Referencing system

There are many different systems of referencing in the academic world. Be careful to choose the appropriate one for your needs. Apart from the stress that academic teachers may lay on referencing, and its importsance in avoiding accusations of plagiarism, good referencing provides a very good training in precise and careful work.

Undergraduate students should use the system required by the Department. Some students are unlucky enough to work in more than one Department, those taking a Joint Honours degree or a module outside the base Department for example. Such students should be very careful to notice which system the Department is using. If the two Departments use different systems, then such a student must learn boith, and be careful to use the appropriate one for each subject. Further care should be taken if the two Departments say that they are using the same system: they may differ quite strongly about details.

This is reflected in the academic journals for which post-graduate students may be writing. Bibliographic Programs such as EndNote contain templates to match the publisher's requirements for well over a hundred different journals..