This guide is for education students in the School of Education. Other students should consult their relevant course handbook or contact their tutor for details of the referencing system they are to use.
Introduction
When you complete any assignment, you will provide a bibliography or reference list which states which references you have read and cited in your work. There are many different styles of referencing and each book or article you have read may have used a different one; even here at the University the various schools and departments use lots of different styles. Students in the School of Education use a version of Harvard British Standard.
This guide is to try and help you make sense of referencing. We have tried to pull together information which shows you how to reference different formats (books, chapters, journal articles, web pages and so on) within the text of your assignment and in your bibliography.
In addition to this guide on how to manually reference, there are a number of free or freemium web-based bibliographic tools available that will allow you to search for information resources and save details of references. You can then automatically create a bibliography in the style of your choosing using all or some of the references you have saved. Try googling for web-based bibliographic software or try this comparison of reference management products from Wikipedia.
Here at Aberdeen, we currently support a product called RefWorks, further details are in your MyAberdeen course area under 'Library Materials - Referencing'.
Why reference?
Although at first glance it may seem obvious, it does help to understand why we reference using a particular style when we write a piece of academic work. It isn't just more annoying bureaucratic red tape - there are some very practical and important reasons for following a style and sticking to it.
Whilst reading, you are going to come across many different ideas and theories. You will use these to expand and develop your own arguments, but you must give full credit to those that you have read. If you do not acknowledge those authors, you could be accused of plagiarism - taking the ideas of others and trying to pass them off as your own. This is considered a very serious matter at this University.
(See here the Code of Practice on Student Discipline)
Referencing correctly also shows you are well read and knowledgeable about your subject - it may get you better marks! Your tutor will use your referencing to check what you have read; they may even use it to find something you have referred to that they haven't read themselves. Put simply, correct referencing allows any reader of your work to easily find exactly what you have been reading.
Citing within your essay or assignment
The instructions below refer to citing from any medium such as a book, a journal article, a report, a website and so on, although the examples given are all from books.
- Direct quotations - quotations that are word for word
- Indirect references - putting an idea into your own words or an idea carried throughout a work
- Directly or indirectly citing from a website
- Directly or indirectly citing from online films, tutorials etc.
- Secondary referencing - citing work referred to by another author
Writing your bibliography - reference list
Examples of how to reference books, articles, reports, websites etc. within your bibliography/reference list
- Book with one author
- Book with two authors
- Book with more than two authors
- More than one book published by the same author in the same year
- Chapter from a book or contribution to a book
- Book read via an e-reader
- Corporate author (rather than a person e.g. business, organisation etc.)
- Report
- Journal article
- Journal article - 'Online First' or 'Early View'
- Act of Parliament
- Lecture
- Personal communications, emails, grey literature etc.
- Social Media
- Conference paper
- Thesis or dissertation
- Newspaper article
- Webpage
- Online tutorial, presentation or podcast
- Broadcast on TV or radio, film, DVD, streaming and online
- Images, photographs, posters, etc.
- Translations
- CD-ROM
Writing your bibliography/reference list - some FAQS
Last revised by Claire Molloy, August 2023