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Computer Science: Referencing

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Contact your ASL: thomas.chilton@warwick.ac.uk

Why reference?

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 

Cite Them Right Online

Cite Them Right Online image

Cite Them Right Online is the University of Warwick Library's new interactive referencing tool. It has rules and tutorials for referencing all major resource types across 8 major referencing styles including APA, Chicago, Harvard, IEEE, MHRA, MLR, OSCOLA and Vancouver.

Watch the short video to find out how Cite Them Right Online can help you.

To access Cite Them Right Online, click on Login > Login via your Institution > University of Warwick.

How to reference in Harvard style

The Computer Science department recommends Harvard style (also known as Author-Date style) for referencing. However, you may use another referencing style as long as your citations and references are consistent and correctly applied.

There is no official manual for Harvard style, and many variations exist within the university.  This guide is based on the Harvard style used in Bloomsbury Cite Them Right Online, a reference resource available to all Warwick students, faculty and staff.  Please verify with your course/module leaders whether they prefer a different variation of Harvard.

Harvard style uses in-text citations.  These in-text citations give brief details of the work from which you are quoting.  Citations should include:

  • Author(s) or editor(s) surname
  • Year of publication
  • Page number(s) for direct quotations, edited collections, or if reproducing images, charts, tables, etc.

Multiple citations supporting the same sentence are separated by semi-colons (;).

Citations can be included at the end of a sentence:
(Author, Date)

The common assumption is that the viscoelastic properties and damping of coating materials correlate with their erosion protection performance (Mishnaevsky, 2019; Bone et al., 2020; Bone, 2022)

Or included in the body of the text when the author is mentioned:
Author (Date)

Katsivalis et al. (2022) studied the relationship between exposure...

 

A reference list with all works cited in alphabetical order should be included at the end of your work.

 

For more examples and for other materials, please consult Bloomsbury Cite Them Right Online or Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2022) Cite them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide. 12th edn. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

 

PRINT AND ELECTRONIC BOOKS
  How to cite How to reference
General style

... (Author, Date).

or

... Author (Date) ...

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.
With one author

... (Olusoga, 2016).

or

... Olusoga (2016) ...

Olusoga, D. (2016) Black and British: a forgotten history. London: Macmillan.

With two or three authors

... (Gopal, Philps and Weyde, 2023)

or

... Gopal, Philps and Weyde (2023) ...

Gopal, R., Philps, D. and Weyde T. (2023). Foundations of Programming, Statistics, and Machine Learning for Business Analytics. London: Sage Publications.
With four or more authors

... (Ruan et al., 2018). 

or

... Ruan et al. (2018) ...

Ruan, X., et al. (2018) Control techniques for LCL-type grid-connected inverters. Singapore: Springer Nature.
Edited book chapter

... (Damodaran, 2010, p. 234).

or

... Damodaran (2010, p. 234) ...

Damodaran, S. (2010) ‘Upgradation or flexible casualization? Exploring the dynamics of global value chain incorporation in the Indian leather industry', in Posthuma, A. and Nathan, D. (eds) Labour in global production networks in India. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 231-250.
ELECTRONIC JOURNAL ARTICLES
  How to cite How to reference
General style

... (Author, Date).

or

... Author (Date) ...

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal, Volume number(part number), Page range. Available at: DOI or URL. (Accessed: date).

or

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal, Volume number(part number), article number. Available at: DOI or URL. (Accessed: date).

Electronic journal article

... (Mishnaevsky, L. Jr. et al., 2023).

or

... Mishnaevsky, L. Jr. et al. (2023) ...

Mishnaevsky, L. Jr. et al. (2023) ‘Recent developments in the protection of wind turbine blades against leading edge erosion: materials solutions and predictive modelling’, Renewable Energy, 215, article number 118966. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2023.118966 (Accessed: 18 February 2025).

PRINT JOURNAL ARTICLES
  How to cite How to reference
General style

... (Author, Date).

or

... Author (Date) ...

Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) ‘Title of article’, Title of Journal, Volume number(part number), Page range.
Print journal article

... (Smolka and Heugens, 2020).

or

... Smolka and Heugens (2020) ...

Smolka, K.M. and Heugens, P.P.M.A.R. (2020) ‘The emergence of proto‐institutions in the new normal business landscape: dialectic institutional work and the Dutch drone industry’, Journal of Management Studies, 57(3), pp. 626-663.
CONFERENCE / WORKING PAPERS
  How to cite How to reference
General style

... (Author, Date).

or

... Author (Date) ...

Surname, Initial (Year of publication) 'Title of paper', Conference Name, page number if relevant.
Conference paper

... (Olbrich, 2009).

or

... Olbrich (2009) ...

Olbrich, S. (2009) ‘Reflecting the Past Decades of ICIS, ECIS and AMCIS Proceedings - A Design Science Perspective’, ICIS 2009 Proceedings, p. 116.

 

Plagiarism

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 here.

 

Online referencing course

The Library has an online course that will take you through the process of referencing that you can find here