is also important as it helps you avoid plagiarism. Plagiarism is using someone else's intellectual property and implying that it is your own, which is not the right or fair thing to do.
Here are the common and universally used referencing styles:
- American Psychological Association (APA) Referencing Style
- Chicago / Turabian Referencing Style
- Harvard Referencing Style
- Modern Language Association (MLA) Referencing Style
- Oxford Referencing Style
- Vancouver (Numeric) Referencing Style
Here are some other styles which are not as common, but still required at some places.
- ACS (American Chemical Society)
- AGLC (Australian Guide to Legal Citation)
- AMA (American Medical Association)
- CSE/ CBE (Council of Science Editors/ Council of Biology Editors)
- IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)
APA Referencing Style
APA referencing is a variant on the Harvard referencing style. It is known as an "author-date" style. Only use the surname of the author/s and year of publication.
If you are quoting or paraphrasing, then include the page, chapter or section numbers.
As far as referencing websites, do not include the date accessed.
This style requires a reference list instead of a bibliography.
Example for books, journal articles, internet documents:
In-Text: (Cervone & Pervin, 2017, pp. 13-16)
End-Text: Cervone, D., & Pervin, L.A. (2017). Personality: Theory and research (13th ed.). Wiley
Example for website:
In-text: The National Autistic Society (2014)
End-Text: The National Autistic Society (2014). Recognising autism spectrum disorder. Retrieved from http://www.autism.org.uk/working-with/health/information-for-general-pr….
Chicago/Turabian Referencing Style
Chicago referencing style is an "author-date" style. Only use the surname of the author/s and year of publication.
If you are quoting or paraphrasing, then include the page, chapter or section numbers.
Example for books, journal articles, internet documents:
In-Text: (Tuten and Solomon 2018, 62-63)
End-Text: Tuten, Tracy L., and Michael R. Solomon. 2018. Social Media Marketing. 3rd ed. Los Angeles, CA: Sage.
Harvard Referencing Style
Harvard referencing style is an "author-date" style. Only use the surname of the author/s and year of publication. In-text citations are in brackets in the body of the text or in footnotes.
If you need to refer to a certain page, include the page number.
End-Text citations go in the bibliography or reference list.
Note:
Harvard is a 'style' rather than a system or set of rules, the preferred punctuation and formatting of the text may differ. Check for any examples in your course handbook, and if they are not available, be consistent.
Example for books, journal articles, internet documents:
In-Text: (Shriver and Atkins, 1999)
End-Text: Shriver, D.F. and Atkins, P.W. (1999). Inorganic chemistry. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Example for website:
In-Text: (National Autistic Society, 2014)
End-Text: National Autistic Society (2014) Recognising autism spectrum disorder, online at http://www.autism.org.uk/working-with/health/information-for-general-pr…, accessed 23/07/14.
MLA Referencing Style
MLA referencing styles was developed by the Modern Language Association. For in-text citations use the first part from the Works Cited entry, which is generally the author’s surname and page number/s in parenthesis.
This style requires a list called the "Works Cited" instead of a bibliography.
For the Works Cited section, arrange the references in alphabetical order by the first element, usually the author’s surname. The alphabetical arrangement is letter-by-letter, i.e. Mac comes before Mc. Ignore any diacritical marks (e.g. é is treated the same as e) or special characters (e.g. for @smith use smith).
Example for books, journal articles, internet documents:
In-Text: (Smith 173) Or
If the author’s name appears in the body of your essay itself, use just the relevant page number/s in the parenthesis, eg. Smith claims that....applies. (173).
End-Text: Author. Title of source. Title of Container, Other contributors, Version, Number, Publisher, Publication date, Location.
Oxford Referencing Style
Oxford referencing requires for the in-text citations to be in footnotes. Full details should be included in the footnotes for the first mention of a text. Thereafter, a shortened version should be used.
Example for books:
In-Text:
The first mention in the footnotes: Jonathan Bell, The Liberal State on Trial: The Cold War and American Politics in the Truman Years (New York, 2004) p.3.
The following mentions in the footnotes: Bell, The Liberal State on Trial, p. 36.
End-Text: Jonathan Bell, The Liberal State on Trial: The Cold War and American Politics in the Truman Years (New York, 2004).
Vancouver (Numeric) Referencing Style
Vancouver referencing style is numeric, where each source is given a number which matches the order in which it appears in the text. If the same source is referred to again in the body of the text, the same number is used.
This style makes use of a reference list which contains a single numbered list with full details.
You may also include a separate bibliography, which is alphabetically ordered by author, which lists sources that you have used as part of your research for your assignment but have not cited in the text.
Example for a journal article:
In-Text: It has been noted that performance does not always match expectations. (5)
End-Text: 5. Chhibber PK, Majumdar SK. Foreign ownership and profitability: Property rights, control, and the performance of firms in Indian industry. Journal of Law & Economics 1999;42(1): 209-238.
For more in-depth information on these reference styles, consult your textbooks.
