What the guide covers
- Teesside University, School of Health and Life Sciences referencing Style
- What is referencing?
- Why reference?
- Referencing a book
- Referencing a journal
- Referencing a website
- The reference List
- Video: Part 1 (an introduction)
- In-text citations
- When to include a reference
- Paraphrasing and quotations
- Video: Part 2 (paraphrasing and using citations)
- Quiz
- Useful resources
Teesside University, School of Health and Life Sciences referencing style
The referencing style used in the School of Health and Life Sciences at Teesside University is Harvard Standard according to the book 'Cite Them Right' by Pears and Shields.
What is referencing?
Identifying and listing all the sources you have referred to in your assignment.
There are 2 parts to this: in text citations and the reference list.
Citing in the text looks like this: Godwin (2019, p. 17) / (Godwin, 2019, p. 17)
A reference at the end of your assignment looks like this : Godwin, J. (2019) Planning your essay. 3rd edn. Macmillan Education.
Why reference?
You need to learn how to reference accurately in order to acknowledge your sources and to demonstrate that your writing is based on evidence.
Referencing enables the reader to easily locate the sources used.
It demonstrates the body of knowledge on which your work is based.
You must reference correctly to avoid accusations of plagiarism (accidental plagiarism can happen if you don't reference properly).
This short tutorial goes through the basics of why it is important to include references in your work.
General tips when referencing
When there are more than 3 authors you only need to write the first one followed by et al. This is the case for the in-text citation as well as the reference list.
When using an abbreviation, it is usually best practice to explain what the abbreviation stands for, the first time you use it and then you can use the abbreviated form afterwards. Make sure whatever you have used in the in-text citation matches your reference list. For example:
As the research from the World Health Organization (WHO, 2023) shows …
WHO (2023) Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease-(copd) (Accessed: 24 July 2024).
For more information, please read the referencing guide:
The main types of references you will include in your work will be from books, journals and websites.
Books
Generally, you will reference an e-book in the same way as you would reference a printed book (i.e. there is no need for a web address/URL or database name).
Citation order:
- Author/editor
- Year of publication (in round brackets)
- Title (in italics)
- Edition (edition number if not the first edn and/or rev. edn)
- Publisher
- Series and volume number (where relevant)
Book reference with up to 3 authors
Example reference:
Parahoo, K. (2014) Nursing research: principles, process and issues. 3rd edn. Palgrave Macmillan.
Example in-text citation:
(Parahoo, 2014, p. 50) OR Parahoo (2014, p. 50)
Book reference with more than 3 authors
Example reference:
Russell, R.E.K. et al. (2013) Managing COPD. 3rd edn. Springer Healthcare.
Example in-text citation:
(Russell et al., 2013, p. 20) OR Russell et al. (2013, p. 20)
Chapter from an edited book
This is what a chapter from an edited book would look like (this is when the chapters are written by different authors).
Citation order:
- Author of the chapter/section (surname followed by initials)
- Year of publication (in round brackets)
- Title of chapter/section (in single quotation marks)
- 'in' plus author/editor of book
- Title of book (in italics)
- Edition and volume number
- Publisher
- Page range of chapter/section
If the source is unpaginated add:
- Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date)
Example reference:
Gaskell, L. (2013) 'Musculoskeletal assessment', in Porter, S.B. (ed) Tidy’s physiotherapy. 15th edn. Saunders Elsevier, pp. 361-414.
Example in-text citation:
(Gaskell, 2013, p. 363) OR Gaskell (2013, p. 363)
Journals
Citation order:
- Author (surname followed by initials)
- Year of publication (in round brackets)
- Title of article (in single quotation marks)
- Title of journal (in italics – capitalise first letter of each word in title, except for linking words such as and, of, the, for)
- Issue information: volume (unbracketed) and, where applicable, part number, month or season (all in round brackets)
- Page range (if available) or article number
If accessed online:
- Available at: DOI or URL (Accessed: date)
Journal article with 3 authors
Example reference:
Burman, M.E., Robinson, B. and Hart, A.M. (2013) ‘Linking evidence-based nursing practice and patient-centered care through patient preferences’, Nursing Administration Quarterly, 37(3), pp. 231-241. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.0b013e318295ed6b
Example in-text citation:
(Burman, Robinson and Hart, 2013) OR Burman, Robinson and Hart (2013)
Journal article with more than 3 authors
Example reference:
Grant, M. et al. (2014) ‘Return to work after stroke: recording, measuring, and describing occupational therapy intervention’, British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 77(9), pp. 457-465. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4276/030802214X14098207541072
Example in-text citation:
(Grant et al., 2014) OR Grant et al. (2014)
Websites
Citation order:
- Author [Person or Organisation]
- Year site was published or last updated (in round brackets)
- Title of internet site. (in Italics)
- Available at: URL of website
- (Accessed: date accessed)
Example reference:
World Health Organization (2023) Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/chronic-obstructive-pulmonary-disease-(copd) (Accessed: 24 July 2024).
