Frequently Asked Referencing Questions

To complement the #5dayofreferencing we are also going to blog the most frequently asked questions from the School of Management concerning referencing. We have broken these up into five separate themes.

Today: What is it?

Tuesday: Social Media

Wednesday: Law Resources

Thursday: Specific Business Resources

Friday: Layout

Today we are going to be looking at frequently asked questions relating to the format of the document.

Often when searching the Internet for information for your assignment the hardest part, when it comes to referencing,  is identifying the content within the page that has been found.  ie. is it a journal article, e-book, blog post as it is the content that determines the layout of the reference.

Such content can include, but is not limited, to:

YouTube video	TV shows	Press releases
Interviews	Movies	Reviews
Maps	Blog Posts	TED Talks
Tweets	Facebook	Wikipedia entries
Lecture Notes	Webpages	Artwork
Newspaper Articles	Magazine Articles	Reports

What is important to remember that a lot of this nebulous content is not academic and should be used sparingly (or not at all) within your academic writing. As such, it is not included in our Referencing According to the APA 6^th Style guide. However as it is sometimes necessary to include this type of information, below is some guidance as to how to cite appropriately.

Essentially four pieces of information are required to cite:

Who – the author (personal or corporate) or creator

When – When was the document was published

What – The title

Where – information to find the information. This can include web address, publisher, place of publication etc.

Armed with this information you should then be able to create your reference using the following format:

How do I reference a Google Book?

To be honest the conventions for referencing a book from Google Books is the same as a standard eBook.

Again, referencing a chapter of an edited e-book follows the same convention as any other eBook:

What is important to note is often when using resources such as Google Scholar and Google Books the landing page is part of a larger document, and not all the information required can be located on the webpage. If the information is not visible in the document, but can be found elsewhere, add the Information in square brackets.

The following information is missing. What do I do?

Information found when doing a general search often has more missing details than academic sources. There are ways of dealing with missing information. However please note that the credibility of references can be diminished if information is not available.

If no page number is visible use a short title enclosed in double quotation marks along with para. no

If no date use (n.d.)

If no place of publication known use (n.p.)

If no publisher know use (n.p.)

Use question marks to indicate uncertainy regarding names and dates.

Use ca. to indicate estimated dates.

If the information is not visible in the document, but found elsewhere, add the Information in square brackets.

 Should I keep my Hyperlinks in the document?

APA state that Hyperlinks are ‘permissible’ in APA referencing. Guidance given is that as there is no rule governing the use of hyperlinks consideration to the audience and delivery should be taken into account.

Retrieved from… When do I use it?

You only need to include the date the information was retrieved if the website is likely to change frequently. If the information is “published” with a static date no date of retrieval is required.

Tomorrow we will be looking at Social Media in your work.

For further information please contact the School of Management library team:

Business Library Team: buslib@swansea.ac.uk
The Bay Library
Swansea University
T +44 (0)1792 505500
Find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SwanseaUniLib

5 Days of APA Referencing: Day 5. Useful tools

There are a wide variety of tools which are freely available to help you with citing and creating reference lists, however none of them are perfect which is why it is important you know the basics of APA referencing and the key points to be aware of.

iFind, the library catalogue has a tool which recommends how books and journal articles should look in the APA style of referencing. (We looked at this briefly on Days 1 and 2.) Click on Library, then Actions then Citation to view this. You can view a short screencast of this online.

Always check this! The tool is good but it will make some mistakes therefore you need to know which bits of information are required.

Some databases also have a tool that formats a reference for you. We have produced short screencasts of how to do this in Business Source Complete and in Proquest Business Collection. You must remember to check that the information is correct, though!

Referencing using word (Manage sources)
Word has a referencing tab on the tools bar which can be useful if you use the same laptop or computer to write assignments.  It will manage your sources and input in the correct APA style. We have produced a short guide to help you.  Take a look at the help pages available on the Microsoft Office site for more details on using this tool.

Endnote Online
Endnote is the tool Swansea University subscribes to, there is a desktop version for PCs on campus but the online version is very useful as you can use it anywhere that you have access to the internet. You can create your own library of sources and use the Cite While You Write feature in Word which will format your references in the APA style.

The library has produced an online guide to the web version of EndNote. We can provide further training if you would like to use it.

Thanks for participating in 5 days of APA Referencing (#su5dor). You now know how to reference the main sources of information you will be using in your studies. You may still have some questions, though, so we’ll be covering our most common APA queries next week. Keep following the blog to find out what to do when key pieces of information  (author, date, etc.) are missing from your reference, how to reference social media content, how to reference law and business resources and more.

Remember that referencing help and advice is always available from your School of Management librarians. You can book a one-one appointment (also available via skype), email us, or call in the Library to speak with one of us. 

Good luck with your assignments!

5 Days of APA Referencing: Day 4. Formatting your reference list

Over the last 3 days we have looked at the 3 main information sources you will be using in your assignment, academic books, journal articles and online documents/websites.  It is important that your reference list provides all the information in order for your lecturers to be able to find the source if they wanted.

