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When do I need to reference?
When do I need to reference?
You should include a reference whenever you use ideas, words or information from another source. You might include a quotation - you might be summarising or paraphrasing ideas from the source - or you might want to use an image or table from another source in your assignment.
Examples of sources include books, articles, reports, web pages, videos, documentaries or online discussion forums.
You don't need to reference information that is common knowledge (e.g. Canberra is the capital of Australia).
APA Referencing
APA Referencing
At Viewbank College, you will be asked to use the APA Style for your referencing. There are two parts to an APA reference:
- An in-text citation
This is a brief reference in your text next to the information you have used from the source. It includes the author, date of publication and page numbers if applicable.
(Pascoe, 2019, p. 68)
- A bibliography
This is a list of the works you have mentioned or quoted in your text - as well as any other sources you used for your background reading. It should be included at the end of your assignment, organised alphabetically by author name.
The APA Style guide provides detailed information about what you need to include about your references, and how you should format it. See below for more guidance on how to format different types of references using APA.
- Quotations
There are also rules around how you format your text when you quote directly from a source, depending on the length of your quotation. See the section below for more information.
Why reference?
Why reference?
Acknowledge your sources and avoid plagiarism
Strengthen your arguments by showing that they are backed up by experts
Demonstrate that you have researched your subject
Enable your reader to identify what sources you used - with all the information they need to locate the same sources
In-text citation
In-text citation
The author, date and, if applicable, the page number. There are some variations in how you should present this information.
Author name
Author name
Where the author is an individual, use the surname:
(Pascoe, 2018, p.34)
If there are two authors: (Pascoe & Briggs).
For three or more authors: (Pascoe et al., p. 41)
If the author is an organisation, use the full name:
(Better Health Channel, 2014)
If you mention the author within your writing you don't need to repeat it in your citation:
Pascoe noted that "aquaculture was well established in Australia long before the first colonists arrived" (2019, p. 68).
If you cannot find the author name, use the title (italicised) instead:
The Life of Insects (1979) or (The Life of Insects, 1979)
Date of publication
Date of publication
You can usually find the date of publication at the start or end of a published book, report or article. For a web page look for the date the web page was last updated - often at the bottom of the page. If you cannot find a date, use n.d.
(U.S. Census Bureau, n.d.)
Date of publication for an online report:
On a web page you might need to scroll right to the bottom of the page to find a date - look for the last updated date - alternatively find a publication date, reviewed date or copyright date.
Quotations
Quotations
If you include a short quote (less than 40 words) you can include it within your text, using quotation marks :
Effective teams can be difficult to describe because “high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another” (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).
A quotation of more than 40 words is called a block quotation. Indent the quote on a new line. You don't need quotation marks.
Flores et al. (2018) described how they addressed potential researcher bias when working with an intersectional community of transgender people of color:
Everyone on the research team belonged to a stigmatized group but also held privileged identities. Throughout the research process, we attended to the ways in which our privileged and oppressed identities may have influenced the research process, findings, and presentation of results. (p. 311)
Bibliography
Bibliography
A bibliography is a list of the works you have mentioned or quoted in your text - as well as any other sources you used for your background reading. It should be included at the end of your assignment, organised by author name, in alphabetical order.
APA provides rules for how you should present your reference for each type of source. Examples are included below for the most commonly used source types.
La Trobe University's Academic Referencing Tool (https://latrobe.libguides.com/apa7) is a fantastic resource - it has details about many types of sources, and advice on how to deal with the various queries you might have when trying to correctly format your bibliography and citations.
Some websites provide suggested citations which you can copy and paste - but do check the formatting. There are also free online tools you can use to save and create references - see the links at the bottom of this page for some examples.
Web page
Web page
Author, A. A. or Corporate Author. (Year, Month Day). Title of webpage. Website name. http://xxxxxx
Better Health Channel. (2014). Air pollution. https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/HealthyLiving/air-pollution
Include a separate reference for each page used from a website
If there is no date on a webpage you can use (n.d.) in place of the date
Sometimes web page references include a retrieval date (the day you accessed the site) - this is only necessary if the material is likely to change
Journal article
Journal article
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Journal, Volume(Issue), pp–pp.
Grant, R. (1999). Mobiles on the brain. British Medical Journal, 318(7196), 1495.
Magazine article
Magazine article
Author, A.A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of Magazine, Volume(Issue), pp-pp.
Lyons, D. (2009, June 15). Don’t ‘iTune’ us: It’s geeks versus writers. Guess who’s winning. Newsweek, 153(24), 27.