Example in-text citation:
(World Health Organization, 2023) OR World Health Organization (2023)
The reference list
- Includes everything referred to in the text. If you have an in-text citation, there should be a corresponding reference at the end of your work.
- Make notes as you are writing your assignment so you know where your reference comes from.
- References need to be listed alphabetically by author.
- Give yourself time to check everything including spelling and page numbers.
- Make sure it is complete and includes all the required information.
Video: Part 1
In-text citations
- These go in the text of your work
- In-text citations give the brief (abbreviated) details of the work that you are quoting from, or to which you are referring in your text.
- You only need to include the author's surname (family name), the year, and page number if you are referring to a specific page or pages e.g. (Godwin, 2019, p. 17).
- This format is the same regardless of whether the source is a book, journal article or website.
- If you are quoting or using ideas from a specific page/page range, you should include the page numbers in the citation (p. or pp.)
- If the citation refers to a complete work/ideas that run throughout a complete work, then you do not need to include the page numbers in the citation.
There are 2 ways to cite in the text:
- Passive citations: When the the author is not part of the sentence so both the author's name, the year and page number go in brackets at the end of the sentence, e.g. (Norman, 2012, p.13).
- Active citations: When the author is part of the sentence, so the year goes into brackets, e.g. "Norman (2012, p.13) states that ..."
There are advantages and disadvantages to both ways. You should try and use both ways in your writing.
Passive Citations
(Norman, 2012, p.13)
- Emphasises the information
- Positive: can help your assignment to flow
- Negative: references can sometimes appear too far away from the point
Active citations
As Norman (2012, p.13) argued ...
- Emphasises the author
- Positive: good for introducing reference early in a paragraph
- Negative: can reduce the impact of your points
- Negative: can become repetitive
Whichever way you choose, ensure that you use the correct wording to show your viewpoint.
Wording for viewpoints
The words you choose to use can indicate how much you agree with the viewpoint of the author. Vary these words to show these points – it will help with developing your case or argument in your assignment.
Academic Phrasebank is a really useful website to help you with you academic vocabulary.
This short tutorial goes through the basics of how to use in-text citations:
Have a look at these incorrect in-text citations and see if you can spot the mistakes:
- According to (Smith, 2007), there is no strong evidence ….
- According to Smith, 2009, there is little evidence ….
- Fred Smith (2010) argued that there was little evidence ….
- In her book ‘Writing for University’, Godfrey (2011) advised …
This is how we would have used the in-text citations for those sentence starters:
- According to Smith (2007), there is no strong evidence ….
- According to Smith (2009), there is little evidence ….
- Smith (2010) argued that there was little evidence ….
- Godfrey (2011) advised …
Where the author is part of the sentence, the date needs to be in the brackets but the author's surname goes outside of the brackets.
Only the author’s surname and the date need to be included in your citations - you don't need to include the details of the book or journal, as you will put that in your reference list.
Please note: In these examples we haven’t added page numbers as they may be referring to webpages or to whole studies.
A comparative study on properties built within the last twenty years and older houses, clearly illustrated the financial and environmental benefits of investing time and money in improving home insulation. A recent survey and video underlined that as much as a third of the heat generated in homes is lost through the walls or the roof as a result of poor insulation.
This paragraph does need in-text citations, as it is based on evidence and research from other people - it clearly refers to a comparative study a survey and a video but does not give any information about what they are or how the reader would find them.
So, here's where we would have put the in-text citations:
A comparative study conducted by Bowman and Jenkins (2011), on properties built within the last twenty years and older houses, clearly illustrated the financial and environmental benefits of investing time and money in improving home insulation. A recent survey (Thermascan, 2012) and video (Norman, 2012) underlined that as much as a third of the heat generated in homes is lost through the walls or the roof as a result of poor insulation.
Only use quotes for selected phrases where you can’t think of an alternative, or where the author has expressed it in a particularly effective way.
You should not take lots of text and put it in assignment with quotation marks and reference it as that does not show you have understood the meaning and importance of the content.
There are 2 methods to help you with paraphrasing:
- Understand, Hide, Write, Check
- A systematic approach where you use synonyms; swap the order of the content; use opposites and find related words
There is a handout which goes through the 2 methods for paraphrasing in more detail here:
This short tutorial goes through the basics of how to paraphrase:
Video: Part 2
Quiz
Test your knowledge on referencing by taking this short quiz! You will get feedback on all of your answers.
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