It is also important that it is formatted in the correct APA style.  This is sometimes where students struggle and spend a long time manually formatting their lists; however there are a number of tools in word that can make this process quicker and easier for you.

Key points

• The reference list should start on a new page.
• Your reference list should include everything you have cited in your assignment NOTeverything you have read (which is called a bibliography).
• It should be alphabetical according to author’s surname.
• It should be double-spaced and indented.

If we use all the resources we have looked at over the last 3 days my reference list would look like this:

5 Days of Referencing: Day 3. Websites and online documents

Remember what we said on day 1? The key to referencing well in an assignment is firstly to use good reliable sources.  Make sure you evaluate anything you find online using the WWWW method:

Who – Who wrote the information?
Why – Why is this information there (Is there a bias?)
When – When was it published (is it current enough?)
Where – Where is it from (clues in the URL ie: .com, .ac.uk)

The main sections you need to make a note of in order to reference a website or online document correctly are:

• Author(s) (personal or corporate)
• Year of publication
• Title of website/document
• Date of retrieval (only needed if the source is likely to be updated)
• Direct working URL

Very often some bits of information will not be available with online documents; a common one is no date – in this case you can do the following:

• No date? – use (n.d.) instead

You can find further advice on pages 19 – 21 of our APA referencing guide.

In the reference list
Here are a few examples:

Websites
You only need to include a date of retrieval in the reference list if you think a website maybe updated (it’s difficult to know this sometimes).

Tesco PLC. (n.d.). Our businesses. Retrieved March 10, 2017,           from https://www.tescoplc.com/about-us/our-businesses/.

Online publication
This reference links to the PDF version of the code which has a published date, therefore it does not need a date of retrieval.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. (2016). Annual       report and accounts 2015-16. Retrieved           from https://www.cipd.co.uk/Images/annual-report-2015- 16_tcm18-16632.pdf

 In text citation
A good tip if you are going to use the same citation a few times in your assignment is to use acronyms.  You must explain the acronym in full the first time you use it, followed by the acronym so it is clear to your lecturer what is stands for.

First citation:
According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, 2016, p.18) a “healthy, happy and engaged workforce is an important indicator of our success”.

Or

According to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, 2016) a “healthy, happy and engaged workforce is an important indicator of our success” (p.18).

Or

A “healthy, happy and engaged workforce is an important indicator of our success” (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), 2016, p.18).

Second citation
Because you explained the acronym in the first citation you can now just use the acronym on any subsequent citations in text.

Engagement in ongoing training and development is “the key to a successful career” (CIPD, 2016, p.18).

Or

The CIPD (2016) state that employees should engage in ongoing training and development as it is “the key to a successful career” (p.18).

 

Questions?

If you have any questions so far let us know using the comments section in the blog or via twitter using #su5dor. You can also email buslib@swansea.ac.uk.

 

Tomorrow we’ll look at formatting your reference list.

5 Days of APA Referencing: Day 2. Journal articles

Journal articles are an excellent source of up-to-date and reliable information. The best students use journal articles as well as books in their research.

Do you remember which information you needed to reference a book? There are a few more bits of information in a journal article which you need to make a note of in order to reference it correctly. The main sections you need to make a note of are:

• Author(s)
• Year of publication
• Title of article
• Journal name
• Volume
• Issue number (only use if there is no continuous pagination, i.e.: if each issue begins with page 1)
• Page number
• doi (if available)

If you have the journal article in front of you, you can normally find this information on the first page.  Alternatively search for the article on iFind, the library catalogue (using the ‘Articles & more’ tab) and you will be able to see the bibliographic information you need in order to reference correctly. You can also use the Citation option in the Actions menu to see the APA reference. Remember to check the details are correct, though!

This is how this journal article should look in the reference list
Cohen, J., Manzon, G., & Zamora, B. (2015). Contextual and individual dimensions of taxpayer decision making. Journal of Business Ethics, 126(4), 631-647.

In text citation
Sometimes you may want to cite a direct quote in your assignment, however try to use direct quotes sparingly as paraphrasing shows a better understanding of your topic.

If you decide you would like to include a direct quote it is very important you use quotation marks and you always include page numbers.  There are a number of ways you can do this:

At the start of the sentence:
According to Cohen, Manzon and Zamora (2015, p. 632) “There are a number of non-economic factors that potentially affect taxpayer decisions.”

Or

According to Cohen, Manzon and Zamora (2015) “There are a number of non-economic factors that potentially affect taxpayer decisions” (p. 632).

At the end of the sentence:
“There are a number of non-economic factors that potentially affect taxpayer decisions” (Cohen, Manzon & Zamora 2015, p. 632).

How many authors should I include?
Journal articles and indeed books can sometimes be written by many authors, APA has a specific rule for how many authors you should include in-text.

Let’s use this journal article as an example:

Fast, N., Sivanathan, N., Mayer, N., & Galinsky, A. (2012). Power and overconfident decision-making. Organizational Behaviour and Human Decision Processes, 117(2), 249-260.

