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Computer science: Citing references

A guide to finding information in computer science . Includes links to key resources and sources of help.

Whenever you refer to another person's work in your own essay, dissertation or article you must acknowledge them and give full details of your source. You risk being accused of plagiarism if you fail to do so.

For general information on referencing, including an explanation of different citation systems, and guidance on citing specific types of publication, see our Citing references guide. The department recommends using the APA style, but you can choose another style such as Harvard as long as you are consistent. There is more information on these in the guide.

For help with citing specific types of publication contact your librarian (contact details below).

For advice on using references in your work, and how to use them to support your arguments, consult the guidance on the Study Advice website or make an appointment with them.

Get help from your liaison librarian

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Judith Fox
Contact:
Please contact me for support on finding information, referencing, using resources and a whole host of other things. If you have a query please contact me via email and I'll get right back to you.
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LaTeX

LaTeX is a tool you may have been advised to use to format your papers or other written work. If you use LaTeX you may also choose to use BibTeX as an alternative to Endnote for managing your references and inserting your citations. 

We have books about how to use LaTeX in the Library - you can find them in Enterprise. A few are listed below.

Finding bibliographic details

Reference management

EndNote logoWhen you do your dissertation you could consider using reference management software to organise your references. These bibliographic management tools can be used to store references, and then insert the citation in your Word document, automatically building the bibliography for you in the correct style.

Mendeley logoThe library supports two reference tools in particular - EndNote and Mendeley. For information on these and other options for electronic management of your references see our guide to Managing references:

We also have specific a guide for using EndNote:
https://libguides.reading.ac.uk/computer-science/citing-references
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