Referencing and academic integrity

This section covers nine different referencing styles:

APA | Chicago | Harvard | MHRA | MLA | Numerical | OSCOLA | RSC | Vancouver

While we want everyone at Sussex to be independent thinkers, there are some academic conventions that we need you to follow! These are the features of referencing and citation, and also the rules of academic integrity. Many students worry about referencing and how to get it right, as well as making sure that they are not unintentionally cheating. This section on Skills Hub is here to help you follow the guidance correctly, and you can come back again and again whenever you have another assessment to write.

What do you want to learn about?

It will be helpful for you to work through this page on Referencing and academic integrity in its entirety. However, if you want to know what is a priority for you, consider the questions below:

• Could you explain to other students why you should reference your work? 
  If not, look at the Why do I need to reference section to see why you should.
  
  
• Do you know the different ways that you can use another thinker’s ideas in your writing?
  If not, read How do I reference quotes and ideas? for various methods.
  
  
• Do you know what information you need to include in a reference?
  If not, take a look at What information should I include in a reference?
  
  
• Are you up-to-date with the rules for your school’s preferred referencing style?
  If not, keep checking the Referencing Styles section as changes are occasionally made. Why not bookmark the page you need so you can easily come back to it.
  
  
• Do you know what plagiarism is, why it is wrong and how to avoid it?
  If not, visit the Plagiarism section to learn more. It’s important! 
  
  
• Can you name other forms of academic misconduct, or cheating?
  If not, check the information on Collusion, Exam misconduct, Personation and Fabrication of results. Make sure you know what these forms of misconduct are and how to avoid them.
  
  

Why do I need to reference?

An academic textbook

Your assignments should result from your own hard work and they need to show academic integrity. That said, your work is not limited to just your views and opinions. Instead, it should be developed by thinking about ideas put forward by others.

Be honest about anyone else's ideas that you have used or mentioned in your work and acknowledge these sources clearly. This practice is referred to as citing or referencing and it is crucial to maintaining academic integrity.

Whenever you directly copy the words of another author (quoting) or put their ideas into your own words (paraphrasing) you must acknowledge that you have done so.

This practice helps to:

• substantiate the knowledge and theories that you present in your work
• show that you have researched your material, and that the ideas you present have been considered in light of documented material on the subject
• demonstrate that you have read a range of sources
• allow your readers to identify and retrieve your sources for their own use
• avoid plagiarism.

How do I reference quotes and ideas?

If you are using someone else's words, the words must be indented or in quotation marks. These actions show that you are not claiming the work is your own. You must also provide a reference to show where the words came from, to help the reader find the source. See Direct quotes for more information.

If you are using your own words to describe someone else's ideas, you still need to give a reference to their work. See Paraphrased ideas for more information.

• Direct quotes

  A direct quote is where you have used the exact words (or graphs, or other information) from someone else's work. Direct quotes can be very useful for supporting an argument or establishing a point of view. Whenever you use a direct quote, you must indent the quote or put it in quotation marks.

  Direct quotes should be in quotation marks ("") if they are relatively short. Longer quotes should be put in a separate paragraph, and indented. In this example from a student's essay, look at how the two quotes are presented differently:

  Fletcher points out that scholars have interpreted the Rwandan genocide as being organised by the state:

   

  The most common explanation for the Rwandan genocide interprets the violence as a state project, whereby elites were able to manipulate and bully the population into carrying out their programme of mass slaughter (Fletcher 2007, p.28).

  Straus agrees with this, saying that scholars have presented the Rwandan genocide as “a state-organised, planned extermination campaign” (Straus 2004, p.86).

   

  Bibliography

  Fletcher, L. (2007) 'Turning interahamwe: individual and community choices in the Rwandan genocide'. Journal of Genocide Research, (9)1, pp. 25-48.

  Straus, S. (2004) 'How many perpetrators were there in the Rwandan genocide? An estimate'. Journal of Genocidal Research, (6)1, pp. 85-98.

