| About JSHS |
| Illinois JSHS |
| Sponsors |
| Participation |
| Deadlines |
| General Information |
| Papers |
| Posters |
| Awards |
| Guidelines |
| Lab Visits |
| Forms |
| Tips |
| Contact Us |
| Home |
Illinois Junior Science
and Humanities Symposium
References
| Know the source of any websites used as references. Avoid commercial sites with "an agenda," industry promotional sites, or those with potential bias. Instead, use reputable associations, organizations, or governmental agencies such as the American Chemical Society,the New England Journal of Medicine, Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Department of Energy (DOE). The tone of these papers will be serious and scholarly. See Morris Library website for additional discussion on how to tell whether it is a popular magazine or a scholarly journal. Before papers are accepted for publication with peer-reviewed journals, the editor sends the paper out to "peers," i.e., other experts in the field and usually part of the journal's editorial board. Experts review the paper and send the review to the editor. The author's name is always given and contact information for the author is often given. References are also a good source of additional sources.
Is the information accurate or an opinion? Some studies indicate that 80% of webpages contain inaccurate information. Caution: Record the date that you accessed the webpage, and print the page for future reference. On occasion a reviewer will try to access a cited webpage and the page is no longer available. Be prepared to provide the reviewer with the webpage if requested. |
| Have a balanced list of references. Try not to depend on one source totally for your information. Your list should not be entirely website references. Compare and contrast the two lists below:
On the left is Raleigh's references, or literature cited section. She has government publications, cd-rom encyclopedias, personal communications/interviews, a book, a peer-reviewed journal article. This is not an inclusive list of all her sources, but the list includes those sources that she cited in text. It is properly formatted with hanging indents. On the right is an example for comparison. Although some disciplines use numbers in the reference list, this is not a correct example of that. Note also that this example is not properly formatted with hanging indents. This list of references is entirely internet sources and all are from commercial sites. None of the references refer to other research findings on water pollution. Most are technical lab support only. An improvement would have been for the student to have found research articles in journals that referenced actual water research studies and included information from sites such as the EPA or research funded by the EPA. The student could then cite findings from other studies that supported their research. |
| Make sure that any source cited in the text of your paper is listed in your references. Likewise, make sure every source in your list of references is cited in the paper. References, or Literature Cited, is not the same as a bibliography. |
| Different disciplines have preferred style guides. As long as you use an acceptable and appropriate style guide, e.g., the ACS or APA, that is okay. Some style guides may be found on the internet, such as APA at owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_apa.html |
