Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Science, Pharmacology and Herbal Medicinal Science
What is 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.
Cite Them Right - ebook
Cite Them Right by Location / Classmark: 808.02 PEAISBN: 9781350933446Publication Date: 2022This guide to citing references includes details of using the referencing styles supported by London Met. Available in print and as an interactive website.
Referencing FAQs
Referencing Styles Guides
- Harvard Referencing- quick guide 2024Harvard referencing can vary in format. This guide provides examples based on the style in the book Cite Them Right.
- LMU Harvard Referencing Style Guide
The Harvard style originated at Harvard University. It's been adapted by individual institutions, and there is no set manual or formatting rules, so it is extremely important to check and follow your department's specific regulations.
The Quick Guide includes information on citing information and images generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) sites.
In-text citation
The author and date of publication appear in brackets immediately after the idea, information or quote you are referencing, eg, Political reform is needed (Kruger, 2007).
In-text citations are usually included in your word count for all your assignments.
Tips
- You need to include the page number in your text when you quote directly from a source, eg, For some, ‘going green’ is driven by the prospect of “pocketing substantial government subsidies” (Lawson, 2009, p. 118).
- You also need to include the page number if you re-write an author’s specific idea or sentence using your own words, eg, Swetnam (2004, p. 95) has argued that consistency is of the utmost importance in referencing.
- Where the author’s name appears in your essay, you do not need to put the name in brackets, eg, Luke (2008) highlights the importance of business to business pressure.
A reference list
This appears at the end of your assignment giving full publication details for all of the sources you referred to eg Kruger, D. (2007) On fraternity: politics beyond liberty and equality. London: Institute for the Study of Civil Society.
Your sources should be listed in alphabetical order by author surname in your reference list.
Your reference list is not included in your word count.
Harvard referencing varies in format. The guidance provided by London Met Library Service is based on the style in the book:
Pears, R. and Shields, G. (2019) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide, 11th edn. London: Macmillan Higher Education.
Vancouver style is a numeric referencing style commonly used in the sciences. There are two parts to this style:
- Citing in the text - when, in your work, you use an idea from a book, journal article, etc., you must acknowledge this in your text. For each citation (that is each piece of work cited in your text) assign a number. Starting with number 1, assign the numbers in the order of citation. If you cite same piece of work again, use the same citation number. Write the number in brackets or as superscript.
- The reference list – this is a list of all the sources cited in the text of your work. In Vancouver style this is sequentially numbered list at the end of your work. Each number on the reference list should match and refer to the one in the text.
Imperial College has a useful guide to using the Vancouver style.