How to write references
To make a reference means that you refer to the person who before you has thought, researched, developed or in some other way come up with something that you want to use. To tell this, you need to reference.
All sources you use should be referenced to avoid plagiarism. There are different referencing systems and in our referencing guides you can find which way to refer. Reference systems used at University West are:
Listen to Fredrik and Jessica tell us more about reference management in the DigiPod (in Swedish).
Referencing
Generally speaking, it is important to write references in different ways, depending on the type of source you use. The reference can, for example, consist of material such as blog posts, conference prints, books or an article in an academic journal. It can also be an oral source, or consist of video recordings, radio programs etc.
It is important to keep track of where information is retrieved from the outset, regardless of the type of reference in question. It will save you time and effort at the end of your work when you have to write a reference list. What this should look like depends on which reference system you should use on your program or course. It is important to keep in mind that you should be consistent when writing references.
Things to consider when referencing
When you refer, you summarize or state in your own words what someone else has written. This presupposes that one has first acquired and understood the original text. You refer because you want to:
- Avoid plagiarism
- Deepen the understanding of the original source
- Practice their ability to express themselves
When summarizing it is important to distinguish between your own thoughts and those of the author. This can be done with so-called summary markers. Summary markers are words that think, consider, claim, show, write, et cetera.
Finally, it is important to indicate the source by textual reference in connection with the summary and by full reference in the reference list.
Different referral services
There are different ways to retrieve a reference depending on which system/database you use, below we have described some.
Keep in mind when using referral services that you must always double-check the referencs you receive. The information about the article may be entered incorrectly and then there will unfortunately also be errors in the reference.
Here you can download references:
- The library database Libris has a service they call Create reference. Find the book you want to reference, click on Create referenceand select the reference system you are using.
- Similarly, some scientific databases have a citation function Cite where you can automatically create references.
- Google Scholar also offers a reference service. Cite can be found under each hit in the hit list.
- Microsoft Word has a built-in reference service, but keep in mind that it is not always completely reliable. We do not recommend using this.
Using reference management software
With a reference management program, you can make your own literature database from references you have saved from different databases or entered yourself. From these references, it is then possible to automatically create bibliographic references in a Word document, which in turn automatically forms a reference list.