Referencing

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: the APA System, the Author-Date (Harvard) System and the Note system.

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.

SafeAssign

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 SafeAssign. If you 'submit' an assignment to this program it will match the text from that assignment against an archive of over 8 billion internet documents and other assignments submitted by Flinders University students.

SafeAssign generates a report which tells you the percentage of matching text. SafeAssign reports cannot be seen by other students or faculty staff but may be viewed for statistical purposes by the Student Learning Centre staff administering the program.

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)
• Author-Date (Harvard)
  (from the Flinders University Library)
• 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)
• 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.