Whenever you refer to another person's work in your own essay, dissertation or article you must acknowledge them and give full details of your source. You risk being accused of plagiarism if you fail to do so.
Psychology generally uses the APA7 style of referencing. For posters APA or Vancouver can be used.
(Please note: Undergraduates who started their course before January 2020 can use the APA6 style)
For general information on referencing, including an explanation of different citation systems, and guidance on citing specific types of publication, see our Citing references guide.
For help with citing specific types of publication contact your subject librarian, Sally Smith.
For advice on using references in your work, and how to use them to support your arguments, consult the guidance on the Study Advice website or make an appointment with them.
Psychology generally uses APA7 but, for poster assignments, either APA7 or Vancouver can be used.
Undergraduate students who started their course before January 2020 can use APA6 rather than APA7
Whichever style you use the key thing to remember is to always cite your references in the same style for any one assignment.
You can use APA7 for any assignment.
For guidance on how to cite using APA7 you can use the following:
If you're doing a poster assignment you can use the Vancouver style for your references rather than APA, if you prefer. Because Vancouver is a numbered style citations in the text take up less space.
For guidance on how to cite using Vancouver you can use the following:
Guidelines and a printable guide
If you're an undergraduate and you started your course at Reading before January 2020 you can continue to use APA6 if you prefer.
For guidance on how to cite using APA6 you can use the following:
When you do your dissertation you could consider using EndNote to manage your references. This bibliographic management package can be used to store references, and then insert the citation in your Word document, automatically building the bibliography for you in the correct style.
Find out more on our EndNote webpages:
For information on other options for electronic management of your references see our guide to Managing references:
