There are a number of referencing styles used within Ulster University. However, several Faculties and Schools have agreed a joint style using the Harvard system of referencing. It is sometimes called 'Ulster-Harvard'. This joint style is used by the Ulster University Business School, much of the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences, the School of Computing, Engineering & Intelligent Systems and the Belfast School of Architecture and Built Environment.
The Faculty of Life & Health Sciences have their own version of Harvard, which is slightly different. Please see the LHS Harvard Referencing guide for more information.
When writing up a piece of work you will need to cite (quote) the bibliographic references of all the documents which you have used or referred to. It is very important to be consistent and accurate when citing references because the references may need to be traced at some later date by someone else who reads your work. Therefore, the same rules should be followed every time you cite a reference.
A widely used citation style is the Harvard Reference System. However please refer to you course handbook for specific guidance on which referencing style your tutors require you to follow.
 Source: File:"Citation needed".jpg - Wikimedia Commons |
See the tabs above more more information and guidance. |
When you complete your dissertation or paper you must cite all the sources you used, accurately and consistently. Sometimes these sources (or references) may be footnotes within the text, or a list of references at the end of the work. In the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & the Social Sciences, there are a variety of referencing schemes used, e.g. Harvard, an 'author, date' style using references at the end of the piece of work, and MLA, MHRA and Chicago which use a footnotes system.
Always consult your lecturer or department on which citation style is preferred, particularly if you are studying in more than one faculty (details should be available in your module handbook), and use the same method throughout.
Harvard is an Author-Date system of referencing, with short in-text citations in the body of the piece of work and a full citation to the source in the list of references at the end of the document. The Ulster University Business School (UUBS), the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment (CEBE), and the majority of Schools within the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) use a variation of the Harvard style (called Ulster-Harvard) as their referencing Style. Not all AHSS subjects use an author-date referencing style, so please ask your lecturer in advance.
Full help and support for this style is given on the Harvard Referencing Guide (not including LHS), including self-led tutorials and quizzes from Cardiff University with links to the full guide to Referencing in the Harvard - Ulster Style.
MLA The Modern Language Association of America has a website on MLA style
MHRA The University of Leeds, Referencing web page is a helpful guide and has details of MHRA or visit the MHRA website, or visit this Cardiff University site for an MHRA tutorial.
"The Chicago Manual of Style Online is the venerable, time-tested guide to style, usage, and grammar in an accessible online format"
University of Western Australia has a guide to citing in the Oxford style, which you may find useful.
Please note that there is a separate and detailed Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) guide for law.
Using Sources Effectively
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Doing Honest Work in College, Third Edition
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Training workshops on Harvard Referencing are held regularly during semester. Why not sign up to the next available class and come along?
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RefWorks is a web-based bibliographic management service which allows you to collect, organise and store references from a variety of sources, such as books, journal articles and websites. |
| It can then help you to quickly produce bibliographies, reference lists and in-text citations in a range of referencing styles, e.g. Harvard, Vancouver, MLA., etc. (See Ulster University guide to using Refworks). | |
The following bibliographic managers are freely available on the internet.
Zotero:
This is a free plug in for Firefox. If you are already using Zotero you might find the following guides useful.
Mendeley:
Mendeley is a desktop and web-based citation management tool. With it you can organize research materials, annotate PDFs, and create citations. You can also network with others researching in your discipline who are using Mendeley. Read more about it from Wikipedia.
