Knowledge about Citation and Referencing in Higher Education Students

Abstract

The expression of the ideas of others, necessary for the consolidation of individual voice and for the construction of authorial identity, requires referencing skills, which is also an essential requirement for writing without plagiarism. This study aimed to find out whether higher education students know referencing rules and, at the same time, whether what they think they know corresponds to reality. To this end, an inventory of knowledge of referencing rules and a scale of what students believed to know were applied to 208 university students. The main results pointed to a lack of citation and referencing knowledge, especially by the youngest and by those with more difficulties. They also pointed to a mismatch between what students know and what they think they know. As a whole, results alert to the need to invest in pedagogical measures that promote referencing and academic writing skills.