If its an online article, leave out the volume and page numbers and add the URL:
Schulman, M. (2019, September 9). Superfans: A love story. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/16/superfans-a-love-story
Newspaper Article
Newspaper Article
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of newspaper, p. or pp.
Carmody, B. (2019, October 24). Podcasts leapfrog music listening. The Age, p. 16.
Blog post
Blog post
Author, A. A. (Year, Month Day). Title of article. Title of blog. URL.
Ouellette, J. (2019, November 15). Physicists capture first footage of quantum knots unraveling in superfluid. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/science/2019/11/study-you-can-tie-a-quantum-knot-in-a-superfluid-but-it-will-soon-untie-itself/
Government Report
Government Report
Author, A. A. or Corporate Author. (Year). Title of work. Publisher.
Victorian Health Promotion Foundation. (2019). Action Agenda for Health Promotion 2019–2023. https://www.vichealth.vic.gov.au/-/media/ResourceCentre/PublicationsandResources/Action-Agenda/Action-Agenda-2019_2023.pdf
When the publisher is the same as the author, omit the publisher.
For an online government report, add the URL
Books
Books
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work. Publisher.
Benesch, S. (2001). Critical English for academic purposes: Theory, politics, and practice. Lawrence Erlbaum.
For an ebook, add the URL:
Jackson, L. M. (2019). The psychology of prejudice: From attitudes to social action (2nd ed.). American Psychological Association. https://doi.org/10.1037/0000168-000
If its an edited book, add (Ed.) after the author
Atkinson, S. (Ed.). (2015). The sociology book. London: Dorling Kinnersley.
For a chapter from a book:
Dillard, J. P. (2020). Currents in the study of persuasion. In M. B. Oliver, A. A. Raney, & J. Bryant (Eds.), Media effects: Advances in theory and research (4th ed., pp. 115–129). Routledge.
Online pamphlet or leaflet
Online pamphlet or leaflet
Follow the same format as report references and add a description of the type of resource in square brackets after the title, e.g. [Brochure].
Cedars-Sinai. (2015). Human papillomavirus (HPV) and oropharyngeal cancer [Brochure]. https://www.cedars-sinai.org/content/dam/cedars-sinai/cancer/sub-clinical-areas/head-neck/documents/hpv-throat-cancer-brochure.pdf
Online Video
Online Video
YouTube:
YouTube:
Khan Academy. (2011, September 12). Childhood growth [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/gF0aA-si89Y
Ted Talk:
Ted Talk:
Cuddy, A. (2012, June). Your body language may shape who you are [Video]. TED Conferences. https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_may_shape_who_you_are
Generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT)
Generative AI (e.g. ChatGPT)
Note: A suggested reference is listed below. However, use of Generative AI as a source is not recommended - data may be inaccurate and cannot be reproduced later for checking. Talk to your teacher about whether to use an AI source for your assignment – and keep a copy of the full text of chat responses – you may be asked to provide it.
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
Charts, figures and images
Charts, figures and images
When you use or reproduce charts, figures or images from another source, you should reference it in a Note section underneath the object, and add the full reference to the source to your bibliography. Here are some examples:
An image sourced from a web page
An image sourced from a web page
Figure 1
Production
Note. From Production, by Viewbank College, 2020 (https://www.viewbank.vic.edu.au/production).
A chart sourced from an online report
A chart sourced from an online report
Figure 2
Proportion of students physically active for 60 minutes on four or more days in the past week by sex over time.
Note. From Physical Activity in Australian Secondary School Students by Cancer Council, 2021 (https://www.cancer.org.au/assets/pdf/physical-activity-in-australian-secondary-school-students).
A table adapted from a journal articles
A table adapted from a journal articles
Table 1
Participant Information of Dog Owner Interviews about Dog Walking
Note. Adapted from “I Walk my Dog Because it Makes me Happy: A Qualitative Study to Understand Why Dogs Motivate Walking and Improved Health,” by C. Westgarth, R. M. Christley, G. Marvin and E. Perkins, 2017, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(8), Article 936 (https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080936).
Need more help?
Need more help?
Free online tools like EasyBib or Mendeley can help you get your referencing right
La Trobe University's Academic Reference Tool - guidance on how to cite a range of resource types
Examples used in the guide were sourced from https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/quotations, https://uniskills.library.curtin.edu.au/referencing/apa7/tables-and-figures/ and https://latrobe.libguides.com/apa7
Acknowledging sources - this online modules takes you through how and when to cite your sources
Citing and referencing: APA - detailed guide from Monash University
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