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Referencing & Plagiarism: Referencing Styles

Text-Based Referencing Styles

Citethemrightonline.com is your best tool for getting referencing right. The Harvard conventions can be observed in this sample text and referencing list. There are slight differences in various versions of Harvard, so make sure that you sign into citethemrightonline.com ‘through your institution’ to follow the guidance for Harvard referencing. 

  • You need to include page numbers in a citation when making a direct quotation or when paraphrasing, but not when summarising. Check the Academic Writing area of the Academic Skills Hub for more information on how and when to use these here. Page numbers should be preceded with p. for one page or pp. for a page range.
  • Use et al. when there are 4 or more authors for your in-text citations. For example: 
    • In-text citation: Smith et al. (2012, p. 88)
    • or (Smith et al., 2012, p. 88) 
  • In your reference list, Cite Them Right states that whether et al. is used or not is down to the preference of the institution. At the University of Suffolk, you can either use et al. or list all of the authors' names. For example:
    • Smith, M. et al. (2012) 
    • or Smith, M., Singh, H., Forester, L. and Ongus, C. (2012)

 By listing all authors, credit is given to each individual who contributed, recognising their intellectual contributions and ensuring they receive proper recognition for their work.

  • When using et al., make sure that it’s in italics and that you have a full-stop after al. to indicate that it’s an abbreviation. Initials also need a full stop to show that they are abbreviated. When using a full stop to indicate an abbreviation you will often also need to follow this with a comma. See the above examples.

APA provides guidelines on writing style as well as referencing for academic writing. Their conventions can be found on citethemrightonline.com, and their guidelines can be found on the APA website and in a style manual.  

Each reference has two parts: a short ‘in-text’ citation; and a more detailed reference, included at the end in a ‘reference list’. The reference list only includes sources that have been cited in the essay. 

  • You need to include page numbers only when making a direct quotation, not when paraphrasing or summarising. 
  • Use et al. when there are 3 or more authors for your in-text citations. For example: 
    • In-text citation: Smith et al. (2012, p. 88) or (Smith et al., 2012, p. 88) 
  • Do not use ‘et al.’ in the reference list - instead provide surnames and initials for up to and including 20 authors. When there are more than 20 authors, include the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipses, and then add the final author’s name. 
  • When using et al., make sure that you have a full-stop after al. to indicate that it’s an abbreviation. 

Numeric Referencing Styles

The IEEE referencing style, generally used in Electronic and Electrical Engineering and Computing Science, is a numeric style which uses numbers in square brackets for citations within the text and a full reference list at the end of  the text. Citations are numbered in order of first appearance (if the source is re-used later in the text the citation number is also re-used), and each refer to only one source.

Citations do not need to include authors’ names; direct quotes or reference to a detail in the text requires page numbers.

The reference list is ordered according  to the appearance of the citations. The reference numbers are set flush left, form a column of their own, and hanging out beyond the body of the reference. Below are examples of the most common source types.

However please note that IEEE referencing style is very prescriptive and comprehensive (e.g. it lists 8 different types of reference for conferences; 4 for datasets; and so on) and for full instructions the student should consult IEEE’s  2023 Reference Guide.

Please note further that guidance provided by the 12th edition of Cite Them Right, while still useful, is no longer fully accurate after IEEE’s recent updates viz. consecutive reference ranges in the text no longer include an ‘en dash’ but must be written out: for example “[1]–[4]” will now be “[1], [2], [3], [4]”.

 

Examples

Citation numbering within the text:

Testing of the new software [2], [3], [5] showed ...

Wave power contributes around 3% of the island’s energy supply [8, p. 21] ...

 

Reference List

Books:

Basic Format:

● J. K. Author, “Title of chapter in the book,” in Title of Published Book, xth ed. City of Publisher, (only U.S. State), Country: Abbrev. of Publisher, year, ch. x, sec. x, pp. xxx–xxx.

Examples:

● B. Klaus and P. Horn, Robot Vision. Cambridge, MA, USA: MIT Press, 1986.

● L. Stein, “Random patterns,” in Computers and You, J. S. Brake, Ed., New York, NY, USA: Wiley, 1994, pp. 55–70.

