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Cite and Reference : Citing & Referencing

Information about Citing & Referencing

In written academic work citing and referencing your sources is standard practice. A clear and consistent style is required. There are many different styles of citing and referencing (Harvard, Chicago, MLA etc.).

Why do we need to cite and reference?

References and citations in academic writing are required to:

  • Show the research you have done
  • Back up your arguments
  • Allow the person reading the document to locate the material you consulted and check quotes and data
  • Avoid being accused of plagiarism
What is citing and referencing?

Citing is acknowledging your sources within the body of your assignment or paper.

Referencing is a list of all the information sources (books, articles, newspaper articles, videos, webpages, images etc.) that you have referred to in your assignment, placed at the end of your assignment or paper.

What kinds of information are referenced?

Quotes, paraphrases, ideas, images, data are examples of information that should be referenced. Common knowledge does not need to be referenced.

How do we cite and reference?

It depends on the referencing style you use. If you are unsure, please check with your lecturer. Most referencing styles contain the same basic types of information about a source.

Here are examples of the bibliographic details that are required for the following formats:

Book: Author, Publication date, Book title, Publisher, Place of publication

Journal article: Author(s), Publication date, Article title, Journal title, Journal volume number, Journal volume issue, Page numbers, DOI (Digital Object Identifier) or URL

Webpage: Author(s) / Name of organisation, date page was last updated, title of page, date page was accessed, URL

Harvard Referencing Style

Harvard UL is the style used by Education, Business and many Arts subjects in MIC.  It uses an author/date method - references are in two places, in the body of your assignment and in a reference list at the end.

The citation style in Harvard is (Author Year)

For a full guide - see the Harvard UL Guide

Note: Check your course handbook to see which style your department uses. 

APA Referencing Style

APA is the style used by Psychology, Sociology and other subjects in MIC.

For a full guide - see the APA seventh edition style guide

Note: Check your course handbook to see which style your department uses.

Chicago Referencing Style

The Chicago style is used by many subjects such as History, Irish and Religion. It is particularly useful as the style has footnotes which give the reference at the bottom of the page. 

For a full guide - see the Chicago manual of style

Note: Check your course handbook to see which style your department uses. 

Referencing Handbook

Citation Infographic

Academic Honesty

Plagiarism is taking another person’s work, ideas or words and using them without proper acknowledgment.  To avoid plagiarism when using the words and ideas of others you must cite your source. Plagarism is considered academic misconduct.

The library has produced a guide to Academic Integrity, which is available at the following link: 

https://libguides.mic.ul.ie/academicintegrity

EndNote Web

It is possible to organize your references using reference management software.

EndNote Online is a bibliographic management tool that can help you to:

  • Gather references automatically from databases.
  • Format documents & citations instantly in a variety of styles.
  • Generate bibliographies
  • Create a personal database of references & PDFs

This software is available for free via MIC Library. Please see the link below for a guide on how to access it and a series of videos on how to use it:

https://libguides.mic.ul.ie/c.php?g=675057

One-to-one appointments with a librarian are also available.

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