Referencing is a standard convention within the academic and professional communities, which is designed to inform the reader of the sources of information used in a piece of written work.
There are a number of referencing systems in common use, with certain systems being preferred in different academic disciplines.
Referencing systems
The 3 most widely used referencing styles at Flinders University are:
- APA System
- Harvard System (Author-Date) and
- Note system
Click HERE to access study guides to the above referencing systems.
Academic integrity
All students need to become familiar with using a referencing system, as the use of other people's information without acknowledging the source of that information is a breach of academic integrity, which can have serious consequences.
Turnitin
If you are unsure whether or not your written work may too closely resemble your source material, there is a web-based program available via Flinders University which may assist you to reduce unintentional plagiarism.
Flinders University is providing the opportunity for all enrolled students to use a text-matching software program called Turnitin. If you 'submit' an assignment to this program it will match the text from that assignment against multiple databases.
Turnitin generates a report which tells you the percentage of matching text. More information about Turnitin can be obtained here.
Other referencing resources
- APA Style: American Psychological Association
(from Monash University) - APA Style for electronic sources
(from the APA home page) - Australian Guide to Legal citations
(from Melbourne University) - Cambridge Style
(for Political Sciences, from Melbourne University) - Chicago Style
(from Wisconsin University) - MLA: Modern Language Association
(from Purdue University) - Oxford Note System
(from Deakin University) - Plagiarism
(from Duke University, USA) - Researching and citing references summary
(from Monash University) - School of Nursing and Midwifery author-date (Harvard) referencing guide
(from the Flinders University Library) - Vancouver Style
(for Medical Sciences, from Monash University)
Visit our online referencing discussion board. To get answers to your referencing questions online, self register at the FLO Student Self-Registration page.
