THE RUDIMENTS AND STYLES OF REFERENCING

Volume 5
27th November 2019

FROM THE DESK OF BUTY GLOBAL

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Academic writing is not usually limited to the ideas of one author; it employs the ideas of other sources. Among are journaled articles, websites, and so on. These other sources may be used to support the author's ideas, or the author may be discussing, analysing, or critiquing other sources (Massey University). Constructive critiquing is among the beauty of academic writing, hence the need for referencing and citation.
The constructs of referencing and citations cannot be farfetched from each other when defined; however, there is a need to clarify its definitions for the sake of purpose.

2.0 CONCEPTUALIZATION

2.1 The Pertinence of Referencing

In the 4th Volume released, references were defined as the list of all the relevant journals, books and all sources of information consulted in the research work, either online or print. It prevents academic fraud or academic theft which is referred to as plagiarism. Plagiarism should be avoided at all costs, all quoted and exact words of different sources should be properly referenced, in-text and at the references’ list/bibliography. MLA, APA and Chicago styles are the commonest referencing styles.
Referencing is usually employed to inform the reader where ideas from other sources were initially used. The pertinence of correct reference sources is to:
i. Give the right credits to the originators of ideas, theories, and research findings;

ii. Prove to the reader about proper finding and usage of various sources to create a convincing argument;
iii. Presents the argument that validates reality.

In a situation whereby proper acknowledgement is not given to sources, it is referred to as plagiarism. The only exception to acknowledging sources of information is when the information is known to be a common knowledge that is known to anyone. Also, when a researcher is unsure whether to reference a source or not, it is better to reference it.
There are two elements used in reference, they are:

Citation in the text (in-text citations); and
An entry in a reference list at the end of the study

The citation contains enough information for the reader to find the source in the reference list. This is usually the name of the source’s author and the year the source was published. For example: When some developed countries were implementing anticorruption strategies, it was recorded that top political leaders set themselves as role models for civil servants, divesting themselves of commercial ties, demonstrating high work ethics, avoiding any behaviour that could be construed as an abuse of their office, and showing zero tolerance for corrupt behaviour (Adeniran, 2019).
In this example, (Adeniran, 2019) tells the reader that this information has come from a source written by Adeniran, which was published in 2019. This is a signpost, pointing the reader to the reference list. References are a list of all the citations used in a study. It is alphabetized according to the names of the authors. Each entry in the reference list contains detailed information about one source which usually includes the author’s name, the year of publication, the title of the source, and other publication details.

2.2    The Pertinence of Citation

According to Turnitin (2017), a citation is a technique by which the writer informs the readers that certain material in the study emanates from another source. It also presents to the readers the necessary information to find that source again.

Acknowledging the original author of materials by citing sources is the only way to adopt other people’s work without plagiarizing. It enhances the tracing of the author’s ideas and the originator of ideas. Because of this, it will help to present if one's ideas could be more accurate or interesting than ideas gotten from other sources. Indeed, an accurate citation will help illustrate the amount of research that a researcher has carried out, and will actualize the originality of research.

3.0 REFERENCING STYLE

Each referencing styles has its peculiarities and purpose. For instance, the MLA style is suitable for writing humanities paper with a lot of quotations. It is a good choice to cite page numbers without interrupting the flow of your argument. APA or Chicago is suitable for writing a scientific paper where many studies are being cited. Ten popular ways of referencing styles are listed below:

ACM:

ACM referencing style is developed by the Association of Computing Machinery is based on Chicago style and is primarily used in computer studies.
Adeniran, A. O. 2019. Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries. American International Journal of Social Science Research. 4, 2 (Jun. 2019), 1-8.

ACS:

ACS referencing style is developed by the American Chemical Society. It is used primarily in chemistry papers. ACS style has three variations for the in-text citation. The choice of style depends on the journal.

Adeniran, A. O. Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries. aijssr 2019, 4, 1-8.