  In this example, the longer quote has been put in a separate, indented paragraph. The shorter quote has been put in inverted commas. In both cases, it is clear where the student has quoted someone else's work.

  Next to the direct quote, you must include a citation to show where the quote came from. In addition, you must include a full reference to the original work. You can see the student's references at the bottom of the example above.

• Paraphrased ideas

  You may wish to write another person's idea in your own words. This can be helpful for making a point in a short amount of space. It also shows that you have understood the idea fully and can make use of it as part of your argument.

  When you are paraphrasing someone else's idea, you still need to make it clear where you found the idea, and include an accurate reference. Look at the example below, which is a paraphrased version of the direct quotes we looked at before.

  Both Fletcher and Strauss point out that most scholars have interpreted the Rwandan genocide in the same way. These authors argue the genocide is commonly interpreted as a campaign organised by the Rwandan state. (Fletcher 2007, pp.25-48) (Straus 2004, pp.85-98)

   

  Bibliography

  Fletcher, L. (2007) 'Turning interahamwe: individual and community choices in the Rwandan genocide'. Journal of Genocide Research, (9)1, pp. 25-48.

  Straus, S. (2004) 'How many perpetrators were there in the Rwandan genocide? An estimate'. Journal of Genocidal Research, (6)1, pp. 85-98.

  Because the text has been completely re-written, there is no need to indent the text or put it in quotation marks. However, citations and references have still been provided. This shows the student is not claiming to have come up with the idea themselves.

Common knowledge

You do not need to quote information which is common knowledge e.g. Everest is the highest mountain in the world. It can seem hard to judge which information is common knowledge. If you are unsure, it may be best to provide a reference. You could try checking in an encyclopaedia in the library (not Wikipedia); information which is common knowledge will usually not be referenced in the library's encyclopaedia.

Go to the English Language for Academic Study Canvas site for more information about academic English, referencing and paraphrasing, and combining sources.

What information should I include in a reference?

The ideas you reference may come from books, journal articles, newspaper reports, web pages, videos, lecture notes, module teaching materials or any other source. You need to include certain details about these sources in your work so that your reader can find the original material easily.

There are several different referencing styles used at Sussex. Although most of them require you to include the same information, they ask you to present that information in different ways. Whichever referencing style you use, when making notes you should record the page numbers for each idea or quote. You should also note down the following information for each text:

• Name of the Author (s)

  Put the surname first and then any initials and any title (for example, Sir or Lord, but not academic or other titles).

  Asian Naming Convention

  In Western naming culture, generally a person's surname is listed as the last name, for example, John Smith. However, in Asian culture, a person's surname is generally listed first, in other words, Smith John. This applies to Chinese, Malay, and Indian naming conventions. Therefore the author Cheng Tun-jen's surname is Cheng, and his first name is Tun-jen.

• Date of Publication

  This usually appears on the fly-leaf of a book. Make sure that you have the latest date since previous editions of a work may differ substantially. If you are referring to more than one work by the same author in the same year, you should differentiate them by small-case letters (i.e.2002a, 2002b etc.) There is no need to include the edition number.

• The Title

  Make sure that you copy this out accurately. If the text cited is merely a chapter in a book edited by someone else, you must include the full details of the main volume.

• The publication Details

  For books, this will include the place of publication and the name of the publishers. You will find this information on the fly-leaf.

  For periodicals, you should include the name of the periodical, the volume, issue or part number and the page references.

  For websites, you should note the web URL/address and the date you accessed the site.

  For films and video, you should note the name of the director.

What is the difference between a reference and a citation?

A citation is a 'link' in the text, whether a number or author and date, that connects the data/information/ideas being discussed with the more detailed information in the reference list or bibliography.

The reference list or bibliography provides the full details of the source cited. It enables the reader to further investigate ideas or validate the writer's comments.

