Requests for exemption from use of MMU Harvard in Undergraduate Programmes

Transcription

1 Requests for exemption from use of MMU Harvard in Undergraduate Programmes During the summer term last year the Library presented a proposal to FADCs for the adoption of an MMU Harvard Standard of referencing for Undergraduate use in all Faculties in the University. The main driver for this proposal was to help improve the student experience. The current range of referencing styles in use across MMU is confusing, especially for Combined Honours Students, and is inefficient for FSSOs and Library Staff to support, particularly as students are not always clear about what style they are being asked to use. Subsequently ADC approved the proposal for implementation to be advisory for the current academic year and mandatory from September 2012 and the MMU Harvard Referencing guide was uploaded to the Library website Since then we have received the following applications for exemption from the use of MMU Harvard, all of which have been approved by their respective FADCs: Art & Design Faculty To use the MMU Harvard Standard but some programmes/units lecturers may specify citations are listed in a numeric rather than Author-Date order. HLSS Faculty School of Law (to use the OSCOLA system) English, History, Philosophy, Politics, Public Services (all to use MHRA) Hollings Faculty BSc (Hons) Trading Standards (to use OSCOLA) Science & Engineering Faculty Chemistry Undergraduate Network within Division of Chemistry & Environmental Science (to use Royal Society of Chemistry Style) The rationale behind these requests is detailed in the appendices to this paper and members of ADC are asked to consider and approve these requests. Fiona Hughes, Library Services Manager 19 th April 2012

2 Appendix 1 Art & Design request to be able to use the MMU Art & Design numeric style as well as the University standard Harvard Reference Style The literature points to the preference within Art & Design disciplines for numeric style referencing systems (Neville, 2008 and Levin, 2004). Our students often need to reference a work of art, or a performance, a spatial object or a 3D object. These sources do not fit so well with Harvard referencing and can lead to large tracts of information being included in, and interrupting, the text. In the library we have many art and design magazines and publications, which use little in the way of conventional references, e.g. captions to photographs or illustrations as well as more scholarly journals.* Looking at a sample of the scholarly journals in Art & Design we are unable to say that numeric referencing is the norm. However, it is common to annotate references and some journals do this as running footnotes, whereas some give a list of annotated references at the end. There are also a number of scholarly journals used in the Faculty, which use Harvard. The Faculty of Art & Design took the numeric referencing system already in use in some departments and developed a guide for this system to exist alongside the Harvard system, which was being standardised in MMU in 2009/10 and 2010/11. The faculty would like to request the opportunity to retain the numeric system in Art & Design alongside the new University-wide standard Harvard being implemented in 2012/13. The system would mirror the Harvard standard but allow students to use numeric referencing (ie to insert a footnote/endnote and also include a referencing list at the end). To avoid confusion we plan to run staff development sessions prior to the start of the academic year and to run sessions for students throughout the year, to provide brief guides and longer guides. As the system will mirror the Harvard system the students would also be able to use the guide that is available on the library website for the specifics of how to reference different sources. The Faculty acknowledges the need to arrive at a University Referencing Standard, but we also remain highly sensitive to the range of contexts in which our students work and the professionally recognised conventions and practices adopted by many working in the disciplines with which our students engage. The retention of a numeric system alongside Harvard would enable both students and staff to ensure that referencing conventions in the Faculty work to an agreed standard whilst simultaneously allowing flexibility in accordance with the needs of particular subjects and disciplines. David Shirley (Chair of FADC) Helen Bowman (FSSO) Margaret Kendall (Art & Design Librarian) * Sample: Levin, P (2004) Write Great Essays Maidenhead: Open University Press Neville, C (2007) The Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism Maidenhead: Open University Press. The Art Bulletin - numeric reference list at the end with additional notes included in the endnote) Burlington Magazine running footnotes British Journal of Photography numeric references at the end British Art Journal numeric list of references at the end Cinema Journal running footnotes Costume numeric list of references at the end with a separate sequence of figures in the text as captions to photographs Glass Art Society numeric list of references at the end

3 Journal of Media Practice Harvard Journal of Popular Film and Television Harvard Journal of Urban Design Harvard Landscape Research Harvard Movement, Dance and Drama Harvard Music, Sound and the Moving Image Harvard New Theatre Quarterly numeric list of references at the end Sculpture Journal - annotated references at the end

