English-taught degrees in Germany, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries share no referencing style, and the department decides more than the country. A business school in Lund writes its own Harvard, a Munich chair prints APA examples from an older edition, and Copenhagen Business School lets most students choose. What the universities share is a written plagiarism procedure, and several now name an invented reference as cheating or fraud.
This guide is published by EdCitation, whose free Cite a source builds each reference from the publisher's record instead of writing it. We read fourteen universities' own guides, manuals and regulations on 2 October 2026, each linked. Work in German, Dutch or a Nordic language follows conventions covered in our guides to German citation styles and Dutch and Scandinavian referencing.
Which referencing style do English-taught degrees in Europe use?
The style your programme, chair or supervisor names. Of the eight guides below, seven list APA, three Harvard and two IEEE. For other countries, see which citation style you will need abroad.
| University | Country | Style the guide names | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rotterdam School of Management (RSM), Erasmus University | Netherlands | The APA Publication Manual, for MSc theses | Rotterdam School of Management (2026) |
| Technical University of Munich, Chair of Marketing and Consumer Research | Germany | APA, with house examples that cite the 6th edition | Technical University of Munich (2026) |
| University of Mannheim, Chair of Public & Nonprofit Management | Germany | APA 7 for seminar papers and theses | University of Mannheim (2026) |
| KTH Royal Institute of Technology | Sweden | APA, IEEE, Harvard, Vancouver and Oxford, "common at KTH" | KTH Library (2026) |
| Lund University School of Economics and Management (LUSEM) | Sweden | LUSEM's own Harvard for all but law; OSCOLA in business law | Lund University School of Economics and Management Library (2026) |
| Copenhagen Business School (CBS) | Denmark | No universal style; the latest APA if nothing is set | Copenhagen Business School Library (2026) |
| Aalto University | Finland | Harvard name-year, with departmental variants; APA; IEEE in electrical engineering | Aalto University Learning Centre (2026a, 2026b, 2026c) |
| BI Norwegian Business School | Norway | APA 7th; Chicago-based Oslo examples for law | BI Norwegian Business School Library (2026) |
| Any of the six styles EdCitation builds | Any | The entry, from its DOI or address | Cite a source, free |
Who chooses the style
KTH tells students to look for instructions first and, failing those, to find out what their subject uses (KTH Library, 2026). CBS says most of its programmes have no preferred style, so "it falls on you as a student" to choose (Copenhagen Business School Library, 2026). Aalto says to ask the supervisor and, if the answer is APA, whether edition 6 or 7 (Aalto University Learning Centre, 2026a).
Which referencing style do Dutch universities use in English?
APA in business and the social sciences, other styles elsewhere. Utrecht's library lists APA for economics, psychology and the social sciences, an adjusted APA for management and organisation science, Vancouver or Harvard in medicine and the Dutch-language Leidraad voor Juridische Auteurs in law, and says to ask your study coordinator or lecturer (Utrecht University Library, 2026).
RSM's MSc thesis manual, updated on 23 January 2026, sends students to the APA Publication Manual and then says: "Inadequate referencing will be considered plagiarism." Every proposal and final thesis is scanned (Rotterdam School of Management, 2026).
Do German universities use APA on English-taught programmes?
Some business chairs require it, while the humanities and law often cite in footnotes, as our German guide shows. Two chairs' English guidelines show how far "APA" stretches.
APA 7 at a Mannheim chair
The University of Mannheim's Chair of Public & Nonprofit Management, in guidelines updated in January 2026, requires APA's 7th edition for seminar papers and bachelor's and master's theses. Reference managers are allowed, but students should "critically check every source import". All papers go through plagiarism software, and the declaration of authorship must be signed in German even when the thesis is in English; without it, the thesis may go unmarked and be graded 5.0 (University of Mannheim, 2026).
A house style that starts from APA 6
TUM's Chair of Marketing and Consumer Research, in guidelines dated July 2026, refers students to the sixth edition of the APA manual, though the current edition is the seventh. Its journal example puts a colon after the year, "and" before the last author and the article title in title case: "Unnevehr, L., ... and Kinsey, J. (2010): Food and Consumer Economics." TUM checks seminar papers and theses for plagiarism (Technical University of Munich, 2026). Where examples and manual disagree, ask which is marked.
