Subjects, Services and Resources
Referencing and RefWorks
Referencing is a critical element in any academic assignment and during your studies at RGU, you will always be required to reference your sources according to our guidelines.
Remember that you need to follow the examples exactly - using capital letters, italic and the correct punctuation as shown in the examples.
Why Reference?
| WHY DO I HAVE TO REFERENCE? |
| To support your arguments by referring your reader to academic sources which confirm what you are saying |
| To give credit to the other authors whose work you have quoted, or to whose work you have referred |
| To avoid a charge of plagiarism |
| To allow the reader of your work to find the books, journal articles, web pages etc. which you have read |
| To demonstrate that you understand the conventions of academic writing |
| WHEN DO I REFERENCE? |
| Every time you quote directly from someone else’s work |
Every time you refer indirectly to the work of someone else, e.g. if you:
|
| When you wish to provide sources of further information, clarification of points you have made in your text, or additional evidence to support your arguments |
Plagiarism is theft of intellectual property and you should absolutely avoid it in all your assignments, by referencing all the sources you have used.
The University has a very strict policy against plagiarism and dealing with students accused of it. We’re not saying don’t get caught plagiarising, we say just don’t do it, it’s not worth the risk! As long as you reference according to our guidelines, you will be fine.
This guide explains the RGU Vancouver style of referencing. If you correctly follow the RGU Vancouver style explained here, you will avoid any risk of plagiarism.
If in doubt, reference!
We say you paraphrase when you take someone else’s ideas, theories, opinions, etc. and write them in your own words. This is great because you can show your understanding of the concept, but that doesn’t mean it is your own original idea. So, you must reference the originator of the idea. If you don’t, it will constitute plagiarism, which we're sure you'll want to avoid!
This is when you copy the exact words from a book, journal article, website, etc. It’s ok to include quotations here and there in your assignments, but try not to overdo it, as too many quotations might get frowned upon. It is your work as well! A few things to keep in mind:
All quotations need to be referenced properly. If they are not this constitutes plagiarism.
The Stages of Referencing
The citation is inserted into your text where you have quoted from, or referred to, someone else's work.
Features
Examples
| When you paraphrase: | It has been suggested that.... (1). |
| When you paraphrase and want to use the author(s) name(s) in the sentence: |
|
| When you directly quote: | One view is that “referencing is a pain I could do without” (1). |
| When you directly quote and use the author(s) name(s) in the sentence: | Brown (1) has stated most astutely that “referencing is a pain I could do without”. |
Features
Features
A-Z Templates
Frequently Asked Questions
This is called secondary referencing.
You must make the situation clear in your text, eg:
Chandler, in a letter quoted by Hiney (1), claimed that most people could do without literature “far more
easily than they could do without coffee or whisky”.
You only reference the work which you have read. In this case the reference which would
appear in your endnote would be:
(1) HINEY, T., 1998. Raymond Chandler: a biography. London: Vintage. p. 2.
If you need to cite more than once source at the same time, write a number for each source e.g. (1, 2) or (6, 12, 15)
When citing more than two sources, which are numbered consecutively, use a hyphen instead of a comma (2-4).
In general, the organisation on whose website the web page sits will be the publisher of the web page.
If the organisation is not immediately obvious then have a look at any About Us or Contact us information on the website, or scroll to the bottom of the page and look for copyright information, and you should see an organisation mentioned.
The address of the headquarters of the organisation should also be mentioned in these places on the website. You can treat the town or city where the organisation is based as the place of publication.
When you are referencing webpages, or other online resources, using RGU Vancouver, you should include a date when the webpage or online resource was last updated - as well as the date cited (the date you looked at it).
On some pages, for example BBC News online reports, a date when a page was last updated may be given at the top of the page.
If no date is given at the top of a page, scroll down to the bottom of the web page - you may find a copyright or "last updated" date there.
If you cannot find a full date for when the page was last updated anywhere but can find a month and year or just a year use that information instead.
If you cannot even find a year, but the page you are looking at, and the rest of the website, seems to be continually updated and there are no indications that the page is older, you can use the current year as your date last updated. If you do not think the page has been recently updated you may use n.d. (meaning no date).
Unless you have been specifically told by your marker, or it is noted in the assignment requirements, that you require a certain number of references, there is no exact answer to this question.
The number of references will be determined by the nature of the assignment, what you have written and the sources you have consulted. If you are worried you have not used enough sources, and therefore do not have enough references, we would suggest you seek guidance from whoever is marking your assignment.
If you need further assistance, or have a particular item you are struggling to reference, you may wish to come along to one of our drop-in sessions. Our timetable provides details of the drop-in times.
Alternatively, please feel free to contact us by email on library.support@rgu.ac.uk or telephone 01224 263450 (international dialling: +44 1224 263450). Please tell us you are using the RGU Vancouver style of referencing.