When you use information, it’s important to know how to correctly credit the original author/s.  Your School may require that you use a specific referencing style to acknowledge all the sources of information you use in an assessment.   

This section will cover:

• What is referencing?  How do you integrate your information sources into writing an assignment?
• RMIT Easy Cite referencing tool
• Tools for managing your references

RMIT University Library (19 July 2021) ‘What is referencing’ [video], RMIT University Library, YouTube website, accessed 22 February 2023. https://youtu.be/KaMH-w-4Cd0

Easy Cite is the main guide to referencing at RMIT University (Melbourne). It contains rules and examples for many of the referencing styles used at RMIT.

Easy Cite provides an overview of each referencing style, and examples of how to cite and reference different types of information sources.

If you copy a reference, use a citation generator or reference manager, you'll still need to check Easy Cite to ensure your references are correctly formatted. Otherwise you could lose marks on your assessment.

You can access Easy Cite from the "Library essentials" section on the Library homepage, or google "RMIT easy cite".

Watch this video for a demonstration of how to use the Easy Cite referencing tool.

RMIT University Library (27 June 2022) ‘How to use Easy Cite’ [video], RMIT University Library, YouTube website, accessed 22 February 2023. https://youtu.be/KaMH-w-4Cd0

 Activity: Practise referencing

Citation tools and reference managers can save you time and help with referencing.

Citations tools

• LibrarySearch, Library databases and Google Scholar generate citations formatted in popular referencing styles.
• You can copy and paste the citation into your reference list and use RMIT Easy Cite to ensure it is correctly formatted in your required referencing style.
• Citation generators are quick and easy to use. They do not help with in text citations.

Reference managers

• Reference managers are software programs that you can use to collect, store, and organise your references.
• You can use a reference manager to insert in text citations and create a reference list in your Word document, and easily change the referencing style.
• LibrarySearch, Library databases and Google Scholar include options to export multiple search results into a reference manager.
• Examples of reference management tools include EndNote desktop, EndNote online, Mendeley and Zotero.  

See the Library's Reference management tools webpage for information about these tools, and how to install and use them.

 Activity: What is the best option for managing my references?