Use of sources

Books, articles, research reports and other material published by others are used to describe the starting points of the thesis and to determine the existing theoretical framework. Your text shall demonstrate that you are sufficiently familiar with theoretical works and other essential literature in your professional field – that your work has a solid basis.

When you write your thesis, you must mention from whom or from where the information was obtained, i.e. you must refer to the sources. The readers of the thesis must be able to understand without difficulty what the author has written him or herself and what has been quoted from elsewhere – and from where exactly. According to the Copyright Act (Act 404 of 8 July 1961), you are obliged to indicate whose text or research results you have quoted in your report. If this obligation is neglected, an action for copyright infringement may be filed against the author.

Basically, referencing and the list of references serve two purposes. They
– indicate whose text, thinking or research results were quoted in the text (see Copyright Act, Act 404 of 8 July 1961, no official English translation available)
– help an interested reader to retrieve further information.

Referencing is not the only area where the copyrights must be respected. Do not incorporate any photographs, drawings, graphic presentations etc. available on the internet into your thesis without the publisher’s or right holder’s permission.

Optimally, the theoretical part of the thesis or other text with references to literature is not just a collection of references, i.e. a series of consecutive references to a single source. For example, if several authors share an opinion, state it once and include all these authors in the reference. A good text combines information from various sources. Writing a comparative and analytical text is challenging: first you have to read and think (and understand) so that you can combine when you write. (Söderqvist 2009.)