Referencing, academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism: Referencing

Referencing is a way of acknowledging that you have used the ideas and written material belonging to another author. It shows that you have undertaken an appropriate literature search and that you have carried out appropriate reading in order to show your knowledge, understanding and analysis of your topic.

By referencing your sources you are demonstrating to your tutors the breadth of your research and reinforcing your own arguments. Using a wide range of sources is excellent academic practice and can improve your marks.

All information, ideas and quotations from anything you have consulted in order to write an assignment at University must be correctly referenced. Correct referencing enables your tutors and assessors to access your source material.

Particular referencing styles are preferred by particular academic disciplines because they work better with the kind of texts that are most commonly used in that discipline.

The University supports four main referencing styles, Harvard, MHRA, APA and OSCOLA. 

With a few exceptions, most London Met courses use Harvard.

• Courses in the School of Art, Architecture and Design: MHRA or Harvard
• Courses in the School of Computing and Digital Media: Harvard or IEEE (optional style)
• Courses in the School of Human Sciences: Harvard or Vancouver (optional style)
• Law: OSCOLA
• Music courses in the School of Computing and Digital Media: MHRA or Harvard
• Psychology: APA

Find guidance for each of the styles below.

Don't worry if you are confused about how to reference- there is loads of help and support available!

• Check out Cite Them Right Online.  This amazing resource provides:
  • a 'Learn how to reference anything' tutorial
  • video guides
  • citation and referencing examples for a huge range of sources- follow the examples to create your own

Log into Cite Them Right via your institution and search for London Metropolitan University to log in off campus.

• Book an appointment with your Academic Liaison Librarian.
  • They can advise you on avoiding plagiarism and referencing correctly.