Referencing at Charles Darwin University

What is referencing?

Referencing is a standardised method of acknowledging the sources of information and ideas you have used in an assignment. At the end of your essay, you need to include a list of references or bibliography of materials used in writing the assignment. The most important aspects of using any style of referencing are consistency and accuracy.

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Why do I need to reference?

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What do I need to reference?

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Which style do I need to use?

There are various different forms of referencing; those used most frequently at Charles Darwin University are explained here. It is important that you find out from your lecturer which style you are required to use as it may vary from one school or one subject to another. There may also be variations within styles.

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Before referencing

Take down the full bibliographic details including the page numbers from which the information is taken. Remember to do this as you use each item - it can be very time consuming to follow up references later.

For a book this refers to:
author or editor, year of publication, title, edition, place of publication and publisher

For a journal article this refers to:
author of article, year of publication, title of article, journal title, volume number, issue number, page numbers for the article

For electronic information this refers to:
author or editor, year of publication, article title, journal title, the type of medium (eg CD-ROM, online)
pages or length, where available (eg website URL, name of database, email address), access date

(Some details may not be applicable).

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Citation Styles and Guides used at CDU

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Bibliography Generators

EndNote is the major bibliographic management software used at CDU. For more information go to the CDU EndNote webpage.

There are also a number of free automatic bibliography composers that you can use, below is a selection of available tools but there are many more available for the specific styles.

Citation Machine
Citation Machine is an interactive web tool designed to assist teachers in modelling the proper use of information property. Students are welcome to use this as well. You merely click the type of resource you wish to cite, complete the web form that appears with information from your resource, and click Make Citations to generate standard MLA and APA citations.

Easybib
Automatic MLA and APA formatting, alphabetising and printing software

KnighteCite Citation Creation Tool
Calvin College tool for MLA, APA and Chicago

Noodletools
Bibliographic composer for MLA and APA styles

OSLIS Citation Maker (use the link 'Click here to use Citation Maker')
MLA Citation Maker

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Glossary

Bibliography

See also Reference List

The bibliography contains sources cited in the essay, plus other sources that you consulted in your research but did not quote, or material for background or for further reading.

Citation

This means indicating the sources used in writing an assignment. Citations are given at the end of the assignment as a list of references or bibliography. You also need to insert information into the text of your essay to show when you have used information from other people - this is known as citing in the text, by means of numeric references and footnotes or endnotes, or by the author-date or Harvard system.

Plagiarism

The theft of another author's work. Penalties apply under the CDU Student Conduct By-Laws.
For more information go to the CDU Researching Skills site (particularly the link to Uni SA's guide).

Reference List

See also Bibliography

A reference list contains all the sources cited in the essay.

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