School of HASS Referencing Guidelines

1. About referencing

Why reference?

When writing essays, you will need to supply references to indicate the source of your information and ideas. These references:

• provide an opportunity for you to acknowledge the debt you owe to the work of others;
• enable the reader to check what you have read,
• help the reader to travel the same road that you have traveled in formulating your argument; and,
• help to keep us honest.

In serious scholarship, therefore, references are a plain necessity, not an optional extra; they are an integral part of any essay. Unless otherwise stated in a unit’s assessment details you should not submit a written assignment devoid of references.

When to reference?

When writing an essay, a report, or other kinds of written academic work you should provide a reference when you:

• quote directly from another work;
• paraphrase or summarise points made in another work; and,
• use material of any kind (a theory, an idea, a statistic or other data, an argument, an interpretation, a diagram, a table, etc.) from another work.

The basic rule is this: if you use any information that is directly attributable to someone else, you should provide a reference to the source. Commonly accepted knowledge in the discipline in which you are studying, however, does not need to be referenced.

Using the work of others, properly acknowledged, is an accepted practice in university study and research. It is important that you provide references when required not only to give appropriate credit to the work of others, but also so that the person assessing your work can see from where your arguments and evidence are coming.

Ensure that all references cited in your assignment are listed in a reference section or bibliography, where they should be listed alphabetically in order of authors' surnames.

2. Referencing systems

There are two main referencing systems.

• The in-text system incorporates within the text an abbreviated reference usually consisting of author and year of publication and a page number; and, provides a full reference in the list of references or bibliography at the end of the work.
• The traditional footnoting system provides within the text superscripted numerals that direct the reader to references at the bottom of the page. A bibliography is also provided with this system.

Within the School of HASS, different disciplines have different referencing requirements. For full details see Discipline Referencing Styles below.

Using the in-text system

Make sure that each time you use the work of others in an assignment you provide an in-text reference with the required information, and in the correct format.

You will need to give a full list of all references you cite. Hence an alphabetical list of all references is placed at the end of your assignment. This list gives the full publication details of each source you cited in your assignment so that your reader can consult the same sources that you have used. Check assignment instructions and make sure you know whether a reference list or bibliography is required for the unit you are studying. They are somewhat different things. A reference list is made up of all sources that you cite in the text, while a bibliography also includes sources, which while not necessarily cited in the text have nevertheless influenced your assignment.

Using the footnoting system

For disciplines where the in-text system is inappropriate, the footnoting system is used. One difficulty with this requirement, and potentially confusing for undergraduate students, is that there is no single footnoting system. For example, there is the Documentary-note system as contained in the Australian Government Style Manual (now published by John Wiley); there is the MLA system based on the Modern Language Association of America's Style Manual, the Chicago system based on the University of Chicago's Manual of Style, the Oxford system based on its Guide to Style, and there is the Cambridge system as outlined in Copy-Editing: The Cambridge Handbook, to name but a few of the most common systems. These systems can display significant variations in their attractiveness and ease of use. Academic disciplines embrace the system that best serves their subject areas, though even within subject areas you will sometimes find different systems being used. This multiplicity merely reflects individual academic backgrounds, tastes and associations with different publishing houses. Unit coordinators may provide additional information, modifications and guidance relevant to their subject areas, and they will direct postgraduate students to more detailed, published manuals as the need arises.

3. Bibliographic software

EndNote is a personal reference database program which is used to:

• maintain a personal 'library' of references;
• download references from other databases;
• insert references in word-processed documents; and,
• generate a bibliography in the correct style for publication.

All UNE staff and enrolled students are entitled to a copy of EndNote. Further information about EndNote can be found at the Library's Endnote site.

Other tools are:

• Zotero, free open source bibliography manager that is reliable and integrates with Word, but is not supported by UNE. Free download from zotero.org. Recommended for users not afraid to find help for themselves on YouTube or the web.
• Mendeley is also good, reliable and free and for users who are confident finding help themselves.

4. Further details on referencing

Students can also improve their academic writing skills by looking in particular at these pages:

• Referencing at UNE
• Referencing appropriately
• Workshops and Courses
• Video Resources
• Academic Writing
• Study Skills Tutorials

If you want additional detail on how to reference a variety of sources you might want to consult: StyleManual: For Authors, Editors and Printers, 6th edn, John Wiley & Sons Australia, 2002. This is an excellent book and is increasingly becoming the 'Bible' in Australian publishing. For more information visit the Australian Government's Style Manual webpage. This book is also available for loan from the campus Dixson Library.

5. Discipline referencing styles

Within the School of HASS, different disciplines have different referencing requirements. For full details see the UNE Library Services website or alternatively the UNE Referencing website.

Please check in the table below for the appropriate referencing style used by the discipline in which you are studying.

Please consult the referencing factsheets on matters of referencing, quotation, etc. Please be consistent in the use of a standard referencing system as noted below.