Referencing

The purpose of referencing is to show where the information you use comes from. Given this purpose, the first principle is to provide enough information in your citations so that your reader can find that same piece of information themselves. The second principle is consistency in format and style.

The following sections provide information on specific referencing styles. Regardless of which style you use, keep in mind the two main principles.

Know your style

There are a number of different referencing systems or styles in use at ANU. Usually, your College, discipline, or school will indicate which they prefer in the course outline or on the College website. You may be required to use more than one style, particularly if you are enrolled in different Colleges. Students doing both Law and Psychology, for example, would have to use AGLC and APA in the respective disciplines.

In other cases, the lecturer may say that it’s up to you to choose. To help you decide, below is an outline of the referencing styles that different disciplines commonly use.

Field	Typical referencing styles
Humanities, Social Sciences, Business	Harvard
Visual Art, Art History, History, Music, International Relations, Politics	Chicago
Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science	Harvard or APA
Psychology, Linguistics, Social Sciences	APA
Law, Business Law	AGLC
Engineering and Computer Science	Harvard or IEEE
Medicine	Vancouver

How to reference

Be sure to use a good referencing style guide. Referencing style guides are like dictionaries—they give examples and rules. For some styles, such as AGLC, there is only one way to reference sources, so all AGLC style guides should have the same rules. For other styles, such as Harvard, the rules are not so well defined and may differ between guides. What is important is that you are consistent and always apply the same rules from a single guide in one piece of work.

The following pages give guidance on styles and refer you to detailed style guides.

Referencing software

Referencing takes a while to get used to, and it is easy to make small mistakes. There are many software tools that can make it easier. However, you have to be careful, as they do not always give accurate results, and are only as accurate as the information that you put into them.

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Microsoft Word referencing tool	Easy to use, available	Inflexible, have to install extra styles
EndNote	Free for ANU students, the library offers training and support	Takes time to set up, can be complicated for new users, does not have as many features as other free tools
Mendeley	Free, easy to use, integrates into MS Word, helps organise PDF documents	Takes time to set up, no training or support
Zotero	Free, easy to use, integrates into MS Word, Firefox and Chrome	Takes time to set up, no training or support, can be complicated for new users
Google citation tool	NOT RECOMMENDED	Styles are often inconsistent, with missing information and incorrect formatting
Online citation generators (Cite For Me, etc.)	NOT RECOMMENDED	Styles are often inconsistent, with missing information and incorrect formatting

Even if you choose to use a tool, you need to be familiar with your referencing style in order to spot mistakes. Being able to check a reference list manually is an important skill for all students and academics.