Citing bibliographical references means:
CITING acknowledging within your text the document from which you have obtained information.
BIBLIOGRAPHY is the list of publications you consulted.
REFERENCE is the detailed description of the document from which you have obtained the information.
Honest and professional citation of references provides part of the framework for sound written research:
because you must acknowledge the sources you have used to establish your arguments and criticisms;
the references enable other people to identify and trace the sources you have used for your ideas;
There are two principal components to citing references
There are a variety of systems for bibliographies. Once you have selected a system it is important that you stick to it consistently.
Most subjects and Faculties within the University have a preferred system. Please see the below for details. If your subject or Faculty does not appear in the list on this page, please contact your tutor for advice.
QEC, the University of Stirling's Quality Enhancement Committee approved the adoption of standard styles for subjects. The style for each subject is listed below.
You can use RefWorks, the University of Stirling supported referencing software, to help you create bibliographies and with Write-N-Cite a RefWorks tool, insert citations into your essay as you write!
See our RefWorks and Write-N-Cite guide. Or visit RefWorks' own guide.
Below are the different styles subjects have chosen with links to further information and example bibliographies and in-text citation guidelines.
The QEC approved Recommendation for Standard styles was as follows:
Recommendations (approved)
10. QEC is invited to:
Approve the adoption of standard styles for all subjects within all Faculties. We recognise that in some Faculties there are a number of disparate subjects (e.g., Faculty of Arts and Humanities includes law which has very different referencing needs from the rest of the Faculty) so we do not suggest limiting the number of standard styles within a Faculty. Our primary aim is to make things less complex for the students. RefWorks offers many different styles to choose from and we are not proposing to restrict subjects in their choice, only that a Faculty or subject, choose from the list offered by RefWorks. The list can be found here: http://www.refworks.com/content/products/output_style.asp (this includes such styles as APA 6th edition; Chicago 16th edition; Harvard British Standard 2010; MLA and Vancouver).
Plagiarism (from the Latin plagiarius meaning a kidnapper, literary thief) is a very serious offence and at University of Stirling is considered to be Academic Misconduct. In summary: you must not represent the ideas of other people as your own - this applies to published works and the work of other students.
The University of Stirling's Guide to to plagiarism pages are designed to help you to understand more fully what plagiarism is and how you can develop practices to avoid it.
You may also find useful the tutorial "Avoiding Plagiarism" (designed by University of Leicester) about how to understand, and avoid plagiarism.
The following points are based on Stirling University's Policy on Plagiarism:
Remember that these rules apply to all the different sources of information you have used, for example: a lecture or tutorial, books, journal articles, web sites, newspapers, a television programme, a friend's essay.
If you think about where you found your information and reference your work properly, then accidental plagiarism can be avoided.
In the examples in this guide the journal titles used have been given in full, however in many sources and databases the journal title is given in an abbreviated form, and it can be difficult to know what it means.
Fortunately journal title abbreviations are standardised. There are a number of useful sources you can use to check the standard abbreviation:
Please see our OSCOLA Introduction and OSCOLA Help pages.
RefWorks has information about working with footnotes and endnotes. It is essential to check the formatting of your bibliography, to ensure that it meets the requirements of the style used by your Faculty. If you are a History students and require a 'short reference', titles can be manually shortened in RefWorks.
The following sources provide additional information on writing references and may be helpful if you are uncertain about how to treat a particular publication type or style. However, please be aware that there is no definitive standard for all referencing guidance and these sources may vary with RefWorks bibliography and citation styles.
There are a variety of accepted systems for bibliographies and you can check these by consulting books about writing essays and theses in the Education section of the Library. At Stirling, these books are located at K 8.135, at the Highland and Western Isles campuses these books are located at LB 2369. For example:
ACHTERT, W.S. and GIBALDI, J., 1985. The MLA style manual. New York: Modern Language Association of America.
BECKER, H.S., 2007. Writing for social scientists: how to start and finish your thesis, book or article. 2nd edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
BRITISH STANDARDS INSTITUTION, 2010. Information and documentation: guidelines for bibliographic references and citations to information resources: BS ISO 690-2010. London: ISO.
COUNCIL OF BIOLOGY EDITORS. COMMITTEE ON FORM AND STYLE, 1994. Scientific style and format: the CBE manual for authors, editors, and publishers.6th edn. Cambridge: CUP.
MODERN HUMANITIES RESEARCH ASSOCIATION, 2008. MHRA style guide: a handbook for authors, editors, and writers of theses. 2nd edn. London: Modern Humanities Research Association.
NEVILLE, C., 2007. The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
PEARS, R. and SHIELDS, G.J., 2010. Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 8th edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
TURABIAN, K.L., 2007. A manual for writers of research papers, theses, and dissertations: Chicago style for students and researchers. 7th edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Referencing electronic sources
The publications above will include details on referencing types of publications and sources not covered in this guide e.g. Newspaper articles, videos, etc. Many of the web sites below cover electronic sources.
There are also a number of useful websites for referencing information; many of them cover both printed and electronic formats. For example the particularly helpful:
Guide to referencing: Harvard - from the University of the West of England
Also:
APA (American Psychological Association) Formatting and Style Guide - from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University, Indiana
Create an APA Reference List - from the University of Wisconsin
Referencing@Portsmouth is an online citation tool which gives information about the APA (5th & 6th eds), OSCOLA and Vancouver styles
MLA (Modern Language Association) Formatting and Style Guide - from the Online Writing Lab at Purdue University, Indiana
Audiovisual Citation: British Universities Film & Video Council Guidelines for Referencing moving images and sound this guide includes information about referencing from film, television, radio, audio such as podcasts, media clips such as YouTube and new media sources such as webcasts and webinars
The Chicago Manual of Style Quick Guide. This is an online guide to the referencing style used by students studying Religious Studies in the Division of Literature and Languages
Common abbreviations and terms used in references:
| app. | appendix |
| col. | column (plural, cols.) |
| comp. | compiler (plural, comps.) |
| ed. | edition; edited by; editor (plural, eds.) |
| et al. | et alii : Latin for 'and others' |
| ibid. | ibidem : Latin for 'in the same place'. This word can only be used in the next consecutive reference in a list after an earlier reference to the same work. For example : 1. Leggett, J. The carbon war: global warming and the end of the oil era. 2nd edition. London, Penguin, 2000. 2. ibid. p. 65 3. Ledwith, S. and Manfredi, S. Balancing gender in higher education - a study of the experience of senior women in a 'new' UK university. European Journal of Women's Studies, 7 (1), 2000. pp. 7-33 4. ibid. |
| n.d. | no date (of publication known) |
| n.p. | no place (of publication known) |
| no. | number (plural nos.) In America, the symbol # is often used |
| op. cit. | opere citato : Latin for 'in the work cited' For example : 1. Brennan, A.A. Environmental decision making. In: Berry, R. J. ed. Environmental dilemmas: ethics and decisions. London, Chapman & Hall, 1993. pp. 1-19. 2. Leggett, J. The carbon war: global warming and the end of the oil era. 2nd edition. London, Penguin, 2000. pp. 25-27 3. Brennan, A.A. op. cit. p. 45 |
| p. | page (plural pp.) |
| para. | paragraph |
| supp. | supplement (plural, supps.) |
| Trans. | translator ; translated by |
| vol. | volume (plural, vols.) |