• Here is an example of a citation using the Harvard referencing system:
  (Fletcher 2007, p.27)

  The citation points the reader in the right direction, but it does not include much information. In the numeric system, citations are just numbers like this (1) or this ¹.

• Here is an example of a reference using the Harvard referencing system:
  Fletcher, L. (2007) 'Turning interahamwe: individual and community choices in the Rwandan genocide', Journal of Genocide Research, 9:1, pp25-48.

  A reference should include full details of the source. Every citation should have a relevant reference later in the text.

What is the difference between a reference list and a bibliography?

Any sources you cite within your text should also be included in the reference list or bibliography at the end of your work.

Check with your tutor whether they would like you to submit a reference list, which only includes texts you have cited, or a bibliography, which includes all the relevant books you have read.

• Latin abbreviations commonly used in citation for referencing or in bibliographies

  Abbreviation Usage

  et al.	This is used where there is more than one author to mean 'and others' e.g. Pears, R. et al.
  ibid.	This is used when citing from the same book again in footnotes and bibliographies. It means 'in the same place' and is used when citing from the same book again directly after a previous citation, e.g. 1. C. T. Martin, The record interpreter: a collection of abbreviations, Latin words and names used in English historical manuscripts and records, 2nd edn (London: Stevens, 1910), p. 16. 2. ibid., p. 25. The reference in no. 2 is the same as in no. 1 except that the page is different. Unless you are citing from exactly the same page, you follow ibid. with the new page number.
  op. cit.	This is used when referring to a source that has previously been cited and means 'in the work cited', e.g. 1. C. T. Martin, The record interpreter: a collection of abbreviations, Latin words and names used in English historical manuscripts and records, 2nd edn (London: Stevens, 1910), p. 16. 2. R. Pears and G. Shields, Cite them right: referencing made easy (Newcastle upon Tyne: Northumbria University Press, 2004), p.50. 3. Martin, op. cit., p. 20. The reference in no. 3 is the same as in no. 1 except that the page is different.
  passim	This is used where a word occurs frequently throughout a text, e.g., an entry in an index reading 'coal: 78-86 passim' means that coal is mentioned throughout pages 78 to 86.

You can download this list as a Word document or PDF to print out or to save for future use.
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Referencing styles

There are several different referencing styles used in academic study. Although most styles require you to include the same information, depending on the style you have to present that information in different ways.

Schools and departments at Sussex use different referencing systems. If you are unsure which referencing style you are required to use it is best to speak with your School office or consult your module handbook.

Find guidance for the most commonly used reference styles at Sussex below. Click on the individual styles to learn more.

APA | Chicago | Harvard | MHRA | MLA | Numerical | OSCOLA | RSC | Vancouver

Reference Management Tools

Reference management software and web-based tools allow you to:

• collect, store, organise and format references
• create bibliographies and in-text citations
• cite as you write in Word and other word-processing software
• annotate, store and share PDFs.

These tools are particularly useful when writing a dissertation or long assignment in which you cite the work of others.

As always, we recommend you pay attention to academic integrity and ensure you avoid plagiarism (see below).

The Library at Sussex provides detailed guides for the most popular tools:

• EndNote (including EndNote Basic)
• Zotero (including Juris-M and Zotero Bib)

You can also refer to a regularly updated Wikipedia guide to reference management software.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity means not cheating. It is what good academic practice is based on. Just as you expect the experts and academics that you learn from to be honest in their work, the same is expected of you.

What is Academic Misconduct?

The full definitions of the various types of academic misconduct are published in the Examination and Assessment Regulations and there is more information on the Student Hub.

Sometimes students commit academic misconduct without fully understanding why they have done something wrong. To protect yourself from committing academic misconduct, you should understand what it is and learn some of the common mistakes students make.

