Answered By: Sarah Purcell
Last Updated: Dec 13, 2023     Views: 3462

Secondary referencing is citing work second-hand. This is typically ideas or research that has been cited in another piece of work. Whilst you are allowed to do it, we recommend reading the original source.

Use the reference list of the source you have read to find the details of the original. Use these to check whether we have access to it via Library Search.

Sometimes secondary referencing is unavoidable as the original source may not be available, may be out of print, or written in another language. If this is the case, you need to:

  • cite both the original source, and the source you've read which cites that idea or quote
  • fully reference in your reference list only the source you've actually read, not the original source.

 

The way in which you present a secondary reference in your work depends on the referencing style you need to use. Most courses use Harvard style from Cite Them Right, which we’ve used to generate the following references:

 

Are you quoting or summarising?

In-text citation

Direct quote or paraphrasing (the Lewis source appears in your reference list)

Harvey (2015, quoted in Lewis, 2016, p.86) provides an excellent survey…

Summarising (the Murray source appears in your reference list)

White’s views on genetic abnormalities in crops (2014, cited in Murray, 2015) support the idea that…

 

 

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Comments (4)

  1. What if the sentence in the secondary reference has more than 1 authors work within the same sentence. How do we reference that?
    by Edidiong Essiet on Jun 25, 2021
  2. Hello, thanks for your question. As it can be a bit tricky to answer without context, we always invite our students and staff to send an example of their writing. Once we have a look, the answer may be a bit clearer!
    by Sarah on Jun 28, 2021
  3. Hi, I found a wonderful blog post that explains a concept to me and at the bottom as says who wrote and the sources she used to write hers. how would I refernces this?
    by Thape on Jan 11, 2024
  4. If you are a Worcester student, you can log in to the Cite Them Right website for guidance on referencing a blog post. Most students at Worcester will use Harvard style, though we also support other course-specific styles (see https://library.worc.ac.uk/referencing). In our Harvard style at Worcester, we would recommend including: the author of the blog post (surname, initial); the year it was published in brackets; the title of the blog post in single quotation marks; the title of the blog itself in italics; the day and month of posting (e.g. 14 May); and then the web address for the blog post preceded by Available at: - and finish with the date you accessed it - (Accessed: 11 January 2024).
    by Sarah on Jan 11, 2024