How to Reference
Find guidance on how to reference accurately in your specific referencing style.
How to reference
In a nutshell, referencing is a two-step process. Whenever you refer to another source of information, you need to firstly insert a citation in your text, and secondly, expand on that citation in a full reference at the end of your work.
How you format your citations and references will depend on the referencing style that you use and the type of information you’re referencing.
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Before you start
To reference correctly and accurately, you'll need to:
- know your referencing style - this is a set of instructions for formatting your reference and citations.
- identify the type of information you are referencing - it can sometimes be difficult to identify information you find, especially when dealing with documents found online. However, information included in a full reference varies depending on the information type. This is to help your reader find the source you've referenced more easily. You therefore need to know what information type you are using in order to reference it accurately.
- collect all the information needed to write a reference - this will usually include who created it and when, what it is called, where it was published and when you found it.
- decide how best to integrate the information into your writing - will you quote or paraphrase? Will you need to include image captions or copyright statements?
Referencing styles
Referencing styles are a set of instructions. They tell you what information you need to include in your reference, the order that information should appear, and the way it should be formatted as a citation in your work.
Referencing styles can be divided into four main types, these describe the way that each referencing style requires the citation to be formatted:
- Author-date style such as Harvard, will format the citation using the author surname and date of publication e.g. (Jones, 2023)
- Author-page style, such as MLA, will format the citation using the author surname and page number e.g. (Jones 27)
- Numbered style, such as IEEE, will format the citation as a number, e.g. [1]
- Footnote style, such as Chicago, will place a superscript number in the text and place the citation in a footnote
There are hundreds of referencing styles available and the style you use will usually be decided by your School. However, required styles may vary by module, especially if you’re studying joint or combined honours. All of your citations and references should match the required style accurately and consistently so it's important that you know which style you need to use. Check your programme and module handbooks and speak to your lecturers if you are not sure.
The main referencing styles at Newcastle University are listed below, along with some guidance on using each style. You can find out more about these styles in the Basics of Referencing section on Cite Them Right Online.
Cite Them Right Harvard
Cite Them Right Harvard is the most commonly used referencing style at Newcastle University. There are many variations of Harvard, so make sure you follow the format set out in referencing guide Cite Them Right.
This style follows the author-date format for citations. A full reference is placed at the end of your work in a reference list, organised alphabetically by author surname.
Guides to using Cite Them Right Harvard:
Additional resources from the Library:
APA (7th edition)
The American Psychological Association (APA) referencing style is used by Psychology (FMS), Speech and Language Sciences, and Educational Psychology students (ECLS).
APA 7th follows the author-date format for citations. A full reference is placed at the end of your work in a reference list, organised alphabetically by author surname.
Guide to using APA 7th:
Additional resources from the Library:
Chicago (17th Edition)
The Chicago referencing style has both a footnote and author-date version. While the footnote citation is more widely used at Newcastle (by History and Fine Art for example) check with your lecturer as to which option is preferred in specific modules. The bibliography is organised alphabetically by author surname.
Guides to using Chicago 17th:
- The Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)
- Chicago Manual of Style: Quick guide
- Cite Them Right Online
Additional resources from the Library:
IEEE
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) is a referencing style widely used in the fields of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
IEEE is a numbered style where in-text citations are numbered using square brackets [1] and a reference list/bibliography is arranged in numerical order at the end of the document.
Guides to using IEEE:
Additional resources from the Library:
MHRA (4th edition)
The Modern Humanities Research Association (MHRA) referencing style has both a footnote and author-date version. While the footnote citation is more widely used at Newcastle, check with your lecturer as to which option is preferred in specific modules. The bibliography is organised alphabetically by author surname, with primary sources listed separately from secondary sources.
Guides to using MHRA 4th:
Additional resources from the Library:
MLA
The Modern Languages Association (MLA) referencing style is used in English Literature modules at Newcastle University. MLA follows the author-page number format. A full reference is placed at the end of your work in a reference list titled 'Works Cited'.
Guides to using MLA:
Additional resources from the Library:
OSCOLA (4th edition)
OSCOLA is a footnote style, designed to facilitate accurate citation of authorities, legislation, and other legal materials. It is used by students in Newcastle University Law School.
