Pharmaceutical Science (BSc)

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 Pharmacy uses the Harvard referencing style.

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

Print copies are also available 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.

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.

Need help with RefWorks?

Try the RefWorks User Guide,

or contact your Academic Subject Librarian

Yes! While RefWorks should generally handle the formatting for you, there are still opportunities for error. You are still responsible for your final product, and you will want to proofread for spelling, capitalization, and general formatting. Make sure that the data that has been stored in RefWorks is correct as it can only reflect what has been exported into it. If you find problems, you can either fix them in the citation in your RefWorks database and regenerate your paper, or just make the changes in your final Word document before printing it.