This section of the InThinking Business Management website is targetted at IB DP and IB CP students. The work of all IB students must be original and authentic. Academic writing requires awareness of academic conventions; using the work of others requires ways to demonstrate your academic honesty. Getting this right is not only important for assessment purposes, but also for academic integrity.

When students think of citation and referencing, they often think of academic honesty and of avoiding plagiarism, and it can be painful trying to remember all those "rules." However, this is only a small part of citation and referencing. The main reason for citation and referencing (C&R) is more than just academic integrity but about good quality academic writing such as the Extended Essay.

The IB requires all students to provide full references and acknowledge all sources they have used in the EE (or IA). They cannot just use the homepage of a website, for example.

So, "https://www-businessinsider-com" is not acceptable at all, whereas "https://www-businessinsider-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.businessinsider.com/photos-ritz-carltons-new-luxury-cruise-ship-sail-this-week-2022-10" is acceptable (although proper citation and reference requires more than copying/pasting a URL).

Citation and referencing were not invented to create additional hurdles to the lives of IB students. C&R have evolved to help readers, readers reading other people's work. This includes you, as you read other people's work. This also includes you as writer, as you write for other people to read your work (such as internal assessments, written assignments and the extended essay). C&R help you establish your credentials as a writer, worthy of joining the academic conversation. Essentially, C&R help you and those who read your work.

The IB does not specify which referencing style you must use in any subject or component of the Diploma, so any notion of "correct" references is a fallacy. What IB examiners look for is completeness and consistency, not formatting accuracy. If your references include all the elements needed to enable a reader to track down the exact source you used and you present your reference in a consistent format, you're good! Consistency means the same order of elements, the same punctuation, the same font style and the same case (upper or lower) for titles, and so on. Consistency is painstaking attention to detail, possibly, but that is what the marks for Criterion I in the extended essay (Formal Presentation) are awarded for - attention to detail.

The IB publication "Effective citing and referencing" (available to teachers via MyIB) includes nine reasons for citing your sources (2014, p. 2). Some of these reasons come across in your list of references and some come across in your citations along with the evidence you use to support your points.

When you tell your readers where you found your sources, this enhances your standing as a writer. You show the reader that you have read or researched widely, have found and used authoritative and reliable sources, have credible support for your arguments, are aware of writers with contrary ideas, and more. The reader can see how your arguments build on the work of others.

"Incorrectly" formatted references are not dishonest, they do not make for plagiarism. Mistakes in references are the equivalent of spelling or grammatical errors. Mistakes are not good, but they are not necessarily dishonest. On the other hand, correctly- and consistently-formatted references show that you are a good writer, someone who knows the conventions of writing in the subject, someone whose views and words are to be respected and taken seriously.

While mistakes in referencing are relatively minor, failure to cite sources can be serious indeed. Citation is the set of signals in the text which enables your reader to determine what words and ideas are your own and which originate with other people or sources. If you do not include these signals, you mislead your reader so this is where plagiarism lies. It is in the text that you demonstrate your honesty.

Fortunately, citation is relatively easy; there are far fewer things to remember than there are with references.

For purposes of academic honesty, all you need are signals in the text which say that this is someone else's work, and quotation marks or markers if you are using someone else's exact words. Just these two things.

Even if you do not know the name of your source, you can still be honest:
I have heard it said that prediction is difficult, especially prediction of the future.
This is not good scholarship, but it is honest: I am admitting that this is not my own original thought even if I do not know whose it is (actually, it is usually attributed to Niels Bohr, though some sources name Yogi Berra).

For the purpose of academic writing, in-text citations might need to provide a little more information, most especially the page number if you use a quotation from a print source. If you are using an author-date citation style, then you need the date as well.

More is possible. Each of these paragraphs uses the same quotation. Notice how, as we build the citation, we add strength to our use of the quotation, we add authority to the original writer and credibility to our own work.

It may be human nature to think that we are more astute than we really are, to see what we want to see and to ignore that which might work against us. It could be that, "More often than not, risk takers underestimate the odds they face, and do not invest sufficient effort to find out what the odds are." (Kahneman, 2011, p. 256).

... As Kahneman puts it, "More often than not, risk takers underestimate the odds they face, and do not invest sufficient effort to find out what the odds are" (2011, p. 256).

... Kahneman's research (2011) suggests that "More often than not, risk takers underestimate the odds they face, and do not invest sufficient effort to find out what the odds are" (p. 256).

