This course may appeal if you are an author, academic editor, copyeditor, proofreader, production editor or project manager who works with (or would like to work with) academic material that includes a references list in some form.
The course helps you to:
- learn how to deal with references
- find out what you didn't know about references and fill any gaps
- explore unfamiliar reference systems
- discover ways of referencing less typical sources
- use digital tools for reference management and checking.
The course is focused on giving exercises to put into practice the lessons given in the study notes, and the study notes themselves, together with a 'Reference shelf', list a great many resources where further information about references and other relevant data can be found.
After working through this course, you should understand how the different types of reference systems work, be aware of the elements required by different citation systems, and be able to devise or follow consistent rules for styling and filing order. You should also know where to look for further information if a particular problem with a reference (or citation) is not explicitly covered by this course.
View the curriculum
- 2 AUTHOR–DATE SYSTEM: INTRODUCTION
- 2.1 IN-TEXT CITATIONS
- Exercise 3: Journal of Fabulous Animal Biology
- Exercise 3: How did you get on?
- 2.2 REFERENCE LISTS
- Exercise 4: Editing reference lists
- Exercise 4: How did you get on?
- 2.3 CROSS-CHECKING REFERENCES
- Exercise 5: Barset
- Exercise 5: How did you get on?
- Unit 2 quiz
- 3 SHORT-TITLE SYSTEM: INTRODUCTION
- 3.1 SHORT TITLES: HOW IT WORKS
- Exercise 6: Untidy titles
- Exercise 6: How did you get on?
- 3.2 SHORT TITLES: WHAT TO CHECK
- Exercise 7: Treacle mines
- Exercise 7: How did you get on?
- 3.3 IBID. AND OTHER LATINISMS
- Exercise 8: Latinisms
- Exercise 8: How did you get on?
- 3.4 SHORT TITLES REVIEW
- Exercise 9: Multiculturalism
- Exercise 9: How did you get on?
- Unit 3 quiz
- 4 NUMBER SYSTEMS: INTRODUCTION
- 4.1 HOW TO STYLE VANCOUVER REFERENCES
- Exercise 10: Cardiovascular disease
- Exercise 10: How did you get on?
- 4.2 NUMBER SYSTEMS: WHAT YOU NEED TO CHECK
- Exercise 11: An introduction to epigenetics
- Exercise 11: How did you get on?
- 4.3 NUMBER SYSTEMS: PROBLEMS YOU MIGHT ENCOUNTER
- Exercise 12: Phosphorus rock mines
- Exercise 12: How did you get on?
- Unit 4 quiz
- 5 TOOLS FOR REFERENCE MANAGEMENT AND CHECKING: INTRODUCTION
- 5.1 LOOKING UP SCHOLARLY WORKS
- Exercise 13: Finding and adding missing elements
- Exercise 13: How did you get on?
- 5.2 MICROSOFT WORD AND REFERENCING
- Exercise 14: Systematic searches in Word
- Exercise 14: How did you get on?
- 5.3 SOFTWARE TO HELP CHECK REFERENCES
- Exercise 15: Using Edifix
- Exercise 15: How did you get on?
- 5.4 REFERENCE MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE AND FIELDS
- Exercise 16: Beirut
- Exercise 16: How did you get on?
- 6 ALMOST EVERYTHING ELSE: INTRODUCTION
- 6.1 STYLING REFERENCES
- Exercise 17: A life apart
- Exercise 17: How did you get on?
- 6.2 CHANGING SYSTEMS
- Exercise 18a: Changing from Vancouver to Harvard
- Exercise 18b: Changing from Harvard to Vancouver
- Exercise 18: How did you get on?
- 6.3 COMPLICATIONS
- Exercise 19: Roma and human rights
- Exercise 19: How did you get on?
- Unit 6 quiz