ABSTRACT
Citations are a means of recognising that students’ work is built on the work of others. They are part of the fundamental tenets of science; that they do not start from scratch each time they conduct a study. Patrick Dunleavy argues that citations are required to meet seven criteria with respect to academic writing. Citations can also be used to reduce what students need to write – especially with respect to methodology. Any examples need citations for where the examples came from, and when they make arguments, they add credibility to their arguments from each side by citing that these are from published works. Using citations becomes habit forming, and students will end up wanting to use citations everywhere. There are a number of different citation styles, and this is likely to depend on the journal that students are writing for. The two most prevalent styles in biological sciences are often referred to as Harvard and Vancouver.
