It is important to learn the scholarly practice of citing other people’s research, and referencing the material you have used.
Referencing:
Enables your reader to find the material you have referred to
Demonstrates your breadth of reading about the subject
Supports and/or develops your argument
Avoids plagiarism: using somebody else’s work without acknowledging the fact is plagiarism. It is important to always reference when quoting or paraphrasing another person’s work
Referencing software allows you to manage references, insert citations and create a bibliography, in your referencing style.
EndNote is referencing software from Clarivate. EndNote is available from Warwick IT Services, and is supported by Warwick Library. Please see the EndNote LibGuide for further information.
Plagiarism is an academic offence and something that the University takes very seriously. You can find an online course that takes you through what plagiarism is and how to avoid it.
The Chemistry department recommends RSC (Royal Society of Chemistry) style for referencing. However, you may use any other referencing style except Harvard.
The following guide is based on information provided by the Royal Society of Chemistry. Please refer to their webpage for additional examples and guidance.
Please verify with your module leader or supervisor if they prefer a specific referencing style.
Referencing in-text
Cite your sources in the main body of your text using superscript numbers. Citation numbers should appear at the end of the sentence after the punctuation, except can be located after the relevant word or compound. For example:
| Ethanol has an abundance of uses such as medical applications where it is used as an antiseptic and antidote as well as recreational and fuel uses.¹ |
If a statement has multiple references, they must all be cited in the text. For two references, or non-consecutive references, separate them with commas with no spaces. For example:
| 12,13 or 12,14,15 |
If there are more than two references and they are consecutive, use an en-dash to separate the first and last citation. For example:
| 14-20 |
Reference List
Your numbered citations should correspond to a reference list at the end of your paper. References are listed in numerical order according to the order they appear in your text, not in alphabetical order.
IMPORTANT: Journal titles use abbreviated forms, not the full title as it appears in the published journal article. RSC style uses journal abbreviations as found in the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI). If you cannot find a recognised abbreviation and it is not obvious how it should be abbreviated, please cite the full journal title.
In general:
Please pay attention to all punctuation and spacing.
| JOURNAL ARTICLE (PUBLISHED) | |
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All journal references must contain:
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| How to reference | Example |
| Reference number. A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, Journal Title, year, volume, page. |
1. N. Ogawa, Y. Kobayashi, Tetrahedron Lett., 2009, 50, 6079-6082. |
| JOURNAL ARTICLE (PREPRINT) | |
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All references to preprint journal articles without page numbers must contain:
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| How to reference | Example |
| Reference number. A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, Journal Title, year, DOI. | 2. T. J. Hebden, R. R. Schrock, M. K. Takase and P. Müller, Chem. Commun., 2012, DOI: 10.1039/C2CC17634C. |
| JOURNAL ARTICLE (UNPUBLISHED) | |
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All references to preprint journal articles without page numbers must contain:
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| How to reference | Example |
| Reference number. A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, Journal Title, submitted or in press. | 3. R. Chen, D. J. G. Pearce, S. Fortuna, D. L. Cheung and S. A. F. Bon, J. Am. Chem. Soc., in press. |
| BOOK | |
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All book references must contain:
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| How to reference | Example |
| Reference number. A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, Book Title, Publisher, Place of Publication, year. | 4. S. T. Beckett, Science of Chocolate, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 2000. |
| EDITED BOOK | |
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All edited book references must contain:
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| How to reference | Example |
| Reference number. Title of Book, Publisher, Place of Publication, Edition, year. | 5. Metal-catalyzed Cross-coupling Reactions, ed. F. Diederich, P. J. Stang, Wiley-VCH, Weinheim, 1999. |
| BOOK CHAPTER IN AUTHORED BOOK | |
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All references to chapters in authored books must have:
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| How to reference | Example |
| Reference number. A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, Book Title, Publisher, Place of Publication, Edition, year, chapter, page range. | 6. P. W. Atkins and J. de Paula, Atkins' Physical Chemistry, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 9th edn, 2010, ch. 22, pp. 831-875. |
| BOOK CHAPTER IN EDITED BOOK | |
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All references to chapters in edited books must include:
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| How to reference | Example |
| Reference number. A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, in Book Title, ed. A. Editor and B. Editor, Publisher, Place of Publication, year, ch. XX, pp. XX-XX. | 7. S. Schultz, S. Goring, B. Schmidt and C. Hoft, in Emerging Drugs and Targets for Parkinson's Disease, ed. A. Martinez and C. Gil, Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, 2014, ch. 11, pp. 266.293. |
| THESIS | |
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All references to theses must include:
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| How to reference | Example |
| Reference number. A. Name, PhD thesis, University Name, year. | 8. J. P. Specht, PhD thesis, University of Warwick, 2022. |
| REPORT | |
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All references to theses must include:
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| How to reference | Example |
| Reference number. A. Name, B. Name and C. Name, Title of Report, Department/Division Report Number, Publisher, Place of Publication, year. | 9. D. Li and K. P. Shine, A 4-Dimensional Ozone Climatology for UGAMP Models, UGAMP Internal Report No 35, Reading University, Reading, 1995. |
| PATENT | |
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All references to theses must include:
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| How to reference | Examples |
| 10. A. Name, Country Pat., Patent number, year. |
J. C. Chung, US Pat., 20100105549A1, 2010. Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, Jpn. Pat., 2013034915A, 2013. |