Guides to using OSCOLA:
- OSCOLA 4th edition (2012)
- OSCOLA 2006: Citing International Law
- OSCOLA – Quick Guide (Oxford Law)
- OSCOLA FAQs (Oxford Law)
RSC
Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) is a referencing style used by the School of Chemistry at Newcastle University. RSC is a numbered style, which uses superscript numbers for in-text citations, and orders references numerically in the reference list. It also uses abbreviated journal titles in references. You can check the accepted abbreviation for a journal title in the Chemical Abstracts Service Source Index (CASSI).
Guide to using RSC:
Additional resources from the Library:
Vancouver
The Vancouver style is a numbered style used by Biomedical Sciences, Nutritional and Sport Science students. Citations can be written as either a superscript number or a number in brackets and a reference list is arranged in numerical order at the end of the document.
Guide to using Vancouver:
Additional resources from the Library
In-text Citations
You must add an in-text citation at the point at which you refer to work that is not your own to show where the information came from. This means, a citation may be at the beginning, middle or end of a sentence (or in all three places!) depending on how you incorporate your sources.
Even if you're paraphrasing the same author, you should not use a single reference for multiple sentences or place a single reference at the end of a paragraph where you have referred to the work of others throughout. The purpose of your citation is to show exactly what information came from where, so every time you use information from a source, you must reference it.
When it comes to your in-text citations, all the following options are correct:
Consecutive sentences with citations to different sources
Example in an author date style (Cite Them Right Harvard):
To survive and thrive, bats require suitable roosting habitats, foraging locations and landscape features that can help them navigate via echolocation (Middleton, Froud and French, 2014, p. 4). Zeale, Davidson-Watts and Jones (2012, p.1117) recommend that, “land managers must consider areas of up to 7-km radius around maternity roosts when designing and implementing management plans for this species.”
Example in a numbered style (IEEE)
To survive and thrive, bats require suitable roosting habitats, foraging locations and landscape features that can help them navigate via echolocation [1, p. 4]. Zeale, Davidson-Watts and Jones recommend that, “land managers must consider areas of up to 7-km radius around maternity roosts when designing and implementing management plans for this species.” [2, p. 1117].
Example in a footnote style (Chicago):
To survive and thrive, bats require suitable roosting habitats, foraging locations and landscape features that can help them navigate via echolocation.1 Zeale, Davidson-Watts and Jones recommend that, “land managers must consider areas of up to 7-km radius around maternity roosts when designing and implementing management plans for this species.”2
1 Neil Middleton, Andrew Froud and Keith French, Social Calls of the Bats of Britain and Ireland (Exeter: Pelagic Publishing, 2014), 4, ProQuest Ebook Central.
2 Matt R.K. Zeale, Ian David-Watts, and Gareth Jones, “Home Range Use and Habitat Selection by Barbastelle Bats (Barbastella Barbastellus): Implications for Conservation,” Journal of Mammalogy 93, no. 4 (2012): 1117, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23259854.
Consecutive sentences with citations to the same source
Example in an author-date style (Cite Them Right Harvard):
Crimes against bats are the second most common wildlife crime in the UK but few cases are prosecuted (Early, 2018). The size of the fines which result from failure to apply for appropriate derogation license approval have been criticised (Early, 2018).
Example in a numbered style (IEEE):
Crimes against bats are the second most common wildlife crime in the UK but few cases are prosecuted [1]. The size of the fines which result from failure to apply for appropriate derogation license approval have been criticised [1].
Example in a footnote style (Chicago):
Crimes against bats are the second most common wildlife crime in the UK but few cases are prosecuted.1 The size of the fines which result from failure to apply for appropriate derogation license approval have been criticised.2
1 Catherine Early, “Why Two Recent Prosecutions have Sparked Concern Over Bat Crime Penalties,” ENDS Report, May 17, 2018, https://www.endsreport.com/article/1527349/why-two-recent-prosecutions-sparked-concern-bat-crime-penalties.
2 Ibid.
Multiple citations to different sources at the end of a single sentence
Example in an author-date style (Cite Them Right Harvard):
Studies have shown that prejudice against bats has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic (Lu et al, 2021; Lu, 2023).
