Guides: Referencing: Referencing & Citing

Referencing & Citing

Why do we reference?

Referencing links what you read with what you write.

At university you are expected to research widely and build your knowledge from the expertise of others.

It is important to reference all your sources:

to allow you or the reader to find the source of your information
to avoid plagiarism by acknowledging that you have used the ideas and work of others
to strengthen your arguments and add credibility by referring to expert ideas

Why do we reference?

There are three main reasons why referencing is important. They are: giving credit, showing your work and what we call findability. Let's explore these ideas in a bit more detail.

Reason 1 - Giving Credit

Referencing gives credit to the creators of the material that you've been using and helps you to avoid accusations of plagiarism. Plagiarism is when you take other people's ideas words sounds or images and pass them off as your own. Plagiarism is treated very seriously at university and correct referencing protects you from committing it; even accidentally.

Reason 2 - Showing Your Work & Building Arguments

Referencing is evidence of your wide reading in the subject and it displays your learning. It also helps you to discuss issues and think critically. Using and expanding on other people's ideas is a vital part of academic writing, whether you are agreeing or disagreeing or just discussing the arguments.

Reason 3 - Findability

Finally, referencing helps the people reading your work to find the sources you were using when you wrote it so they can learn more about the subject and verify you were using those sources accurately.

What is referencing?

Referencing is the way you formally acknowledge the sources (e.g., published text, images, video, audio, statistics or websites) you have used to develop your ideas
It involves following a particular style (e.g., UOW Harvard, APA7, AGLC4, IEEE) for your study area, each of which usually includes some form of in-text references (e.g., footnotes or author-date citations within your sentences) and a final reference list or bibliography
Accurate referencing enables you and your readers to locate your sources, avoid plagiarism and demonstrate academic integrity

Finding resources from a reference

This tutorial explains how you can use a reference to locate a resource, such as a book or journal article.

Understanding referencing patterns

There are different referencing styles, and each has its own guide. Always check your Subject Outline for the style you need to use.

This tutorial explains how a reference in UOW Harvard style is made up of different parts depending on the type of resource it is.

Important information for Turnitin users

If you use Turnitin, be sure to enclose all direct quotes in "double quotation marks" because Turnitin recognises only the text enclosed in double quotation marks as a direct quote.

More referencing styles

Chicago Murdoch University
IEEE style Murdoch University
MLA Purdue University
Vancouver Griffith University

History Style Guide
Topics include: essay writing, citing sources, footnote conventions, the bibliography and avoiding plagiarism

Referencing