LibGuides: Social sciences and human rights: Referencing and plagiarism

Referencing

Referencing shows the breadth of your research and provides details of the sources that you have used to support your arguments and conclusions.

By acknowledging the sources used in your work, you will also avoid plagiarism.

All reference styles are made up of two parts - the in text citation and the full reference.

Depending on the style the citation may be the author's surname and date of publication or a number assigned to each source as it is used.

It is important to keep track of your sources as you research so you can show all the work you have done and acknowledge where you are using the ideas of others as evidence.

Cite Them Right

Cite Them Right will help you to reference just about any source you might need to use and understand how to avoid plagiarism. It also includes a Referencing tutorial to help you develop your skills.

Cite them Right includes extensive guidance as well as examples of the Harvard, APA 7th edition, IEEE, OSCOLA, Vancouver and Chicago referencing styles. To see the correct format, just select the type of source you want to reference and then filter the results by referencing style.

Cite Them Right
Key referencing resource for GCU students - browse for your referencing style, search for a particular type of reference or complete tutorials on referencing and plagiarism.
Cite Them Right: Referencing Tutorial
Find out about the principles behind referencing and how to acknowledge the information sources that you use.

Keeping track of sources

Reference management software helps you to keep track of your research, create bibliographies or reference lists and share these with others. There are many different reference management products available, free and paid for.

GCU Library subscribes to and provides support for RefWorks.

RefWorks page
Help with RefWorks and log in

Main features of RefWorks

Enables you to import references from most online databases and organise these using folders, and create bibliographies for use in your research.
RefWorks Quick Cite and the RCM add in for Word allow you to add citations, footnotes and bibliographies to the essay or article as you are writing.
Save to RefWorks imports a website directly from the browser as a reference.

The RefWorks pages on our website include help with setting up a RefWorks account and learning how to use RefWorks.

Please note: When generating a bibliography or reference list using RefWorks, make sure you choose the correct output style. For most students this will be Cite Them Right, 12th edition - Harvard. If you're not sure which style to use, check your module handbook.

For further help with using RefWorks contact a librarian.