How to reference: referencing styles
Referencing is the process of acknowledging that you've used another person's words, ideas, or data in your work.
If you don't acknowledge your sources, you may be guilty of plagiarism.
Referencing: a two-step process
Any time you directly quote, paraphrase or summarize source material in your work, you must reference your source in two places.
- First, you insert a citation at the appropriate place in the text to briefly identify the source.
- At the end of your work, you provide a corresponding reference -- this is so-called 'bibliographical' information about the source (e.g. authors, titles, editions, journal names, dates and places of publication) that enables readers to retrieve your source.
Citations and references may look different, depending on the 'referencing style' used to create them.
What is a referencing style?
A referencing style is a set of rules and formats that specify how to reference different types of sources, e.g. books, articles, web pages etc. Referencing styles are also called 'documentation style' or 'citation style'. There are many different referencing styles, that have been created by different disciplines.
Most referencing styles fall within a few basic categories.
- Author-date styles, which use brief identifying information (author and publication year) in the text. Each in-text citation is linked to a reference in the reference list.
- Numerical styles, which use a number in the text pointing to a numbered reference in the reference list.
- Note styles, which use a number in superscript, placed after the relevant sentence to direct the reader to a footnote or endnote, which provides detailed information about the source. Most note styles require a bibliography.
Note that a reference list includes only the sources cited in the text. A bibliography, on the other hand, may also include sources that were consulted but not cited.
Referencing styles used at Tilburg University
Your lecturer will tell you which style she or he wants you to use, but generally speaking, the styles used at our university are as follows:
- American Psychological Association (APA) style -- used in the Social Sciences
- Chicago Note-Bibliography style -- used in the Humanities
- Harvard style -- used in Economics
- OSCOLA -- used in Law
How do these styles differ?
Basically, they piece together the same bits of information in different ways. Punctuation and indentation differ between styles, too.
The following are examples of correct references for the same journal article using respectively APA, Chicago NB, and OSCOLA. Notice the common elements as mentioned above.
'Böcker' by Johannes Jansson. Licensed under CC BY 2.5 DK.
Author -- Amnon Jacob Suissa
Publication date -- 2014
Article title -- Cyberaddictions: Toward a psychosocial perspective
Source title -- Addictive Behaviors
Volume and issue -- Volume 39, issue 12
Page numbers -- 1914-1918
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) -- 10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.07.027
A DOI is a unique identifier for online articles, used by the APA and Chicago NB style.
APA: author-date style
in-text citation
Within the scientific community, there is considerable controversy with respect to the concept of cyberaddiction (Suissa, 2014).
reference
Suissa, A. J. (2014). Cyberaddictions: Toward a psychosocial perspective. Addictive Behaviors, 39, 1914-1918. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.07.027
Chicago NB: note style
note number in the text
Within the scientific community, there is considerable controversy with respect to the concept of cyberaddiction.1
citation in a note
1. Amnon J. Suissa, "Cyberaddictions: Toward a Psychosocial Perspective," Addictive Behaviors 39 (2014): 1915, accessed March 17, 2015, doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.07.027.
bibliography entry
Suissa, Amnon J. "Cyberaddictions: Toward a Psychosocial Perspective." Addictive Behaviors 39 (2014): 1914-18. Accessed March 17, 2015. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.07.027.
Harvard: author-date style
in-text citation
Within the scientific community, there is considerable controversy with respect to the concept of cyberaddiction (Suissa, 2014, p. 1915).
reference
Suissa, AJ 2014, 'Cyberaddictions: Toward a psychosocial perspective', Addictive Behaviors, 39, no. 12, pp. 1914-1918, viewed 17 March 2015, <http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306460314002585>.
OSCOLA: footnote style
footnote marker in the text
Within the scientific community, there is considerable controversy with respect to the concept of cyberaddiction.1
citation in a footnote
1 Suissa AJ, 'Cyberaddictions: Toward a Psychosocial Perspective' (2014) 39, Addictive Behaviors 1914, 1915.bibliography entry
Amnon J Suissa, 'Cyberaddictions: Toward a Psychosocial Perspective' (2014) 39, Addictive Behaviors 1914
