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A CIPeL learning object

Content Authors: Jo Dobson & Angela Davies

Referencing

More than just commas,,, and full stops...

Scenario

This young athlete has broken his leg.

We are going to look at how finding good quality information will help you treat this patient, but firstly we are going to consider how referencing fits into the cycle of research skills.

" I hurt my leg playing football last weekend. It was a league match and some of the tackles were pretty nasty. I didn't realise it was broken until I came to the hospital this morning.

The thing is I have an important trial in 3 months and I really want to try and get better for then. I've had my X-ray and I'm going into see the doctor in a minute. Hopefully I won't have to go into to plaster, I'll have to see what the doctor and physio can sort out for me."

Referencing an end product

A list of references is the end product of a whole process of identifying your question, finding the information, evaluating it, using it in your assignment and then producing a reference list at the end. The process can be shown as a cycle with each stage feeding into the next.

Therefore by the time you have produced a good list of academic references, you have also acquired a set of important life skills, to use during your academic studies, to take into your working practice, or to help you develop your own research questions.

•You have learnt how to understand a question or problem that has been set for you.

•You have looked for and evaluated information.

•Produced an accurate well chosen, high quality reference list.

In the work place this cycle may look something like this:

So what does a good set of references prove?

At a simple level referencing lets you acknowledge where you got your information from, and this in turn guards you against the possibility of plagiarism - that is, copying others peoples work without acknowledgement. Your reference list allows people to find the original copy of the information you used, not only for corroboration but also it may help them in research areas of their own.

The quality of the information you find indicates the standard of research skills you applied and your powers of evaluation. To write a good essay, you will need evidence to back up your arguments, and this evidence is then referenced at the end of the piece of work. For these arguments to be convincing the references you selected must be good and from a range of quality sources. Therefore your list of reference will indicated the breath of the subject area you have considered.

What will you find in a good reference list or bibliography?

A good reference list or bibliography needs to contain reliable, accurate and up to date resources, so you will need to evaluate the information you find. These resources may not always have gone through any sort of quality control. It is increasingly important given the rapid growth in information sources, that we take some time to evaluate the information we are looking at, before using it in the academic or workplace situation. With a literature search the problem is not so much a lack of information but evaluating the resources you have found. Here are some simple questions you can ask to evaluate the resource quality

Is it up to date?

Generally you need to ensure that you are aware of the recent developments in your topic area, by searching for up to date material, this current awareness is important in any subject. If you are looking for recent research you need to check the publication date. If it is a key text book in a subject you may also want to see if it is the latest edition or if there has been a later edition.

Is it reliable?

To check if something is reliable you will need to think about the author of the work. You can usually check an authors ‘standing’ by looking at their profile on the internet, seeing how many papers they have written or if an article has been used in other publications. Academic articles appear in journals, some of which are peer reviewed. This means their content is judged by a panel of experts, using specific criteria. The articles in these types of journals are particularly useful. If the information you are using is straight from the internet you need to check out the authority of the organisation or association it represents, if it is up to date and the information is unbiased.

Is it accurate and unbiased?

Unless you have carried out the research yourself, you need to find other indicators which help you decide if a piece of information is accurate or not. You need to see if the article is produced by a reliable author or organisation. Also you need to consider if the information is too extreme, is there any obvious reason for bias, such as a link to a specific organisation or cause.

Does is fulfil my information needs?

When you look at your initial assignment or case study you need to consider what type of information you need. Are you going to need statistics, research results, or might you need information from the media or government. This process of evaluation is a way of critically analysing your information. To help you find the quality resources you need, there are a number of reliable and valued resources, such as subject gateways and databases of journal articles.

Breaking down references

Once you have found a reference, or you have been given a reference to find, it is not always easy to work out what the long line of titles, surnames and dates really means. In order to understand your reference there is some specific information you should look for such as journal title or book title. In fact a good starting point is to decide if you are looking at a journal (academic magazine) or a book reference. These are the two main types of material you will be dealing with most of the time, so form a good starting point. Academic Journals are produced on a regular basis and as well as a year of publication they will also have a volume number and some times an issue number, depending on how many copies are produced a year.

BLEAKY, A. et al. (2006). Improving teamwork climate in operating theatres: the shift from multiprofessionalism to interprofessionalism. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 20 (5), 461-70.