... In 2011, behavioural economist Daniel Kahneman suggested "More often than not, risk takers underestimate the odds they face, and do not invest sufficient effort to find out what the odds are" (p. 256).

... Daniel Kahneman, awarded the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2002, has shown that "More often than not, risk takers underestimate the odds they face, and do not invest sufficient effort to find out what the odds are" (2011, p. 256).

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking fast and slow. London: Allen Lane.

You do not need to do this for every author you cite, nor for a source already introduced. Used well, this is a powerful device.

Think of academic writing as conversation, as argument. You as writer present a possible answer to a research question, and you argue your case, using examples and evidence from other people's work as your witnesses, supporting your case. You want the best witnesses possible. You can also show awareness of contradictory opinion and evidence.

When you use other people's material, include the citation as you write, and make clear whether these are your words or the words used in the original. Many students believe they can write their work and then go back to add the citations. This method of working often backfires, as they often miss citing material which is not their own. Above all, do not rely on Turnitin.com or other software to find out what you should be citing after the paper is written; software sometimes gets it wrong. The best advice is to cite as you write.

If you use digital or handwritten notecards, you can help yourself by including the source of any quotations or paraphrases that you make note of, as you make the note. Make it clear whether you have copied word-for-word or whether these are your own words and thoughts. Be organized. Good academic writing starts with good organization. When making notes, note your sources.

 For those who use Microsoft Word, here is a useful tutorial you can use for citation and referencing.

Citation and referencing are important when writing for an academic audience, as with the Extended Essay.

Much IB work is not presented in the style of an academic paper, and formal C&R would be out of place. Nevertheless, authenticity is still expected. Attribution - the citing of sources - is still needed. Movies often include a long list of credits at the end, especially with regard to songs or to clips included from other films. Novels often include acknowledgements at beginning or end. Artwork and music may include attribution in the title (Portrait of a lady, after Klimt, or Variations on a theme by Joplin). A poster or collage might include an outline of the pieces used and a note on the source used for each.

There are different ways to attribute your sources, appropriate to the type of work you are creating; there are no specific rules. Be creative – and get in the habit of being honest.

Which (type of) referencing style should you use? There is much discussion about this question on social media platforms, yet few provide a comprehensive answer.

Some academic subjects and disciplines appear to prefer particular types of referencing style.

Some - but not all - journals in some of the sciences and the social sciences use an author-date style such as APA (the style guide of the American Psychological Association). The recency of sources used in writing such papers can be important, and it helps the reader to know immediately rather than looking up the date in the References list at the end.

Some - but not all - journals in history and other humanities subjects use a footnoting style such as Chicago (the style guide of the University of Chicago Press). This is sometimes held to be because parenthetical citations in the text may slow the reader. Footnoting styles use superscript or bracketed numbers in the text; the numbers lead to full or short references at the foot of the page or at the end of the paper, chapter or book. If you feel that the source and/or the date are important, you can still include it/them in the text as well as in the footnote.

Some - but not all - journals in language and literature use an author style such as MLA (the style guide of the Modern Language Association). It seems not to matter when the source said or wrote the words, it is the name of the source which gives authority. If you feel that the date is important, you can still include it in the text.

For IB purposes, any style can be used in any subject, as long as it is used consistently.

So, the answer to the question "Which type of referencing style should I use for the Extended Essay?" is simply "it depends."

The different styles use (more or less) the same elements: author, title, date of publication, date of access, publisher, pages, URL and so on. It is the punctuation that is different in different styles, and the order in which the elements are included in the reference.

If you have used a referencing style for many years and can recognise the elements, you may find it relatively easy to learn different styles, styles which seem to be used often in particular subjects. You will be more able to use a template, examples of references for different types of source you might use.

On the other hand, if you are new to referencing and have never used a style guide before, it is best to stick to one style for all your subjects, and get to know that well.  It is too easy to be confused by the requirements of different types of style.

• Citations in the text show you are being honest.

• Referencing is the academic side of academic honesty.

• Good use of citation and referencing helps you show off your research and writing skills.

• Your references are your witnesses, strengthening the case for your arguments.

• The IB does not prescribe a particular referencing style, but you need to be consistent in the way you show C&R in the extended essay.

• The IB takes citation and referencing extremely seriously. Clear guidelines about C&R must be included in the academic integrity policy of all IB World Schools.

Effective citing and referencing. (2014). Cardiff: International Baccalaureate Organization. Retrieved 21 January 2021 from: www.ibo.org/globalassets/digital-tookit/brochures/effective-citing-and-referencing-en.pdf or http://goo.gl/QLTGVC