Identifying and Acknowledging Sources
This section describes how to identify valid and reliable scholarly sources, and how and when to correctly acknowledge them.
Last updated
This section describes how to identify valid and reliable scholarly sources, and how and when to correctly acknowledge them.
Last updated
Literature searches will unearth a plethora of resources on any given topic. An important step in identifying suitable materials is assessing the authority and appropriateness of source materials according to the following criteria:
Scope: Is the scope of the source too broad or too narrow? Is the source relevant to the variety/period/etc. you’re researching?
Author: What are the author’s credentials? Is the author an established figure in the field or a self-proclaimed expert?
Audience: Who is the intended audience for this source? Is the material too technical or too basic?
Date: Has the source recently been up-dated? Is the source out-dated?
Scholarly articles published in academic journals are written by and for experts, so their content can generally be deemed reliable. Caution must be exercised with internet resources, especially if the author or publication date is not given. In general, try to rely on sources that are simply webpages very sparingly, if at all.
Because of its unfiltered, crowd-sourced, and rapidly changing nature Wikipedia is NOT an acceptable source for content in university-level course work (note that this is distinct from using , which is quite common).
You may come across Wikipedia in your research and find some interesting information, but you must follow information to its primary source, verify it, and use that instead.
Quoting from, or paraphrasing, lecture materials is strongly discouraged on all modules. Always try and find the original source. Check lecture handouts for references or ask your lecturer for guidance. If you have been given explicit permission to use lecture materials, you must acknowledge them explicitly.
All sources must be fully and accurately acknowledged in your written work. Full and accurate acknowledgement of sources is essential so that we know what ideas are your own, and where you are drawing on other sources. Sloppy acknowledgement may actually lead your reader to miss when you make a novel contribution.
is presenting an idea, argument, methods, or results from another source in your own words, usually in an abbreviated form, or to enhance clarity. It's likely you will need to do this in your work particularly when reviewing literature.
A paraphrase does not require quotation marks if it is in your own words, but you must still give a reference in-text to the original source, and include the full source in your List of References. You may also include a page number if it's possible to pinpoint exactly what you are paraphrasing (e.g., if this spans only a couple pages and not an entire chapter).
Direct quotations should be used sparingly and reserved for instances where the exact wording used in the source material is important. In general, it is preferable to paraphrase rather than quote source materials.
If you decide it's important to quote directly (verbatim) from a source, you must:
Reference the work in-text at the point where the quote appears.
Provide a page number so the reader can find the quote in context if they wish.
Include the full source at the end of your essay in the list of references.
This is necessary where the idea is not your own and where it can be regarded as someone else’s intellectual property. It is not necessary in the case of ideas that are very widely accepted or of well-known matters of fact (see for more information).
Clearly indicate that it is a quotation by enclosing the quoted words in quotation marks (or indenting longer quotations; see ).