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Education: Referencing

Education

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

Cite Them Right book cover

Cite Them Right

An introduction to the general principles of referencing, including why, when and how to reference.

Your Department Style: Harvard

Harvard

Harvard is a commonly used, flexible author-date style and which is the style adopted by your department. There is no prescribed form of Harvard used across institutions, rather different institutions and departments within institutions specifiy their own form. The differences between various Harvard styles relates to which parts of the reference are put into capitals, brackets, bold and italics and the punctuation used. The order in which you cite the different parts of the reference remains the same.
This means that there will be slight differences between your department's version of Harvard and those that you may find elsewhere, on the internet or in generic referencing tools.

There are some published guides to help you with referencing using the Warwick Harvard Style.

Quick Guide to Harvard Referencing (Library) (PDF)

Referencing Software

Referencing software allows you to manage references, insert citations and create a bibliography, in your referencing style. It can be useful for students writing dissertations and theses, as a way of storing references as you find them. However, it does not guarantee to produce a full accurate bibliography or reference list, so you need to build in time to check what it is creating!

EndNote icon

EndNote

EndNote is the referencing software available  from Warwick IT Services, and is supported by Warwick Library. Please see our EndNote webpages for further information.