Computer Science

Referencing is important in academic writing and an essential part of any of your assignments. It:

• allows you to acknowledge your sources,
• gives academic credibility to your work,
• demonstrates your knowledge of a subject area,
• prevents accusations of plagiarism.

You should always reference a source when:

• using a direct quote
• summarising a theory
• discussing someone else's opinion
• using case studies
• quoting statistics or visual data
• but not when stating your own opinion, observation or experience.

Plagiarism is "the wrongful... publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas of another" (Oxford English Dictionary)

The School of Computer Science uses the Harvard referencing style.

You can download your referencing guide here

Reference management software helps you to store and organise your references and generate citations and reference lists. 

RefWorks is available to all students and staff, click here to log in.

To find out more about RefWorks there is online help or you can contact your Academic Subject Librarian.