APA:

APA style was created by the American Psychological Association and was originally used in psychology and social sciences. It is the most dominant referencing style adopted today in many other disciplines. APA citation style uses an author-date system of the parenthetical citation. The revised 7th edition of the APA Publication Manual was released in October 2019.
Adeniran, A. O. (2019). Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries. American International Journal of Social Science Research, 4(2), 1-8. Retrieved from

ABNT:

ADENIRAN, A. O. Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries. American International Journal of Social Science Research, v. 4, n. 2, p. 1-8, 22 Jun. 2019.

Chicago:

Chicago style is published by The Chicago Manual of Style. There are two variations:
Chicago A: In this case, the citation is sourced in a footnote or endnote; and
Chicago B: In this case, a parenthetical author-date citation is adopted in the text.
Adeniran, Adetayo Olaniyi. 2019. “Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries”. American International Journal of Social Science Research 4 (2), 1-8. https://www.cribfb.com/journal/index.php/aijssr/article/view/328.

Harvard:

Harvard style is often used in the field of economics. There is no official style guide, which means there are a few variations. Some organizations have published their style guides for Harvard style:

British Standards Institution;
Australian Government Publishing Service (AGPS)
Like APA style, Harvard style is based on an author-date system.
Adeniran, A. O. (2019) “Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries”, American International Journal of Social Science Research, 4(2), pp. 1-8. Available at: https://www.cribfb.com/journal/index.php/aijssr/article/view/328 (Accessed: 27 November 2019).

IEEE:

IEEE referencing style is developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. It is a citation style often used in technical studies, such as IT and electrical engineering. IEEE style has guidelines for specific types of sources. For source types that are not covered in IEEE, Chicago style is used. IEEE uses a numeric system.
A. O. Adeniran, “Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries”, aijssr, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 1-8, Jun. 2019.

MLA:

MLA referencing style is currently in its 8th edition. It was developed by the Modern Language Association and is especially popular in language and literary studies. MLA uses parenthetical citations containing the author and page number.
Adeniran, A. O. “Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries”. American International Journal of Social Science Research, Vol. 4, no. 2, June 2019, pp. 1-8, https://www.cribfb.com/journal/index.php/aijssr/article/view/328.

Turabian:

Turabian was developed based on the Chicago style. It is specifically designed for students writing a research paper. Just like Chicago style, Turabian has two citation options:

A note system; and
An author-date system
Turabian note system is adopted in humanities (literature, history and the arts), while the author-date system is used in social sciences.
Adeniran, Adetayo Olaniyi. “Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries”. American International Journal of Social Science Research 4, no. 2 (June 22, 2019): 1-8. Accessed November 27, 2019. https://www.cribfb.com/journal/index.php/aijssr/article/view/328.

Vancouver:

Vancouver style was developed by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors (ICMJE) and is mostly used in medical disciplines. Vancouver style works with a numeric system. In the text, the source is indicated by a number, and the full source details appear next to that number in the reference list.
Adeniran AO. Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries. aijssr [Internet]. 22Jun.2019 [cited 27 Nov. 2019]; 4(2):1-8. Available from: https://www.cribfb.com/journal/index.php/aijssr/article/view/328

REFERENCES

Adeniran, A. O. (2019). Anti-Corruption Policy Strategies for Nigeria towards National Development: Evidence from Least Corrupt Countries. American International Journal of Social Science Research, 4(2), 1-8.
Turnitin (2017). What is a Citation? Retrieved from: www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-citation
Massey University (2019). What is Referencing? Retrieved from: will.massey.ac.nz/referencing/what-is-referencing.php
https://www.cribfb.com/journal

Please share this article with your friends, they may also benefit.
For more info, contact us on:
Website: https://www.butyglobal.com
Phone/WhatsApp: +2347036196773
YouTube Videos are available on:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCh0P42qssYJop9ZtRC5Bg1A
Email: butyglobalresearch@gmail.com
Join us on WhatsApp:
https://chat.whatsapp.com/FTVothMjIaLGkF8teG6bsP
https://chat.whatsapp.com/LfQkD0ID4zkFHuE7FrEhJ6
Like our Facebook page:
http://facebook.com/BUTY-Global-2175332295879012/?v=feed&ref=dbl&_rdr

contributing significantly to knowledge through research