To reference correctly, you need to acknowledge your source(s) at the point where the information is being used – this is called a citation. Citations include the author’s last name, the year of publication and page number(s) where appropriate and link to the corresponding reference in your bibliography or reference list.

Examples of how to use in-text citations are shown below.

Use quotation marks and state the author, year and page number(s).

“When we hang on to a rose-tinted version of history we deprive ourselves and our children of the truth” (Rosling, 2019, p. 72)

The following could also be used…

According to Rosling “When we hang on to a rose-tinted version of history we deprive ourselves and our children of the truth” (2019, p. 72).

– when using online material, use only the author and year when there is no page number available

Quotation marks are not used for longer quotations. Instead, indent the quote from the margin.

Bias has a huge impact on how individuals recall particular events. As Agarwal states:

Being asked to recollect an event that has happened in the past places a high cognitive load on us, and we are more likely to fall back on our implicit bias and use heuristics for any sort of decision-making. We may distort our earlier predictions after we know the outcome, or we may view events as inevitable, assuming that the outcome was always going to happen. We also assume that we knew this all along. This can be caused by false memory of recall bias.

(2020, p. 193)

As such, an individuals unconscious bias…

Use ‘[]’ to add your own words to add clarification to a quote.

“In 2012, in the midst of the debate over the health [and Social Care] act, the NHS budget was underspent and £2 billion was returned to the Treasury” (Davis and Tallis, 2013, p. 197)

Use an ellipsis (…) to omit sections within a continuing quote.

“The Arctic Ocean is 5.4 million square miles … The continental shelves on its ocean bed occupy more space proportionally than any other ocean” (Marshall, 2016, p.268).

– ensure that the meaning of the quote is not lost by excluding the section of text

When there are more than three authors, state only the name of the first author followed by ‘et al.‘ (this means ‘and others’).

Longhurst et al. (2008) argues that…

Use the title of the source when there is no author. This should be italicised.

Current data (World Development Report, 2021) shows…

When using multiple sources from the same author in the same year you need to include lower case letters (e.g. ‘a’, ‘b’, ‘c’ etc.) to differentiate them.

Biram (2020b) considers this…

Use ‘no date’ when there is no year of publication available.

One line of argument (Saad, no date) questions…

This is when you use a source that has been referred to in another text. It is discouraged in academic writing and should be used sparingly as you should always go back to the original text.

Use this format in your in-text citation:

If a quote:

Weitzman (2017 quoted in Fankhauser, 2018, p.39) argues…

If a summary:

Weitzman (2017, cited in Fankhauser, 2018) argues…


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