If the resource you want to cite has 3-5 authors (which this example does) you must include all the authors the first time you cite, therefore it would look like this in text:

First citation
According to Fast, Sivanathan, Mayer and Galinsky (2012) overconfident leaders perform poorly.

Or

Overconfident leaders perform poorly (Fast, Sivanathan, Mayer & Galinsky, 2012).

Second citation
Because you included all 4 authors in the first citation you can now use et al. on any subsequent citations in text.

Fast et al. (2012) found that individuals with a subjective feeling of power tend to overestimate their abilities.

Or

Individuals with a subjective feeling of power tend to overestimate their abilities (Fast et al., 2012).

If the resource you want to cite has 6 or more authors you can use et al. the first time you cite.

Questions?

If you have any questions so far let us know using the comments section in the blog or via twitter using #su5dor. You can also email buslib@swansea.ac.uk.

 

Tomorrow we’ll look at websites and online documents.

5 Days of APA Referencing: Day 1. Referencing Books

Welcome to this short online course which will run over the next 5 days.  Although this is specifically tailored for those in the School of Management there are tips that any student using APA style of referencing can use.

We will cover the basics to help you get started with APA style referencing and give you some advice on tools you can use to help you.  The APA 6^th edition style of referencing is a widely recognised style and has clear rules around how to reference different types of material.

APA is an author/date style of referencing. This means that you cite the author(s) surname(s) and the date of publication in the text of your assignment and then the full details of the resources you used (books, journal articles, online documents) in an alphabetical list at the end called a reference list.  There is a full and comprehensive APA referencing guide available on Library Guides. There is also a short APA guide available online with paper copies in the library.

Why do I have to reference?
Referencing is a very important part of your academic course.  If you use someone else’s work without acknowledging them you will be committing plagiarism.  Referencing correctly will not only give the author of the work full recognition but also demonstrate to your lecturer you have read academic sources and read widely.  The key to referencing well in an assignment is to always use good reliable sources.  Finding stuff on the internet is easy; finding good reliable stuff on the internet is a little more challenging.

We would always recommend you start by looking at the reading list provided to you by your lecturer on Blackboard.  Look to the left of the screen in any Blackboard module and you can see a link to the interactive reading list.

Each resource in the reading list will allow you to click on it and it will take you back to iFind, the library catalogue.  The library catalogue will give you enough bibliographic information to be able to reference the resource you need.

Referencing Books
Let’s start with referencing a book today. As an example, we’ll use the book Economics which is written by Michael Parkin, Kent Matthews and Melanie Powell.

The main sections you need to make a note of in order to reference a book correctly are:

• Author(s) or Editor(s)
• Year of publication
• Title of book
• Edition (if applicable)
• Place of publication
• Publisher

If you have the book in front of you, you can normally find this information on the cover and inside the title page.

This is how this book would look in the reference list
Parkin, M., Matthews, K., & Powell, M. (2014). Economics. (9^th ed.). Harlow: Pearson.

To help you, there’s a Citation option in the Actions menu on iFind (see below).

You might need to make a few changes to the citation from iFind, though. Can you see the mistakes in the reference below?

In text citation
If you want to cite this book in text, there are 2 ways you can do it:

At the start of the sentence
According to Parkin, Powell and Matthews (2014) the study of economics is not just about money, but about the motivation and consequences of making choices.

At the end of the sentence
The study of economics is not just about money, but about the motivation and consequences of making choices (Parkin, Powell & Matthews, 2014).

Note: Link the two authors’ names with and when cited outside parentheses. Link with an ampersand (&) inside parentheses.

 

Questions?

If you have any questions so far let us know using the comments section in the blog or via twitter using #su5dor. You can also email buslib@swansea.ac.uk.

 

Tomorrow we’ll look at journal articles.

5 Days of APA Referencing #su5dor

Are you working on your dissertation? Have you got some assignments to write? Are you worried about referencing correctly? Worry no more! 5 Days of Referencing is back next week. It will run from Monday 23rd April to Friday 27th April. Each day, we’ll look at a different aspect of APA referencing so that by the end of the week you’ll be able to:-

• Reference books, journal articles and websites
• Easily format your reference list
• Use tools to help you cite and reference

When you improve your referencing skills, you make it easier to keep a record of the material you’re reading. Your references show your lecturer that you have done your research. Paying attention to the format and presentation of your references could earn you some extra marks in your assignments. 5 Days of Referencing will help you to develop these skills by giving you information and advice in short, bitesize chunks.

To sign up, just follow our blog (enter your email address in the column on the right) or look out for the hashtag #su5dor on Twitter.

Breakfast Bites – Referencing your dissertation

Are you writing your dissertation this summer? Do you know how to reference:

• Conference papers
• Journal articles
• Information you’ve found online
• Data and statistics…

We can help you to reference all this and more! Come to our Breakfast Bites session this Thursday morning.

Breakfast Bites sessions are held 8.15am to 8.50am in PC Room 2 of Bay Library. You don’t need to book – just come along!