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Electronics, Electrical Engineering & Computer Science: Citing and referencing

Citing and referencing

This guide gives a brief introduction to citing and referencing. It also highlights useful tools which can help you manage references and save you time when formatting citations and creating bibliographies.

Please also check referencing requirements and guidance made available by your School. If you are not sure which citation style your School requires, check with your supervisor.

Cite Them Right Online

Cite Them Right Logo

Cite them right online is designed to help you reference print, electronic or performance sources accurately. The website has been developed from the book Cite them right: the essential referencing guide by Richard Pears and Graham Shields.

Overviews/guides to the following styles are available:
APA 7th
Harvard
Chicago
IEEE
MHRA
MLA (9th)
OSCOLA

Vancouver

Why does citing and referencing matter?

When writing a piece of work, it is essential to give accurate references to all the sources you have used, so that:

  • readers will be able to find the originals easily
  • the breadth of your research will be evident
  • you will avoid the serious academic offence of plagiarism
Always make sure you check the accuracy of your references and be aware that AI chatbots frequently generate fake references.  For more information on using artificial intelligence sources (AI) in academic work, Cite Them Right Online provides an overview here.

The Learning Development Service offers one-to-one support for undergraduates.

Further information

Instructions for Authors in the Health Sciences - The Mulford Health Science Library at the University of Toledo has gathered links to author pages for Health Science publications

OSCOLA (the Oxford Standard for Citation of Legal Authorities) has been adopted by the Law School at Queen's for legal referencing

Most journal publishers include an 'instructions to authors' guide on their web pages. These usually include some information on the referencing system they prefer:

Which referencing style should I use?

There are many different referencing styles to choose from, but two major styles are Harvard (or Author-Date System) and Vancouver (or Numeric System). These styles are outlined below.

Please note: individual Schools/Departments or journal publishers will often use a 'house-style' or variant of one of these systems. It is always advisable to check with your supervisor or editor about their preferred referencing style.

The easiest way to manage references is to use a reference management service that will automatically format citations and bibliographies for you. A number of available services are outlined in the "Reference management" tab of this guide.

Harvard (Author-Date System)

In Harvard, the originator's name and year of publication of the cited document are given after each citation:

Predictability has been defined as the knowledge the person has about when and under what circumstances an event will occur (Miller, 1981).

References are arranged at the end of the text in alphabetical order, and also by year and letter, if necessary:

MILLER, S.M. (1981) Predictability and human stress: toward a clarification of evidence and theory. In: L. Berkowitz ed., Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, Vol. 14, Academic Press, New York, pp.203-255.

For more information on using Harvard, click here (PDF).

Vancouver (Numeric System)

In Vancouver, numerals are used in the text (usually in parentheses) to refer to cited documents:

Adhesion to dentin is often promoted by acid pre-treatment [1]. The maintenance of conformation is important for facilitating the penetration of bonding materials [2].

References are listed at the end of the text in numerical order:

  1. D.H. Pashley, B. Ciucchi, H. Sano and J.A. Horner, Permeability of dentin to adhesive agents. Quint Int 24 (1993), pp. 618 - 631.
  2. N. Nakabayashi, Dentin bonding mechanisms. Quint Int 22 (1991), pp. 73 - 74.

For more information on using Vancouver, click here

Citing online resources

Citing books and print journal articles is usually straightforward. Citing electronic references can be trickier, but remember: the same basic style rules apply as when citing printed references. Click on the links in the Harvard and Vancouver boxes above for examples of references to electronic sources.

Quite often with electronic sources, basic elements of a reference may be missing (e.g. author, publication date). As guidance, the British Standard Information and documentation - Bibliographic reference - Part 2: Electronic documents or part thereof (BS ISO 690-2:1997) states that:

"Elements are required only if you have no reason to suspect that an article in an electronic version of a journal is different from the document itself or its accompanying material."

So, if you have no reason to suspect that an article in an electronic version of a journal is different from the printed version, then you can simply reference it as you would the printed version.

Need more help with referencing and citations?

The Learning Development Service (LDS) at Queen’s provides referencing support for undergraduate students. You can access the referencing section of the Transition Skills for University module. In addition undergraduate students can avail of one-to-one support.

All students, undergraduate and postgraduate, can access Cite Them Right online which is designed to help you reference print, electronic or performance sources accurately.

For additional queries, postgraduate students may ask their Subject Librarian for assistance.