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Citing information: Create a bibliography

Create a bibliography

You need to provide a list of references for all the works you cite in your paper in the citation style preferred by your school / discipline. Often the required style is mentioned in the assignment and correct referencing according to the rules of the preferred citation style may count for a percentage of your grade.

The citation style you use determines the sorting order, structure and formatting of references in the bibliography at the end of your paper. Styles have specific requirements for different types of publications, e.g. an edited book, a journal article, a conference paper, etc. Styles also have rules for the markup of titles (use of capitals, in italics, bold, between quotation marks) and punctuation separating components of the reference (parentheses, semicolon, colon, coma). Applying all the rules of a style can be a lot of work.

Reference managers, such as ProQuest RefWorks, make this work easier for you. RefWorks offers thousands of output styles, including some custom styles for EUR schools and institutes.

In the e-module Choose a citation style, you can find more information about citation styles. The e-module Use a reference manager highlights the advantage of using a reference manager in building your references and creating a bibliography.

The video Creating a bibliography in RefWorks (2:04) the Anglia Ruskin University Library demonstrates how you can create a 'stand-alone' reference list in just a few clicks.

Be aware that the quality of the bibliography depends on the quality of the references in your RefWorks database - RefWorks can't check the spelling in a reference or the completeness of the information in the reference. A human eye has to do this, so don't take the output for granted! If you need to change anything, edit the reference in your RefWorks database. That's the only way to make sure that the change will be applied to the bibliography in progress and to any subsequent bibliographies.

A checklist for your bibliography is available (PDF).

Try it yourself! Create a bibliography

You can create a bibliography based on references in our test RefWorks account:

  • Go to our shared references
  • Create a bibliography based on the references in the MOOCs folder. You can select a style from a small list of output styles, the default style is APA 6th. When you have your own ProQuest RefWorks account, you can choose from a more extensive a list of styles.
  • Check the reference list – are all entries correct and complete? If not, what information is incorrect or missing?