Writing references

Citing sources to support and explain your arguments is one of the cornerstones of academic texts. Writing references so that all the important information about the source is included in the reference list, and the text still flows well, requires skill. Citing sources to support and explain your arguments is one of the cornerstones of academic texts. Writing references so that all the important information about the source is included in the reference list, and the text still flows well, requires skill.

Reference Systems

There are many different reference systems. References within the text will look different, depending on the system used. It is very important to be consistent with the reference system used in a text.

The commonest at Chalmers are APA (author + year) and IEEE (numerical).

Reference according to APA
Reference according to IEEE
Reference according to Vancouver (Karolinska University)

Reference Management Programmes

You can either write references manually in the text or use a reference management programme. A reference management programme helps you collect and organise sources for a project. They can also be used as plug-ins for word processing programmes to insert references in the text and format the reference list in accordance with the different reference systems.

Your Chalmers affiliation gives you access to Mendeley and EndNote.

Mendeley is recommended for students writing essays.
EndNote is recommended for doctoral students and researchers doing larger literature projects.
Zotero is another programme which is open and free for everyone to use.

Guide to Reference Management Programmes