What is the Meaning & Definition of reference

The reference is a number, a fact, which can be a name, which will allow the subsequent location of a thing or object when it is needed at any level, either in a library to locate books that students applying for or in the postal world. for example, the cards usually carry printed references which Yes or Yes must appear printed on it so that it comes to fruition, such is the case of the because of the allocation of a PO box.
The most common reference to which any one of us, surely we have read even if it is a book in life, we have encountered ever, is the bibliographical reference, which will always appear at the end of any writing and involves the exhibition of a minimum set of data such as the name of the author, the title of his work, the date of publication and the place in which it was published. The purpose of this reference in the books is that the reader knows where extracted a phrase, an idea or be transcribed the text comprising the book you are reading.
But it is common to find it, not only in books but in the monographs, which have become so popular in recent years within the academic field and they swarm massively online, is strictly speaking, appearing at the end of these works the works which were consulted for the realization of it, because otherwise it would be incurring plagiarism simply stealing an expression or an idea from another author.
The great diffusion of the contents of digital origin has motivated two major phenomena that the references correspond; on the one hand, the standardization of bibliographic citations, in order and precision recognized around the world to facilitate the indexing of data and texts in all tangible or electronic libraries have been necessary. In conventional form, are used for this purpose called Vancouver standards, elaborated for the first time back in 1977 and subsequently revised and refined in pre-set periods. This system, which initially was confined to the academic content of style biomedical, was quickly adopted by other areas of the sciences and is to date the style of choice in all environments related to scientific production.
On the other hand, the existence of digital libraries scattered by all Nations, with greater or lesser level of accessibility by users, has also motivated the creation of a second reference system which applies to electronic documents. This mode is known by the acronym "doi", which corresponds to stands for digital object identifier. Using this format, it is possible to identify articles of scientific journals, book chapters, and other content that, through this code, is recognizable by users of any language in all databases or libraries of the growing digital universe.
The term reference has also acquired a vital importance in the field of human resources. For example, in recent years, is almost a necessary step is to apply to a work that those who have the task of recruiting candidates ask for references (performance, compliance, liability) in the immediately previous employment which the applicant has had.
In this sense, it is supported that, occasionally, the reference can be a desequilibrante factor of greater specific weight than the curriculum or academic or employment history of an individual. Occasionally, certain forms of performance cannot be judged for objective parameters of the history of a person, but the reference provided by superior ancient are considered of great value, to roll back the personal experience about the daily capacity of activity of the applicant.