● A. Histace, “Image restoration—Recent advances and applications,” in Super-Resolution Restoration and Image Reconstruction for Passive Millimeter Wave Imaging. Rijeka, Croatia: InTech, 2012, pp. 25–45.

Periodicals:

Basic Format:

● J. K. Author, “Name of paper,” Abbrev. Title of Periodical, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx-xxx, Abbrev. Month, year.

● J. K. Author, “Name of paper,” Abbrev. Title of Periodical, vol. x, no. x, pp. xxx-xxx, Abbrev. Month, year, doi:

xxx.

Examples:

● M. M. Chiampi and L. L. Zilberti, “Induction of electric field in human bodies moving near MRI: An efficient BEM computational procedure,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 58, pp. 2787–2793, Oct. 2011, doi: 10.1109/TBME.2011.2158315.

● M. Ito et al., “Can the application of amorphous oxide TFT be an electrophoretic display?,” J. Non-Cryst. Solids, vol. 354, no. 19, pp. 2777–2782, Feb. 2008.

See IEEE’s  2023 Reference Guide for stipulated abbreviations.

Websites:

The most basic entry for a website consists of the author name(s), page title, website title, web address, and date accessed:

First Name Initial(s) Last Name. “Page Title.” Website Title. Date Accessed. [Online]. Available: Web Address.

J. Smith. “Obama inaugurated as President.” CNN.com. Accessed: Feb. 1, 2009. [Online.] Available: http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/01/21/obama_inaugurated/ index.html

Conferences:

Conference Paper (Paper Presented at a Conference)

Basic Format:

● J. K. Author, “Title of paper,” presented at the Abbreviated Name of Conf., City of Conf., Abbrev. State, Country, Month and day(s), year, Paper number.

Examples:

● D. Caratelli, M. C. Viganó, G. Toso, and P. Angeletti, “Analytical placement technique for sparse arrays,” presented at the 32nd ESA Antenna Workshop, Noordwijk, The Netherlands, Oct. 5–8, 2010.

Conference Paper Online

Basic Format:

● J. K. Author. (Date). Title. Presented at Abbreviated Conf. title. [Type of Medium]. Available: site/path/file

Examples:

● Process Software Corp., Framingham, MA, USA. Intranets: Internet technologies deployed behind the firewall for corporate productivity. Presented at INET’96 Annu. Meeting. [Online]. Available: http://www.process.com/Intranets/wp2.htp

See IEEE’s  2023 Reference Guide for stipulated abbreviations.

MHRA conventions can be found on citethemrightonline.com, with examples, and on the MHRA style guide online. If you use Microsoft Word to write your MHRA style assignment, these directions from Microsoft on how to insert footnotes and endnotes may be useful.  

Each reference has two parts: a footnote or endnote indicated by a superscript number in the text; and a more detailed reference, included at the end in a bibliography. The bibliography includes all sources that have been read, even if they are not cited in the essay.  

  • In the footnotes, author names should be forename followed by surname – for example, Francis Wheen.  
  • In the bibliography, author names should be surname followed by forename – for example, Wheen, Francis. 
  • The first time you cite a source, you should give full details in the footnote or endnote. Subsequent entries to the same source can be abbreviated to the author's surname and the first few words of the title, plus a page number if you are citing a specific part of the text. 
  • If there are four or more authors, give the name of the first author, followed by ‘and others’.
  • If two (or more) consecutive references are from the same source, then the second (or others) is cited ibid. Capitalise ibid. if used at the beginning of a note. 

OSCOLA stands for 'Oxford University Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities'. OSCOLA is used by universities and publishers worldwide. It is the referencing style used by the BSc (Hons) Law route at the University of Suffolk. OSCOLA conventions, with examples, can be found on citethemrightonline.com, and their guidelines are explained in the OSCOLA Quick Referencing Guide. 

The Vancouver conventions, with examples, can be found on citethemrightonline.com.

The MLA conventions, with examples, can be found on citethemrightonline.com The MLA Style Centre provides updates on citations for sources.  

Further Reading