Why do we reference?

Referencing forms part of the marking criteria for your assessments. It is an important academic skill and a high level of accuracy is required for your writing at university for the following reasons:

• It demonstrates ethical scholarship and membership in the academic community by giving proper credit to other authors’ ideas.
• It shows wide reading, therefore encouraging an independent and authoritative voice.
• Allows your reader to know whose words and ideas you are using to reach your conclusions through correct referencing

Which referencing style should you use?

Western Sydney University School of Business uses an adapted version of the Harvard referencing style call Harvard Western SydU style.  Harvard Western SydU style follows an author-date style based on the Australian Government publishing standards and writing conventions.

Full details of this style are available in the Harvard Western SydU style guide. You can also use the iCite referencing tool for referencing examples. This style includes a citation with the author’s name and the publishing year in your text to act as a pointer to the more complete resource information in the reference list at the end of your work.

Test your knowledge: Why do we need to reference?

When should you reference?

Whenever you use the research findings or words of another author in your writing, you are required to include an in-text citation. The purpose is to provide your reader with all the information they need to find and review the sources you have used in your work. You are not required to cite facts or common knowledge that is available from many sources (e.g. historical dates) or the results from your own field research or surveys.

The in-text citation is discussed in the In-text Citation chapter.

Reference list

The in-text citation described above acts as a pointer to the reference list, where more complete information about the resource is provided.

The reference list:

• is recorded at the end of your document on a new page
• lists all the resources cited in alphabetical order
• follows the strict formatting conventions of the Harvard Western SydU style
• is single spaced
• has no bullet points or numbers
• has no indentation
• is in text with consistent colour, size and font.

The reference list is discussed in more detail in the Reference List chapter.

Reference management software and citation generators

Endnote is a reference management of software is provided by the Western Sydney University Library. These programs manage, catalogue, and format your cited resources and insert those citations into your Microsoft Word document.

There are Endnote hints throughout the following chapters, or you can view the chapter Ten Ways Endnote Will Change your Life.