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Psychology: Referencing and Writing

Referencing & Writing

If you follow a citation style correctly, you will avoid plagiarism and help your reader find your information sources.  Ask your lecturer/supervisor if you are not sure which style you should use. APA is the main style used in the psychology programme at Otago:

Reference management software imports documents and bibliographic data in order to store this information and generate references and bibliographies in their writing documents. This means that researchers save a lot of time as they do not have to write out citations or bibliographies manually.

The three most commonly used reference management software are:

See our Managing Your References guide for more information and tips for choosing which software is best for you.

Support for Writing and Research

Student Learning Development

Student Learning Development can help you develop your skills in the following:

Videos

  • Watch this 2 minute video ‘How to Write a Literature Review’ from University of California San Diego Psychology department. You might also want to check out some of their other short research support videos on their YouTube channel.
  • Scribbr’s YouTube channel has playlists of short videos providing research support, including using APA, writing a literature review, and avoiding plagiarism.
  • The University of Melbourne has created multiple videos providing research support and advice. Check out their channel to find short videos on academic writing and referencing.

The University provides us with different software to help with research, mostly for free. Check out their website for more details.

And click here to find out about IT training courses.

Writing and methodology books