Which citation style do universities in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway use?
APA or Harvard in business and the social sciences, IEEE in engineering, and a legal style in law. KTH's library warns that Harvard "occurs in many variants" (KTH Library, 2026). Aalto's guide is built on Harvard, notes name-year variants at some departments, and names IEEE as the style of electrical engineering (Aalto University Learning Centre, 2026b, 2026c). BI recommends APA 7th except in law, where it uses the University of Oslo law library's Chicago-based examples, because APA "is not suitable for citing legal sources" (BI Norwegian Business School Library, 2026).
LUSEM's Harvard, worked through
LUSEM's policy is that every student except those studying law uses LUSEM's own Harvard; business law recommends OSCOLA (Lund University School of Economics and Management Library, 2026). The school's guide, in its third edition, calls its Harvard "very similar to the APA system", and its own example shows how close (Lund University School of Economics and Management, 2024):
Fenwick, T., & Hall, R. (2006). Skills in the Knowledge Economy: Changing meanings in changing conditions, Journal of Industrial Relations, vol. 48, no. 5, pp.571-574, https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185606070936
The authors and date match APA 7 exactly, so start from the APA entry for Fenwick and Hall (2006), not Cite Them Right Harvard, and change four things by hand:
- Capitalise the major words of the main title and only the first word of the subtitle.
- Put a comma, not a full stop, after the title.
- Write "vol. 48, no. 5, pp.571-574", with no space after "pp.".
- End the entry without a full stop.
In the text, LUSEM uses "&" inside brackets, "and" in a sentence, and "et al." once there are more than two authors.
What happens if you plagiarise at a European university?
A named body hears the case, and the sanction runs from a warning to exclusion. As each university states it:
| University | Who decides | What can follow | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| RSM, Erasmus University (Netherlands) | The Examination Board | A reprimand, up to exclusion from examinations for a year | Rotterdam School of Management (2026) |
| Leiden University, Liberal Arts and Sciences (Netherlands) | The Board of Examiners; the Executive Board to end enrolment | A warning on file, a grade deduction, the work invalid or an F for the course, exclusion for up to a year | Leiden University (2025) |
| University of Bonn, Faculty of Arts (Germany) | The Examination Office; the Rector for exmatriculation | 5.0 and a note on the record; exmatriculation for repeated or serious cases; a fine of up to €50,000 for intentional breaches | University of Bonn Faculty of Arts (n.d.) |
| KTH (Sweden) | The President, or the Disciplinary Board | A warning, or suspension for up to six months | KTH Royal Institute of Technology (2025) |
| University of Copenhagen, Social Sciences (Denmark) | The head of studies and dean investigate; the Rector rules | For premeditated cheating, "normal" is expulsion from the exam, a semester's suspension and a warning | University of Copenhagen Faculty of Social Sciences (n.d.) |
| University of Helsinki (Finland) | A hearing, then the rector or University Board | The whole study attainment failed; a warning; suspension for up to a year | University of Helsinki (2026) |
| University of Oslo (Norway) | The appeals committee | Annulment; exclusion and loss of the right to sit exams in Norway for up to a year, two in particularly serious cases | University of Oslo (2026) |
An EU-wide survey of almost 5,000 responses from 27 member states asked whether outcomes were consistent within and between institutions, and recommended different approaches according to how mature each country's policies were (Glendinning, 2014).
An invented reference counts as cheating or fraud
Oslo lists giving "fictitious sources" as cheating. Leiden's rules class "fictitious research data, graphs, literature and literature references" as fraud. RSM's manual calls fabricating sources, citations or references through generative AI methodological fraud. An unchecked chatbot reference is an exam matter; our guide to checking that a reference is real shows the method.
Careless referencing can count too
Bonn's Faculty of Arts says plagiarism, intentional or not, "always falls under the category of deception", and Leiden's code says plagiarism "is not limited to deliberate deception". CBS draws a line the other way: the wrong style "can never be plagiarism", though a submission without the required style may be rejected and cost an exam attempt (Copenhagen Business School Library, 2026).
