REFERENCING AND ZOTEROKevin Wilson, Subject Librarian for Media and Communications, Computing and the Institute of Management Studies

March 2014

REFERENCING• What is referencing?• Why is referencing important?• When should you reference?• What and how do you reference?

WHAT IS REFERENCING?

Referencing is “the process of acknowledging the sources you have used in writing your essay, assignment or piece of work. It allows the reader to access your source documents as quickly and easily as possible in order to verify, if necessary, the validity of your arguments and the evidence on which they are based”.

Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2013) Cite them right:

the essential referencing guide. 9th edn.

Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

WHY IS REFERENCING IMPORTANT?

Research is about ‘knowledge building’ and a ‘collective construction of knowledge’ (Walker, J. and Taylor, T. (2006), pp. 29-30)

Referencing also:• enables you to show the extent and depth of your research• strengthens your arguments when you use good quality resources• acknowledges the work of others and their influences upon you• allows the reader to locate, read and check your sources• helps you avoid plagiarism (see GLEU website for more info)

See Goldsmiths Information Skills Tutorial (G.I.S.T) - https://learn.gold.ac.uk/mod/book/view.php?id=176669&chapterid=120

WHEN SHOULD YOU REFERENCE?

You should provide references when you are:• directly quoting from a text• paraphrasing someone else’s work, theories or ideas• using someone else’s work when developing your own ideas• indirectly referring to the text of other works• using illustrations, tables, diagrams, etc., from other sources

You don’t need to provide references when you are:• describing your own experiences and observations• providing facts that can be defined as common knowledge

WHAT AND HOW DO YOU REFERENCE?

Any sources of information you use for your research can be referenced

There are two main components to referencing:• in-text citations • reference list or bibliography

Which styles are there?• author/date – Harvard, APA, MLA• footnote – Chicago, MHRA, IEEE

REFERENCING STYLES AT GOLDSMITHS

Anthropology Harvard IMS APA

Art Harvard Media and Communications

Any, if consistent

Cultural Studies Any, if consistent

Music Chicago

Computing IEEE Politics Harvard

Design Harvard Psychology APA

Education Harvard STaCS Harvard

English MHRA Sociology Harvard

History MLA Theatre and Performance

Harvard

ICCE Harvard Visual Cultures Any, if consistent

A COUPLE OF EXAMPLES (Harvard)

Printed book• author/editor• year of publication (in round brackets)• title (in italics)• edition (only include this if not the first edition)• place of publication: publisher

In-text citation and reference

• The following presentation will use Harvard examples from a recent guide (Pears and Shields, 2010).

• Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2010) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 9th edn. Basingtstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

A COUPLE OF EXAMPLES (Harvard)

Journal article (printed)• author• year of publication (in round brackets)• title of article (in single quotation marks)• title of journal (in italics, with initial letters capitalised)• volume number• part number (round brackets)• page numbers

In-text citation and reference

• Friedman (2011) reports that…• Friedman, S. (2011) ‘The cultural currency of a ‘good’ sense of humour:

British comedy and new forms of distinction.’ The British Journal of Sociology, 62(2), pp. 347-360.

REFERENCES

McMillan, K. and Weyers, J. (2011) How to cite, reference & avoid plagiarism at university. Harlow: Pearson.

Neville, C. (2010) The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism. 2nd edn. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

Pears, R. and Shields, R. (2013) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 9th edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Walker, J. and Taylor, T. (2006) The Columbia guide to online style. 2nd ed. New York: Columbia University Press.