LibGuides: Writing and sources: Referencing

Referencing

When writing reports, essays or other assignments at the university, you will most often be asked to support your arguments by referring to other published works such as scientific articles, books, government reports, patents, laws, photographs, maps and webpages.

It is important to always acknowledge the sources you use by citing and referencing them in a correct manner (see Citation styles). There are several reasons for why you need to give accurate references:

To give credit to other authors' concepts and ideas
To provide evidence that support your arguments and claims
To enable the readers of your work to locate the references easily
To provide the reader (often the marker/examiner of the assignment) with evidence of the breadth and depth of your reading
To comply with copyright law (see Copyright)
To avoid being accused of plagiarism (see Plagiarism) which is an academic offense