What is referencing and why must I do it?

Referencing is a key academic practice for university students, whereby you acknowledge your
sources. It is also referred to as a citation. This gives authors credit for their contribution to your
understanding, whilst also giving those who read your work the opportunity to reproduce your
research by studying the same texts you have used. You can lose marks for incorrect citations, and
you may be accused of plagiarism or academic misconduct.

When to reference?
You should cite the work of those individuals whose ideas theories or research have directly
influenced your work, for example whenever you:
• paraphrase another person’s ideas;

• quote directly;
• refer to data or data sets;
• adapt or reprint a table;

• use images or graphics you did not create yourself;

• reprint long passages of text.

You should only ever cite items that you have read or used as part of your assignment. Do not
reference anything which is common knowledge, or that you have not read yourself. Wherever
possible, you should cite primary sources directly. *

It is important to cite the right amount. Too many citations make it difficult to read a text, whereas
too few can be plagiarism. You should always cite if it is not clear where the idea came from. If neither
the source you are using, nor the topic has changed within a paragraph, then do not cite again, but
use language to show clearly where ideas are not your own.

When NOT to reference?

• Confidential information: Do not reveal a person or school with whom you worked in confidence.
Use general terms in your text like “a secondary school in Reading”, “Person A” or “Julia”.

• General mentions of whole websites, whole journals, and common software do not need to be cited
or added to the reference list.

• Source of epigraphs – Where a quotation sets the stage for a work but is not part of the work.
• References included in a meta-analysis – may be asterisked in the reference list and cited in-text
(or not) at the author’s discretion.

• Personal communications are only cited in the text as R. Redrup, personal communication, May 5,
2022 or R. Redrup (personal communication, May 5, 2022). They are not listed in reference lists.
In-text citations

APA uses the author/date citation system, where a short in-text citation, consisting of the author’s
surname and the date, directs readers to the full reference in the reference list at the end of the work.
These citations can be either parenthetical (in parentheses) or narrative (incorporated into the text).
For example:

• Jones (2008) found that adolescent learners experience difficulties at key transition points.

• Adolescent learners can experience difficulties at key transition points (Jones, 2008).
• In 2008, Jones’s study of adolescent learners...

Citing several resources

• Put all of your citations in one set of brackets at the end of the sentence.
Make sure to put them in alphabetical order and separated by semi-colons:
(Dufour et al., 2021; Gronn & Nawah, 2014; Harris, 2004).

• In your narrative put the date in brackets after the name. Remember to use ‘and’ in your text, but
reserve ‘&’ for two authors within brackets:
Similarly, Dufour et al. (2021), Gronn and Nawah (2014), and Harris (2004) …

Direct quotes

Include shorter quotes (up to 40 words) in double speech marks in your text:

Jones found that “several adolescents were eager to move from a school” (pp. 17-18).
Insert longer quotes (over 40 words) as block quotations without quotation marks:

Jones (2008) found that,

several adolescents were eager to move from a school to an apprenticeship setting but had
great difficulty in sticking with the monotony of daily tasks as well as learning new skills. This
was so surprising we had to kick ourselves repeatedly, which is what the young people were
doing to each other (pp. 17-18).

Indicating the exact place

You should indicate where your quote comes in the work with the page number(s). Use ‘p.’ for a single
page or ‘pp.’ for multiple pages.
If there are no page numbers, instead use section headings or paragraph numbers (count them
yourself if not numbered). Long headings can be abbreviated to the first few words but must be
surrounded by double speech marks.
Examples:

• Jones found that “several adolescents were eager to move from a school” (pp. 17-18).
• “Vygotsky's theories stress the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of
cognition” (McLeod, 2022, para. 3).
• “According to the sociocultural perspective, our psychological growth is guided, in part, by people
in our lives who are in mentor-type roles, such as teachers and parents.” (Cherry, 2022, What is
Sociocultural theory? section).

• Singh explained a new theory (2021, “If we were to” section, para.3)

Indicating adapted quotations

Where you adapt quotes to suit your own context, mark this with these conventions:

• Put [square brackets] around words you changed, or where you added explanation. [sic] means ‘it
really did say this, even if it looks wrong’.

