What is referencing?
Learn why referencing is vital in academic writing. Avoid plagiarism, support your ideas, and build research credibility. Start referencing today.
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 paraphrasing and summarising.