Library & Cultural Services: Skills at Library: Referencing

Referencing is a formal system of acknowledging when you've used other people's words, work, ideas, theories, and more. It is the act of giving credit to other people's work, linking your work to evidence, and demonstrating the depth and breadth of research you've done by providing enough information about all the sources you've used that anyone reading your work can find them.

This section on Referencing covers:

what referencing is
why referencing is important
what and when you should reference
how to reference
referencing tools such as referencing management software and referencing with AI

Besides explaining the basics of referencing and its importance, this section will introduce you to your departmental referencing style with the help of style guides and intro videos, teach you how to construct references in your departmental style, and provide you with information about referencing management software and referencing with AI. Read on to learn more!

Click to expand presentation: Intro to referencing

Here are some quick links to get you started:

Find your referencing style - each department here at University of Essex has chosen their preferred referencing style that you should follow in your academic work. Discover help from your style guide and learn more with our style-specific intro videos.
Practice constructing references - if you already know your department's style, you can practice constructing references for books, journal articles, and webpages.
Learn more about referencing tools - once you understand the basics of referencing, you may want to think about using referencing tools such as referencing management software or learn how to reference with AI to make your referencing a smoother and faster process.

Referencing is an advanced skill that requires an understanding of different types of information sources, how to use them and check their quality, and organisational skills. If you need a refresher on these skills, take a few minutes to explore the pages linked here. Once you feel confident with these skills and concepts, you're ready to start referencing!

Workshops - you can find our workshops on referencing in our events calendar. You may also be interested in EndNote training from IT to learn more about reference management software (RMS) and how RMS can make managing your references much easier.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) - these collate common questions we get about referencing - instead of waiting on an email reply or a time to come see us in-person, you can check out the FAQs in case your question has been answered there.
Referencing style videos - If you're a visual learner or otherwise don't work well with text, we also have introductory videos to all the departmental styles. These videos cover why referencing is important, what you need to reference, and constructing both full references for your bibliography and either in-text citations or footnotes (depending on your style) for the body of your work.
Library Café - The Skills at Library team are hosting weekly library research cafés in the Albert Sloman Library, Colchester Campus. No need to book, just come along anytime between 14.00-15.00 to speak to a librarian about your library research.
One-to-one appointments - if you're having trouble making sense of your departmental style guide, you have a question that isn't answered in the guide, the videos, or the FAQs, or maybe you're trying to reference something really niche, remember that you can always book an appointment with one of our Librarians who can talk you through your individual queries.
Complete our Academic Skills Audit to assess your current information and academic skills and discover resources to support your development.

Except where otherwise noted, this work by University of Essex Library and Cultural Services is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence.