Referencing and avoiding plagiarism

Referencing Literature in English - Cambridge Pre-U

L. Watts (Librarian) March 2012

Definitions

 References – sources referred to in your written work.

 A bibliography – a list, in alphabetical order by author’s surname, of all the sources you consulted, whether you used them or not.

Benefits   Acknowledges the work of other writers and researchers.

  Demonstrates the body of knowledge on which you have based your work.

  Enables other researchers to verify the source and follow up.

  Prevents accusations of plagiarism.

  Source: Marsden, J. (2011) The benefits of successful referencing: applying Harvard conventions [PowerPoint presentation]. Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/MarsdenTherapy/the-benefits-of-harvard-referencing (Accessed: 4 March 2012).

Plagiarism …

... means passing off other people’s work as your own.

Plagiarism   You must give credit whenever you use:

  Another person’s idea, opinion or theory

  Any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings – any pieces of information – that are not common knowledge

  Quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words; or paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words.

  Source: Indiana University, Bloomington (2011) Plagiarism: what it is and how to recognize it and avoid it. Available at: http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml (Accessed: 4 March 2012)

When to start?

 At the beginning of your research.

Choose a style

 Does your school or university insist on a house style?

 Ask your teacher.

 Choose a style – APA (American Psychological Association); MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association); Vancouver; Harvard.

 Be consistent.

Keep track

 Notebook

 Index cards

 Cut and paste URLs into a Word document

 Bookmark websites in your browser

Keep track online  Social bookmarking sites such as Diigo,

StumbleUpon or Digg

 www.diigo.com; www.stumbleupon.com; www.digg.com

 Evernote allows you to clip bits of websites and save them in notebooks www.evernote.com

 Livebinders lets you organise resources in an online binder www.livebinders.com

What to record – Harvard style BOOKS Authors or editors. Look at the title page. Put the surname first, then the initial of the first name in the order they appear. If they are editors, use (ed.) or (eds) e.g. Fry, S. and Laurie, H. (eds) If there is no author but a corporation or organisation – use this. If there is no author or organisation – use the title e.g. The Times Atlas of the World (2002) London: Times Books.

What to record – Harvard style BOOKS The year of publication. Look at the reverse of the title page. Title of the book and the subtitle. Capitalise the first letter of the first word and proper nouns e.g. A lust for window sills: a lover’s guide to British buildings from portcullis to pebble-dash. Italicise the title. If you are writing by hand – underline it.

What to record – Harvard style

BOOKS Edition – only include this if it is not the first edition. If there is no indication of which edition it is, it is the first. Use edn so edition is not confused with ‘editor’. e.g. 3rd edn Place and publisher – Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan Pages – If you include a page reference in your in-text citation, put p.23. If you are referring to a chapter, use pp. 200 – 220.


JOURNALS

Author – surname followed by initials Year of publication (in brackets) Title of article ‘in single quotation marks’ Title of journal – in italics. Capitalize the first letter of each word in the title, except for linking words. Issue – volume, part number, month or season Page reference – p.7 or pp.13-17


JOURNALS

EXAMPLE: Splatt, J.W. and Weedon, D. (1977) ‘The Urethral Syndrome’, British Journal of Urology, 49(2), pp.173-176. In-text citation: (Splatt and Weedon, 1977, pp.173-176)


JOURNALS

EXAMPLE: Splatt, J.W. and Weedon, D. (1977) ‘The Urethral Syndrome’, British Journal of Urology, 49(2), pp.173-176. Wiley Online Library [Online]. Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1464-410X.1977.tb04095.x/abstract (Accessed: 4 March 2012).


INTERNET SITES AND WEB PAGES

Author Year the site was published or updated (in round brackets). If there is no date – how useful is the information? Dates can be checked on sites such as http://lookup.ws/whois.php http://www.allwhois.com



EXAMPLE: Davis, T. (2001) How to write an essay. Available at: http://www.unask.com/teaching/howto/essay.htm (Accessed: 4 March 2012) In-text citation: Davis (2001) gives advice on writing professionally



For web pages with no authors – use the title of the site. For web pages with no authors or titles – use the URL, followed by (no date)

Numerical systems

 Ibid. Short for ‘ibidem’ which means ‘in the same place’. It refers to the source immediately before.

 Op. cit. is short for ‘opere citato’ which means ‘in the work already cited’.

1. J W Trimmer, How to avoid huge ships, 2nd edn, Cornell, Cornell Maritime Press, 1993, p.8 2. Ibid., p.17 [this means p. 17 in the book above] 3. P L H McSweeney (ed.), Cheese problems solved, Cambridge, Woodhead Publishing, 2007, p.92 4. W. Westfield, Does the Earth rotate? No! [publisher unknown] 1919. 5. P L H McSweeney (ed.) op.cit. [this means in the book already cited but not the one directly above]

Putting references in your text

Quotations: don’t make them too long. What is special about this quote? Williams and Carroll (2009) assert that, ‘If it’s worth a quote, it’s worth a comment.’ Source: Williams, K. And Carroll, J. (2009)Referencing and understanding plagiarism. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.


Paraphrasing: Expressing the meaning of short extracts in your own words. Tell your reader what you want them to see. Williams and Carroll (2009)


Summarising: Providing a brief statement of the main points of a book or article. ‘Show your source before your reader starts wondering whose work they are reading.’ Williams and Carroll (2009)


Useful phrases: Smith claims that ... Smith contends that ... Smith asserts that ... According to Smith ...

Help with referencing Word 2007 – limited choice of styles (APA, Chicago, MLA, Turabian) Neil’s toolbox: http://www.neilstoolbox.com/bibliography-creator/index.htm BibMe: http://www.bibme.org/ Guide to the Harvard Style of Referencing from Anglia Ruskin University: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/files/Harvard_referencing_2011.pdf

Bibliography Pears, R. And Shields, G. Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 8th edn. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Reference copy in stock in the School Library.

Education

Referencing and avoiding plagiarism