BPP University uses several referencing styles and the reference style that you need to use depends on the subject that you are studying. This section will explain how to cite and reference different sources, provides links to the different referencing guides and explains how you can manage your references.
If you are unsure which referencing style you need to use, please contact your Personal Tutor or Programme Support Officer for advice.
Referencing is used in academic study to acknowledge the information sources that you have included in your academic work. It is important that you reference the sources that you have used:
Each information source needs to have a citation in your text and the full details of the source needs to be provided in the reference list or bibliography at the end of your work.
Further information about referencing is available from An Introduction to Referencing (video)
Each time that you refer to or quote from someone else’s work you need to include a citation in your work. The format of the citation will differ according to the referencing style you are using but usually includes the author’s name and date of publication in brackets.
Example
Smith (2020) argued that…
“As a nurse you are personally accountable for your actions” (Baillie and Black, 2014, p. 40).
The reference list or bibliography is a list of all the items in alphabetical order that you have referred to at the end of your work. The format of the citation will differ according to the referencing style you are using.
Example
Boyes, A. (2022) How to stop procrastinating. Harvard Business Review, 100(3), pp.143–147.
Cottrell, S (2021) Skills for success : personal development and employability. 4th ed. London: Macmillan Education.
Pears, R. and Shields, G (2019) Cite then right : the essential referencing guide. 11th ed. London: Red Globe Press.
Plagiarism is defined as copying or paraphrasing someone else’s work without acknowledging the source. You can avoid being accused of plagiarism by:
When you submit your assignments you may be asked to submit it to Turnitin which is a database that checks your work for originality.
Further information about plagiarism is available from Routledge-What is plagiarism?
BPP University uses several referencing styles, click on the subject that you are studying to access the relevant referencing guide.
BPP University Referencing Guidance
The BPP University Referencing Guidance should be used by most new Law programmes for professional communications. Students on other Law programmes may be asked to use other referencing systems, for example, OSCOLA for academic submissions. Further information will be provided to students on their programme.
OSCOLA
This reading list provides an overview of some of the Study Support resources that are available from the BPP Library.
It is important that as you are reading and taking notes that you keep a record of the information sources that you read to save time trying to find it later. You could keep create a document or spreadsheet to keep a list of the different sources you use. There is also free referencing software available that you can download such as Zotero and Mendeley which enable you to upload and create a library of the information sources that you have read.
More information is available from the Introduction to Zotero online video.
