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Political Science Citation & Referencing

What do we mean by Citation & Referencing?

  • Citation:

Is the way you tell your readers that certain material in your work came from another source. It also gives your readers the information necessary to find that source again, including:

  • Information about the author
  • Title of the work
  • Name and location of the company that published your copy of the source
  • Date your copy was published
  • Page numbers of the material you are borrowing

  • Referencing

Is an essential part of academic writing. Its purpose is to acknowledge the original source of ideas and work that is not the author’s own, and to point the reader to the original documents so that they can determine independently whether the attributed sources support the author’s argument as written.

When to Cite

  • Whenever you use quotes

  • Whenever you paraphrase

  • Whenever you use an idea that someone else has already expressed

  • Whenever you make specific reference to the work of another

  •  Whenever someone else’s work has been critical in developing your own ideas

APA Citation Style

Writing Assistance On Campus

Visit the Writing Center in Building D to get assistance with writing papers or visit their website at http://www.bue.edu.eg/index.php/writingcentre/welcome-to-the-writing-centre-at-the-bue

Useful Videos

Citation Managers

Here is a list of online reference managers that you can use to gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies. 

EndNote Web (Basic) (online registration is necessary)

RefWorks (online registration is necessary)

Citavi (free download)

Zotero (free download)

EasyBib

Citation Generators

Citation Machine
Citation Machine is a free site that automatically produces MLA, APA, Turabian or Chicago style citations for a variety of sources (but not bibliographies). Users can copy and paste citations into Word. It was developed by David Warlick, an educator.

KnightCite
KnightCite is a free site that automatically produce MLA, APA, or Chicago style citations for 25 types of sources with availability to register & save citations. From the Hekman Library at Calvin College.

The APA Wizard and The MLA Wizard
This free site automatically produces MLA or APA style citations for 6 basic types of sources. There is excellent help on each screen to walk users through the processing of citing a source.

Tweet2Cite
This generator will reference tweets just paste the tweet URL and it will  convert it into an APA or MLA citation.

“Built-in” Citation Builders through EbscoHost

EbscoHost databases provide its users with ability to get the full citation according to all citation styles for the item being viewed:

  1. Click on Cite button

 

 

 

 

 

2. Choose the required citation format & then copy & paste it to Microsoft Word or export it using any reference manager

What is the difference between Citation, Reference list & Bibliography?

  • Citation:

A reference made in the text to a source of information. This can be in the form of a direct quotation, summarising or paraphrasing.

  • References list:

An organised listing of the works cited in the text, placed at the end of the document.

  • Bibliography:

A full listing of all material consulted in relation to the research, including any source material not directly cited in the text, placed at the end of the document.

Why Should I Cite Resources?

  • To respect the copyrights of the writer from whom you have borowed your ideas

  • To make your writing more persuasive

  • To allow other users to trace the sources of information you have used

  • To validate your arguments

  • To help preventing plagiarism

Choosing a Citation Style

There are different forms of citation styles. Many disciplines tend to use one specific style; for example, APA style is used in psychology.

Disciplines in science & technology use a variety of style manuals.

Your instructor should inform you with the preferred citation style before you start your research.

If you aren't required to use a certain style, use one that you are comfortable with and that best fits your needs. Just follow the guidelines and be consistent.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism, the act of using others' words / ideas without clearly acknowledging the source of that information & claiming them as your own; this may lead to fail in your course. 

In order to avoid that:

Turnitin.com

Turnitin is an effective tool used for displaying the similar text within the submitted papers & will help students to develop their writing by using their own words rather than quoting or copying & pasting

Please refer to our Turnitin helping page
 

Citation Tracking

To navigate the available literature around your topic you need to start with a relevant article or author, then work backward or forward. Ask yourself:

  • What sources does my article/book cite?
  • Which later articles or books cite the article I've found?

DOI Search

What is DOI?

A digital object identifier (DOI) is a unique alphanumeric string assigned by a registration agency (the International DOI Foundation) to identify content and provide a persistent link to its location on the Internet. The publisher assigns a DOI when your article is published and made available electronically.

All DOI numbers begin with a 10 and contain a prefix and a suffix separated by a slash. The prefix is a unique number of four or more digits assigned to organizations; the suffix is assigned by the publisher and was designed to be flexible with publisher identification standards.

Where to find the DOI information for articles in Our databases:

If you have a DOI and need to find the article information, you can type or paste the DOI into the search box and click Go. Your browser will take you to the publishers web page associated with that DOI.

   



Subjects: Political science