How to choose and follow a referencing style

Harvard, APA, Chicago, MLA or Vancouver: how to pick the right style for your work and avoid the errors that come back in every draft.

Your referencing style decides how you cite sources, how you list them and how you punctuate the details. Choosing the wrong style, or mixing two of them, is one of the most common reasons a document needs rework. This guide explains how to choose and how to stay consistent.

Start with the rules you are given

Before you choose anything, check what your university, supervisor or journal asks for. A journal’s author guidelines always come first, followed by your department’s handbook. If nothing is specified, ask your supervisor which style the department uses, rather than guessing.

Know the main styles

• Harvard uses the author and year in the text, such as (Smith, 2020). It is widely used in UK universities, although each university publishes its own version.
• APA also uses author and year, with a reference list in a set format. It is common in psychology, education and other social sciences.
• Chicago offers notes and bibliography, or author-date. It is common in history and parts of the humanities.
• MLA uses the author and page number, with a Works Cited list. It is common in literature and languages.
• Vancouver uses numbered citations in the order they first appear. It is common in medicine and the health sciences.

Be consistent in three places

Consistency means the same rules in three places: the citations in the text, the reference list and the punctuation around them. Pick one style guide and make a short note of the rules you check most often, such as how you write “et al.”, whether journal titles are italic, and how you show page numbers.

Use a reference manager, then check it

Reference managers such as Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote can format a list in your chosen style. They save a lot of time, but they make mistakes with capital letters, missing DOIs and names with particles such as “van” or “de”. Check the output against two or three entries in your style guide before you trust the whole list.

Watch for the errors that come back

• A citation in the text with no matching entry in the list, or the reverse
• A missing year, page number or publisher
• Book and journal titles in the wrong format
• Using “et al.” too early or too late, against the rules of your style
• Mixing a direct quotation and a paraphrase without marking the difference

If you want us to apply a style for you, our formatting service includes the reference list. We check consistency across the text and the list, and we flag any entry that needs the original source.

Takeaways

• Follow the instructions from your university or journal first
• Learn the main author-date and numbered styles
• Keep the same rules in the text, the list and the punctuation
• Check reference manager output by hand
• Ask for referencing to be checked as a separate task if it matters for your submission

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