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I've forgotten to add reference in bibliography. Please help!

I did my assignment with the citations done correctly however I've only just noticed that I have missed out on one reference in my reference list :frown: so I have one more citation than what is in my bibliography. The rest of my references are correct, it's just this one mistake but I'm worried it could cost me everything.

Will I fail the assignment because of this? Is this plagiarism?

I'm sat here feeling so anxious. This is my last assignment for the year and I should be relieved but I just feel panicky :frown:
Reply 1
Anyone? :frown:
Reply 2
This depends on many things, such as what the assignment is, how important it is, what year of study you're in, which university you're at, whether you've done anything like this before, how important the text you meant to cite is to the assignment overall and whether or not it seems like you did it on purpose.

Also, there's the possibility that they might not notice at all if you're lucky. At my university, I would perhaps expect to lose a couple of marks for an incomplete bibliography and there be no more said about it. I really wouldn't worry too much if I were you.
You mean your reference list?

Your bibliography is just a list of things that you looked at and not stuff that you've referenced.
Reply 4
Missing one full reference from the reference list, isn't a hanging offence. You have the short in-text citation, so if it's noticed it will just mean a few marks docked for an error. You won't fail automatically or be accused of plagiarism. Many markers won't bother checking in that much detail, as they don't have time, so it may even go unnoticed. Chill.
Reply 5
Original post by Roving Fish
You mean your reference list?

Your bibliography is just a list of things that you looked at and not stuff that you've referenced.


Yes sorry, reference list
Reply 6
Original post by Klix88
Missing one full reference from the reference list, isn't a hanging offence. You have the short in-text citation, so if it's noticed it will just mean a few marks docked for an error. You won't fail automatically or be accused of plagiarism. Many markers won't bother checking in that much detail, as they don't have time, so it may even go unnoticed. Chill.


Thanks. I thought it might be something to do with plagiarism if I didn't say where I got the in text citation from. I was so worried! But thank u, I feel better now :smile:
Reply 7
Original post by Adam C
This depends on many things, such as what the assignment is, how important it is, what year of study you're in, which university you're at, whether you've done anything like this before, how important the text you meant to cite is to the assignment overall and whether or not it seems like you did it on purpose.

Also, there's the possibility that they might not notice at all if you're lucky. At my university, I would perhaps expect to lose a couple of marks for an incomplete bibliography and there be no more said about it. I really wouldn't worry too much if I were you.


Thanks, I don't mind losing a few marks as long as I don't get done for plagiarism. I assumed not putting down the source for a citation is plagiarism and got really worried. I hope they don't notice the mistake I made, not sure how thorough their checks are
More likely than not, they won't even notice (unless you only have 4-5 references or something). Don't mention it to them.
Reply 9
Original post by Mark8346
More likely than not, they won't even notice (unless you only have 4-5 references or something). Don't mention it to them.


I have 17 references and the one I missed started with with H so would have been somewhere in the top middle. I was thinking of emailing the tutor to send her the reference I missed but I don't want to draw attention to something they might not notice.
They are not going to modify the document for you after submission.

In the future, consider using a reference manager like zotero.
Reply 11
Original post by starlight82
I have 17 references and the one I missed started with with H so would have been somewhere in the top middle. I was thinking of emailing the tutor to send her the reference I missed but I don't want to draw attention to something they might not notice.


It won't help - they can only mark the work you handed in and won't accept corrections after hand-in.

It happened, so you can be sure to check for it in future. Just learn from it and move on.
Original post by Mark8346
They are not going to modify the document for you after submission.

In the future, consider using a reference manager like zotero.


Original post by Klix88
It won't help - they can only mark the work you handed in and won't accept corrections after hand-in.

It happened, so you can be sure to check for it in future. Just learn from it and move on.


Thanks, I'll def remember this in the future :smile:
Original post by starlight82
Thanks. I thought it might be something to do with plagiarism if I didn't say where I got the in text citation from. I was so worried! But thank u, I feel better now :smile:


Plagiarism is the act of misappropriating someone else's thoughts as your own. Even if the reference was not given, it should be clear by the context and quotations that you are not presenting someone else's thoughts as your own and that you have simply been sloppy with the references. I would think it would be extremely unlikely that you will be accused of plagiarism; like others have said the worst is a few marks docked if it is noticed at all.
Original post by starlight82
I have 17 references and the one I missed started with with H so would have been somewhere in the top middle. I was thinking of emailing the tutor to send her the reference I missed but I don't want to draw attention to something they might not notice.


I would advise against drawing attention to such a minor mistake.
Original post by QuantumOverlord
Plagiarism is the act of misappropriating someone else's thoughts as your own. Even if the reference was not given, it should be clear by the context and quotations that you are not presenting someone else's thoughts as your own and that you have simply been sloppy with the references. I would think it would be extremely unlikely that you will be accused of plagiarism; like others have said the worst is a few marks docked if it is noticed at all.


Original post by QuantumOverlord
I would advise against drawing attention to such a minor mistake.


Thank you for the advice :smile: I'll remember this in future
Reply 16
I also forgot to include 3 sources I cited in my assignment paper to reference list...I'm really worried I would get bad mark now...how was your experience? You didn't get bad mark, did you?
Just wondering, did they find out that you left one reference out? I'm in the same situation now only worse, I realised that i citied some researchers in my dissertation and forgot to put 4 of them into my references list now im really panicking
Original post by starlight82
I did my assignment with the citations done correctly however I've only just noticed that I have missed out on one reference in my reference list :frown: so I have one more citation than what is in my bibliography. The rest of my references are correct, it's just this one mistake but I'm worried it could cost me everything.

Will I fail the assignment because of this? Is this plagiarism?

I'm sat here feeling so anxious. This is my last assignment for the year and I should be relieved but I just feel panicky :frown:
U forgot to list out alll the references?
Original post by sadboy999999
i have also the same issue. I have kept citation but forgot to list out the references.

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