When writing essays or reports, you may use ideas or information from a number of sources such as books, journal articles, newspapers and websites to support your own work. However, you must acknowledge the sources that you have used and give credit to the original authors. This allows other people to find the source that you have quoted or paraphrased. You must also provide a List of References or Bibliography. This is known as referencing or citing.
WHAT IS A REFERENCE OR CITATION?
No matter which reference style you use, certain essential information must be used. The link below takes you to our help on the basic elements for a citation (or bibliographic data) you need for a book, journal article, ebook, chapter in a book and web page. Elements of a Citation guide
Referencing styles provide the 'rules' that you need to arrange the information for the reference. There are many different styles of referencing styles, such as APA 6th, Harvard, Chicago and Vancouver. You need to check with your lecturer for the required referencing style for your particular subject.
Referencing Guide: includes information on how to reference sources, different referencing styles, academic integrity, and more.
As well as typing your references manually into your Word document, there are Citation Management Programs which work with Microsoft Word that can input your references for you. These programs allow you to enter bibliographic information into a template and with a few clicks your referencing is done.
Zotero: for Undergraduate and Enabling students
Mendeley: for Undergraduates and Enabling students
EndNote Online: for Undergraduates and Enabling students
EndNote: for Academics, Research Assistants, PhD, Masters or Honours students.
However, for students who will be working with a small number of references (15 or less) we suggest you consider using citation management programs such as Mendeley or Zotero.
Learn more about how to manage your references