Avoiding Academic Misconduct – Three ground rules:

1. remember that all the work you submit has to be your own. If you refer to another person's work, you must acknowledge it properly
   
   
2. if you are unsure whether what you are doing is correct, ask for help. Your tutor or Academic Advisor can help you with academic enquiries. Student Mentors, English Language for Academic Study (ELAS) and Royal Literary Fund (RLF) Writers in Residence also offer free assistance
   
   
3. if you are suffering from difficult personal circumstances, don't keep it to yourself. You can receive confidential help from the Student Centre if you have been affected by mental or physical illness, or problems such as bereavement.

Academic Integrity Values

The University of Sussex has a set of Academic Integrity Values which all students are expected to follow. These values are:

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person's work as if it were your own. The university uses software packages to detect plagiarism.

Plagiarism can happen accidentally if you have not referenced your work properly. If you have used a quote or idea from another source without referencing, it could look like you are trying to pretend you came up with the work yourself. Make sure you understand how to reference your work properly!

How to avoid plagiarism

Use these 10 tips below to help you to avoid plagiarism.

1. Leave plenty of time!

   Put assignment deadlines in your diary at the start of every term, and make sure you begin work well in advance. If you need to rush your written work at the last minute, it can be more tempting to copy out whole passages from texts, or make mistakes with correct referencing.

2. Reference while making notes

   When you are researching your topic, take down full details of your sources as you go along. If you're quoting verbatim (using a direct quote, word for word) or using diagrams, make a note of the page numbers too.

3. Reference as you go

   When you're writing your assignment, include the references as you go along. Remember to check your School's preferred referencing style.

4. Check your references at the end

   If you have used direct quotes, make sure you have used quotation marks. Make sure any long quotes are indented and have a citation. Double-check your references and bibliography.

5. Use your own words

   This helps you to engage more with the material. Don't worry that another author can 'say it better' than you: your tutors are interested in your ideas and opinions, and do not expect a perfect writing style.

   Also, make sure you clearly distinguish your ideas from those of other writers. See Australian National University: Style and authorial voice

6. Don’t reuse material

   Unless specifically allowed in module or course documentation, the use of the same material in more than one assessment exercise will be subject to penalties. If there is substantial overlap or repetition in the subject matter of your assessments within a single module or across other modules, your mark will be adjusted so that you do not receive credit for using the same material twice.

7. Use Turnitin

   Try using the Turnitin Draft Check site, which will appear in your list of Canvas modules. You can check your draft assignments for any text matches.

8. Avoid essay-writing services

   It is illegal in the UK to use and/or provide contract cheating services.

   Many companies claim to offer ‘custom-made' essays online, often advertising their services through Facebook and other social media. They may claim to be legitimate, safe, and even approved by universities. However, these companies run a very effective illegal scam. Often the essays they sell are stolen from other resources and are very easily identified by tutors and examiners. There have been cases of students being blackmailed by companies asking for more money and threatening to report them to their university.

   Remember that your work at Sussex has to be your own, and examiners will be able to tell the difference.

9. Proofread carefully

   Allocate time to proofread your work and check for accurate referencing. You can ask someone to proofread your work, to check grammar and spelling mistakes, but this cannot be a student on the same module taking the same assessment. (Read our proof-reading guidance for the rules on proofreading at Sussex). You should never accept help from anyone in creating new content for your work. As a general rule, the person helping you should not change the meaning of what you have written.

10. Get help for free

    The University offers plenty of free Academic Skills Workshops and Support services to help you with your writing - including essay-writing workshops, student mentors, RLF Writers in Residence, English Language for Academic Study and Academic Advisors. If you need help with your writing, see one of them, or see your tutor. If someone offers to help you for money, you should ask yourself whether they really have your interests at heart.
    
    

Student stories

Read the three student stories below and think about how they could have avoided plagiarism:

1. Salila

pexels image by andrea-piacquadio and is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Salila did lots of reading for her essay and took plenty of notes. However, she did not write down all the reference details and did not show where she had copied quotes directly. When she came to write her essay, she was not sure where her notes were from, or which were her own words. Although she tried her best to remember, her tutor has spotted that in some cases she has quoted word for word without using quotation marks, and that in some instances her referencing is very unclear. Her tutor has asked to speak to her about plagiarism.

