Recording references
It is very important that you record the full details of all resources you use during your research for any assignments and projects. This is partly to demonstrate that you have read widely on the topic, but also to protect you from any possible allegations of plagiarism. It will also help to underpin your arguments and help to ensure your work has a sound factual basis.
You should record the bibliographic information about your materials when you still have direct access to them. Sometimes users try to find details of books and journal articles when they are no longer sure where they found them – and this is very time consuming and unreliable. If you record the details at the time it is much more straightforward.
When you come to cite the references in your work it is essential that you are consistent in the way you cite them, and this is where a referencing system comes in. TVU has adopted the Harvard system, and it should be used by all students in their assignments.
Citation Guides to the Harvard system
The following links include the TVU guide to the system and links to additional information.
TVU Guidelines on reference listing - the Harvard System
Dwyer, M. (1995) A guide to the Harvard referencing system. British Journal of Nursing 4(10) 25 May 599-602.
Ramirez, A. (1997) Referencing from the Internet: citation style for Internet sources using modified Harvard referencing. London: Thames Valley University. [unpublished]
Reference management software
TVU provides access to three software packages:
- EndNote (This is on all student and staff PC's). EndNote is most suitable for student needs, and it allows you to create references as you write up your work, importing the information from your database created during searching.
Guide
- EndNote Web (This is a web version of the Endnote software). Guide
- Reference Manager (This is on staff PC's). Reference Manager allows the sharing of databases and is ideal for groups of researchers.
These systems require an initial investment of time to get to know them, but once you are familiar with them they can save you a great deal of time in saving and organising your references.
You can purchase copies of this software at a reduced rate for use at home. Go to the Adept4Education entry on this page for more information.