There is no research or academic work without information sources.
If you don't know how to correctly use and cite these sources, you could be committing plagiarism.
Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work or ideas as your own without proper citation.
It is also considered plagiarism to ask or pay someone else to write your paper, as well as to reuse the same paper for different assignments.
Intentional or not, plagiarism is a very serious academic offence that can incur severe penalties.
When in doubt about how to use and properly cite different information sources, ask your librarian.
1) Plan your research and writing
Good research takes time. Start early so you can have time to read, select your sources, and write.
Poor note-taking, aggravated by a fast-approaching deadline, is one of the main reasons for accidental plagiarism.
2) Organise your sources
Keep track of all the citations that you use in your work. Take proper notes on your sources.
If you’d like, there are citation and reference managers that can help you keep track, like Mendeley.
3) Get to know the citation style in use
To properly cite the sources you have used in your paper, you will have to follow a specific citation style manual.
Our academic community uses uses the American Psychological Association (APA) Style, 7th edition for citing and referencing sources in all academic papers.
4) Always cite your sources
You can and should incorporate the ideas or theories of other authors into your work by always citing them correctly.
5) List your references
At the end of your paper, list all the sources cited throughout the text.
All academic and scientific work is based on problem analysis and solving. It usually begins with a starting question.
A good and well-conceived starting question gives your research a clear focus.
Choosing your research topic
First, choose a research topic that interests you, that you're curious about, and that is relevant within your areas of study.
This choice is important to keep you motivated during all stages of the research process.
The choice of a topic starts with a flexible starting question that will be tested with an exploratory search.
It is necessary to first check if there are enough quality information sources on the topic that will allow you to proceed with your research and writing.
If the selected topic is too broad or ambitious, it will be difficult to focus your research. In this case, the starting question should be reformulated, making it more specific.
If the selected topic is too specific or restrictive, you won't be able to find much information, if any at all. In this case, you should reformulate the starting question, making it broader.
At the end of the exploratory search, the research topic and starting question should be well-defined.
After defining your research topic, select the terms that better represent it. These are now your keywords.
Keywords are an important tool that helps search engines find relevant information sources.
Keep in mind that the same concept can be expressed in different, similar, or synonymous words.
Depending on the subject matter and the search engine or database, you should also consider the language. An English search query will return more results in an international engine or database, and a search query in a national database will generally produce more results in its national language.
Remember that there are also terms with alternative spellings. For instance, organizational behavior (American English) and organisational behaviour (British English).
Choose high-quality databases and information portals.
Explore the library resources at your disposal. Libraries provide high-quality resources that meet the learning and information needs of their community members.
See also the topic Evaluate and select information sources.
Most databases have two types of searches: basic and advanced.
Basic search
Often known as free-text search, it usually provides a single query field. It returns all documents containing the words provided in the query field, regardless of their location (author, title, abstract, etc.). This type of search usually produces more results, but not necessarily the most relevant.
Advanced search
It provides more search query fields that, when combined, allow you to construct a more complex query that will return the most relevant results.
The most common search query fields are:
Author: Searches for author names in the author field within a record. It ignores documents that contain these terms in the title, abstract, or other locations. It will exclude documents about this author and retrieve only documents from this author. Try searching by surname only, since first names are often abbreviated.
Title: Limits your search to the title field only. Please note that often the subject is not stated in the title of a document. It should be used only when you already know the exact title of the document you are seeking.
Subject: It is the same as keyword, a term used to describe what an article is about. Not to be mistaken with keyword search, which is the same as free-text search. It will return the most relevant and meaningful results on the topic.
In this next stage, take a look at your search results.
If there are too many results to go through, you need to be more specific in your search query and/or apply limits or filters.
If there are too few results (or none at all), you need to try a new, broader search query.
Publication date
Some databases have the option to limit search results within a specified publication date range.
Use this limiter when you need, for instance, the most recent articles on a subject.
Boolean operators
The advanced search in most databases uses Boolean operators to combine keywords together to either narrow or broaden your set of results.
The basic Boolean search operators are AND, OR, and NOT.
AND: This will narrow your search results. In this case, using AND will retrieve search results containing all the keywords.
Ex.: Tourism Marketing AND Social Media
OR: This will broaden your search results. In this case, using OR will retrieve search results containing either of the keywords.
Ex.: Instagram OR Facebook
NOT: This will narrow your search results. In this case, using NOT will retrieve search results containing the first keyword but not search results containing the second keyword.
Ex.: Social Media NOT LinkedIn
Truncation
Truncation is a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings.
To truncate a search term, do a keyword search in a database, but remove the ending of the word and add an asterisk (*) to the end of the word. The database will retrieve results that include every word that begins with the letters you entered.
For example, a keyword search with Econom* will return results including Economy, Economies (plural), Economic, Economics, Economia (in Portuguese or Spanish), etc.
Bibliographic clues
If your topic is too recent and/or there is little information about it, check the bibliographic references of the documents you've found.
These references contain clues to other documents that might be of interest and with which you can expand or complement your research.
Students and researchers have at their disposal a wide and diverse range of information sources.
It's possible to access quality resources, both in print and digital formats. Since the format doesn't determine the quality of the information, it's necessary to develop the skill to find, evaluate, and select the best and most relevant resources for your research project.
Libraries and research centres are a great place to find and access these high-quality resources since they are focused on providing the best resources for their communities' information needs.
If you question the information you find, both print and digital, you'll be able to develop your critical judgement and evaluate and select the information according to its source, author, and content.
The librarians at California State University have developed an efficient and practical technique to evaluate information sources: the CRAAP test.
Some questions you should ask:
Currency
Relevance
Authority
Accuracy
Purpose
Critical thinking and the ability to evaluate and select information apply to all the information we come across day-to-day.
With the development of information technologies and social media, the possibility of anyone creating and sharing non-verified content intensified, without any filtering or selection by a trustworthy intermediary that attests to its veracity, quality, and public interest.
Pause before sharing — reflect, research, and find other sources.
Identify your own personal bias. Learn to recognise when the information plays with your emotions or beliefs, either in a positive or negative way. Don’t seek only information that aligns with your own ideas, opinions, and beliefs; allow for different, even contradictory, ideas.
Follow the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) on How to spot fake news checklist:
Select current sources for current or emerging topics that are relevant to your research and that are adequate for an academic audience.
Prefer sources that are peer-reviewed and that go through rigorous technical and scientific control, like publications in scientific journals and academic editors.
The writing should be clear, impartial, and unbiased. The arguments presented should be supported by facts and scientific evidence, not opinions.
Keep in mind
We are rigorous, and we select our information sources carefully. In the same way, we are rigorous in its treatment.
We know how to use the information ethically, respecting authorship and copyright. We cite and reference our information sources correctly in every academic and scientific paper.
We understand what we read, and we know how to use and transmit this information, producing new forms of knowledge.
If you'd like to know more about information treatment, consult the other topics on the Library pages or ask your librarian.