• Show suggestion

  Salila did not intend to 'steal' other people's ideas, but she has still committed plagiarism by presenting someone else's work as her own. She should have been much more careful when taking notes. Whenever note-making, you should write down the source for each note you take, and you should make it clear where you are quoting directly from the text.

2. Thomas

pexels image by laura-tancredi and is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Thomas had two essays and a presentation due in the same week. Having completed the first essay and presentation, he was left with one day to do the second essay. He started work on it in the morning, but by 2pm he began to panic. He searched on the internet and found a website where he could download essays. He used an essay with a similar topic and made a few changes to try and make it look like his own work. His tutor noticed it was suspicious, and he has been told his work is under investigation for plagiarism.

• Show suggestion

  Thomas' poor time management left him in a very difficult situation. But rather than try to seek help, or hand in his work late, he was dishonest. By doing so, he may have put his degree at risk. It would have been better to have submitted no work at all (and receive a 0% mark) than try to cheat (and receive a worse punishment).

3. Denise

pexels image by christina-morillo and is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Denise took notes from different sources on the internet by copying and pasting. When it came to writing her essay, she took ideas from all the sources she had read. Finding it hard to put the ideas into her own words she often copied word for word but did not use quotation marks.

• Show suggestion

  Denise has committed plagiarism because she has presented other people's words as her own. If you quote word for word from a text, then you must show this by using quotation marks, and providing a full reference.
  If you "copy and paste" text from a source to use in an essay, make sure you make it clear to yourself that the text is not your own e.g., ensure copied sections are kept in a separate document, kept in a different font, or highlighted, or placed in quotation marks. Remember don't copy unless it is a usable quote. You might find it helps your learning to write your notes by hand because it will encourage you to use your own words, and this will also give you more opportunity to understand the information.

4. AJ

AJ had an exam on Monday afternoon and an essay due on Tuesday morning. AJ focussed their attention on preparing for the exam and did not leave enough time to do the reading and preparation to complete the essay. AJ had seen a poster at the bus-stop for a company, that for a fee, would write the essay for them. In desperation AJ made contact with the company and spoke to a friendly person who reassured them that they could help. AJ shared their personal details, the details of the essay and made a payment to the company. The essay was written by the external company and emailed to AJ who submitted it as their own work.

• Show suggestion

  The company that produced the essay for AJ is what is known as an ‘Essay Mill’. These are commercial organisation or individuals that make money out of encouraging students to cheat. These Essay Mills have been declared illegal by the UK Government and it is a criminal offence for them to provide contract cheating services to students or to advertise a service offering a cheating service. Because they are illegal, AJ should not have responded to the advert or engaged the services of the ‘Essay Mill’ and whilst using the service is not a criminal offense, this is deemed as major misconduct and could have put his whole degree at risk.
  
  By engaging with an Essay Mill, AJ also potentially put himself at risk of being blackmailed by the illegal company. There are reports throughout the sector of these companies contacting the University where their ‘customer’ is registered and tipping them off that a student has used their services and committed misconduct. Reports suggest that this is often when students have been asked to pay more money to the company or they got into dispute about the service provided. This can cause immense distress and anxiety to a student trying to manage a very unpleasant situation, who them may feel unable to seek help because they are worried about getting into more trouble with the University.
  
  What else could AJ have done: There would have been better outcomes if AJ submitted work late, submitted unfinished work or submitted no work at all.
  
  For example, if AJ had submitted a few days late (up to seven days) only 10 percentage points would have been taken off the final mark, and this would likely be a much less stressful and a better outcome than being involved in a misconduct case.
  
  If AJ handed in an unfinished essay and this was marked as a fail or borderline, he would be offered a resit, capped at a pass. If it was given a low mark but all AJs other work had high marks, and this meant their work was borderline at the end of their degree, this could be compensated or condoned. This would mean there wouldn’t be an impact on an overall degree classification, whereas a misconduct penalty can impact on degree classification.
  
