Early Childhood Education and Care: Referencing

The Library, in consultation with ATU's Academic Council, has developed a referencing guide based on the Harvard citation style. The Harvard style is one of a myriad of citation styles available to students, but it is the most common one used in ATU.

The important thing to remember when referencing is to be consistent with whatever style you are using.

The ATU Harvard style is based on British Standard BS ISO 690: 2010. It is an author-date style, where you put the name of the author, the year the information was published and the relevant page number(s) in brackets after the quote or paraphrase in your document. At the end of the document you make a reference list of your sources, in a specific format.

There will be two parts to every reference you use:

• The in text citation, where you refer to the information you have collected during your research, and
• The reference list at the end of your text, which gives the full details of the works so that your readers can follow up for themselves

The Library's referencing guide  describes the rules of the Harvard style in detail, and gives examples of references for books, ebooks, journal articles, newspapers, databases etc.

It is extremely important to cite and reference your sources in any work you produce for your assignments. Referencing is a way of acknowledging that you have used the ideas and written material of another author. It demonstrates that you have searched the appropriate literature and that you have read on your topic. It enables anyone reading your work to look up your citations and read them for themselves.

See the Library's referencing guide.