Dear All,
You may remember that, back in October 2011, Dan
Pullinger and I were interested to hear of any examples of Higher Education
institutions adopting a university-wide referencing system for their
undergraduates and taught postgraduates. We are extremely grateful for the
large number of responses that we received!
Please accept our apologies for the very long delay in
updating you all on the responses we received and the progress we’ve made
here at the University of Leeds:
Summary of responses:
The good, or perhaps bad, news was that we weren't alone
in identifying confusion about referencing styles as a problem area for
students. Many institutions (libraries within the institutions) have tried to
tackle this issue, with mixed success. Many of you reported that it was
difficult to get colleagues within single schools or faculties to agree to a
single referencing style, never mind a whole institution! Universities
including Huddersfield and Plymouth reported being in a similar situation to us
here at Leeds; the library offers guidance and support on specific styles of
referencing but there was nothing to stop faculties, schools and individual
lecturers promoting a range of other styles, leading to confusion for
students.
Some of you reported that one of the major problems with
trying to adopt one referencing style across a whole university was that
different academic disciplines use different systems within their published
literature. Therefore, it may be more appropriate to get the institution to
agree on a consistent approach to a smaller range of styles, rather than limit
academics to one style only. Some institutions did report success in this area,
including the University of East London, where there has been institution-wide
(with the exception of Law and Psychology) adoption of one referencing style
based on ‘Cite them right’ by Pears and Shields. The University of
Roehampton also managed to reduce their styles down to Harvard (used by most)
MLA (Literature) and APA (Psychology).
It appears that smaller institutions have found it easier
to adopt a single referencing system, with Bishop Grosseteste University
College being just one example.
Other institutions have managed to reach agreement on
one, or several, standard referencing styles, but have nonetheless found that
some individual academics continue to promote their own preferred style. This
is something that is difficult to tackle and persistence has to be the key
here!
Those who did tackle this issue within their institutions
generally seemed to follow a similar process, which consisted of drafting a
paper that included evidence as to why referencing should be standardised
across the institution and recommendations on how to take this forward. The
paper was then presented to the appropriate university board. It would seem
that reaching agreement at an institutional level is the key, rather than
trying to work with departments individually!
Progression at Leeds:
While we did not establish the adoption of one
university-wide referencing system, we are pleased to report that we have made
significant progress. Our paper was considered by various committees and input
was also sought at faculty meetings. Here is a shortened version of the
recommendations that have been agreed at an institutional level:
·
All schools that have adopted the Harvard or
Numeric referencing styles should use the same standardised version for all
taught students. Centralised support for the standardised Harvard and Numeric
referencing styles would be provided by the Library.
·
While the ideal would be for as many schools as
possible to choose Harvard or Numeric, the Library recognises that some schools
would opt to use other styles due to subject-specific requirements. Any school
that chooses to use a system other than Harvard or Numeric should direct its
students to a single, official guide for that style.
·
While the ideal would be for a single
referencing style to be adopted across a whole school, there may be exceptional
cases where variations within a school are deemed necessary. For example, the
School of English currently uses Harvard for Language modules and MHRA for
Literature modules. Therefore, every module handbook across all schools should
clearly state the referencing style that is used by the school and should direct
students to the official guide for that system (Library guidance for Harvard or
Numeric).
·
The Library will maintain a publicly-available
document for students and staff to access that lists all schools and the
referencing style used in each school. This information will be available from
the Library referencing pages.
·
The Faculty Education Services Manager, working
with School Education Service Co-ordinators, will be responsible for ensuring
that the referencing style for each module is clearly set out in relevant
handbooks.
While it’s a compromise from what we originally
intended, it does mean that schools using Harvard and Numeric will have to use
the same version (based on the British Standard). Individual tutors will no
longer be able to pick their own referencing style based just on personal
preference, and students will have clear information as to what referencing
style they must use, plus one source of guidance to follow.
We will be making minor updates to our referencing
webpages over the summer to reflect this new approach, though most of the
support for students is already in place:
http://library.leeds.ac.uk/referencing
Please don’t hesitate to contact me
([log in to unmask]) or Dan Pullinger ([log in to unmask]) if you
would like any more information about how we tackled this issue at the
University of Leeds.
Best wishes
Michelle
Michelle Schneider
Academic Skills Development Officer
15 Blenheim Terrace
University of Leeds
LS2 9JT
T 0113 34 35527
W http://library.leeds.ac.uk/people/Michelle-Schneider
http://twitter.com/skills_library
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