Academic Referencing
By referencing sources, the writer shows what previous theories, methods and results he is aware of and how his own results interplay with those interpretations. The list of references and the reference itself provide the reader with sufficient information to recognize and find the publication that is mentioned in the text. This is how e.g., a thesis reviewer can confirm whether the presented information is correct. In addition, references serve to acknowledge those who deserve the acknowledgement.
References and quotations
Sources used should be cited in a way that makes references and quotations clearly identifiable and easy to find later. Sources can be used in two ways:
- Reference: Indirect quote of the author’s words using your own
- Quotation: Replication of the author’s words; enclosed within quotation marks
If sources are not cited or if material created by another person is presented as if it were your own, that is committing plagiarism. Plagiarism is prohibited, even if it is unintentional.
Citing is done in two parts
Citing sources consists of two phases:
- In-text citation: A brief reference to a source within the text
- Bibliography: A list at the end of the article with the exact information of all sources used
The information in the in-text citation and the bibliography must match so that the source mentioned in the text can be easily found in the reference list. References allow the reader to find the sources themselves if they wish.
Citation styles
There are numerous ways to cite and list sources, which vary from discipline to discipline. The author should ensure that their citation style follows the conventions of the discipline, community, or publication for which the paper is intended. Whatever style you choose, the most important thing is to use it consistently.
Check the citing instructions given by your subject in Kamu’s study communities. They contain more detailed instructions for marking source references and compiling a bibliography:
Study communities (UEF // Kamu)
Citation styles usually fall into one of these categories:
- Author-Date systems (e.g. Harvard and APA), in which the in-text citation lists the author and year of publication, and the reference list is alphabetically arranged by author.
- Author-Date-Page systems (e.g. MLA), in which the citation lists the author and year of publication, as well as the page number.
- Numbering systems (e.g. Vancouver), in which sources are numbered in order of reference, the citation lists this number, and the reference list is given in numerical order.
- Footnote-Endnote systems (e.g. Chicago A), in which sources are numbered and their information is given in full at the end of the same page instead of in the reference list.
In the citation styles based on these systems, there are some differences, for example, in whether the authors’ names are abbreviated or written out in full, whether part of the reference is formatted in bold or italics or not, and whether the journal name is abbreviated or used in full. There are also differences between languages: for example, when there are several authors, in Finnish it is written ym. and in English et al.
Be precise when using references
It is worth being careful with references from the very beginning. Record the reference information, i.e. bibliographic information (author, year of publication, title, etc.) as accurately as possible. Plan in advance how you will keep a record of the sources you have found, read and used. For example, you can use an spreadsheet to sort references in different ways.
It is also worth writing down the search phrase you used to find your references. This is especially important when conducting a systematic literature review.
A reference management program can significantly speed up and facilitate the handling of references. If you do not want to use a reference management program, it is worth at least utilizing the Cite function of databases. The Cite function allows you to create a text reference from a selected article or work, which you can copy and paste into your document in text format.
