Incorporating citations or referencing into work for school or university can prove daunting even to the most experienced students. There are a lot of options available and universities will often have their own preferred or required styles, which will frequently vary across subjects and departments. This short guide should help familiarise you with the most common referencing styles and help ensure you don’t fall foul of stringent referencing rules when submitting your work.
Why getting it right is important
The most obvious reason why we might want to use referencing is that universities and other institutions often demand referencing for written work. Good referencing can raise the grade of a piece of assessed work, whereas poor or inaccurate (or absent) referencing can sometimes lead to work being marked down or even failed.
The consequences of not referencing correctly can be dire. If you were to present information you found online or in a book and didn’t cite your source, you could be accused of plagiarism. Plagiarism checking technologies are now in widespread use across universities and often have a high rate of false positives – even if your text is merely similar to that produced elsewhere, this could trigger disciplinary action from your institution. Thorough referencing acts as insurance against this – it demonstrates where you found your information and helps evidence that you undertook the research yourself.
When to reference and what to include
It is important to know why and when you use referencing. For example, if you’re quoting something that someone said – a line from a play, for instance – you’d want to include your source for that information so your reader can find and check the information is correct. If you’re making a scientific claim, you want to demonstrate that the claim is supported by reputable evidence, such as research in an academic journal. These are the standards for rigour that researchers and scholars follow and that examiners want you to emulate when presenting written work.
You will generally want to include a citation for your source under the following conditions:
- When making a claim that is not common knowledge
- When you’re quoting directly from a source
- When you’re paraphrasing (restating) information from a source
- When referencing specific factual information such as statistics
- When including an image, graph or table
- When you mention a published work in your essay
- When you have been influenced by someone’s work or research
Typically you will want to include a page number for your source also when quoting directly or referencing a particular claim, statistic, or item that may be difficult to locate in a longer text.
Almost all systems also require you to include at the end of your paper a separate list of the sources. This itself is subject to specific rules about how to present this information that varies according to style guide.
Getting to grips with different styles
There are many different referencing styles and all have varying standards as to what information about sources you should include and how to present it. University department or course style guides usually specify which style to use and may offer more information about specific requirements. The following presents a general overview of the two most common categories of referencing – footnotes and in-text citation – as well as examples of how each may be used. Please note, this is not exhaustive – always check formatting guides provided by your institution.
Notation/Footnote Systems
Footnote-based styles require you to cite sources by using numbered references that typically link to notation at the bottom of the page (or, in some styles, the end of the document itself). They are common across the Arts and Humanities, particularly in subjects such as History, Philosophy, and Art.
Oxford
One of the oldest systems of referencing, it may be noted for its inclusion of Latin abbreviations, such as ibid., which is used when referring again to the source last cited. Despite its name, it is not used only at Oxford University nor is it the only style in use at that institution, which is also the case with other styles named for institutions. Its authoritative guide is the New Oxford Style Manual, for which the 2016 third edition is the most recent.
1 E.J. Hobsbawm, On History (New York: The New Press, 1998), p. 9.
2 ibid., pp. 16-18.
MHRA
MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) is a footnote style that is commonly used in the Humanities as a modern alternative to Oxford. Its main difference is its lack of Latin abbreviations, using instead shortened titles for repeat references. It also requires full forenames for authors rather than preferring initials. Its latest style guide is its fourth edition, published in 2024, though older versions are available for free online.
1 Eric J. Hobsbawm, On History (New York: The New Press, 1998), p. 9.
2 Hobsbawm, History, pp. 16-18.
Chicago (Turabian)
Chicago referencing is unique in that there are both footnote and in-text forms of the style and it is necessary to check whether your institution favours one over the other. In its footnoted form, it does not require that the city of a work’s publication is included and omits some grammar, such as discarding ‘p.’ before page numbers.
1 Eric J. Hobsbawm, On History (The New Press, 1998), 9.
2 Hobsbawm, History, 16-18.
OSCOLA
OSCOLA (Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities) is another style developed at Oxford University and is used almost exclusively in Law and related subjects. Its style is again similar to those above, though it tends towards abbreviation in footnoting and sets out more specific conditions about how legal cases and documents are to be cited.
1 EJ Hobsbawm, On History (New Press 1998) 9
2 Callery v Gray [2001] EWCA Civ 1117, [2001] 1 WLR 2112 [42], [45]
In-Text/Parenthetical Citations
In-text systems differ from footnote-based systems in that they typically include reference sources in parentheses or brackets as opposed to in footnotes. The reader can then cross-reference these details with that of the reference list to get the full publication details for the source. They are used widely in the Social Sciences and to a lesser degree in some Humanities.
Harvard
The Harvard style is one of the oldest referencing styles and is common across the Social Sciences. As with most parenthetical styles, it presents the author followed by the year of publication and, if relevant, page numbers. As with all parenthetical styles, full bibliographic information is still required within a reference list.
(Smith, et al., 1998)
(Jones & Bennett, 2012, p. 64)
APA
The official style of the American Psychological Association is used within Psychology, but also frequently other subjects such as Education and Sociology. Its in-text style is highly similar to that of Harvard and differs chiefly in how its reference list is formatted. It is worth noting that its most recent seventh edition differs significantly from older versions, meaning it is essential that any citation generators are up to date. I recommend this APA 7 Citation Generator which produces accurate and up-to-date citations.
(Smith, et al., 1998)
(Jones & Bennett, 2012, p. 64)
Chicago (Turabian)
The author-date version of the Chicago style again resembles Harvard and APA but differs in that it does not place a comma between the author and year, and likewise does not prefix pagination with ‘p.’, instead separating page numbers from the year with a comma.
(Smith, Hargreaves and O’Donnell 1998)
(Jones and Bennett 2012, 64)
MLA
The MLA (Modern Languages Association of America) style is chiefly used in Humanities subjects – most commonly English Literature. Uniquely, it does not usually include the year in its citations, but instead only the author name and page number, if relevant.
(Smith, Hargreaves and O’Donnell)
(Jones and Bennett 64)
Tips for applying a referencing style
- Check your department or course’s style guidelines and ensure they don’t differ from any style guides consulted online
- Even if you’re struggling to understand a style guide, remain consistent in how you reference each source type
- Include a bibliography/reference list and check how it should be formatted according to the specified style
- You can always simplify things by using a referencing generator. Universities allow and often encourage the use of such tools but just ensure it is up to date.
Through following these tips, you can ensure that your referencing is always complete, insuring you against accusations of plagiarism and boosting the marks you receive.
