Proper referencing is critical. Your writing should always include accurate references to:
There are three components to citing references
There is a preferred referencing style for most subject areas within the University. Please see below for details.
Note - guidance on citing AI will be added to the referencing for the subject areas soon. In the interim, see the Referencing AI page.
Harvard is a commonly used author name and date referencing style and is adopted widely in the University including all areas of Aquaculture, Biological & Environmental Sciences and Geography.The Harvard Stirling University style has been developed to provide guidance to students and for use within RefWorks.
See the documents below for guidance on using the Harvard Stirling University style and examples of what reference lists might look like.
You may find Harvard Stirling University Examples (including guidance for RefWorks) especially helpful as this provides a list of document types e.g. Book chapters, Journal Articles, Blogs, Web Pages, TV programmes etc. with details of what information you need for the reference as well as and example of how to cite it in your text and enter it in your reference list (bibliography).
Look for more books on referencing in the Library Catalogue or check the shelves at class mark K 8.135.
See the Referencing and avoiding plagiarism module in Canvas for more guidance about plagiarism and help with referencing. This is brought to you by Student Learning Services.
All new students should complete the 'Academic Integrity and Writing' module within your first 4 weeks at university. It is also useful to revisit this module if you are struggling with your writing and referencing or have received feedback on plagiarism.
Referencing software helps you to collect and organise references and automatically generate a reference list (bibliography). The University provides RefWorks and EndNote. EndNote is mostly used by staff and PhD students.