Referencing does three jobs: it gives credit to the people whose ideas you use, it lets your reader find your sources, and it shows the marker how widely and carefully you have read. Getting it wrong can cost marks; getting it badly wrong can look like plagiarism. The good news is that every style follows a predictable pattern once you know which family it belongs to.
Always check your module handbook. Many UK universities publish their own version of a style, especially Harvard, and your department’s guide overrides anything general, including this article.
The two main families
Author–date styles (Harvard, APA) put the author’s surname and year in brackets in the text, with a full alphabetical reference list at the end.
Note styles (OSCOLA, MHRA, Chicago notes, Oxford) use footnotes for citations, often with a bibliography at the end. Numbered styles (Vancouver, IEEE) use a number in the text that points to a numbered reference list.
Harvard
The most widely used style in UK universities, across business, social sciences, education and many other subjects. There is no single official version, which is why universities publish their own guides.
- In text: (Smith, 2021) or Smith (2021) argues… Add a page number for direct quotations: (Smith, 2021, p. 45).
- Reference list (book): Smith, J. (2021) Title of book. Edition if not the first. Place: Publisher.
APA 7th edition
Common in psychology, education, nursing and many social sciences. It looks similar to Harvard but has precise rules of its own: for example, the publisher’s location is no longer included for books, and DOIs are written as full URLs.
- In text: (Smith, 2021, p. 45). For three or more authors, use the first author followed by “et al.” from the first citation.
- Reference list (book): Smith, J. (2021). Title of book. Publisher.
OSCOLA
The Oxford University Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities is the standard for law in the UK. Citations go in footnotes, and the style uses minimal punctuation.
- Case: Donoghue v Stevenson [1932] AC 562 (HL).
- Statute: Human Rights Act 1998, s 3.
- Footnotes end with a full stop, and a table of cases and legislation is usually expected in longer work.
MHRA and Oxford
MHRA (Modern Humanities Research Association) style is common in English literature, history and modern languages. The Oxford style is a similar footnote-and-bibliography approach used in history, philosophy and theology. In both, the first citation of a source gives full details in a footnote; later citations use a shortened form.
Chicago
Chicago offers two systems: notes and bibliography, popular in history and the arts, and author–date, used in some sciences and social sciences. Make sure you know which one your department wants.
Vancouver and IEEE
Numbered styles used in medicine and health sciences (Vancouver) and engineering and computing (IEEE). Sources are numbered in the order they are first cited, for example [1] or a superscript ¹, and the reference list follows that numerical order rather than the alphabet.
Which style does my subject use?
| Subject area | Likely style |
|---|---|
| Business, management, education, social sciences | Harvard or APA |
| Psychology | APA |
| Law | OSCOLA |
| English, history, modern languages | MHRA, Chicago or Oxford |
| Medicine, nursing, health sciences | Vancouver, Harvard or APA |
| Engineering and computing | IEEE or Harvard |
Five habits that prevent referencing problems
- Record full details as you read, including page numbers and DOIs, not at the end.
- Use a reference manager such as Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote, but check its output against your university’s guide, because automatic formatting often gets details wrong.
- Cite paraphrases as well as quotations. Putting an idea into your own words still requires a citation.
- Match every in-text citation to a reference-list entry, and vice versa.
- Be consistent. Small inconsistencies in punctuation and capitalisation add up and are among the easiest marks to lose.
Getting support
Referencing checks are part of our assignment feedback and dissertation support. We point out errors and inconsistencies so you can fix them, and show you the pattern for next time.