MHRA referencing

You will need to cite research in your work through academic referencing.

This means acknowledging the sources you use:

•  in the body of your work, referred to as a citation or in-text referencing
• as a list of all citations at the end, referred to as a bibliography or reference list

The idea is that someone reading your work can identify and find the sources you’ve used for themselves so they have to include essential information about that source. There are many different styles used for laying out the information for a reference.

The referencing style used by English is MHRA but check with your module convenor on the specific version.

Finding the reference information for a resource.

A physical source will have all the information you need on the front and title pages but most sources you use will be digital.

When searching for ebooks, journal articles and other academic papers you will usually find a “citation” that you can copy and paste into your work.

For websites, podcasts, blogs and other media you will have to create a citation from the information given.

How to reference books, articles, journals, etc

For practical MHRA referencing guidance, the recommended resource is Cite Them Right, an interactive guide designed to assist you with referencing and avoiding plagiarism. Here you can learn how to reference anything in your chosen reference style from books, articles, websites, videos, to social media posts in your research. 

Make an appointment to discuss referencing

The Student Learning Advisory Service offers support with referencing and avoiding plagiarism. The team has developed several excellent guides accessible on their webpages. You can also schedule a one-to-one appointment with them or ask a question through their appointments page.

You can also access the MHRA Style Guide Online, which serves as the official guide from The Modern Humanities Research Association.

Use a reference management tool to sort and format your references

Reference management tools allow you to save and sort your references, as well as insert citations and bibliographies into your assignments.

We recommend using either Mendeley or Zotero reference management tools.

Watch our quick 5 minute guides to using reference management tools:

Mendeley