It's impossible to know everything about your subject area; there will always be other people who have more knowledge, research, or experience in a particular area and have published about it. This means that you will have to read and refer to the work that other people have done as a means of backing up statements and arguments you make in your assignments.
So why do we have to reference?
If you've never done referencing before, or you have but you're not very confident, don't worry! We have resources that can help!
Have a look at the other tabs on this box for more information and don't forget to have a look at our calendar of library events as we regularly run a referencing workshop. Your Subject Guide also includes help and advice about referencing and gives links to Cite Them Right, a really useful source to help you when it comes to referencing in your assignments.
Cite them right is a well-known resource which gives examples and guidance on referencing. It has examples for a variety of different referencing 'styles' including Harvard and the American Psychological Association (APA) system (if you are doing any psychology modules then you may be asked to use the APA referencing style for assignments within that module.)
The link above will take you to the online, web-page based version of Cite Them Right which, due to it's online nature, is likely to be to the most up to date version of the text. It is only available to members of the university so you may be asked to log in with your university credentials in order to view the full content of the site.
Alongside the referencing examples you will also find a Tutorial to Cite Them Right that you can work through, as well as a series of videos explaining different aspects of referencing that people often have questions about.
The library also has print copies of the book and also an eBook version i.e. an exact copy of the print version of the book of the same edition.
You can find them by searching for Cite Them Right in Library Search.
The Library has both an online (recommended) and a print version of Cite Them Right.
More than 100 reference examples and their corresponding in-text citations are presented in the seventh edition Publication Manual. Examples of the most common works that writers cite are provided on this page; additional examples are available in the Publication Manual.
APA Reference Examples (Online)
Link to Library catalogue page for the 'Publication manual of the American Psychological Association: the official guide to APA style'
The psychology department also has its own guide to referencing so make sure that you are following any guidelines set out by your academics.
In addition to Cite Them Right, the library has other resources which can help you with your referencing. Click on any of the tiles below for access.
Useful for students at any level but particularly postgraduates and researchers. The full version of EndNote is available --for free-- to students while they are on programmes of study at the university.
Referencing management tools can help you keep track of, store, organise and manage your references. You can use them to create bibliographies in a variety of referencing styles. They are particularly useful when completing large assignments such as dissertations when you are likely to be using more literature. The university has a subscription to EndNote Referencing Software and you can access this via the software section on course resources.
The following video is a useful introduction to EndNote
There is also a separate Referencing Software Guide which contains information and links to resources about using EndNote as well as other referencing software and apps such as Mendeley and Zotero.