How do I reference correctly on an English-taught programme?
- Find the style in your programme's own rules: formal requirements, thesis manual or chair guidelines.
- Note the edition and variant: APA 6 or 7, which Harvard, and any house examples.
- Paste the brief into EdCitation's free Check your paper, which lists the citation style it asks for beside the sentence it came from.
- Build each entry from its DOI, title or web address in Cite a source, in the closest of its six styles; for LUSEM's Harvard, start from APA 7.
- Make the house changes by hand, after correcting a web page's author and date in the form.
- Run the finished list through Verify references and resolve every "check this" and "not found".
- Sign the declaration, in the language your chair asks for.
What did EdCitation return on European sources?
EdCitation is the best tool for this step, because it looks every reference up in the publisher's record and never writes one, which matters where an invented reference counts as fraud. Cite a source builds APA 7, MLA 9, Chicago 18 author-date, Harvard (Cite Them Right), IEEE and Vancouver from a DOI, title, PubMed ID, ISBN or web address, and screens the source for retraction; it does not build OSCOLA, Oxford footnotes or LUSEM's Harvard as such. Both tools are free with no account, and EdCitation writes no part of anyone's thesis: the argument and the credit stay yours.
Cite a source on a DOI and an Oslo web page
For 10.1177/0022185606070936, LUSEM's example, APA 7 returned:
Fenwick, T., & Hall, R. (2006). Skills in the knowledge economy: Changing meanings in changing conditions. Journal of Industrial Relations, 48(5), 571–574. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185606070936
That is correct APA, four hand changes from LUSEM's form.
Oslo's Cheating page came back without author or date: "Cheating. (n.d.). University of Oslo. Retrieved October 2, 2026, from https://www.uio.no/english/studies/examinations/cheating/index.html". The page shows it was last modified on 1 March 2026, which the tool missed. With University of Oslo entered as an organisation and that date, APA became "University of Oslo. (2026, March 1). Cheating. https://www.uio.no/english/studies/examinations/cheating/index.html".
Verify references on six entries
Six entries pasted into Verify references came back four verified, one "check this" and one not found:
- Fenwick and Hall, in LUSEM's own form: verified, "The DOI resolves to this record and the title matches."
- Glendinning, dated 2015 on purpose: "check this", "The work was published in 2014, not 2015; the record has no date in 2015."
- Foltýnek and Glendinning, with its DOI: verified. It reports the same project's survey across 27 member states (Foltýnek and Glendinning, 2015).
- University of Oslo, Cheating: verified, "The page is at this address, and its title matches."
- RSM's thesis manual, by its PDF address: verified, "The address opens a PDF whose first pages carry the entry's title."
- A journal article we made up for the test: not found, "No publisher's or registry's record matches this reference."
No entry came back "could not check"; when one does, EdCitation says so and never reports it as "not found". For a whole thesis, Pro ($8 a month) adds References from a file, which matches every in-text citation to the list, and Check plagiarism, which marks passages matching published or web text with the source of each, shown only to you. A match is not proof of anything (pricing).
Quick questions
Which referencing style do Dutch universities use?
APA in business and the social sciences, at RSM and Utrecht; Utrecht lists Vancouver or Harvard in medicine and a Dutch legal style in law.
Do German universities use APA?
Some business chairs require it: a Mannheim chair requires APA 7 and a TUM chair uses APA-based house examples. Humanities and law often use footnotes.
What citation style do Swedish universities use?
It depends on the school: KTH lists APA, IEEE, Harvard, Vancouver and Oxford, while Lund's School of Economics and Management sets its own Harvard for all but law.
Is a made-up reference plagiarism at European universities?
Oslo counts fictitious sources as cheating and Leiden's liberal arts rules class fictitious references as fraud. EdCitation's free Verify references reports an entry no record holds as "not found".
Can I be excluded for plagiarism at a Dutch university?
Yes. RSM and Leiden both allow exclusion from examinations for up to a year, and Leiden can end a student's enrolment for serious fraud.
