Guides: Business Literature Search guide: References

How to cite - test yourself

How to refer to business sources. APA style

Here you will find the library's tips for making a bibliography after using our business databases

Formalities for written assignments

This link takes you to a paper, that contains the current guidelines concerning the contents and layout of written assignments and reports handed in by students at the programmes in Economics and Business Administration and the programmes in Economics and Mathematics-Economics. The guidelines only apply if there are no separate rules in the course description or the assignment given for the course in question.

About citations

What

When writing academic papers, you are expected to quote, paraphrase, and refer to the sources you have used in relation to your paper. These are often referred to as citations or references.

Why

One of the most important rules within the academic code is transparency; you must document where you have your knowledge og data from. Your work has to be trustworthy and should appear fair and valid. So, you must not cheat with your results: correct them or invent some for the occasion - and you must not make use of either others' or your own results without citing your source.

It all comes down to the academic code of conduct. When citing your sources, you make it easier for others to follow up on your argumentation and you strengthen your paper’s credibility. You also demonstrate that you are familiar with relevant theory and literature, that you can make use of it, and that you can build upon previous research.

How

The expectations for the layout of the references may differ from field to field. Some have to put the reference’s author and year in parentheses (SDU Library, 2019) - others put numbers in parentheses (1) or perhaps increase them² - and some may also have to insert them as footnotes³. The different types of citations relate to the different reference systems you choose to use. You may have heard of either APA, Chicago, Harvard, MLA or NLM / Vancouver. Every field of research has its own preferences.

Which style?

As a guideline the Health Science primarily follow the NLM system, whereas the interdisciplinary studies within Humanities & Social Science as well as Psychology often follows the APA style. Classical studies at Humanities often follow the MLA, while Philosophy, History, and Law tend to follow the Chicago style. The Business areas as well as interdisciplinary studies (Health, Soc. Sc. & Tech) like to follow the Harvard style, whereas Tech, Engineering, Computer Science and Math like to follow IEEE.

Your study programme or your supervisor will guide you to which reference style is expected. In some study programmes it is required to follow a specific system. Get an overview and links to reference guides and tutorials via this page.

Messy or missing references?

If you can’t account for your paper’s documentation and references, you can end up in serious trouble. Worst case is that you’ll be accused of fraud or plagiarism. Learn more about the academic code of conduct and plagiarism at MitSDU.dk.

Why do I have to use a reference tool?

You don’t. You can make references manually if you wish. But you might realise that if you use a reference tool, it’ll save you from a lot of work.

It can be time consuming manually to control and keep track on all details in your references in longer papers and theses. From students who realize that a program can automize a lot of this work, we often hear “why didn’t anybody tell me about this earlier?”

³https://www.sdu.dk/en/bibliotek/studerende/referer+korrekt

Components of a reference (article)

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Year). Title of article: Subtitle. Title of the journal, volume(issue), page numbers. https://doi.org/xxxx

Example:
McMullen, J. S., & Kier, A. S. (2017). You don’t have to be an entrepreneur to be entrepreneurial: The unique role of imaginativeness in new venture ideation. Business Horizons, 60(4), 455-462.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.03.002