REFERENCING IN RESEARCH

Academic writing relies on more than just the ideas and experience of one or more authors. It also uses the ideas and research of other sources: books, journal articles, websites, and so forth. These other sources may be used to support the author's ideas, or the author may be discussing, analysing, or critiquing other sources.

Referencing is used to tell the reader where ideas from other sources have been used in an assignment. There are many reasons why it is important to reference sources correctly:

·         It shows the reader that you can find and use sources to create a solid argument

·         It properly credits the originators of ideas, theories, and research findings

·         It shows the reader how your argument relates to the big picture

What information do I need in referencing?
Whenever you take notes, or make a photocopy/print-out of information that you intend to use in your work, make sure that you make a full record of its source. It is always far more difficult and time-consuming to look up references later. The information that you will generally need is: 

For a book

Author or editor

Title of book

Year of publication

Place of publication

Publisher

For a journal article or book chapter

Author of article/chapter

Title of article/chapter

Year of publication

Journal title/Book title (and editor)

Volume number

Issue number

Page numbers for the article

For electronic media

Author or editor

Year of publication

Article title

Type of medium

Location (e.g. URL, database)

Date accessed

                                                                                                …To be continued