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✍🏻 Process your results: source reference

In your citation or reference, you indicate where you found the information: in which book or journal article, or on which website. Always use a specific citation style, such as APA7 or IEEE. Failure to cite your source (or incorrect citation) may be considered plagiarism.

Howest's Education and Examination Regulations (OER) define plagiarism as follows:
Plagiarism: any copying of the work (ideas, texts, structures, images, plans, etc.) of others or of one's own previous work, either identically or in a slightly modified form, without providing a citation and/or without adequate source reference.

(Self)plagiarism is therefore considered a form of fraud.

Why cite sources?

It should be clear what your own ideas are and what you've read from someone else. The reader should be able to verify where you got the information.
Using appropriate sources increases the quality of your report and therefore its credibility.

Basic rules

You cite your sources in two places:

In the text itself: author's surname + publication year (+ page number for a citation)
In the reference list at the end: complete source information with at least author + publication year + title.

There are handy tools to collect your sources and generate correct citations. Learn more about Zotero here.

In-text citation according to APA standards

1. Quoting or paraphrasing

There are two ways to refer to another text.

Quoting: copying a passage verbatim.

Paraphrasing: reproducing a passage in your own words.

Enclose a quotation in quotation marks and include the page number.

If the text you want to quote is longer than 40 words, it might be better to paraphrase. A page number is allowed, but not required.

2. Narrative or parenthetical

There are two ways to express this reference:

Narrative
Parentheses

For example, Dominique Willaert (2025) attributes the many Trump votes to an accumulation of experiences of loss...

For example, “Due to an accumulation of experiences of loss, many residents of the Rust Belt and other states turned their backs on the Democratic Party and voted for Trump” (Willaert, 2025, p. 45).

3. One or more authors

Depending on the number of authors, your citation will look a little different.

Author type	Citation in parentheses	Narrative citation
One author	(Smits, 2021)	Smits (2021)
Two authors	(Smits & Phiri, 2021)	Smits and Phiri (2021)
Three or more authors	(Smits et al., 2021)	Smits et al. (2021)

4. Organization as author

In the first citation, write the full name of the organization.

For example, "The data shows…" (Flemish Radio and Television Broadcasting Organization [VRT], 2023).

From the second citation onward, use the abbreviation.

For example, "The data shows…" (VRT, 2023).

Missing info

Sometimes you can't find all the information you need to write a source citation.

Missing element	What to do?	Reference in parentheses
Author	Use the source title*	(Source title, 2021)
Date	Write "n.d." for "without a date"	(Rojas, n.d.)
Page number	Use an alternative placeholder or leave the page number out	(Rojas, 2021, Chapter 3) or (Rojas, 2021)

Cite the source in the bibliography at the end according to APA standards

Basic rules

In your reference list, you provide more information about the sources you've used. This allows the reader to find and review the source themselves. A few basic rules:

Place your reference list after your text and before your appendices.
Arrange the list alphabetically by the (first) author's surname (not in the order in which you used the sources in your text).
Place a period after each section (except after the URL or DOI).
Check carefully where something is italicized (usually the title) and do so where necessary.

In general, this is the structure of your source citation:

Author - Publication date - Title - Source - For eSources: date of consultation

*The date of consultation is not mandatory for unchanging online sources, but it is recommended because it is difficult to determine which online sources will never change.

1. Books

Structure:
Author's surname, initials. (year of publication). Book title. Publisher.

Book with one author
E.g., Michels, W. (2022). Communication Handbook (7th ed.). Noordhoff.

If this is a first edition, you do not need to mention this.

Book with two authors
E.g., De Smet, D., & De Vuyst L. (2023). Expand your vocabulary. Academia Press.

Book with three or more authors
E.g., De Geyter, E., Mulder, L., van Galen, E., Vandenbroucke, H., & Van Giel, W. (2023). Handbook of sustainable entrepreneurship. Lannoo Campus.

If there are more than 20 authors, list the first 19 authors, followed by an ellipsis (. . .) and the name and initials of the last author.

eBook
For example, Sanchez, J. A., Higgins, R. S. D., & Kent, P. S. (Eds.). (2024). Handbook of perioperative and procedural patient safety. [Ebook]. Elsevier. Accessed on September 22, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1016/C2018-0-01576-5

2. Periodicals

Periodical works include all sources that are published on a regular basis, such as scientific journals, magazines and newspapers.

