There is also a tool for references in LaTeX. We will look closer into that in just a minute, but first we will go through a very quick introduction to references in general. If you are familiar with the basics of references you can skip this part and continue on with the course.

When do we use references?

When you write an assignment everything you write will be in one of two categories:

Something you thought of yourself
Information that someone else has shared in some way, like in an article, a book, a video, etc.

When you borrow something someone else has thought of (i.e. from the second category) you need to show that by referring to the source where you found the information. You do this by adding a citation to the text and a reference in your reference list. How the citations and references are written depends on two things;

The reference style you use

The set of rules that decides how the citations and references should look like is called a reference style. Choose one style and stick with it throughout your document.

There are many different reference styles that you can choose from. APA 7th is common at UiS, and some use IEEE. You can ask your teacher/supervisor if there is a specific reference style that is much used within your subject area. Use the Citation Compass to find out how your references should look like. Make sure that you know how the references should look when you try it in LaTeX (when in doubt - ask the Library!)

What kind of source you are reffering to.

There are a lot of different sources that you can use in your text. The citations in the text will usually look roughly the same within a reference style, but the references in the reference list will vary depending on the type of source you are using. A refererence to a book will look different than a reference to an article.