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Referencing and avoiding plagiarism tutorial
This tutorial explains what plagiarism is, how to avoid it, and why and how you should acknowledge your sources.
Guide to references. citations and avoiding plagiarism 
This guide will help you understand why you need to reference. It also has a guide on how to use Harvard or Vancouver style referencing for a variety of different resources you might use for your academic work, including books, journals, conference proceedings, websites, social media and more.
Reference management software packages can help you:
There is a range of different software available; UCL Library Services provides support and guidance for EndNote, Zotero and Mendeley. These are all available to download for free or under UCL licences.
To be made up of:
If accessed on the internet, add:
In-text citation:
(Ofsted, 2015, p.3)
Reference list:
Ofsted. (2015). Inspection report: Oasis Academy, Enfield, 29-30 April 2015. Manchester: Ofsted. Available at: https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/134311. (Accessed: 12 May 2020).
These are published in the form of a letter to the Headteacher. Please use the following approach:
To be made up of:
If accessed on the internet, add:
In-text citation:
(Bonelli, 2018)
Reference list:
Bonelli, S. (2018). Short inspection of Oasis Academy Enfield. 26 June. Available at: https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/23/134311. (Accessed: 12 May 2020).
When you need something that preserves full anonymity, I would recommend adapting the above and taking this approach where school and Ofsted Inspector names, along with date of reports, are anonymised and/or redacted:
Organisation name. (year). Title of report [anonymised school name]. Place of publication: publisher. Available at: URL [full URL redacted]. (Accessed: date).
Using the example above, an anonymised reference to this report would read:
Ofsted. (2015). Inspection report: [School A]. Manchester: Ofsted. Available at: https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk [full URL redacted]. (Accessed: 12 May 2020).
This replaces form the name of the school, which you would use from the title of the report, with the pseudonym that is used within the rest of the work, and is placed within square brackets. The URL element then refers to the main Ofsted reports site, but the full link to the report is effectively redacted and this is acknowledged in square brackets too.
Using the short inspection example above, the anonymised version of this would read:
[Ofsted Inspector A]. (2018). Short inspection of [School A]. Available at: https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk [full URL redacted]. (Accessed: 12 May 2020).
Why is accurate referencing important? How do I reference sources correctly? What must I do to avoid plagiarism in my written work? How can I use referencing to assert my own ideas? This excellent new edition of The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism continues to demystify the referencing process and provide essential guidance to make sure you are not committing plagiarism.
Writing at University offers guidance on how to develop the writing you have to do at university along with a greater understanding of what is involved in this complex activity. This edition includes a section on avoiding plagiarism.
