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The Library has been delegated the role of maintaining and supporting the ‘Newman Harvard’ referencing style that is used across most programmes at Birmingham Newman University. This involves:
It is important to note that the Library is an information service in a supporting role to academic departments. It would not be appropriate (and nor do we seek) to make judgements about the methods academic colleagues use and the weight they place on referencing standards when they assess students’ work.
We would like to understand the range of views and practices of academic staff at Birmingham Newman University when it comes to teaching and assessing students’ referencing, and how it may impact on their grades. We hope this will give us insights that we can bring to bear in the support we provide to students and staff, and a fuller understanding of what the Newman community wants and needs from the Library’s stewardship of referencing guidelines.
Unlike other systems which are published by scholarly and scientific organisations, the Harvard system is ‘open source’ – based on a set of principles with no single point of authority. As a starting point, the University has adopted the Harvard referencing principles published in successive editions of Cite them right by Richard Pears and Graham Shields, published by Bloomsbury Academic. A new edition of this resource is due to be published in Spring 2025, which gives us a good opportunity to take stock of current practice at Birmingham Newman University now.
However, the complexity and evolving nature of information sources means that a published system can never truly be comprehensive, and the Library is frequently asked to give advice on sources that don’t fit into published examples. This is where the concept of ‘Newman Harvard’ as a distinct referencing style comes in. Each successive edition of Cite them right will eventually add new guidance for novel resource types, and sometimes amend advice for long-established source types. When this happens, the Library considers any changes and makes a decision whether to amend our previous guidelines or to continue with our own advice.
When we decide to deviate from Cite them right, it is usually to make it easier for students to understand the information source they are using; however, we clearly state in the referencing guide when our guidance deviates from Cite them right.
We encourage staff to consider references presented in either Newman Harvard or in the latest edition of Cite them right to be correct.
Anecdotally, the Academic Service Librarians are aware that, across the University, different departments (and individual academic colleagues) may approach the marking of referencing very differently. A common complaint of students at referencing appointments and workshops is that their referencing has been marked more harshly in one piece of work than in another. Although this applies equally to other aspects of marking, students often are particularly animated about the differences between what is acceptable referencing to one member of staff and what is acceptable to another.
Most comments about inconsistency of marking relate to the attention to detail given to the students’ reference list. The Librarians have also seen several scripts where comments such as ‘referencing needs work’ are used without further elaboration from the marker.
In defense of academic colleagues’ marking, the Librarians are aware that students sometimes do not consider the difference between comments on a marked script and their actual bearing on the marks added or deducted for that aspect. Nevertheless, these misunderstandings and a lack of context for marking comments may be leading to confusion about the relative importance of aspects of referencing, which is causing undue anxiety and, we believe, is leading students to focus on the wrong issues.
Word counts are a consistent source of anxiety and complaints for students when producing academic work. While the Academic Service Librarians understand the pedagogical and practical need for them, there are circumstances where Newman Harvard referencing can add to these anxieties that students feel around word counts.
In-text citation in Cite them right and Newman Harvard mostly require three pieces of information:
Our use of in-text citation deviates from other author-date systems, such as APA, which do not require reference points for any in-text citations and allow for the use 'ibid.’ to abbreviate repeat citations. In Newman Harvard, there are only specific circumstances where a reference point is not required, such as where a document is a single page or where the cited material is mentioned in summary or in passing.
While there may be pedagogical benefits and a promotion of accountability by requiring page numbers, it does make the explanation of in-text citation more complicated and does contribute (although usually in a minor way) to word count pressure. It is also worth noting that the increasing availability and use of online and born-digital sources, which often do not have traditional page numbers used in printed material, is making it more difficult for students to reliably know when they need to include one or what kind of reference point is appropriate.
Currently, the Library advice is that:
Removing the need for students to use page numbers or reference points will simplify our approach to in-text citation and save students words in their assessments.
Students are sometimes confused when they need to repeat a citation, thinking it is not allowed or that they will lose marks for citing the same source twice in a row. We have seen examples of students omitting or misplacing citations to try and avoid repeating them. Allowing use of ibid. will solve some of this confusion, as its existence is demonstrative of the acceptability of repeating citations. Students will also benefit from a marginal (and mostly psychological) word-saving advantage, which may also alleviate some of this anxiety too.
By collecting this data, we hope we will be able to understand the range of views and practices that academic staff at Birmingham Newman University hold about referencing, including:
The data collected will enable us to report our findings back to the University community and may promote more conversations about our approach to referencing. This, in turn, could lead to changes to the way we provide referencing support to students that makes it easier for students to engage with referencing, and understand that there is a consistent rationale behind the assessment of referencing at Birmingham Newman University.
With sufficient engagement, we will also be able to gauge if there is sufficient support for the following changes to the referencing style that have been proposed over the last few years:
The survey should take no more than 10 minutes of your time. You can access it by clicking on the 'Take the survey now' button under the header image at the top of this page.
The survey will be open from Monday 6 January 2025 to Friday 28 February 2025.
If you have any questions or comments about the survey or wish to bring anything to our attention that is not specifically covered by the consultation, please get in touch.
You can email your Academic Service Librarian directly or library-enquiries@newman.ac.uk.