For example you can identify this reference as a journal article because it has a volume number, issue number and page numbers.

If the volume and issue numbers are missing, but you still have an author, year of publication and title you are probably looking at a book reference. Book references contain place of publication and publisher information too.

Example:

Purito, Ruth and Haddad, Amy (2002). Health professional and patient interaction. 6th ed., London, Saunders.

Another type of reference you might come across is when the information you want is a chapter contained within a book. The biggest clue will be if there are two sets of authors. At the beginning you have the person who wrote the chapter and then another author in the middle - this is the person who wrote the book it is in. For example;

WILLIAMS, Eric and SASAKI, Yukihiro (2003). Strategizing the end-of-life handling of personal computers: resell, upgrade, recycle. In: KUEHR, Ruediger and WILLIAMS, Eric, (eds.) Computers and the environment: understanding and managing their impacts. London, Kluwer, 183-196.

The order this information is written is the standard style of referencing called SHU Harvard.

These three examples we have considered are probably the most common references you will use, but as you get to see other material you can help identify this by referring to the LITS Reference Guide, which outlines the LITS recommended practice for referencing and bibliographies, according to the Harvard method and provides a wide range of examples.

It is important you can distinguish between the different types of reference material, not only so you can physically find it, but also know how to reference it correctly.

Citations and reference lists

The key to a good reference list is consistency and accuracy, and to help with this there are defined styles of referencing; the one covered here is called the SHU Harvard System.

For each piece of information you use in preparing an assignment, you will need to make a note of the following details.

Who wrote it
When they wrote it
The title of the book, or in the case of a journal, the title of the journal article and the name of the journal in which it appeared.
Who published it
Page numbers

It is a really good idea to make a note of this information as you go along, as a reference is often more difficult to find the second time round. You could either keep a hand written note of the articles used, or there are number of electronic options you might like to discuss with your library adviser.

There are two areas within your assignment where the information is referred to, within the text and then at the end in your reference list or bibliography.

Whenever you refer to someone else’s work or ideas within the body of the assignment, this is called a citation; as you are citing someone else’s work. The aim of the citation is to provide enough information for the person reading your assignment to find the full reference in your bibliography, which gives the full resource details.

Your bibliography should list all the works you have used in preparing your assignment, including background reading, and even works not directly referred to in your text. Strictly speaking a list including only items actually cited in your work is called a Reference List. Rather confusingly many people use the terms reference list and bibliography interchangeably. If you have any doubt what is required, ask your tutor.

Here is an example of a resource you have used both cited within the body of the text, and in the bibliography.

Citation Example

If you rephrase someone else's ideas in your own words you should give a citation that includes the authors name and the date of publication brackets, but remember

It is important to realise the diversity of the role of the community mental nurse (Sines, Appleby and Frost 2005).

If you give a direct quotation you should include the page numbers as well as the publication date.

As Sines, Appleby and Frost (2005, p.212) state 'the ways in which mental health services are commissioned need further development.'

Reference/Bibliography Example

SINES, David, APPLEBY, Frances and FROST, Marion (2005). Community health care nursing. Oxford, Blackwell.

Finally, In addition to the consistency consideration there are three simple rules to make sure the bibliography is right.

The bibliography should appear at the end of your assignment.
Items in your bibliography should be arranged in one alphabetical sequence by name of author
If there is no author, the item should be listed by title.

Referencing online resources can be particularly complicated, but the LITS online reference guide, will help you with any referencing problems.

This learning object has shown you how referencing is important in both the academic and work environments.

It has looked beyond the practical skills of writing a reference list to consider finding and evaluating resources.

It has then addressed the styles of referencing such as Harvard, and although referencing is lot more than commas and full stops, they shouldn’t be forgotten.

The Research and referencing skills of his medical team have helped our athlete towards his goal. This learning object is the first half towards perfecting referencing, the second half is now up to you to practice and refine these skills.

Conclusion

This learning object has shown you how referencing is important in both the academic and work environments.

It has looked beyond the practical skills of writing a reference list to consider finding and evaluating resources.

It has then addressed the styles of referencing such as Harvard, and although referencing is lot more than commas and full stops, they shouldn’t be forgotten.

End Scenario

"I was lucky I didn't need a plaster; only crutches and a gradual build up of exercise. I suppose things have moved on from when you needed plasters for everything.... All I need to do now is pass the trial!"

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