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Libraries and Learning Skills

Referencing

Intro

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.

Find out which referencing style your school uses

There are lots of different referencing styles so it is important that you find out which one your school uses.  To help with understanding referencing styles the library has produced six referencing handbooks. PDF versions of these are available below.

The 3rd edition of the Harvard Referencing Handbook will be available (online only) in the next few weeks. When it is ready it will be available here for you to view online or download in PDF.

The 3rd edition features:

  • A new introduction, including more in-text citation examples and FAQs
  • New examples for existing information sources
  • A selection of new information sources

The main changes are:

  • Chapter in an edited book - the edited book information used to be author’s initials followed by their surname. This has been changed so that it is in the same format as all other book references (Author’s surname, followed by their Initials).
  • A source without an author – when an information source does not have a personal or corporate author the handbook states to put Anon. or Anonymous.
If you have a print copy of the 2nd edition you can continue to use this when the 3rd edition has been uploaded to the website, as the style and format has not changed. If you would like to reference something that is not listed in the 2nd edition, you could look at the 3rd edition (when it has been released) to see if it has been included or, consider using the guidelines of a source that is similar.

 

Harvard Referencing videos

Harvard Referencing: The Basics

Request for permission to use Handbooks

We are happy for external education institutions to link to our referencing materials.  If you do link, please email to request permission so that we know who is using our materials: library@lincoln.ac.uk 

republishing permissions

Help with referencing

Help with referencing

Your Academic Subject Librarian can provide support and guidance with referencing and advice on avoiding plagiarism.  In addition to this, there is lots of support material available. 

Academic Subject Librarian

Tutorials

Harvard Referencing tutorial

Harvard Referencing

Harvard Referencing: an introduction is a short tutorial which explains why and when to reference and introduces you to the Harvard style of referencing we use at the University of Lincoln.

The tutorial takes about 20 minutes to complete.  Click on the link or the image above and the tutorial will open in a new window.

OSCOLA Referencing tutorial

OSCOLA Referencing

OSCOLA Referencing: an introduction is a short tutorial which explains why and when to reference and introduces you to the OSCOLA style of referencing.

The tutorial takes about 20 minutes to complete.  Click on the link or the image above and the tutorial will open in a new window.

Plagiarism: promoting academic integrity

Plagiarism: promoting academic integrity is a short tutorial which explains what plagiarism is and gives you tips on how to avoid it. 

The tutorial takes about 20 minutes to complete.  Click on the link or image above and the tutorial will open in a new window.

 

Reference management tools

Managing your references

Reference management software can help you to store, organise and share your references and generate citations and reference lists.

Webinars

An introduction to EndNote

An introduction to RefWorks