Introduction

Once you put your research on paper, you must cite the sources of information (books, journal articles, www documents) that you have consulted during the course of your theses/research project. This is essential, in order to give credit to ideas and quotations used from other people's work and to allow your readers to retrieve references and find further information about the topic.

There are two steps you need to take in documenting the sources you have used:

• Citing sources within the text of your paper
• Providing a list at the end of your work using a reference list or bibliography.
  

Plagiarism

If you do not acknowledge sources, you can be accused of plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as ‘the use of intellectual material produced by another person without acknowledging its source’.Please take the library plagiarism tutorial to help you understand plagiarism, its nature and consequences and how best to avoid it.

Citing sources

When citing your sources and compiling your bibliography there are several different "styles" from which you can choose.

What Style should you use?

Style manuals

Often the style you choose might depend on the style your lecturer prefers or the discipline in which you are studying. You need to determine which style is preferred for your bibliography. It is important to check with your lecturer/department to find out what their recommended citation style is. Whatever style you choose it is important that your are accurate and consistent throughout your paper.

Style manuals provide guidelines for how to cite sources used in your theses/research paper. These guides also give background information on other elements of style such as proper page layout, punctuation, quotations, etc. The styles most often used are Harvard, APA, MLA and Turabian/Chicago.

• Harvard Style

  Widely accepted form used in the business and social science fields.

• APA

  (American Psychological Association): this style is used in psychology, education, and other social sciences.

• MLA

  (Modern Languages Association of America) : generally use this style for literature, arts, and humanities.

• Turabian / Chicago

  Comprehensive style manual, containing standards for documentation of sources in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences.

If you do not find an example that fits your needs, please ask a Librarian who can help you locate an appropriate form.

Citing electronic sources of information

Electronic Sources you may wish to cite in your book or research paper may include ftp sites, telnet addresses, WWW and gopher pages, newsgroup and discussion list postings, and e-mail messages. Be aware of the changing nature of electronic information - In citing these web resources, it is important that during the course of your research you make a note of the URL of the document you used to access information and of your access date.

Citation formats for Internet resources are still in development and no standard method for citing electronic sources of information has yet been agreed upon. The following books and websites sites do however provide guidelines on electronic citation styles from a variety of sources.

Useful Books

• Walker, J.R. and Taylor, T (1998) The Columbia guide to online style New York : Columbia University Press.
• Li, X. and Crane N. B.(1996) Electronic style: a guide to citing electronic information 2nd ed. Medford, N.J. : Information Today.
• Joseph, N. L. (1999) . Research Writing Using Traditional and Electronic Sources. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Prentice Hall.
• Harnack, A. and Kleppinger, E (2001) Online! a Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources. New York: St. Martin's Press.
• Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2010) Cite Them Right: the essential referencing guide. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Neville, C. (2007) The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism. Berkshire : Open University Press.
  

Useful web sites

• Harvard Style- http://www.bournemouth.ac.uk/library/citing_references/docs/Citing_Refs.pdf
• APA Style- http://www.apastyle.org/
• Chicago/Turabian Style-http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/how-to-find/cite-sources
• MLA Style- http://www.mla.org/
• Vancouver Style- http://www.deakin.edu.au/current-students/study-support/study-skills/handouts/vancouver.php
• IFLA- excellent link to style guides / resources- http://www.ifla.org/I/training/citation/citing.htm
• University of Wisconsin Library - web links electronic referencing.- http://researchguides.library.wisc.edu/citing
• Bedford / St Martins - online guides to electronic referencing in a variety of styles- http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/citex.html