Choose a referencing style guide
Find guidelines for your school or subject area and apply them consistently throughout your piece of work, especially if you are bringing references together from different places. Find out more on the Libray SkillUp unit: Referencing: Style guidelines for your school/subject area
If you are not sure which style to use check your assignment brief or see your tutor or Module Leader.
Referencing skills materials
Go to the Referencing unit in Library SkillUP (Canvas module) helping you find, use and reference information for your academic success. You can +join the module and add it to your Canvas dashboard.
- The Library SkillUp module on Canvas requires login with your University username@herts.c.uk and password.
- It is available to all registered students, postgraduate students, researchers and staff.
Referencing software
For more in-depth work such as a thesis or dissertation, you may want to use reference management software. There are many software packages available, but the following are all well-established and widely used products:
Endnote
- EndNote is a reference manager owned by Clarivate that has two different versions: EndNote Desktop and EndNote Basic (Online).
- EndNote has a full range of features for collecting and organising references, and a plugin that allows you to cite EndNote references in MS Word.
- The Basic online version is free and more than adequate for undergraduate research projects. The Desktop version allows for more customised searches, you can store a much larger number of references and is more appropriate for Postgraduate Research students and Staff.
- EndNote Basic (Online) recommended for undergraduate student projects. You can create your own account here https://www.myendnoteweb.com/EndNoteWeb.html?func=slogout&locale=en_us&
Mendeley
- Mendeley is a general reference manager developed by academic publisher Elsevier, which you can sign up for and download free for your own devices.
- It has a desktop application and web version which should be used together.
- Mendeley has citation plugins for MS Word and Libre Office, and is also useful if you use a footnoted style like Chicago as it automatically inserts your footnotes when you insert citations in a text processor.
Zotero
- Zotero is a free, open source reference manager that offers flexibility due to the fact it can cite in MS Word, Libre Office, and Google Docs.
- Zotero is a good general reference manager that offers a range of features for collecting, organsing, and citing. If you're looking for something you can use when you leave the University and which is a free open source tool rather than being owned by a major publisher, then Zotero is a good option. It also works well with the OSCOLA referencing style, so if you use that it can often be the best reference manager to use.
Find out more in our Library SkillUP module and look for the unit: Software to manage your references.
Additional support and guidance for Staff use of referencing tools can be found on HertsHub (requires staff account login)