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
Life Sciences do not recommend any specific referencing style, so you can use any recognised style.
Two very popular styles are Harvard and Vancouver.
Harvard.
Harvard is an author-date style of referencing. Please be aware that there are lots of variations of the Harvard style.
Each Harvard style presents the references in the same order: Author, Year, Title, etc., but the formatting can differ quite significantly. For example, the use of capitals, bold and italics.
A style called Harvard (Warwick WMS). is available. It is the style used by the Medical School. It is not a recognised University style. You can find this style and other examples of Harvard on our Referencing pages
Vancouver.
This is a numbered style of referencing. There is more information on our Referencing pages.
Cite Them Right: the essential referencing guide
Richard Pears and Graham Shields
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
EndNote is the referencing software available from Warwick IT Services, and is supported by Warwick Library. Please see our EndNote webpages for further information.
