Referencas

Referencas is a term encountered in several Romance-language contexts to denote references or citations used in or appended to a written work. In English-language scholarship the corresponding terms are references or citations, while in languages such as Portuguese, Spanish, or Romanian referencas may appear as the plural form of referenca, referencia, or referência. The concept refers to items that point to sources that support, inform, or acknowledge the content of a document.

A referenca typically includes bibliographic information such as author(s), title, publication venue, year, and identifiers like a DOI or URL. There are two main forms: bibliographic references that appear in a reference list at the end of a work, and in-text referencas (citations) that appear within the body of the text to indicate the source of a specific claim or idea. Some genres also use footnotes or endnotes as a combination of these functions.

Standards for formatting referencas vary by language, discipline, and publisher. Common frameworks include APA, MLA, Chicago, and Vancouver, each with specific rules for ordering, punctuation, and punctuation marks. Digital referencas often include persistent identifiers, such as DOIs, and may be linked to online databases to facilitate retrieval. Cross-referencas within a document—links to figures, tables, or sections—are also a common use of the term in some contexts.

Overall, referencas serve to document sources, enable verification, give credit, and support the traceability and credibility of scholarly work. They reflect broader practices of citation, bibliography, and information literacy. Etymologically, the term derives from Latin roots meaning to carry back or to refer.