Citing a website that informed your college essay is a critical step in the writing process. Citations ensure academic integrity and guard against plagiarism by attributing quotes from other writers work. They also lend credibility to academic writing by demonstrating the research that informed the content.

Professors generally require students to follow a particular style guide when they write essays. The modern language association mla , american psychological association apa , and chicago manual of style are the three most common formats in academic writing. Ask the professor which format she prefers, if she has not already announced her preference. Each format assembles reference information in a distinct way, and some professors will deduct points from essays that do not follow the style guide they expect students to use. Some style guides no longer require writers to include urls, but many professors require them anyway.

According to the seventh edition of the mla handbook for writers of research papers, you start an mla citation with the name of the website’s author or editor, if there is one. Invert the name by entering the last name first, followed by a comma and then add the full first name. Capitalize the first letter of every word except for articles, like a, the or of, and insert a period at the end.

If the publisher’s name is not available, replace it with the abbreviation n.p. Add the date on which you accessed the site for your research in day month year format. The seventh edition of the mla guide does not require writers to cite web addresses. However, if the professor requires the url, add it to the end of the citation after the access date.

My Favourite Book Holy Quran Essay In Urdu

According to the sixth edition of the publication manual of the american psychological association, you start an apa citation with the name of the website’s author or editor. Type the year of publication or most recent update, a comma, the unabbreviated month, then the day. Capitalize the first letter of the first word and any proper nouns and insert a period at the end.

Retrieved from

citing references in scientific research papers

compiled by timothy t. This paper greatly expands upon a handout originally prepared by an unknown author for distribution to students in introductory earth science courses at dartmouth college. The work is presented here without copyright, although acknowledgement is of course appreciated. This document is also available in in adobe acrobat format it is important to properly and appropriately cite references in scientific research papers in order to acknowledge your sources and give credit where credit is due. There are, however, other reasons for citing references in scientific research papers.

How to Write a Paper on Breast Cancer

Citations to appropriate sources show that you've done your homework and are aware of the background and context into which your work fits, and they help lend validity to your arguments. Reference citations also provide avenues for interested readers to follow up on aspects of your work they help weave the web of science. You may wish to include citations for sources that add relevant information to your own work, or that present alternate views. The reference citation style described here is a version of the author, date scientific style, adapted from hansen 1991 and the council of biology editors 1994.

Harnack kleppinger 20 have adapted cbe style to cite and document online sources.

when to cite references in scientific research papers

you should acknowledge a source any time and every time you use a fact or an idea that you obtained from that source. But you also need to cite sources from which you paraphrase or summarize facts or ideas whether you've put the fact or idea into your own words or not, you got the fact or idea from somebody else and you need to give them proper acknowledgement even if an idea might be considered common knowledge, but you didn't know it until you found it in a particular source. Sources that need to be acknowledged are not limited to books and journal articles, but include internet sites, computer software, written and e mail correspondence, even verbal conversations with other people in person or by telephone. Furthermore, if you use figures, illustrations, or graphical material, either directly or in modified form, that you did not yourself create or design, you need to acknowledge the sources of those figures.

details of citing references in your text

when you cite a reference in your text you should use one of the following three formats: 1 mention the author by last name in the sentence and then give the year of the publication in parenthesis: according to rodgers 1983 , the appalachian mountains were formed in three events. 2 give the facts or ideas mentioned by the author and then attribute these facts or ideas by putting both his or her last name and the date in parenthesis: the first of the three events occurred in the ordovician, the second in the devonian, and the third in the carboniferous and permian periods rodgers, 1983. 3 quote the author exactly be sure to put the quoted phrase between quotation marks and then list the author's name, the date, and the page number in parenthesis: all the climaxes produced mountainous islands or highlands that shed vast amounts of debris westward to form clastic wedges or delta complexes on the continental margin. You only need to include the page number in the citation if you are quoting directly, or if the source is very long and the specific fact or idea you are citing can only be found on a specific page. Direct quotations that are more than 4 lines long should be set off from the rest of your paper by use of narrower margins and single spaced lines. If you have more than one source by the same author published in the same year, distinguish them both in the in text citation and in the reference list, by appending the letters a, b, c. To the year, in the order in which the different references appear in your paper.

If the reference you are citing has two authors, use the following format: periods of glaciation have a large effect on sea level ingmanson and wallace, 1985. If the reference you are citing has more than two authors, use the following format: hot spots are formed by the drift of plates over mantle plumes vink et al., 1985. If your source of information is from a personal verbal communication, you would use the following format for the first citation from that person: it is possible to correct the raw d d values measured on the mass spectrometer mark conrad, lawrence berkeley national lab, personal communication. Later citations to the same person can be shortened, as in: the reproducibility of d d determined by these methods is thought to be about +/ 2 per mil conrad, personal communication. If your source of information is from written correspondence a letter or e mail , you would substitute the word written for the word personal above, and you would add the date of the letter if dated. Personal communications are generally not included in the references cited or bibliography section, although unpublished papers, reports or manuscripts should be.

If your source of information has no individual identifiable author, use the name of the organization to which the work can be attributed in place of the author's name: the reference citation style described here is a version of the author, date scientific style, adapted from the council of biology editors 1994. For internet sources without any identifiable author or date, simply use the url address as the in text citation: as new england is located at the convergence of several distinct storm tracks such a source would be omitted from your references cited or bibliography section.

details of formatting reference lists

your list of references cited should include all of the references you cited in your paper, and no more! it should be arranged in alphabetical order by the last name of the first author. If you have more than one entry by the same author, they should be further ordered by increasing publication date more recent papers last. If you have multiple sources from a single author published in the same year, distinguish them both in the in text citation and in the reference list, by appending the letters a, b, c. You should include enough information that your readers will be able to find these sources on their own. Reference lists are generally reverse indented this just helps the reader to find references to specific authors that much faster.