  If AJ had not submitted at all he would have received a mark of 0%. When it got to the end of semester exam board (which is the process for formally confirming marks) if AJ’s other marks were complete, his marks could have been condoned or compensated, or AJ could be offered a resit, (depending on his other marks).
  
  If AJ explained that there were exceptional circumstances that had impacted their ability to manage their time, they would be given another opportunity to hand the essay in, and have their work marked as usual in the resit period.
  
  Any of these actions would be likely to lead to better outcomes than using an Essay Mill or risking other kinds of misconduct.

Collusion

Collusion means working on an assessment with someone else but claiming it as all your own work. Collusion can occur if you and your peers discuss an assessment you are doing in too much detail. The marker will notice something wrong when they come to mark your work, and they notice it is very similar to the work of others.

How to avoid collusion

Use these 4 tips below to help you to avoid collusion.

1. Know what is expected of you

   You should never work directly with other students on your module or anyone else when creating your work. This includes students from other universities. Even if your tutor has encouraged you to talk about your work together with other students, do not assume it is okay to write your work together.

   If you are asked to do a joint assignment, this will be made very clear to you by your tutor and in your handbook. The assessment hand-in sheet looks different to a normal one. If you are unsure whether you are expected to work as a group, or what the boundaries are, be cautious and speak to your tutor first.

2. Avoid discussing questions in detail

   Do not discuss an assignment in detail with other students if you are working on the same question. Even if they do not work directly alongside you, they may come to the same conclusion following a conversation they had with you, and this could be classed as collusion.

3. Be careful with your work

   Do not lend your work to course-mates or leave it where they can access it. If you share a laptop or computer, it is your responsibility to make sure your work is protected - use a passcode so that others cannot access it. It is collusion to knowingly allow others to use your work. Even if you trust them, you could get a nasty surprise if it turns out they copied some of your ideas.

4. Follow proof-reading guidance

   It is OK to have someone proofread your work, to check grammar and spelling mistakes, but this cannot be a student on the same module taking the same assessment. (Read our proof-reading guidance for the rules on proofreading at Sussex). You should never accept help from anyone in creating new content for your work. As a general rule, the person helping you should not change the meaning of what you have written.

Exam misconduct

Exam misconduct includes any form of cheating in exams, whether you are taking your exams in an examination hall or remotely. Make sure you know what materials you are allowed to take into exams or use when completing your submission remotely. If you are allowed to use texts, this will be made very clear to you. Also, do not take your mobile phone or any other such device into an exam room. 

Remember, just as in normal exam conditions, misconduct in exams taken remotely includes using material provided by someone else and sharing material or helping another student.

Personation

Academic misconduct can occur if you ask someone else to write an assignment for you, sit an examination (in-person or remotely) for you or pay for an essay online. This is known as Personation. Personation includes using something (such as generative AI) to produce outputs or provide substantial assistance with your assessments. Personation can also occur if you use a proofreader so please follow the proof-reading guidance.

Fabrication of results

Fabrication of results is the act of making up or altering results for a practical project. It's better to hand in inconclusive results, or even none at all, than to try and make them up.

Breach of research ethics

Breach of research ethics includes failure to gain ethical approval; carrying out research without appropriate permission; breach of confidentiality or improper handling of privileged or private information on individuals gathered during data collection; coercion or bribery of project participants. Students conducting research with human participants, personal data (including that collected from social media and other sources), non-human animal subjects or research that may have a detrimental impact on the environment, must gain ethical approval before carrying out the research, this includes before contacting potential participants and/or advertising the study. Students are responsible for complying with the requirements set out as part of the approval process including consulting with their supervisor, in the submission of formal amendments for subsequent changes in their approved research.

