Bibliographic referencing in academic work

When writing an essay, thesis, dissertation or any other piece of academic writing, it is essential to cite (list) any material that you use from another source, whether it is taken from a book, article, web site or other work.

Why bibliographic referencing is important

If you cite the sources you have used in your work you can

  • gain higher marks; inaccurate, incomplete or inconsistent referencing loses marks
  • avoid accidental plagiarism by methodically citing the sources you have used
  • give credit to those whose work you have quoted or paraphrased
  • allow those who read your work to locate and read the sources you have used
  • build on your research skills; good bibliographic referencing is essential to academic writing in higher education

Collect and store bibliographic records for the sources you use 

When viewing a list of search results in the Voyager, eLibrary or other electronic resource you can store the bibliographic records for books and articles for later use.

You can also collect and store records in bibliographic referencing software.

Cite the sources you have used in endnotes, footnotes and bibliographies

Bibliographic referencing software at AU

These supported applications are available to help you gather, manage and format bibliographic records and cite them in word-processed documents

  • EndNote is a fully-featured bibliographic referencing application available in AU computer rooms and on other AU-owned computers, and available for purchase on personal computers
  • EndNote Web is an online version of EndNote but with less features, free to all AU staff and students. This step-by-step introductory guide: Building bibliographies with EndNote Web demonstrates the essential features
  • The Citations & Bibliography tool in Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010 allows you to add bibliographic records by hand for instant citations and bibliographies. This step-by-step introductory Guide to Citations and Bibliography in Microsoft Word 2010 demonstrates the essential features.

Further advice

More reference sources on bibliographic referencing are available in the library and online.