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The Library: Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism

What is referencing?

Referencing is how you acknowledge the sources you have used in creating your work. It ensures you get credit for your research, while also helping to avoid plagiarism. It is closely related to finding information and academic writing, which you can learn more about on the Skills for Learning website.

There are different ways of referencing but most of Leeds Beckett University uses the Harvard style (sometimes known as an Author-Year style). Details about Leeds Beckett's Harvard referencing style are in our guidelines called Quote, Unquote.

There are two other types of referencing used by specific subject areas:

For all other Schools and subjects use Quote, Unquote.

Zotero is an Open-Source reference manager that can help you manage, read, share, annotate and cite your research papers. See 'Get started with Zotero' for more information.

New to referencing?

Our interactive Reference Builder helps you to create references for some of the key sources of information you may want to cite (books, journals, websites). It is a great starting point for those new to referencing.

You can also develop your skills by watching a recording of our Harvard LBU referencing interactive workshop below.

You can also develop your skills by watching a recording of our Harvard LBU referencing interactive workshop below.

Ask us about referencing - try searching our frequently asked questions

Book an appointment

Daily appointments are usually available (weekdays only) where you can get more help with Harvard or OSCOLA (Law) or APA (Psychology) referencing. Click on Get Help below to book an appointment, or you can ask via the Library's Contact Us page.

Quote, Unquote

Leeds Beckett's Quote, Unquote guide provides information on the Harvard referencing system, including how to reference a variety of different formats and media.

For more information, visit Quote, Unquote.

Academic Honesty Tutorial

Students can access the Academic Honesty Tutorial in MyBeckett by clicking the link below.

Artificial intelligence tools

Before using any generative artificial intelligence or paraphrasing tools in your assessments, you should check if this is permitted on your course.

If their use is permitted on your course, you must acknowledge any use of generative artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT or paraphrasing tools (e.g., Grammarly, Quillbot, etc.), even if you have only used them to generate ideas for your assignment or for proofreading.

Skills for Learning workshops and events are mixture of live sessions and on demand recordings.