What Is Referencing and Why Is It Important?: A Guide To Referencing

What is Referencing
and why is it
important?
A Guide to Referencing
Student Learning Development

University of Otago
hedc.studentlearning@otago.ac.nz | sld.otago.ac.nz | 479 8801

This booklet is an introduction to some of the skills and strategies that will help
you successfully complete your studies at Otago.
Version 2.0 Revised 2017

To help show academic understanding and rigor you need to place your
work within a framework or context that is relevant to the topic you are
discussing. This context might, for example, include reference to data
(e.g., the latest employment data from Statistics New Zealand), or an
exact quote, or a summary of what other people have had to say about the
topic. There are many possible resources that you may refer to depending
on your area of study.
As you develop your own ideas and arguments and use others’ work to
support or contrast your views it is really important that you identify
clearly which ideas are yours and which ideas or work belong to another
person or source. You should always acknowledge any ideas and work
that were not originally your own by providing a reference to the source
of that information. Doing so is essential to avoid plagiarism.
In academic work, referencing is the appropriate acknowledgement of:
Ideas and work that originate from another person
Information that you have included in your work that comes from some
other source (which is not common knowledge or widely accepted).
The terms cite and refer (or citation and reference) are often used to
mean the same thing since to cite a piece of work is to provide a
reference to its source.
Referencing is important because it:

 Helps show that you have been thorough and careful (or rigorous)
in your academic work
 Indicates what material is the work of another person or is from
another source
 Indicates what material is your original work since you have
provided a citation for work that is not your own
 Allows the reader to refer back to any external material (i.e., not
your own) that you have stated or discussed
 Provides the reader with an indication of the quality and authority
of the material you are referencing (e.g., published article in a
respected journal, unpublished opinion piece on a popular online
website) Of course the relevance and importance of material is
dependent on your topic
 Lets the reader see if you have included up-to-date work, seminal
(early and influential) work, and material central to your research
topic

What do I need to reference?
You should always provide a reference to all material that you:
 Quote
 Paraphrase
 Summarise
You should also provide a reference to any:

 Ideas you are using in your work that originate with someone else
 Data or other information that is not common knowledge, is
controversial, or is specialised knowledge (e.g., you don’t need to
provide a reference to the fact that the kiwi is the national bird of
New Zealand, but if you were to state that the kiwi population is
declining at a rate of 4-5% per year, then a reference is required)
Note that where the source of your information came from (e.g., social
media, TED talk, newspaper, journal, government report) does not
determine whether or not you need to provide a reference. Nor does it
matter whether the source of your information has been officially
published (although this may have an impact on the credibility and
authority of the material).
Referencing/Citation styles
There are a great many different styles and you should follow the
referencing style required for your particular assignment, or as set out by
your lecturer or department, and confirm this for each assignment. How
you format your reference depends upon the reference or citation style
you use e.g., Vancouver (a numbered system), APA (an author-date
system), Chicago (a notes-bibliography system).
In all referencing systems a short reference, called the in-text citation, is

appropriately placed within the body of the text to provide a key to the
full bibliographic details that will follow later in your work in the
footnotes, endnotes, reference list or bibliography. (The format and terms
used depend on the citation style.)
The terms reference list and bibliography are sometimes used to mean
the same thing, that is, the complete list of references or bibliographic
details for the sources you have cited. However, bibliography can be
used more broadly to describe a list of relevant, influential, and related

sources, which may also include work that you did not directly cite.
Vancouver example (journal article, one author):
In-text citation
McLean states that it is probable that the chicken came before the egg
[1].
References
1 McLean, B. The chicken came before the egg. Journal of Tall Tales
2025:16: 66-68. doi: 00:1122334455
APA example (journal article, one author):
In-text citation option 1.
A recent study by McLean (2025) discussed the issue of which came

first, the chicken or the egg.
In-text citation option 2.
A recent study discussed the issue of which came first, the chicken or the
egg (McLean, 2025).
References
McLean, B. (2025). The chicken came before the egg. Journal of Tall
Tales, 16(4), 66-68. doi: 00:1122334455
Chicago example (journal article, one author):
In-text citation
McLean states that it is probable that the chicken came before the egg. 1
Footnotes
1
McLean, B. “The chicken came before the egg.” Journal of Tall Tales
16, no. 4 (2025): 66.

Bibliography
McLean, B. “The chicken came before the egg.” Journal of Tall Tales 16,
no. 4 (2025): 66-68. doi: 00:1122334455
Citation Software
If you are going to write reports and assignments that will require a
number of references then it can be a good idea to use citation software to
help you manage those references. There are a number of different
citation programs; some are free and others cost money to use.
 There are a variety of reference management software tools
available. Use the University of Otago Library’s Managing
references guide to find out which will suit you best
http://otago.libguides.com/managingreferences
 EndNote is a widely used program and is supported by the Library
and ITS. It is available for Mac and Windows platforms. EndNote
is available free to all students via the Student desktop
www.otago.ac.nz/studentdesktop. It is also possible to purchase
Endnote for your own computer through ITS for a small fee (see:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/its/services/software/index.html). ITS
training run courses using EndNote (see:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/its/services/training/otago030141.html).
Your Subject Librarian can also help you with Endnote.
 Zotero is free to use (https://www.zotero.org
 Mendeley is free to use (https://www.mendeley.com)
 If you are using LaTex for your documents then you will have
BibTex as your citation management software. You may find
http://www.bibsonomy.org/ useful for recording and sharing
references
Related Resources
SLD booklet Quoting, paraphrasing & summarising (or how to avoid
plagiarising) available online at:
http://www.otago.ac.nz/hedc/students/digital

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What is Referencing

Student Learning Development

hedc.studentlearning@otago.ac.nz | sld.otago.ac.nz | 479 8801

Version 2.0 Revised 2017

hedc.studentlearning@otago.ac.nz | sld.otago.ac.nz | 479 8801

In academic work, referencing is the appropriate acknowledgement of:

Ideas and work that originate from another person

Referencing is important because it:

hedc.studentlearning@otago.ac.nz | sld.otago.ac.nz | 479 8801

You should also provide a reference to any:

In all referencing systems a short reference, called the in-text citation, is

hedc.studentlearning@otago.ac.nz | sld.otago.ac.nz | 479 8801

Vancouver example (journal article, one author):

APA example (journal article, one author):

In-text citation option 1.

A recent study by McLean (2025) discussed the issue of which came

In-text citation option 2.

Chicago example (journal article, one author):

hedc.studentlearning@otago.ac.nz | sld.otago.ac.nz | 479 8801

hedc.studentlearning@otago.ac.nz | sld.otago.ac.nz | 479 8801

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