Article from a scientific journal

Structure online:
Author's last name, initials (year). Title of scientific article. Journal name, volume(edition), page range. Accessed on day, month, year, from DOI/URL

For example, Hodgins, M. W. (2024). The cybersecurity entrepreneur. The Review of Austrian Economics, 1–22. Accessed on September 30, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1007/s11138-024-00641-7

Structure printed:
Author's last name, initials (year). Title of scientific article. Journal name, volume(edition), page range.

E.g. Stahl, C. C., & Literat, I. (2023). #GenZ on TikTok: the collective online self-Portrait of the social media generation. Journal of Youth Studies, 26(7), 925–946.

Article from a 'regular' magazine

Structure online:
Author's last name, initials (year, day, month). Article title. Journal name, Volume(Issue), page range. Accessed on day, month, year, from URL

Volume, issue, and page range may be left out if not known.

For example, Draulans, D. (2025, June 28). Are hunters a little too eager to trigger? Fox hunting should be abolished. Knack. Accessed on July 15, 2025, from https://www.knack.be/nieuws/wetenschap/zijn-jagers-iets-te-schietgraag-de-jacht-op-de-vos-wordt-beter-afgeschaft/

Structure printed:
Author's surname, initials (year). Title of scientific article. Journal name, volume(edition), page range.

For example, Draulans, D. (2025). It would be better if fox hunting were abolished. Knack, 55(27), 74-77.

Newspaper article
This only applies to newspaper articles from newspapers with a print edition. Articles from news websites (e.g., VRTNWS) fall under the category of internet articles.

A citation for a print newspaper includes a page number or page range, while citations for online newspapers include a reference date and URL.

Structure online:
Author's surname, initials (year, day, month). Article title. Newspaper name. Accessed on day, month, year, from URL

For example, Anseel, F. (2025, July 3). Higher wages with AI skills? De Tijd. Accessed on August 20, 2025, from https://www.tijd.be/opinie/column/frederik-anseel-een-hoger-loon-met-ai-skills/10614232.html

Structure printed:
Author's last name, initials (year, day, month). Article title. Newspaper name, page range.

For example, Anseel, F. (2025, July 3). Employees with AI skills earn more. De Tijd, p. 11.

3. Internet resources

Not every online source is an internet source. Use this category only if your source doesn't fall under the category of e-book, magazine, or newspaper article.

Internet article
An internet article can be an online article without a publication date or an article from a news website without a paper edition.

Structure:
Author's last name, initials. (year, day, month). Web page title. Website name. Accessed on day, month, year, from URL

For example, Vanhoutte, T. (2025, July 15). Indigenous Australians lose historic climate case against government. VRT NWS. Accessed on September 15, 2025, from https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2025/07/15/inheemse-australiers-verliezen-klimaatzaak-tegen-overheid/

Webpage
A webpage is a specific page on a website. Often, it doesn't have an author or publication date.

Structure:
Web page. (n.d.). Title. Accessed on day, month, year, from URL

For example, Howest. (n.d.). Howest secures two innovative STEM projects. Accessed on July 16, 2025, from https://www.howest.be/nl/nieuws/howest-haalt-twee-innovatieve-stem-projecten-binnen

Use the publication date and link of the archived version of the Wikipedia article. You can find this by clicking "History" in the upper right corner and selecting the correct version.

Wikipedia page

Structure:
Web page. (Year, Day, Month). In Wikipedia. Accessed on Day, Month, Year, from URL

For example, Howest (June 1, 2025). In Wikipedia. Accessed on July 1, 2025, from https://nl.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Howest&oldid=69402160

4. Bachelors theses

Structure:
Author, Initials. (Year of publication). Title of the thesis [Unpublished thesis]. Name of educational institution.

For example, Moerdyck, M. (2024). Promoting a healthy lifestyle among teenage girls in the village of Jaw Jaw in Suriname [Unpublished dissertation]. West Flanders University of Applied Sciences.

Referring from the catalogue

The Media Hub catalog helps you reference sources (via export). Note: if you copy and paste these references into Word, nothing will be italicized. So check carefully and adjust them yourself if necessary! The access date is also missing; you can add it yourself.

Referring to sources

Here you can find a comprehensive Scribbr manual on which this summary is based.

Here you can find a comprehensive manual for referencing software Zotero.

Referring to AI

These are some general rules for referencing AI. If your teacher has assigned different rules for a specific task, please use those.

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