Referencing Styles
Referencing is an essential part of academic writing. It allows you to acknowledge the ideas or words of other researchers when you use them in your work and helps you to avoid plagiarism.
The University of Glasgow has no single, set referencing style. However, it is common for subjects to have a prescribed or recommended referencing style so you should always check your course handbook/Moodle or with your course convenor if there is a specific referencing style you should use for your assignments.
Referencing styles will usually be set out in a style guide/publication for that particular referencing style. Some style guides are available online (as websites and/or downloadable documents) while others are only available as publications you will need to search for and access via the Library.
- Oxford University Standards for Citation of Legal Authorities (OSCOLA) (pdf, external link)
- MLA (external link)
- Vancouver (numbered) (external link)
General referencing guides
The Library also has a number of general books on referencing which will include details of the most commonly used styles:
- The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism Colin Neville Open University Press 2010 2nd ed. Library Level 9 Annexe (Gen Lit C300.F56 NEV2)
- Cite right: a quick guide to citation styles--MLA, APA, Chicago, the sciences, professions, and more / Charles Lipson University of Chicago Press 2011 2nd ed. Level 9 Annexe (Gen Lit C300.F56 LIP)
- Cite them right: the essential referencing guide / Richard Pears, Graham Shields Palgrave Macmillan 2010 8th ed. Library Level 8 Annexe (Gen Lit C300.F56 PEA)