Dissertation Reference

A Proper Dissertation Reference System Is the Key to Avoid Proper Plagiarism

The most common style of referencing,which is most commonly used in dissertations is the Harvard referencing system.

Here’s why!

The main purpose of a research report, thesis or dissertation is to make original discovery which makes a significant impact on the field that the research is conducted on.

The most important feature of the research report is originality which means that if there are any direct or indirect quotes that have been taken from another source, it needs to be acknowledged so to avoid plagiarism.

Research reports with high plagiarism content are straightly rejected.

Hence, dissertation referencing is one of the most important components of a research document. The Harvard referencing style is one of the most commonly used referencing methods, which consists of the author-date style of citation, where the name of the author and the date of the publication are mentioned after the paragraph that has been referred which is later described in the appendix section of the dissertation.

Tips to Cite Your Dissertation’s Main Body:

• Make sure that you properly cite all the authors that you have referred in your dissertation.
• The proper format to cite the main body of the dissertation is to use the author-name approach.
• If there are more than two authors then name them both throughout the research report.
• In case there are more than two authors; sometimes can be up to five, then name them all the first time but use et al, with year throughout the rest of the document. The complete reference of these authors with book information will be provided in the bibliography section of the dissertation.

For example, Jones, Harris, Smith, Gold (1992) – this you will use the first time in your dissertation.

You will use Jones et al (1992) throughout the rest of the document

Tips To Compile Your Dissertation Reference Section:

• Make sure that you do not use prefixes while listing down your references. For example, Sr. Jr., etc.
• Make sure that your reference section is organized alphabetically.
• Make sure that you list single author names from the citation before multiple ones.
• The general format for the reference is;

Author or editor’s name (or names), year the book was published, title of the book (mention edition if it is other than first) and the name of the publisher.

• If the name of the publisher is not well known then make sure that you include the city and country where the book was published.

In conclusion, one way to make sure that you don’t miss out on providing a proper dissertation reference for any direct quotes in your dissertation is by noting down the sources (for example, you can note down the book name with author) from the beginning of your research process and maintain a separate sheet for the references. This sheet can later be merged and coordinated with your dissertation report.