Referencing is an essential part of academic writing. By correctly citing your sources, you add weight and authority to your work and allow the reader to locate the evidence you have used to support your ideas. The library has plenty of resources to help you with referencing, including comprehensive guides and one-to-one support.
Referencing
It is important to reference because:
- it acknowledges your sources and aids transmission of knowledge
- it enables the reader to locate your sources
- it indicates you have read around your subject
- it demonstrates you have analysed other work and presented your own views
- it avoids plagiarism, even when unintentional
- you may lose marks for incorrect referencing.
Referencing styles
At St George’s, you will be expected to use the Harvard style of referencing, which is based on:
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2022) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 12th edn. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
As there are many different styles of Harvard, it is important that you use Cite Them Right (either in print or online) or the library’s referencing guides to ensure you are using the correct version.
Some lecturers may offer the Vancouver referencing style as an option for some assignments. Again, it is important that you refer to the guidance in Cite Them Right.
The Cite Them Right search box can be used to directly search Cite Them Right Online. To access this resource from offsite, you will need to log in with your SGUL username and password.
Library guides
Reference management
In order to produce accurate references, you’ll need to record the details of all the information you find. Reference management software can help you manage your sources and there are a wide range of tools available. This page gives an overview of RefWorks, a tool provided by St George’s, and other reference management software.
RefWorks
At St George’s we have an institutional subscription to RefWorks.
Accessing RefWorks
To access RefWorks, visit: RefWorks.
Getting more help with RefWorks
Use our RefWorks LibGuide to get started with using the software, or come along to one of our training sessions for hands-on support. Training sessions on RefWorks are offered either via MS Teams or face to face. To book, visit our Library Training Calendar.
Other reference management tools
There are a number of other popular and/or freely available tools including Zotero, Mendeley or Endnote Basic. Licenses are also available for individual purchase for the full version of EndNote.