What is referencing?

Referencing is a formal system used to identify and acknowledge the words or ideas of other people when you use them in your work.

References are made up of two parts:

• A short in-text citation which appears within the body of your work each time you use information or ideas from another source.
• A corresponding full reference list that appears in a list at the end of your work and provides the details needed to identify and locate each item.

The format of in-text citations and your reference list will depend on the referencing style you're using. For example, some referencing styles use author's names and dates in brackets, others use in-text numbering and footnotes.

Why do you need to reference?

The main purposes of referencing are to:

• show that you have done your research and used credible sources to back up your arguments
• acknowledge correctly the sources of information you have used to inform your work
• allow others to locate these sources for themselves
• avoid plagiarism (which is a serious breach of academic integrity).

Find out more about referencing and academic integrity.

When do you need to reference?

You need to provide an in-text citation and corresponding reference for each work from which you:

• directly quote
• paraphrase or summarise in your own words
• use ideas, facts, evidence, opinions or statistics
• reproduce an image, table or diagram.

Learn more about using quotations and paraphrasing and summarising.