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

Life & Environmental Sciences use the Harvard referencing style.

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

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

Life & Environmental 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 allows you to create your own personal reference database for your assignments, dissertation and research projects by importing information from online sources such as the library website, journal article databases, and Google Scholar. You can then generate citations and reference lists.

The Library provides and supports the following software for all students and staff:

Click here for more information

Click here for more information.