References
- Aalto University Learning Centre. (2026a). APA. Citation guide. https://libguides.aalto.fi/c.php?g=410674&p=5076389
- Aalto University Learning Centre. (2026b). Name-year system. Citation guide. https://libguides.aalto.fi/c.php?g=410674&p=2798421
- Aalto University Learning Centre. (2026c). Number reference system. Citation guide. https://libguides.aalto.fi/c.php?g=410674&p=2798423
- BI Norwegian Business School Library. (2026, September 21). Reference styles. Zotero: English. https://libguides.bi.no/zotero_english/reference-styles
- Copenhagen Business School Library. (2026, September 1). Reference styles. Working with integrity as a CBS student. https://libguides.cbs.dk/c.php?g=684990&p=4893176
- Fenwick, T., & Hall, R. (2006). Skills in the knowledge economy: Changing meanings in changing conditions. Journal of Industrial Relations, 48(5), 571–574. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022185606070936
- Foltýnek, T., & Glendinning, I. (2015). Impact of policies for plagiarism in higher education across Europe: Results of the project. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 63(1), 207–216. https://doi.org/10.11118/actaun201563010207
- Glendinning, I. (2014). Responses to student plagiarism in higher education across Europe. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.21913/IJEI.v10i1.930
- KTH Library. (2026, July 6). Write references. KTH Royal Institute of Technology. https://www.kth.se/en/biblioteket/skriva-referera/skriva-referenser-1.856564
- KTH Royal Institute of Technology. (2025, August 14). Disciplinary matters. Student web. https://www.kth.se/en/student/studier/rattigheter-och-skyldigheter/disciplinarenden-1.324323
- Leiden University. (2025). Rules and regulations of the Board of Examiners of the degree programme in Liberal Arts and Sciences: Global Challenges [PDF]. Faculty of Governance and Global Affairs. https://www.student.universiteitleiden.nl/binaries/content/assets/governance-and-global-affairs/luc/board-of-examiners/rulesregulations-final_2025-2026.pdf
- Lund University School of Economics and Management. (2024). LUSEM's Harvard referencing style guide (3rd ed.) [PDF]. https://www.lusem.lu.se/sites/lusem.lu.se/files/2024-01/LUSEM-referencing-guide-3rdedition.pdf
- Lund University School of Economics and Management Library. (2026, September 21). Writing and referencing. https://www.lusem.lu.se/organisation/lund-university-school-economics-and-management-library/reference-management
- Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University. (2026). Master thesis manual (Version 2.3) [PDF]. https://www.rsm.nl/fileadmin/External_usage/MSc/RSM_MSc_Thesis_Manual_AY2025_V2.3_2026-01-23.pdf
- Technical University of Munich. (2026). Information, recommendations, and notes for a term paper, bachelor- and master-thesis layout [PDF]. Chair of Marketing and Consumer Research. https://www.msl.mgt.tum.de/fileadmin/w00cja/mcr/Thesis_Topics/Guidelines/2026_07_GuidelinesThesis.pdf
- University of Bonn Faculty of Arts. (n.d.). Deception and plagiarism. Examination Office. https://www.philfak.uni-bonn.de/en/studying/examination-office/in-study/attempts-at-deception-and-plagiarism
- University of Copenhagen Faculty of Social Sciences. (n.d.). Procedure when exam cheating is suspected. https://socialsciences.ku.dk/education/regulations/disciplinary_measures/
- University of Helsinki. (2026, June 8). What is cheating and plagiarism? Instructions for students. https://studies.helsinki.fi/instructions/article/what-cheating-and-plagiarism
- University of Mannheim. (2026). Guidelines for scientific writing at the chair of Prof. Dr. Bernd Helmig [PDF]. Chair of Business Administration, Public & Nonprofit Management. https://www.bwl.uni-mannheim.de/media/Lehrstuehle/bwl/Helmig/Lehre/Guidelines_Helmig_Jan_26_ENG.pdf
- University of Oslo. (2026, March 1). Cheating. https://www.uio.no/english/studies/examinations/cheating/
- Utrecht University Library. (2026, September 14). Citation styles. Citing. https://libguides.library.uu.nl/citing/citation-styles