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Philosophy: Referencing Guide

Revision cards with writing on and a penAcknowledging, or referencing, the sources of the quotes, theories, ideas, etc. you've used in your work will help you to avoid accusations of plagiarism.

The Faculty of Philosophy does not impose any particular referencing style. Many different ways of giving references are used in academic publications. All systems are acceptable, provided they are applied consistently. APA, Chicago, Harvard and MHRA are commonly used in key Philosophy publications.

  1. References may be given either in the main text of your essay, or in a footnote or endnote. References are in brackets and take the form of the author's surname, followed by date of publication, followed (if appropriate) by page number(s), e.g. (Wiggins 1997, 251). Note that all quotations must be supplied with page references, but if you are referring to an author's text in general terms, then page numbers aren't required. 
  2. Full details of all the works to which you refer must be supplied in a list of references or bibliography at the end of your essay.

For further information see the Faculty's Guide to presenting and referencing undergraduate extended essays and dissertations and Presentation of graduate work.

We have access to Cite Them Right which is very useful for answering all your referencing questions!

Guides to referencing and style guides can be found in the Study skills section of the Philosophy Library.

Contact library staff for any specific referencing queries or to find out more about referencing management software such as Zotero.

Training & Guides

The Good academic practice and plagiarism LibGuide offers an online tutorial to help you understand plagiarism and referencing basics.

Training in using reference management tools is provided by Cambridge University Libraries.  

LibGuides for Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote also provide helpful information and advice.

Managing your references

A citation manager helps you keep track of articles and books as you find them, and to easily create (and share) citations and bibliographies in whatever style you choose.

Two popular free reference management tools are:

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