All research sources should be identified and cited in your research report/paper whether they are print resources or electronic articles or Web sites or classroom notes. Not only does it enable others, as well as yourself, to find the source listed, but it also gives credit to the person whose work you quoted or paraphrased, or whose ideas you incorporated into your own report.
When you do research for a paper, write down all the necessary information needed to locate the material in a citation format. When accessing Internet resources, be sure to WRITE DOWN the URL. Another option is to use RefWorks.
There are different citation styles depending on your field of study:
When you are quoting or making a reference to information directly from another source, you must always identify that source. You do this in a note. Notes are called Footnotes when they appear at the bottom of the page and Endnotes when they are collected at the end of each chapter or of the entire paper. Frequently notes are cited within the text of your paper. Some citation styles only use Notes Within the Text.
RefWorks is Citation Management Software which helps you keep track of the citations for the resources that you use in your research. UST provides access to RefWorks, and you can continue to have access to your RefWorks account after you graduate from St. Thomas. Most of the time you can export directly to RefWorks from the database where you found your citation. You can create individual folders for every paper or report that you are working on. When you have all your citations, you can then click a few buttons and RefWorks will create your bibliography/reference list using the specific citation style that you need to use.
WARNING: Since RefWorks uses the information that it gets from databases and Web sites, the final version may be incorrect (i.e. missing information or in the wrong order). You still need to know how to do the specific citing style that you are using.
Also, there are other free citation tools available on the Web, such as Zotero.
The following resources cover at least two of the following styles for citing sources: MLA, APA, Chicago, Sociology, Council of Science Editors, & IEEE:
These tools are free and will help you manage documents and references, and create citations and bibliographies quickly and easily.
Spend more time writing and less time fiddling with format!
Zotero
Firefox browser add-on. Reference, document and notes management, 1,000s of citation styles including Bluebook. Integrates with Word and OpenOffice via plug-ins. Screencast tutorials demonstrate many of the basic functions of Zotero.
These are a selection of commercial tools that can help you with document management, references, and citations. These tools are not free. However, as long as you are a student at St. Thomas, you will have free access to RefWorks.
RefWorks
Reference management and citation tool free through St. Thomas. Does Bluebook citations.
EndNote
A Thomson Reuters product. Use EndNote to search online bibliographic databases, organize references, images and PDFs in any language, and create bibliographies. Integrates with Word, Apple Pages and OpenOffice. Does Bluebook citation style and user can also create a citation template. $115.95-$299.95 depending on edition.
"Peer review" is the process through which experts in a field of study examine and assess the quality of articles before they are published. Peer review insures that the research described in a journal's articles is sound and of high quality.
Sometimes the term "refereed" is used instead of peer reviewed.
You can identify Peer reviewed journals in the following source:
Concerned about Plagiarism? You should be! View this multi-media tutorial for more information.
Would you like some expert assistance with writing and editing your paper?
Check out the resources available from the Writing Center.