Academic Research Booklet

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Using other people’s work When undertaking academic research you’re expected to make use of other people’s work to inform your own ideas, opinions and conclusions. The way to do this without committing plagiarism is by using citations and references. Being transparent about where your information came from allows the reader to follow your research trail and verify the information for themselves should they wish to.

A source or resource is the source of information i.e., a book or website.

A citation is an acknowledgement within your text where a particular piece of information was taken from another piece of work. A citation appears within the body of the essay

A reference is what the citation refers to; a reference is a note of the full publication details. References are listed at the end of an essay; the list is called a bibliography .