Introduction to referencing

When to and how to reference

Each time you use someone else's ideas, words or facts, it is essential that you acknowledge this in your work. Not acknowledging other people's work is intellectually dishonest and can be illegal. It is known as plagiarism. You do not need to reference common knowledge, but you should reference things that you have personally read, seen or heard.

Please check with your college which referencing standard they want you to use. The following referencing styles are used at UWE Bristol:

• UWE Bristol Harvard
• Oxford Standard for the Citation Of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA)
• Chicago
• Modern Language Association (MLA).

On occasion you may find that the example given in the UWE Bristol Harvard A-Z does not give enough information for the reader to locate the file you used. In this instance you may need to use a ‘best fit’ approach and adapt the example. 

Use our interactive self-study How to reference and avoid plagiarism online workbook to learn more about the basics of referencing at UWE Bristol. There is a How to reference and avoid plagiarism reading list to complement the workbook. You can also sign up to attend our How to reference and avoid plagiarism workshop.

View study skills workshops on the Events Diary

Word count

• In-text citations and quotations are included in your assignment's word count.
• References, bibliographies and footnotes containing references are not included in the word count, unless it is clearly stated in the coursework instructions that the module is an exception to this rule.

Please consult the UWE Bristol Policies for further advice (includes the Assessment Content Limit policy).

Example reference

The below examples are in the UWE Bristol Harvard style.

Citing a source of information in your own text

The need for care and guidance (Pearson et al., 2007) is evident...

As Pearson et al. states (2007, p.72), "The basis of evidence-based practice is, of course, evidence."

The corresponding reference

Pearson, A., Field, J., Ford, D. and Jordan, Z. (2007) Evidence-Based Clinical Practice in Nursing and Health Care: Assimilating Research, Experience and Expertise. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.

Please note: You must put your italics, capitalisation and punctuation in the right place for all referencing styles.

Managing your references

Our Referencing tools web page offers help and advice with managing your references, including getting started with suggested reference management software.

Common terms