Example in a numbered style (IEEE):
Studies have shown that prejudice against bats has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic [1], [2].
Example in a footnote style (Chicago):
Studies have shown that prejudice against bats has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic.1
1 Manman Lu et al, “Does public fear that bats spread COVID-19 jeopardize bat conservation?,” Biological Conservation 254, (2021): 5.; Hang Lu, “Communicating uncertainty about the link between COVID-19 and bats: the indirect effects on attitudes toward bats in the United States,” Human Dimensions of Wildlife 29, (2024): 3, https://doi.org/10.1080/10871209.2023.2167022.
Multiple citations to different sources in the same sentence
Example in an author-date style (Cite them Right Harvard):
Bats make up almost “25% of mammalian species” (Las and Ulanovsky, 2024, p.1135) and are considered to be both a unique group (Wong et al, 2019) and “one of the most diverse mammalian orders” (Chaverri, Ancillotto and Russo, 2018, p.1938).
Example in a numbered style (IEEE):
Bats make up almost “25% of mammalian species” [1, p. 1135] and are considered to be both a unique group [2] and “one of the most diverse mammalian orders” [3, p. 1938].
Example in a footnote style (Chicago):
Bats make up almost “25% of mammalian species” 1 and are considered to be both a unique group2 and “one of the most diverse mammalian orders.”3
1. Liora Las and Nachum Ulanovsky, “Bats,” Nature Methods 21, no. 7 (2024): 1135–37, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-024-02330-6.
2. Antonio Wong et al., “Global Epidemiology of Bat Coronaviruses,” Viruses 11, no. 2 (2019): 174, https://doi.org/10.3390/v11020174.
3. Gloriana Chaverri, Leonardo Ancillotto, and Danilo Russo, “Social Communication in Bats,” Biological Reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society 93, no. 4 (2018): 1938–54, https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12427.
If you do not know whether you need to add a reference or not, it is always safer to add it.
A great way to get used to how to place citations is to look at journal articles in your field of study and see how academics and researchers format their citations.
Secondary referencing
Sometimes you may want to cite a source quoted in another author’s work, this is known as secondary referencing. In this case, you should always try to locate and read the original source, this will ensure you are not taking the information out of context and allow you to reference the source as normal.
If you cannot find the original source (it may be out of print, unavailable or in a language you cannot read), then you can refer to this source in your in-text citation / footnote using ‘quoted in’ or ‘cited in’. For example in the Cite Them Right Harvard style:
…Smith (2018, quoted in Jones, 2020, p. 21) states clearly that…
Only the work you read is included in the bibliography or reference list (from our example, this would be the work by Jones.) Check the rules of your referencing style to see how to format your in-text citation for a secondary reference.
You’ll find further advice on integrating your sources effectively on the following pages:
The reference list
At a basic level, every referencing style will ask you to record some key components when writing a full reference for your reference list or bibliography, including who created the information, when, what it is called, and how you access it.
Different or additional components may be used for different types of information to make it easier to identify and locate them. The reference for a book, for example will look different to a reference for a newspaper article or an image.
For example, compare how you reference these three information types using Cite Them Right Harvard:
A book is referenced using the following components:
Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) Title. Edition. Place of publication: Publisher. Series and volume number if relevant.
e.g. Brinkmann, R. (2020) Environmental Sustainability in a Time of Change. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan
A journal article, meanwhile, includes some additional components, including title of article and issue/volume numbers:
Surname, Initial. (Year of publication) 'Title of article', Title of Journal, Issue and Volume information, Page reference.
e.g. Boussauw, K. (2023) ‘Expanding the Brussels ring road and the myth of travel time savings’, Urban, planning and transport research, 11(1), pp.345-367.
And a website is different again, including a URL and accessed date:
Surname, Initial. (Year that the site was published/last updated) Title of website. Available at: URL (Accessed: date).
e.g. Newcastle University (2025) Referencing. Available at: https://www.ncl.ac.uk/academic-skills-kit/good-academic-practice/referencing/ (Accessed: 5 March 2025)
We strongly recommend that you spend some time familiarising yourself with the rules of your referencing style. Learning the components needed for the information types you reference regularly will also help you to ensure you're recording all the bibliographic information you need to reference them correctly.