## 5.5 General rules

Regardless of which referencing style you use, there are a number of rules you must always take into account.

- You must reference your sources in two places - in your text and in the bibliography:
  - In your text you should consistently refer to the source you have used. This ensures that it is clear when you have used external sources and which those are. If you have used a particular source in several places in your text, you should cite the source in all these places. What a reference looks like in the text differs depending on the referencing style. These are the differences you will encounter:
    - In-text citation styles: the source is placed in brackets in the running text. APA is an example of an in-text referencing style.
    - Numeric reference styles: ascending numbers in your text refer to the sources used. IEEE is an example of a numerical referencing style.
    - Footnotes: in some referencing styles, sources are listed in a footnote at the bottom of the page. In other styles (e.g. APA), you are not allowed to use footnotes for references.
  - In your bibliography, you include the full reference details of all the sources you have used.

- Different types of material, different rules:
  - How your source reference appears like in the bibliography differs depending on the type of material. So bear in mind that a source reference for a book may look different from one for a video, image, article, etc. The number of authors of a source can also make a difference in how your reference should look. You can read about these differences are in the manual for your referencing style.