Papers on the same subjects will use similar terminology and draw on the ideas and research that has gone before. This is an expected and necessary part of research. However, it is also expected that you credit your sources by citing them. Citing and referencing are two sides of the same coin. Citing is marking within your text to show that the information comes from a particular source. Referencing is giving more complete details of the sources in a specified order, generally at the end of your work. A citation (or reference) style has rules that state how different sources should be presented, both in the text and in the final list of references.
Citing and referencing correctly allows readers of your work to find the original sources and see if you have adequately represented their ideas, and shows you are not trying to claim those ideas as your own.
Many different citation styles are in use in Trinity. Your lecturer, course director or supervisor will advise if you should use a particular citation style.
You will be given guidance by your lecturer, course director or supervisor on how to use quotations in your work. Any direct quotes (i.e., in a sentence) of another’s words must be put into quotation marks and attributed.
Block quotes (longer quotes as a separate paragraph) should generally be used sparingly, as overuse will demonstrate you have little original material of your own to add.
There is nothing wrong with including short paraphrases of others’ work so long as you attribute the ideas to them. In other words, you need to ensure that you provide the exact source and that it is clear to the reader which ideas you have borrowed. If you don’t acknowledge the work of others appropriately, this may be considered plagiarism.
If you include a long segment of direct paraphrasing - merely inserting synonyms or changing the sentence structure - then you are likely to lose marks on stylistic grounds, just as if you had directly quoted a long fragment of another’s work.
“Copy and paste” is *very* easy to detect, however be aware that so is mixing up paragraph order, changing words etc. to make lifted sections appear different. Doing so is considered plagiarism. It can also often leave the essay in a jumbled mess and is generally obvious to the reader.
The easiest way to bring together references from all sources is to use bibliographic reference managing software. Some of the apps with free versions include Zotero, EndNote Basic and Mendeley. Trinity has a subscription to a more powerful version of EndNote than the free app.
These apps allow you to import records from multiple databases, library catalogues and to also manually enter citations, and save them as a database in one location. They can then put the citations into your document, in a reference style you specify.
The Library runs classes on using EndNote throughout the year. We support two versions - EndNote Online and EndNote Desktop.
EndNote Online is free for all members of Trinity to use. It is cloud-based, with a small plugin to install on your computer that enables it to be used directly with Microsoft Word.
EndNote Online is generally fine for short written documents but for more advanced assignments and theses, we recommend using EndNote Desktop. EndNote Online and Desktop can sync together, so you can use one and then move to the other, or use both together if needed.
EndNote Desktop is more powerful and is definitely recommended over the Online version for staff, postgraduates and undergraduates preparing long written projects. This app is installed on computers in Trinity’s computer rooms, and can be installed for free on computers owned by Trinity staff and students while they are members of College.
There are thousands of citation styles in use. Your lecturer, course director or supervisor may tell you to use a particular one, or allow you to choose one on your own.
Guides for each style will tell you how to format the references:
Many different styles are in use in Trinity College Dublin - for definitive answers you should use the full style manual for each system.
We are going to see what a reference looks like using using different citation styles. Here's the information we want to reference:
We demonstrate how this appears in a variety of different referencing systems, namely the APA 7th Edition, MLA 8th Edition, Vancouver; and Chicago 17th Edition.
Inline citations use a brief summary of the reference in the text (such as listing the author and date, or the author and title, or author and page) with the full reference stated at the end of the chapter or work.
This final list is called a reference list or bibliography.
Generally the full list of references will be in alphabetical order by the first author’s surname.
Inline styles are sometimes called the “Harvard” style as they were first used at Harvard in the 1880s. They are also called “Parenthetical” styles as they enclose the partial information in brackets.
Two of the most popular Harvard-type styles are the APA 7th Edition, and the MLA 8th Edition. Our example is used to show the similarities and differences below.
The Library has books on these (and other) styles available to guide students on how to reference correctly.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association by "Referencing, like research and other academic learning skills, has often not been taught explicitly, or within a discipline context prior to tertiary education" (Stagg et al., 2013).
Stagg, A., Kimmins, L., & Pavlovski, N. (2013). Academic style with substance: A collaborative screencasting project to support referencing skills. The Electronic Library, 31(4), 452-464. doi:10.1108/el-01-2012-0005
"As the global information landscape increasingly facilitates the sharing, re-purposing and dissemination of information, the ways in which students are accustomed to interacting with information resources are also changing" (Stagg et al.).
Stagg, Adrian et al. "Academic Style with Substance: A Collaborative Screencasting Project to Support Referencing Skills." The Electronic Library, vol. 31, no. 4, 2013, pp. 452-464, doi:10.1108/el-01-2012-0005.
"Referencing, like research and other academic learning skills, has often not been taught explicitly, or within a discipline context prior to tertiary education" (Stagg et al., 2013).
"Referencing, like research and other academic learning skills, has often not been taught explicitly, or within a discipline context prior to tertiary education" (Stagg et al.).
Stagg, A., Kimmins, L., & Pavlovski, N. (2013). Academic style with substance. The Electronic Library, 31(4), 452-464. doi:10.1108/el-01-2012-0005
Stagg, Adrian et al. "Academic Style with Substance." The Electronic Library, vol. 31, no. 4, 2013, pp. 452-464, doi:10.1108/el-01-2012-0005.
Numbered styles list references in the order they are mentioned, using a digit in the text to refer to the fuller citation at the end.
If a reference is mentioned again later, it reuses the same number.
The most common numbered style is Vancouver - while this style has its own particular rules, numbered styles in general are often referred to as Vancouver styles.
Here's our example in the Vancouver style, using the "official" rules given by the NLM/PubMed.
"As the global information landscape increasingly facilitates the sharing, re-purposing and dissemination of information, the ways in which students are accustomed to interacting with information resources are also changing" (1).
1. Stagg A, Kimmins L, Pavlovski N. Academic style with substance: A collaborative screencasting project to support referencing skills. The Electronic Library. 2013;31(4):452-64.
Like numbered styles, footnote styles give the reference an ascending number in the text and the full references are listed in that order at the bottom of the page in a footnote. A full list at the end of the work or chapter may also be required - although unlike with numbered styles, this may be in alphabetical order by surname, rather than in order of mention.
The Chicago style is the most well-known footnote style. In Chicago and other footnote styles there are rules that apply if you use a work again in another footnote. Up until the Chicago 16th Edition, If you mention the citation again as the next footnote, then the term “ibid” (“in the same place”) is used instead of the reference. If it is used again after referring to a different citation, then a short form of the reference is used in the footnotes - the manual for the style will tell you what this should look like. However, this was changed in the Chicago 17th Edition, with the short form now favoured over ibid even if mentioned immediately afterwards.
"As the global information landscape increasingly facilitates the sharing, re-purposing and dissemination of information, the ways in which students are accustomed to interacting with information resources are also changing"1.
1 Adrian Stagg, Lindy Kimmins, and Nicholas Pavlovski, "Academic Style with Substance," The Electronic Library 31, no. 4 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1108/el-01-2012-0005.
(elements are separated by commas)
2 Stagg, Kimmins, and Pavlovski, "Academic style with substance."
Stagg, Adrian, Lindy Kimmins, and Nicholas Pavlovski. "Academic Style with Substance." The Electronic Library 31, no. 4 (2013): 452-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/el-01-2012-0005.
(first author’s name inverted, elements are separated by full stops)
