Credit sources with precision. Master the art of academic referencing and citation.
Academic Foundation
Referencing is far more than a formatting exercise, it's one of the most fundamental academic skills you'll develop, sitting at the heart of what it means to think, write, and work like a scholar in any discipline.
When starting your undergraduate journey, referencing might feel like one of those mysterious academic rituals that seems designed to make life complicated. Why do you need to follow such precise rules about where to put commas, brackets, and italics? Can't you just mention where you got your information from and move on?
As you progress through your studies, you'll come to understand that referencing is actually one of the most fundamental academic skills you'll develop. This guide takes you through the essential aspects of referencing and citation as a core academic skill, helping you understand the different systems you might encounter, master Harvard Cite Them Right referencing (the primary system used at Cardiff Met although be aware some diciplines / subjects may use alternatives), and discover why accurate citation is crucial for your academic integrity, critical thinking development, and future professional practice.
One of the first things that might confuse you about referencing is discovering that there isn't just one "correct" way to do it. Instead, different academic disciplines, institutions, and publishers have developed their own conventions over time.
An author-date system widely used across social sciences, business, humanities, and many other fields. At Cardiff Met, we primarily use the Harvard Cite them Right version.
OSCOLA: Oxford standard for legal authorities, using footnotes with specific formatting for cases and statutes. Used at Cardiff Met in Law courses
Chicago/Turabian: Offers notes-and-bibliography or author-date systems. Often used in history and humanities.
APA (American Psychological Association): Similar to Harvard but with specific formatting differences. Prevalent in psychology, education, and social sciences.
MLA (Modern Language Association): Common in literature, languages, and arts. Uses author and page number citations with "Works Cited" list.
While you should be aware of these different styles, at Cardiff Met most of you will be working primarily with Harvard Cite them Right. For specific formatting examples of all these styles, consult Cite Them Right Online, which provides up-to-date, comprehensive examples for every conceivable source type.
An in-text citation is a brief reference that appears within the body of your text whenever you use information, ideas, or words from another source. Think of it as a signpost that tells your reader: "This information comes from somewhere else, not from me."
In Harvard style, a typical in-text citation looks like this: (Smith, 2023). If you mention the author's name in your sentence: "Smith (2023) argues that..." For direct quotations, add a page number: (Smith, 2023, p.45).
Your reference list appears at the end of your assignment and provides complete publication details for every source you've cited. Each in-text citation must have a corresponding entry in your reference list, and vice versa.
Consistent formatting allows readers to locate and verify your sources. They know exactly where to find author, title, date, publisher, and page numbers in every entry.
Following consistent referencing style shows you understand and respect academic conventions, demonstrating attention to detail required in higher education.
Avoid unintentional plagiarism by providing comprehensive, correctly formatted references provide clear evidence that you've acknowledged your sources properly and understand attribution requirements.
Book:
Smith, J. (2023) Understanding research methods. 4th edn. Sage Publications.
Journal Article:
Johnson, P. and Lee, K. (2024) 'The impact of feedback on student learning', Journal of Higher Education, 45(2), pp. 123-145.
Notice the differences: book titles are italicised, article titles use single quotation marks, and journal entries include volume, issue, and page numbers. These conventions signal to readers what type of source you're citing.
Essential Resource
Cardiff Met students have access to an invaluable resource: Cite Them Right Online. This comprehensive learning tool will become your best friend throughout your undergraduate years.
Cite Them Right is both a widely-used referencing guide and an online platform. The online version provides Cardiff Met students with instant access to hundreds of reference examples, covering virtually any source type you might encounter. Cite Them Right website styles currently reflect the latest guidance from the 13th edition of the book (Pears and Shields, 2025).
Access: Through the Cardiff Met library website using your institutional login. The platform is updated regularly to reflect changes in referencing conventions.
Recommendation: Bookmark Cite Them Right Online and check it whenever you're unsure about citing something. Don't guess, verify the correct format. This habit will save you time and significantly improve your citation quality.
Academic Integrity
At its core, referencing is about academic integrity, being honest, fair, and ethical in your scholarly work. It's your shield against plagiarism accusations and foundation for professional accountability.
Let's talk about why all of this matters at a deeper level than just following rules. At its core, referencing is about academic integrity, being honest, fair, and ethical in your scholarly work.
Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work, ideas, or words as if they were your own. This includes:
It's crucial to understand that plagiarism isn't always intentional. Many cases happen because students don't fully understand referencing conventions, rush their work, or don't realise that ideas (not just direct quotes) need to be cited.
Proper referencing is your shield against plagiarism accusations. When you cite sources correctly, you clearly demonstrate:
The act of referencing properly actually makes you a better critical reader and thinker. When you're required to cite sources accurately, you must:
This process naturally leads you to evaluate source credibility. When looking for publication details, you'll notice whether an article is from a reputable peer-reviewed journal or a questionable source. When recording an author's credentials, you'll discover whether they're an expert in the field.
The principles underlying academic referencing extend far beyond university assignments:
Understanding and practicing proper citation during your undergraduate years develops habits of intellectual honesty and professional accountability that will serve you throughout your career.
Critical Thinking
Simply citing sources correctly is necessary but not sufficient for high-quality academic work. You need to engage critically with those sources, and your citation practices should reflect this critical engagement.
This section addresses something crucial that distinguishes adequate referencing from excellent academic practice. You're not just a reporter of what others have said, you're developing your own academic voice.
Descriptive approach: "Student engagement correlates strongly with academic success" (Thomas, 2023, p.45) simply tells your reader what Thomas said.
Critical integration: "While Thomas (2023) identifies a correlation between student engagement and academic success, this finding must be considered alongside Smith's (2022) critique of how 'engagement' is measured in such studies. Thomas's quantitative approach, focusing primarily on attendance metrics, may miss the more subtle forms of cognitive engagement that Smith argues are more predictive of deep learning."
Strong academic writing demonstrates that you've read widely and can position different sources in relation to each other:
Your tutors assess your referencing not just on technical accuracy but also on how effectively you use sources. Strong work typically demonstrates:
Common knowledge refers to information that is widely accepted, easily verifiable, and would appear in multiple general sources without attribution. This includes basic facts, dates, and concepts that educated readers in your field would know without needing to consult specific sources.
However, determining what constitutes common knowledge is highly context-dependent and varies by:
Practical guidance: If you learned something from a specific source, needed to look it up, or if the information includes precise data, statistics, or interpretations, cite it. When in doubt, cite it—it's always better to over-cite than risk plagiarism. Your tutors would rather see comprehensive referencing than missing citations for debatable "common knowledge."
For longer assignments or your dissertation, you might work with dozens or hundreds of sources. Reference management software becomes essential:
These tools allow you to collect sources as you research, automatically generate citations and reference lists, and switch between referencing styles if needed. Learn to use one early in your degree.
Establish a shared referencing system from the start:
For lectures, personal emails, interviews you've conducted, or internal documents, check Cite Them Right Online for guidance. For truly unique sources, provide enough information for readers to understand the source's authority and context.
Don't leave referencing until the end! Insert in-text citations immediately as you write and maintain a running reference list. Otherwise, you'll spend hours trying to remember where that perfect quote came from. This is another great reason for learnign to use reference management software as it streamlines the process of inserting in-text citations when writing.
This section provides a comprehensive list of all key terms used throughout this referencing guide. Hover over any term to see its definition.
in-text citation reference list Harvard referencing plagiarism academic integrity paraphrasing common knowledge reference management software synthesis critical engagement Cite Them Right Online citation density
Key sources cited and used in developing this guide:
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2025) Cite Them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide. 13th ed. Bloomsbury Academic.