Citation, Referencing & Plagiarism Awareness

Referencing has clear rules, yet it causes a lot of worry. Styles differ between departments, "Harvard" is not one fixed standard, and online generators often produce entries that look right but contain errors. Behind the formatting sits a bigger concern for many students: plagiarism.

What it means

Citation shows your reader exactly which ideas, words and data came from other people. Referencing styles, such as APA 7th edition, MLA 9th edition, a university's version of Harvard, Chicago, IEEE or OSCOLA, are agreed ways of doing this. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own, whether on purpose or by accident.

Much plagiarism among international students is unintentional. It comes from patchwriting (changing a few words in a source sentence), missing citations after a paraphrase, or different expectations at a previous university. This service helps you understand the rules and check your own work against them.

Problems it addresses

• Switching to a new style, for example from a German Zitierweise using footnotes to an author-date style
• In-text citations that do not match the reference list
• Difficult cases: several authors, organisations as authors, no date, secondary citations, page numbers for quotations
• Unusual sources such as datasets, legislation, lecture slides, interviews or AI tools
• Paraphrases that stay too close to the original wording
• A similarity report you received but do not understand
• Inconsistent formatting across a long thesis reference list

When you might need it

• Your feedback mentions "referencing errors", "inconsistent citations" or "poor paraphrasing".
• You are starting at a university where a different style is required.
• You received a warning or an academic misconduct letter and want to learn better practice.
• You need to cite AI tool use according to your university's policy.
• You want a systematic check of your references before submitting a thesis.

How the guidance works

1. Share style guide and draft. Send your department's referencing guide and the draft containing your citations and reference list.
2. Agree scope and quote. We confirm whether guidance is a full reference check, a focused session on one style, or paraphrasing feedback.
3. Receive explained citation feedback. We identify each type of error, show the relevant rule and give an illustrative corrected pattern.
4. Correct your references yourself. Making the corrections helps you avoid the same errors next time.
5. Ask follow-up questions, if agreed. You can check difficult cases with us by message.

What to prepare

• Your department or university referencing guide, or the name and edition of the style
• Your draft with in-text citations and reference list
• Your reference manager export, if you use one
• Any similarity report comments or marker feedback about referencing
• Your university's policy on plagiarism and on citing AI tools
• A short note of the sources you find hardest to reference

What you receive

Depending on the scope agreed in your quote, this can include:

• written comments in your draft marking each type of citation error, with the rule explained
• a feedback summary of recurring patterns in your reference list
• illustrative corrected examples using placeholder details, for you to apply to your entries
• comments on selected paraphrases, showing where wording stays too close to the source
• a discussion of your questions by message or call

Outside the scope

• Finding sources or recommending citations to add
• Adding references for material you have not read
• Paraphrasing source text for you
• Rewording passages to lower a similarity score or avoid an AI detector
• Guaranteeing any plagiarism-checker or detector result
• Responding to a misconduct case on your behalf

Read our academic integrity page for more on our approach.

An illustrative example

Frequently asked questions

Why does my university's Harvard style differ from examples online?

Harvard is a family of author-date styles rather than one official standard, so universities publish their own versions. Always follow your own university library's Harvard guide.

Does a low similarity score mean my work has no plagiarism?

Not necessarily. Similarity software highlights matching text; it does not decide whether something is plagiarism. A poorly cited paraphrase can still be a problem. Understanding the rules matters more than the number.

Are citation generators reliable?

They are a useful start but often get details wrong. Always check the output against your style guide. Our citation formatter shows each element so you can check it, and the APA referencing guide covers the basics.