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How to cite

Below are some guidelines and real-life examples for in-text citations and references in your papers in the APA, Chicago, Harvard, ISO 690 and Vancouver citation styles. In addition to providing an indicator of quality, by citing correctly you respect copyright and avoid plagiarism.

Basic concepts

When embarking on an activity, project or piece of research, the likelihood is that someone else has written about the same subject before and you need to do some research. You must always identify the sources used so that readers know where your ideas came from.

In order to do this, you need a very clear understanding of these key concepts:

Citation

This is a mention in your paper of something that was written or said by someone else. This could be, for example, an article, a podcast or a tweet. It must follow a citation style or standard and include a minimum amount of information identifying the source. For example:

90% of students have no problem successfully completing the first stage (Sánchez, 2010).

Bibliographical reference

This is all the basic data needed to identify the sources used. It must follow a citation style or standard. The full list of references must be included in the bibliography at the end of your work, and every citation in the text must have a reference in the bibliography. For example:

Garita, R. [Renato]. (2010). Modelos y teorías computacionales de la memoria humana: Un estado de la cuestión y análisis crítico. Revista Educación, 34(2), 75–94.

Citation styles

A citation style is a set of guidelines for citing and referencing sources in your work. There are many different citation styles.

Learn how to choose which one to use link opens in a new window

Plagiarism

This involves taking someone else's idea and passing it off as your own. Copying and pasting a text from the internet without citing the source can be considered plagiarism. This is a serious offence at the UOC.

Library guide: How to avoid plagiarism

Citation style

Are you unsure which style to use? Consider the field of your faculty and the guidelines provided by your teachers. The most important thing is consistency: always use the same style in your citations, both in the text itself and in the bibliography.

The information to be included will depend on the type of document you are citing. Look at examples on how different types of content in physical and digital format should be cited in the most widely used citation styles:

Vancouver

Very commonly used in the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Start citing
Chicago

Often used in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

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Harvard

Commonly used in the Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications.

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ISO 690

This standard is appropriate for any faculty.

Start citing

Interactive infographic: Citation models and examples link opens in a new window

Below are a few citation examples for the most commonly used digital formats.

Useful citation tools

Reference managers

There are reference management tools available that can be used to store and manage your digital library and automatically generate lists of references for your academic papers.

At the UOC, we recommend the following two:

Mendeley

This is a multi-platform reference manager that helps you organize your documents using the Mendeley Reference Manager tool. It lets you import, catalogue and export your references.

Access
Zotero(Link opens in a new window)

This is a free open-source multi-platform reference manager developed by Mozilla Firefox . It can be used in word processors, such as Microsoft Word, LibreOffice Writer and Google Docs, to manage your citations and collections of references.

Access (link opens in a new window)

Mendeley has a browser extension for saving references from the websites you consult and a plug-in for Microsoft Word for the automatic creation of bibliographies based on your collection of references.

If you use automatic citation tools, bear in mind the guidelines for citations for each style and make sure you review the resulting bibliography afterwards.

Other tools

Gender Balance Assessment Tool (GBAT) link opens in a new window

If you upload or paste your bibliographic references to this page, you can find out what percentage of the authors you are citing are female.

Google Scholar link opens in a new window

If you use Google Scholar, you can automatically cite a document using the MLA, APA or ISO 690 styles. Click on the quotation mark icon.

Library catalogue link opens in a new window

Automatic citations (APA, Vancouver and ISO 690) for search results can also be produced from the UOC Library's online catalogue.