Activity: Referencing

This activity will test your knowledge of correct referencing. There are three examples of student essays followed by 4 questions in each case. You need to decide which referencing features (e.g. citations, indented paragraphs, quotation marks, references) the students should use (there is a text only version below the activity):

Look at the original text below:

Now look at this sample student A has writen.

Now answer the four questions below (there is a text only version below the activity):

• Text only version for the activity above (with answers)

  Question 1. Should student A use a Citation in this sample?

  Select Yes or No.

  Answer: Yes they should. Whenever a source has been used, a citation must be provided in the text.

  Question 2. Should student A use a Indented paragraph in this sample?

  Select Yes or No.

  Yes they should. The student has directly quoted a large section of text. The correct thing to do in this case is put the text in a separate paragraph, and indent the paragraph. To do this in Word, select a paragraph and press Tab.

  Question 3. Should student A use Quotation marks in this sample?

  Select Yes or No. No, they do not need to. The student has quoted a very large section of text, and quotation marks are best used for smaller selections.

  Question 4. Should student A include a Reference in this sample?

  Select Yes or No.

  Yes they should. Whenever a source has been used, a full reference must be provided in reference list, bibliography and/or footnotes.

This is a properly referenced example of the above activity.

Note: Different referencing styles may require you to present your citation and references in a different fashion, but they all require you to include the same information. Find out more in What information should I include in a reference?

Activity: Plagiarism

This activity will test your knowledge of referencing and plagiarism. Read the text below and then read the four example extracts from students' essays and decide if the student has plagiarised or if they have referenced their work correctly (there is a text only version below the activity):

Martell, L (1994), Ecology and Society: An introduction, Ch. 2, pp.64, Cambridge, Polity Press

• Text only version for the activity above (with answers)

  Extract 1. However, green capitalists say that this sort of thing can be compatible with solving environmental problems if consumers use the power they have over producers - 'consumer sovereignty' - by refusing to buy products which are not environmentally friendly. This gives capitalists an incentive to concentrate on the production of environmentally friendly products in order to make a profit.

  Is this plagiarism, Yes or No?

  Answer: This is plagiarism. The text has been directly copied from the original. There are no quotation marks, and no reference.

  Extract 2. However green capitalists claim capitalism can be compatible with solving environmental problems if consumers utilise their influence over producers - 'consumer power' - by only buying products which are environmentally friendly. This gives capitalists a reason to concentrate on the production of environmentally friendly products so that they will make a profit. (Martell 1994, p. 64)

  Is this plagiarism, Yes or No?

  Answer: This is plagiarism. Although a few words have been changed (e.g. 'consumer sovereignty' has been replaced with 'consumer power') the text is still largely the same as the original. There is a reference at the end of the paragraph which shows that the ideas have come from Martell. However, many of the same words have been copied and this needs to be acknowledged with quotation marks.

  Extract 3. Martell explores the possibility that in a capitalist society consumers can influence producers to make environmentally friendly goods by using their purchasing power. If people show that they will spend money on environmentally friendly goods and capitalists see that they can make a profit then this will affect the types of goods that are produced. (Martell 1994, p. 64)

  Is this plagiarism, Yes or No?

  Answer: This is not plagiarism. The words have been changed, so quotation marks are not needed. A reference has been given, and it is made clear that these are ideas which Martell expresses.

  Extract 4. Martell explores the possibility that in a capitalist society consumers can use 'the power they have over producers' (Martell 1994, p.64) to persuade them to produce environmentally friendly goods. However, it can be argued that, in a capitalist society it's not always the consumers who hold the power to determine what is produced.

  Is this plagiarism, Yes or No?

  Answer: This is not plagiarism. A single phrase has been used directly from the text, and this has been clearly shown using quotation marks. A reference has been given after the quotation.

Note: Different referencing styles may require you to present your citation and references in a different fashion, but they all require you to include the same information. Find out more in What information should I include in a reference?

Remember this section covered nine different referencing styles:

APA | Chicago | Harvard | MHRA | MLA | Numerical | OSCOLA | RSC | Vancouver