A key aspect of academic writing is using referencing to clearly identify information and ideas in your writing that come from source materials. It's essential to acknowledge other people's ideas in this way so that you can avoid plagiarism.

Various referencing styles are used in different academic disciplines, but all referencing styles have two key components:

• In-text citation: citations appear in the text of your document to show where you've used information or words from source materials.
• Reference list (or bibliography): appears at the end of the document and contains the full details of each source cited in the text so the reader can find them if they want to.

It's very important that you format your citations and reference list correctly. See the relevant style guide for more detail and examples of citations and references.

Find out more:

Citing & Referencing [Google Slides]

Keeping track of your sources can be difficult, especially if you're working on a big piece of work that relies on a lot of references. 

Reference management software is really useful to organise your sources: you can group and tag sources, keep notes, and store PDFs online for easy access. You can even automatically cite your references as you write up your work. 

Find out more:

We’ve made every effort to ensure that our referencing help and guidance are correct. Sometimes small errors occur and we will rectify them as soon as they are identified. If you’ve got any questions about the content of this guide, please contact your Academic Liaison Librarian.

Using source information effectively isn't just about accurate citing and referencing (although that is a necessity!), it's also about selecting relevant evidence and integrating it into your argument. Find out more in our dedicated guide: