Referencing and Citation

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What is referencing 

In academic writing such as research theses or project reports, the need to collect information from external sources may emerge. In such cases, the composers extract data, theories, ideas, illustrations, experimental results, research findings etc. in order to support their work. These information are accessed through well-recognized sources and it is required to properly acknowledge them by mentioning the references in the document itself. As there are internationally accepted standards for referencing, it is important to understand the correct procedure. This article provides guidance on how referencing should be done especially in research related academic matters.
Referencing can done by quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing or copying. Correctly indicating the references helps the authors to claim the originality of their work. It also proves that the authors have done investigations pertaining to the study and supports their arguments. The readers can also refer the sources.

Sources for referencing 

In the process of referencing, the very first step is finding proper sources to extract information. The credibility and reliability of these sources are paramount. Therefore, only generally accepted types of sources are used. The most common types of information sources are listed below with examples.
  1. Book: A reference book is intended to be a source of information on specific matters. Example - Design of Structural Steelwork: W.M.C. McKenzie
  2. Journal: A journal is an educational publication which contains articles written by researchers. They usually have a field of study (E.g.: Physics, Engineering) and are intended for an academic or technical audience, not general readers. Example - Journal of Structural Engineering - American Society of Civil Engineers
  3. Conference proceedings: Conference proceeding is a collection of research papers published in  an academic conference or workshop. Example - MERCon 2019
  4. Report: An official document prepared on a particular matter, by an appointed person or body. Example - Annual Reports - Central Bank of Sri Lanka
  5. Web site: An official website which contains credible information (avoid Wikipedia, social media) Example - Department of Census and Statistics
  6. Interview: A session or a conversation with a person of public interest. Example - Apple CEO Tim Cook: Exclusive interview CNN Business
  7. Patent: A licence providing the right or ownership for an invention. Example - C150 concrete for section steel-concrete combined structure
  8. Periodical: A magazine, newspaper or any other publication issued at regular intervals. Example - Time Magazine
  9. Miscellaneous (press conference, video etc.) Example - The Industrial Revolution - BBC Documentary
Journals, conference proceedings and other research articles can be accessed through the following websites. These are world recognized information hubs for researchers. Some of these websites require the user to have a paid subscription in order to view/download the full document. If the author of the research article can be contacted, obtaining the full document is possible through formal request.
Google scholar and ResearchGate facilitate maintaining a personal account where the user can upload his/her publications. This is considered as a good case practice for anyone who is engaged in higher education or working as a professional. See Stephen Hawking's Google scholar profile here. ResearchGate account of a PhD student can be viewed here. 

Referencing styles

Referencing mainly has two part,
  1. Citing the sources in the main body of the document where appropriate - Citations
  2. Listing out the sources at the end of the document - List of references 
Citing is referring to the source where the information was originally presented. Citations are included soon after mentioning the information extracted from the external source. This can be in the middle of a paragraph, figure caption or inside a table. Multiple citations are also possible if required. 
Citation is a short-form reference which doesn't provide adequate information about the source to the reader. Therefore, a list of all the sources referred to compose the document is given at the end of the document. This is named as the 'reference list'. Since there is a requirement to include necessary details about the sources, referencing is done as per internationally accepted standards which are known as 'referencing styles'. Various institutions have established such standard formats, example APA, IEEE, Harvard, MLA and Chicago. For better understanding, a sample is given below with the format for each style.
The journal article titled 'Why do young adults choose different transport modes? A focus group study' written by the authors Dorien Simons, Peter Clarys, Ilse De Bourdeaudhuij, Bas de Geus, Corneel Vandelanotte and Benedicte Deforche published in the journal 'Transport Policy' (from page 151 to 159) in 2014. Following shows how the above article is cited in the text and listed in the references section.
Note: “Et al.” is an abbreviation which means “and others.” It is commonly used when it is not necessary to name all the authors.
APA Style
Citation style: (Surname of author 1, Year of publication) or (Surname of author 1, et al., Year of publication)
Example: (Simons, et al., 2014)

 Reference style: Surname of author 1, initials of author 1., Surname of author 2, initials of author 2., & Surname of author 3, initials of author 3. (Year of publication). Article title. Title of the Journal, page numbers.
Example: Simons, D., Clarys, P., Bourdeaudhuij, I. D., Geus, B. d., Vandelanotte, C., & Deforche, B. (2014). Why do young adults choose different transport modes? A focus group study. Transport Policy, 151-159.

 Examples for IEEE and Harvard are shown below,
IEEE Style
Citation: [1]
Reference: [1] D. Simons, P. Clarys, I. D. Bourdeaudhuij, B. d. Geus, C. Vandelanotte and B. Deforche, "Why do young adults choose different transport modes? A focus group study," Transport Policy, pp. 151-159, 2014.

Harvard style
Citation: (Simons, et al., 2014)
Reference: Simons, D. et al., 2014. Why do young adults choose different transport modes? A focus group study. Transport Policy, pp. 151-159.

Citing a source in a sentence or a paragraph according to APA and IEEE styles are shown below respectively,
".....In a study conducted on transport mode choice of people, it has recommended that health benefits or ecological benefits should not be emphasized when promoting active transport in young adults (Simons, et al., 2014)....."
".....In a study conducted on transport mode choice of people, it has recommended that health benefits or ecological benefits should not be emphasized when promoting active transport in young adults [1]....."

Using Microsoft Word

Microsoft word is a word processor which is equipped with tools to assist the writer on referencing. A hassle free option to add and manage references is available under the 'Reference' tab as shown below (No. 1). Referencing style can be changed from the drop down menu (No. 2). 'Source Manager' dialog box will appear when 'Manage Sources' is selected (No. 3). In this dialog box, 'Master List' is shown. This list contains all the references that were added previously by the user. New references can be added if needed (No. 4) and old references can be imported from the Master List (No. 5).


If the user wants to include a citation to a sentence, the tool 'Insert Citation' can be used. It displays the current list out of which the intended reference can be selected. Citation automatically appears in the text with the proper format.


Once the document is composed, the user can add the list of reference using the 'Bibliography' option. All the references will appear as a list according to the order of citation. 

Referencing Tools

Similar to the tools in MS word, more convenient software applications with advance options have now been developed to aid the referencing process. Nowadays, people find information via internet based web browsing. These software applications can directly add a source according to the required style (APA, IEEE etc.) when the web link or the soft copy (PDF file) is given as an input. Following is a list of most widely referencing tools.
Leave a comment if you have any questions!!
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