• Use an ellipsis (Word’s version … or . . . ) to indicate words omitted from one sentence, four dots to
show a sentence break is omitted too (. … or. . . . ).
For example: One study found that “teenagers [experienced] learning disruption and boardroom [sic]
when transitioning from . . . school to apprenticeship settings” (Jones, 2008, p. 17).

How many authors to include?

One author
● One author: Jones (2008) found that adolescent learners experienced difficulties at key transition
points.

Two authors
Use “&” between names in parentheses (brackets), but “and” in narrative text. Put the names in the
same order that they are listed in on the original source.
● Parentheses: Milestones of pre-language development are the same in all languages (Anderson &
Johnson, 2012).
● Narrative: In 2012, Anderson and Johnson’s study of bilingual children found…

Three or more authors When citing an item with three or more authors include the surname of the
first author only, plus “et al.” in every citation, unless this would create ambiguity.
• Addams et al. (2019) found that interaction is vital for children’s mental health.

• Interaction is vital for children’s mental health (Addams et al., 2019).

• In 2019, Addams et al.’s study of children found that …

Group authors and abbreviations

Cite group authors (organisations, government departments and so on). If you wish, you may use an
accepted, abbreviated form of their name.

Group author, no abbreviation: all citations (Stanford University, 2020)

Group author with abbreviation: first time cited (National Institute of Mental Health [NIMH], 2020)

Group author with abbreviation: subsequent citations (NIMH, 2020)

Same author / same year

When several works have the same author(s) and publication year, include a lowercase letter after
the year, which refers to the order they occur in your reference list:

• (Department for Education, 2013a)

• (Department for Education, 2013b)

Different authors / same surname

Where authors have the same surname, but different initials, include the initials in all intext citations,
even if the year of publication differs. This helps the reader to find publications in the reference list.

• (J. M. Taylor & Neimeyer, 2015; T. Taylor, 2014)

References
Include a reference list at the end of your assignment in alphabetical order by the first word of the
entry (usually an author’s surname). It should contain all the items you have cited in your work. Do
not include items you have read but have not cited. Only include information a reader can find for
themselves, so do not include:
• materials your audience cannot access. For instance, you may list something within your UoR
Blackboard module in a UoR assignment (see PowerPoint slides example), but you would not do so
in a published article.

• personal communications (emails, text messages, phone calls). These are just cited in text as R.
Redrup, personal communication, May 5, 2022 or R. Redrup (personal communication, May 5, 2022).

General rules for reference lists

• Pay attention to punctuation and capitalization.
• As a minimum, a reference will include the author, date, title, and source, in that order, with a full
stop between each item.

• Avoid repetition: If the author and the publisher are the same, omit the publisher from the
reference.

• Author names are usually inverted at the beginning of a reference (Surname, followed by a comma,
then the initials).

• The source of publication will be in italics. This is usually either the name of the book, the periodical,
or the report.

• Include the DOI if available. If a DOI is not available, include the URL instead.
Publication dates
A book’s publication date should be on the back of a title page. Use the year it was ‘published’ or a
new edition or revised text produced. Discount ‘reprints’ of the same text.

Previously published or translated books need both the original and translation dates. Whilst we cite
only writers in text (Piaget & Inhelder, 1966/1969), the translator is also mentioned in the reference
list (see ‘Book translated at a later date’, p.8 and ‘Previously published book chapter, p.9).

Missing reference information

This is how to adapt a reference when the source does not give certain information. However, note
that resources where some information is missing are more likely to be inappropriate as sources for
your assignment. If several elements for your reference are missing, check whether there are more
appropriate resources you could use.
No date
Use the letters n.d. for ‘no date’

• Capra, F. & Luisi, P.L. (n.d.). The systems view of life: A unifying vision. Cambridge University
Press..https://www.capracourse.net/wpcontent/uploads/2015/12/Introduction.pdf

No author
Put the title first, before the date. (In the reference list, file it alphabetically with authors.)

• Autumn leaves. (2022). University of Reading. https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/123456789 No title

After author and date, describe the source in square brackets.

• Dormer, C. (2022). [Guidance on referencing in APA 7th]. University of Reading.

www.reading.ac.uk/library/example