What is referencing?

'Referencing' is a key tool that becomes a part of life of every student from their first year at University. Before this, it may be safe to say that a lot of people could care less of what the word itself meant.

As a new student 4 years ago, I remember walking into a compulsory tutorial session that was covered mostly on References. Of course, I was perplexed as I did not really understand what it was or why it was important. The term Harvard style kept being mentioned so much that I was half asleep for the entire session.

Did I regret this? Well yes and no!

Yes because I never really learnt anything during that session and the first term of my first year suffered this; My referencing was awful and this affected my coursework marks. This reason pushed me to work on my referencing skills and in the process, found a great online website that saw me through the rest of my University years with no issues (link provided below). Consequently, this is why I also say No to the question above.

OK, Enough of the life story!. The bullet points below gives a basic summary of what references entails with useful links and examples also provided.

WHAT ELSE IS IT?  

• Referencing enables you to use other people's ideas, theories or information to add onto your work in a constructive way. 
• It involves acknowledging the author's work within the body of your own work or otherwise called 'citing' and including a list of full references used at the end of your work. 

WHY DO IT?

• Gives more depth and reasoning behind your work. I believe you cannot lean on your own understanding otherwise schools will be impractical. 
• Impress your professor, examiner or teacher. Yes, most university scholars get to realise this at some point. Note: The use of academic journals can automatically boost your coursework marks.
• It gives credit to those who has done it before you. Life is a recycling process. A lot of what we are learning today is not entirely new! 
• It also makes your work more presentable. Ever had food with no seasoning ? 

REFERENCING STYLES

• Harvard (most popular) -  Author-date referencing. This has no link with the actual Harvard University by the way. There are different variations of this style (examples below).
• APA (American Psychological Association) - Used commonly by writers, editors and students in the social science subjects. Online tutorial can be accessed via this [link].
• Chicago - Published by the University of Chicago. Tutorial available via this [link].
• OSCOLA - Used to cite legislation and authorities information. Created by the University of Oxford's Law faculty. Follow link and OSCOLA Quick Reference Guide for more information.
• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) - Used in the engineering discipline and the referencing guide can be found here.

Examples of Harvard Style Referencing include the following:

• Online - This may include electronic journals, reports or academic journals. Try to avoid using vague websites such as Wikipedia or any unofficial websites.

"One of the major challenges faced today in less economically developed countries can be seen in the power sector (Smith, 2014). However..."

The text in bold above represents the in-text reference or citation and this will be typically used across all reference styles. It can also be written as Smith (2014) and also or otherwise used in starting a sentence. At the end of your work, the full reference can be shown as;

Smith, M (2014) LEDC Issues to the wider world. Available at: www.examplesite.co.uk/pdf (Accessed: 7 June 2015).  This is particularly for webpages. Subsequent examples are general. 

If more than one book is cited in the same year and from the same author, you can use the suffix a,b, c etc, to distinguish this. Therefore can be shown as Smith (2015a).

If more than two authors for the same publication, both their last names should be cited as;

Smith and Jackson (2015).

If there are more than two authors, the first name of the first author followed by 'et al' which means 'and others' should be used. Therefore, Smith et al. (2015).

If a newspaper article is used with no author, the name of the paper can be used. Therefore, The Sun (2015).

If no date is given but we know the author, the prefix 'n.d.' which means no date can be used. Therefore, (Smith, n.d.) or (Smith, no date supplied).

If the exact year of the publishing is roughly known, this can be shown with 'ca' ('circa'). Therefore, Smith (ca 2014).

If multiple authors are making the same point on various publications, they can be cited as (Smith, 2015; Jackson, 2010; Andy and Jackson, 1999).

• Journals - This may include journal articles which can be in paper or electronic form. It should follow this format;

Surname, Initials. (year) 'Title of article', Name of Journal (with capitals as they appear in the journal), volume number (part number), pages. Note: The journal title not the title of article should be in italics as well as in books and book chapters. If there is no volume number then the full date should be used. e.g. 02/03/2015.

"Smith, M (2001) 'Life is a constant cycle' Journal of Life, 217 (3214), pp. 34-39."  

If the journal is online, the format is;

Author, Initials. (year) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal, volume number (issue number) Name of Collection [Online]. Available at: URL of collection (Accessed: date). Therefore;

"Smith  M. and Jackson, S. (2015) ‘Life is a constant cycle’, Journal of Life [online], 6 (2), 23-28. Available: http://www.examplelink.com [date accessed: 1 January 2015]."

• Books - This may include an entire book or just a chapter from a book. The usual format is;

Surname, Initials. (year of publication) Title. Edition (if not the first). Place of publication: Name of publisher. Note: Title is in italics. Therefore,

"Smith, M. (2015) What is Life? (2nd edn.). London: Pearsons."

If it has come from a particular chapter, the title of the chapter should be referenced and placed in inverted commas followed by associated page numbers and  the title in italics. Therefore,

"Smith, M. (2015) 'Evolution Stages', pp.60-65 What is Life? (2nd edn.). London: Pearsons."

PLAGIARISM

• This should be taken very seriously as it is usually the mistake made by a lot of students due to the ease of copying and pasting one's work. It may lead to a serious disciplinary procedure if ever caught. Nevertheless, it is useful to reference other people's work but put it in your own words. 
• Check with your various institutions on further guidelines on ways to avoid this. 

FOOTNOTES

• This is a numeric system of referencing your work. Rather than using citation, you may use a superscript number. 
• They serve the same function although the footnote number indicates a note inserted at the bottom of the page which is linked to the source used.
•  Footnotes are also numbered consecutively as you go down your work.
• More information can be found via this Microsoft office link.

ONLINE TOOL

To complete this blog on references, as promised, I share with you an awesome online tool that generates your references for you. Although, Microsoft word can also do this but this site is a lot quicker and better. It also has a plagiarism checker tool.

Please click on Neils toolbox reference generator as I await your 'Thank You' messages.

Also check out these other fantastic sources;

Mendeley  and Refworks

Please do not forget to comment and drop any suggestions. We are also here to answer any questions you may have. 

We are not limited to a set topic area so let us know what information may be useful to you. 

Gracias! Till next time :)

By 

Jeffrey Okafor

Image credits:

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http://librarygrits.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/plagiarism-in-year-6_10.html

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