2. Academic Referencing

 Academic Referencing

For many students at the start of their academic studies (and for some throughout their studies) in Higher Education in most countries (but not all), referencing seems to be a strange concept and in some cases can be extremely confusing.

It does not need to be.

The earlier that you can start referencing, the easier understanding techniques and the required principles will be. You also learn quickly not to be scared of the requirements of different referencing systems (e.g. APA, Chicago, Harvard etc). Whilst layouts, formats and requirements change, there are usually similar data capture requirements for most systems.

University plagiarism and adhering to the rules

Most Universities have strict plagiarism rules. One does not want to spend hours, weeks or months on pieces of work to find that you are guilty of plagiarism and face issues around academic misconduct. (Plagiarism whether deliberate or accidental, relates to the concept that you have not acknowledged the work of others and have included it in your writing as it was your own). Referencing sources in your work ensures that you do not break any plagiarism rules and also allows you to enhance arguments and points made in your work.

Citations and citing work

Whilst it sometimes can feel a little counter intuitive, crediting other authors for the basis of the development of your arguments and work enables you to recognise the work and ideas of others, whilst enabling you to appreciate the existing theoretical or literature base around the topic. Some subjects would expect you to construct your arguments and work based only upon the existing theoretical base, whilst other subjects can have an existing literature base that appears extremely split and can have arguments that appear to be almost polar opposites. In some subjects this is however extremely useful as it enables research to be conducted based upon different research philosophies and recognises constant changes in the environment. Being transparent with your sources enables you to appreciate the debates in the subject area.

Referencing to enhance and reflect upon the credibility of sources used in your work

Getting into the habit of referencing also enables you to start to assess source credibility at a deeper level. Different subjects and faculties within Universities have different standards and expectations around the use of ‘White’ and ‘Grey’ literature. (A good article that covers White and Grey literature can be found in the International Journal of Management Reviews by Adams et al., 2017, although some referencing standards would want you to use Adams, Smart & Huff, 2017 the first time that you use it in a piece of work. Equally, regardless of the referencing standard, the formatting becomes reasonably simple if you collect all that you need from the source).

Information required

Most Universities will produce their own referencing guide (As an example the guidance at Sheffield Hallam University (UK) is found here) and it is extremely useful to familiarise yourself with this early in your studies. Different referencing styles require different information and formatting, but the earlier you can appreciate the type of information that you will need for different types of information (e.g. Books, conference papers, journals, official government sources, websites etc). There are different software tools that exist that enable you to store referencing appropriately, but you should always be careful with these tools. Whilst many of these tools save time in the long term, occasionally their programming and data capture structure means that extracted ‘references’ do not necessarily populate accurate references in a reference list whilst adhering to the required standards. Examples of such errors can be in terms of presentation of empty brackets ‘( )’ without populated data or other errors. It is your responsibility to correct such errors (but the more you do this, the more you will become used to such issues and operate almost on an 'auto-correct' basis.

 For any source it is useful to always ensure that you try and capture as a minimum;

• Author / Authors (including initials)
• Date accessed
• Date of publication
• Edition of publication 
• Exact page numbers if using “Direct Quotations”
• Page numbers (journal / chapters etc)
• Place of publication
• Publication volume (if applicable)
• Publication number (if applicable)
• Title of the book, article, webpage etc
• Title of the journal / publication
• URL / Website address

Direct Quotations

Whilst it should not ideally happen, often the view on the use of 'Direct Quotations' or "Direct Quotations" (usually dependent on which country you are based) can be perceived to be good or bad practice. It often depends on the view of either individual staff, faculties or Universities (which also often is based on the experience of those reviewing this practice). It appears that increasingly the use of Direct Quotations is perceived as a negative practice (with a perception that this practice can be somewhat lazy). Whereas others will argue that the use of appropriate Direct Quotations is the clearest and simplest way of appropriately incorporating the ideas of other scholars into your work. If you are going to use 'Direct Quotations' or "Direct Quotations" it is really important that you include the (author(s), date and page number(s)) as a minimum. Including page numbers for direct quotations is required for any referencing system. Excluding page numbers is a very basic error. 
  

Referencing Systems

The more you read academic and peer reviewed journals, the more you will notice differences in referencing styles. Within Universities, there may be the use of the same referencing system across the whole University, or there may be differences across different Faculties or different departments. You should always ensure that you are aware what referencing system is being used for any work that you are asked to submit. 

Examples of common referencing systems used in Higher Education include; 

American Mathematical Society (AMS)

American Psychological Association (APA) (Usually used in Education, Language & Linguistic Science, and Psychology)

Chicago (Originates from the University of Chicago and is often used internationally in humanities subjects, whereby cited sources are captured in footnotes).  

Harvard (Is the most widely used referencing system, although there are a number of bespoke styles or differences in the style interpretations). 

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA)

Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) 

Modern Languages Association of America (MLA)

Vancouver (A numeric referencing system using superscript numbers for every source used). 

It is really important to check and follow the advice given for any assessed work that you are set (or standards required if writing for peer reviewed publications).

(© Marc Taylor, 2021)

REFERENCE LIST

Adams, R. J., Smart, P., & Huff, A. S. (2017). Shades of Grey: Guidelines for Working with the Grey Literature in Systematic Reviews for Management and Organizational Studies. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(4), 432-454. https://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12102