Citing sources
Correctly referencing the source material you use in your work is a fundamental skill that university students must master. Drawing on the work of others without identifying how and where you have done so constitutes plagiarism. Learning how to cite references is thus essential to your studies.
There are several reasons for citing sources, including:
- to give credit to the original author or source
- to show evidence for claims or data
- to help readers find and verify sources
- to demonstrate your awareness and knowledge of the existing literature.
When to cite
You should cite a source whenever you:
- quote directly (even short phrases)
- paraphrase or summarise someone else’s ideas
- use data, statistics, or figures produced by someone else
- refer to specific theories, methods, or historical facts not considered ‘common knowledge’ in your field.
As a specific example for assignment 1: you are not expected to cite a source for the definition of gross domestic product (a widely used and understood concept within economics). But you should give a reference for how the two measures of energy use are defined.
The ‘common knowledge’ test may be hard to judge when a topic is new to you. If you are unsure about whether to cite something, it is best to do so.
How to cite
Every citation has two parts:
- In-text citation or footnote: a brief reference next to the relevant statement.
- Reference list: full details of all sources at the end.
There are a range of different citation styles, with standards differing across disciplines. Generally speaking, the most relevant standards for your purposes are likely to be Harvard and APA, both of which employ in-text author/year citations. For direct quotes from printed works, a page reference is expected. Otherwise it is generally sufficient to cite the author and year.
Every source you cite in text must be included in the reference list (also known as a bibliography). By the same token, you should only include sources in the reference list that you cite in text. The reference list should be sorted alphabetically by the (first) author’s surname.
The following paragraph is from Ford (2025, p. 19)1:
The concept of human capital, while widespread today, had little currency prior to the 1960’s. Even its earliest proponents were unsure about the term. As Schultz observed, ‘the mere thought of investment in human beings is offensive to some among us. Our values and beliefs inhibit us from looking upon human beings as capital goods, except in slavery, and this we abhor’ (Schultz 1961, p. 2). Similarly, Becker (1964) expressed reservations about titling his book Human Capital given concerns about drawing an equivalence between people and machines.
Then, included in the reference list at the end of the document:
Becker, Gary S. (1964). Human Capital: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis with Special Reference to Education. 3rd edition. University of Chicago Press.
Schultz, Theodore W. (1961). ‘Investment in Human Capital’. American Economic Review, 51.5, pp. 1035–1039.
In this course, there is no prescribed format for referencing: either in-text references or footnotes are acceptable. Whichever approach you choose, you should consistently apply it throughout your assignment. That is, do not mix and match between referencing styles!
A DOI — a digital object identifier — is a unique, standardised code for referencing publications and other digital sources. These are typically reported as links of the form: https://doi.org/10.1410/102500. The key advantage of a DOI is that it is a persistent record. While website links can change, a DOI code will always refer to the same work whenever it is accessed. It is entirely up to the author/publisher to register a DOI for a given work; you (as a reader/user of a given work) cannot assign a DOI yourself.
If a DOI is available for a work you are citing, you can include the link to it at the end of the reference in your reference list. But this is not required.
What about websites?
Websites can also be relevant sources, which require referencing. For PDFs or other documents that are posted online, you should be able to cite these in much the same way as any type of printed work. For information directly contained on a webpage, the standard approach is to identify the author, webpage title, the URL (web address) and the date of publication. The latter can often be difficult to identify: many websites do not specifically state when something was published or last modified. If no date is given (or cannot otherwise be inferred from the content), then report the year as ‘n.d.’ (no date).
As webpage content can change over time, it is common practice to report the date you accessed the website in your reference list. For example: ‘Accessed 23 October 2025’.
What about AI?
There are no restrictions in this course on the use of generative AI in assignments. You are, however, required to disclose how you have used AI in completing your assignment. This includes using AI to generate images.
If you are using AI specifically as a source, you should think about where your chosen AI tool has itself sourced its information. If you cannot verify what an AI tool has served up in terms of facts and evidence, then it may be because AI is prone to ‘hallucination’. When using AI, it is your responsibility to assess the credibility of what it returns.
There are many sources available online which provide greater detail on how to cite works correctly than is contained in this overview. One source is the referencing style guide from Lund University School of Economics and Management. For Danish speakers, SDU’s library also offers a guide on referencehåndtering.
While not necessary for a small assignment, you may find specialised reference management software useful for larger tasks. Tools like EndNote, Zotero and Mendeley allow you to build up a database of references, which you can draw on across your work.
Footnotes
Ford, Nick (2025). Origins of the knowledge economy: Higher education and Scandinavia’s development, ca. 1800–1929. Doctoral thesis, Department of Economic History, Lund University.↩︎