Life & Environmental Sciences

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)

Further information on referencing, and the importance of academic integrity is available here: Referencing & Academic Integrity

The School of Life Sciences uses the Harvard referencing style.

Find out all about using the Harvard style and download a copy of your referencing guide 

You can also pick up a print copy from the Library.

The guide provides examples of different information sources: how to cite them within your text and how to include them in your reference list.

The School of Life Sciences also use the Vancouver style of referencing - you will be told when you need to use this style.

You can download a copy 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.