4 Appendix 2 HLSS Request for exemption To: Head of Library Services From: Chair of HLSS FADC RE: REQUEST TO BE EXEMPT FROM USE OF THE HARVARD REFERENCING SYSTEM Date: 31 October 2011 The following programmes in the Faculty of HLSS: English History Philosophy Politics Public Services School of Law request to be exempt from the standard MMU referencing system (Harvard) and to be allowed to continue to adopt a numerical system (e.g. BS/ MHRA in the case of English, History, Philosophy, Politics and Public Services) or OSCOLA (in the case of the School of Law). The reasons are as follows: 1. With very limited exceptions, numeric referencing systems with foot- or endnotes are used in the monographs, edited volumes books and refereed journals used by students on this programmes. These students are unlikely to come across the Harvard system in the course of their studies, and should learn to use the system that they see in operation. 2. The Harvard system is less suitable for essays and for dissertations in some of the Humanities discipline areas. One of the skills students learn as they progress through the degree is that of appropriate footnoting, including what information to put in the main text and what to include in footnotes. The Harvard system does not provide that flexibility. 3. The Harvard system is inappropriate for referencing in the Legal disciplines, where OSCOLA is the accepted referencing system. For the above and other reasons the Harvard system is considered to be inappropriate for students on the programmes listed above. The programmes, which already include guidance on referencing in their Student Handbooks, will ensure that their chosen referencing system is well explained and that students understand the reasons for this variation to the MMU standard practice. I would be grateful if you could make this representation on behalf of the Faculty of HLSS to the Academic Development Committee.

5 Appendix 3 - Trading Standards request for exemption from MMU Harvard Dear Fiona, I have received a request for exemption from Harvard referencing for Trading Standards courses at Hollings This was discussed and approved at our FADC meeting on 13 th March. Here is the rationale for why the trading standards courses are requesting an exemption from Harvard: The MSc/BSc Trading Standards courses request to be exempted from the requirements to use the Harvard referencing system and to be allowed to continue using the OSCOLA system (the Oxford Standard for the Citation of Legal Authorities). The OSCOLA system is a numeric referencing system i.e. footnotes/endnotes that is used by law students, academics and authors. The trading standards students essentially study law and law-based topics. The vast majority of materials (such as journals and texts) that they use in their studies use this system and this is what they should become familiar with. It is the referencing system that they become accustomed to and, over time, they learn the techniques and skills involved with using it. If they subsequently join a legally-focussed profession or start publishing in refereed law journals, it is the system that they are going to have to become familiar with. Additionally, there are aspects of law referencing, notably legislation, case law and Government documents that does not lend itself easily to Harvard and is much more suited to being referenced as footnotes. At an early stage on the respective courses, the trading standards students are taught how to reference appropriately for law-based topics. They are also given feedback on their assignments about their referencing techniques and the appropriateness (or otherwise) of how they reference. I hope this is satisfactory. Thanks Steve Steve Eddy LLB (Hons) LLM MTSI Programme Leader, MSc Trading Standards Manchester Metropolitan University, Hollings Faculty Old Hall Lane, Manchester M14 6HR Tel

6 Appendix 4 - Exemption for Chemistry Degrees from the Proposed MMU Wide imposition of the Harvard Reference Style Within the Chemistry Academic and Professional communities worldwide there are 2 key reference formats adopted neither being the Harvard reference style The two, numeric based, styles that are generally used are: American Chemical Society (ACS) as exemplified by their flagship journal, The Journal of the American Chemical Society and detailed in the ACS Style Guide. Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), as exemplified by their flagship journal, Chemical Communications Professional Chemists are required to use the above ACS/RSC reference styles (which are very similar to each other). External Examiners, including at M.Phil. and Ph.D. level, will not accept theses or project reports that are referenced using any other than the above styles (ACS/RSC). In their referencing guidelines the RSC specifically state: Please do not use Harvard style for references Source: Consequently all chemistry students need to be trained according to the standard ACS/RSC styles to support present and future academic careers. Furthermore in terms of employability, pharmaceutical or chemical companies will require job candidates to be experienced in using the above reference styles. To simplify processes for MMU students we wish to use the RSC reference style as the standard for MMU Chemistry Degrees and hence request exemption from the Harvard reference style. An additional reason for adopting the RSC style, is that the RSC are the accrediting body for MMU Chemistry Degrees (The next MMU Chemistry Degree Accreditation event will take place at the end of February 2012), and we are aware that accreditation is an essential requirement for the academic health of our degree programmes. The RSC publications style of referencing uses a sequential number citation based system throughout the document. Fuller details of the style can be found at the following source: and, for illustration, an example is given below taken from the Chemical Communications journal mentioned above. 1. M. J. Russell and A. J. Hall, J. Geol. Soc., 1997, 154, R. M. Hazen, Sci. Am., 2001, 284, W. Martin and M. J. Russell, Philos. Trans. R. Soc., B, 2003, 358, M. J. Russell and W. Martin, Trends Biochem. Sci., 2004, 29, X. V. Zhang and S. T. Martin, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006, 128, Andrew Caffyn and Adrian Watson Division of Chemistry and Environmental Sciences