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Library Notice

Referencing and Citation are essential practices in academic works. They allow you to acknowledge the sources of ideas, theories, methods, data, etc. used in your work, ensuring that proper credit is given to the original authors and avoiding plagiarism. Whenever you incorporate other works into yours, you are required to cite the original sources with a recognised citation style.

To streamline this process, Citation Management Tools can help generate the in-text citations, reference list entries, and organise the references and citations more efficiently.

 

Why Do We Need to Cite

Not citing the source of others' work in your work could lead to plagiarism, therefore, it is always a good practice to cite in your academic work in order to:

  • Give credit to the author of the information we used
  • Let the readers consult the source for more details
  • Avoid Plagiarism – NOT stealing others' works

Teaching and Learning Centre (TLC) of Lingnan University offers additional guidance on Avoiding Plagiarism. You may learn more by taking their Online Tutorial on Plagiarism Awareness. Some more useful links here provide further information and instructions for Lingnan Staff and Students.

 

How to Cite

Citation Styles are sets of rules to cite sources properly in academic works. The most common citation styles include APA, Chicago, and MLA. For consistency, you should only use ONE single citation style throughout the whole academic work. 

Different citation styles have different rules for in-text citations and reference list entries (a full list of references at the end of the paper), but they share standard key elements to identify the source information like author’s name, title of the work (book, journal, article, etc.), publication date, publisher, etc. Below are some samples of commonly used citation styles for your reference:

  • APA Style
    Chen, L. H. (2007). Choosing Canadian Graduate Schools from Afar: East Asian Students’ Perspectives. Higher Education, 54(5), 759-780. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9022-8.
  • Chicago Style
    Chen, Liang-hsuan. "Choosing Canadian Graduate Schools from Afar: East Asian Students' Perspectives." Higher Education 54, no. 5 (October 2007): 759-80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9022-8.
  • MLA Style
    Chen, Liang-hsuan. "Choosing Canadian Graduate Schools from Afar: East Asian Students’ Perspectives." Higher Education, vol. 54. no. 5, 2007, pp. 759-780, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-006-9022-8.
     

As there is no standardised citation style for Chinese resources, you may need to seek advice from your professor for the accepted format in your academic work. Samples of commonly used citation styles for Chinese resources are provided below for your reference only.

  • APA Style:
    廖炳惠（1995）。〈近五十年來的台灣小說〉。《聯合文學》，11(12)，127-137。
  • Chicago Style: 
    廖炳惠。 「近五十年來的台灣小說」。《聯合文學》 11, no. 12 (1995): 127-137。
  • MLA Style:
    廖炳惠：〈近五十年來的台灣小說〉，《聯合文學》，第 11 卷 12 期（1995 年 10月），頁 127-137。
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