• On the web
  • Can you trust information on the web?
  • Where to look?
  • Depends what you're looking for
  • Some topics better covered than others
  • Where to start?
  • Yahoo directories
  • Google directory
  • etc
  • Other search engines have similar directories
• In the library
• In a Citation Index
• CDROM publication databases

• On the web
  • Who hosts the site?
  • It is a personal page or an official one?
  • What is the host's agenda?
  • What is the author's agenda?
  • Who links to the site?
• Other sources of information, like research papers and media reports
  • Who quotes them?
    • Check citation indices
    • Look for other sources
    • But be wary of multiple reports all stemming from the same source
• General Rules for information verification:
  • Who said it?
  • What is their motivation?
  • Who else says it?
  • Who else quotes it?
  • No guarantees!

• Quoting
  • Name your source
  • Make it clear when you are quoting
  • Be precise
    • If the quotation is edited, use an ellipsis (...)to indicate something was removed
      "Part of the quotation...another part"
    • If you edit, make sure you don't change the meaning!
      "I am...in favour of this decision"
  • Never quote a quotation - always check the original
• Referring to results or findings
  • Acknowledge work which has gone before
  • Name all of the authors (possibly as "Author1 et al" in the text, with the full reference in the references section)
  • Be accurate
• Above all, be careful
  • If you're not 100% sure of your source, use cautious wording
    • "Author1 reports that..."
    • "It has been reported that..."
    • "Some studies have found..."
    • "It has been suggested..."

• "The (legitimate) use of another person's work, with an (illegitimate) lack of due acknowledgment of the source of that work". (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~ajh/adt/policies/cheating.html)

• Using someone else's ideas or words in your own work and not acknowledging whose ideas/words they are.
• For CSE1304, plagiarism is said to have occured if you use more than six words in a row from another source without referencing them correctly.
• You may NOT use anything from the web, newspapers, journals, books or any other media unless you reference your sources in an appropriate manner.
• Your work will be checked using electronic plagiarism detection systems.
• The penalties are set by the university and enforced strictly.
• To avoid any problems you should reference correctly!

• A way of telling your reader what you have read (How informed are you?)
• Did the author read one or many sources?
• Did the author try to find primary sources or did s/he rely only on secondary sources?
• Has the author read the essential sources for the topic?

• A method of informing your reader where you got your information (How widely did you research?)
• Did the author read a wide range of sources to get a balanced view?
• Did the author try to verify what s/he read by doing further research?

• A system that allows the reader to verify your statements by reading background information (Is your research credible?).
• Can the reader check the validity of the author's statements by reading the same background info?
• Did the author present both sides of the argument, or only discussed one aspect?

• Credibility, reliablility, transparency: readers can check your facts.
• Expected aspect of university-standard writing.
• Avoids problems with plagiarism.

When do you need to reference?

• 1) When using a direct quote
• A direct quote is used when
  • "rephrasing the idea is not possible without altering an author's intended meaning, or
  • when the idea has been expressed succinctly in subject-specific terminology."
    (http://olympus.csse.monash.edu.au/Tif/Contents/Using_Sources/Plagiarism/index.html)
• Must use quotation marks " ".
• 2) When paraphrasing someone else's idea
• Paraphrasing is discussing what someone else has written in your own words
• This does NOT mean you can just change a couple of words here and there and say it is in your own words.
• When paraphrasing, it is a good idea to discuss key points in a different order to the original text. This helps you think about what you have read.
• 3) When refering to a work that provides background information that is crucial to your work.

   

• You should never copy large slabs of text!
• You should read the source and then think about how it relates to your work

How do you reference?

• There are many different styles in use.
• For CSE1304 you will use only the Harvard system of referencing as illustrated in the examples below:

There are two parts to the Harvard System. You MUST include both in any written material you submit.

1) Citations:

• Citations are the notes that you put in your text to indicate that you have used someone else's work.
• They have a very specific format as shown below

2) References:

• This is a list containing full publication details of any sources you cited in your text.
• The list is included at the end of your article or report.
• Each entry in the list must follow a very specific format as shown below.
• This list is provided so that readers can follow up your research by reading the sources that you read.

How to Format the Citations

• If you are referring to a whole work (book/article/webpage):
  
  

  Conway (2000) in his book on object oriented perl states..... OR A well known author of object oriented perl techniques states that.....(Conway 2000).



• If you are only referring to a specific page (usually for a direct quote or specific discussion of an idea):
  
  

  It is claimed that "object oriented perl is fantastic" (Conway 2000, 32).



• If there are two authors:
  
  

  Other models have been constructed for the Furness Abbey (Delooze and Wood 1991)....



• If there are multiple (more than two) authors:
  
  

  This paper (Codish et al, 2000) dicusses the thery of improving program analyses using a variety of methodologies.



• If there are no authors (shorten the title if it is too long, but make sure it is still clearly identifiable):
  
  

  This article ("New wireless LAN vulnerabilities uncovered" 2001) claims that....



• When should you use page numbers?
• When you are citing a direct quote.
• When you are referring to an idea in a long text (more than 10 pages) that would otherwise be hard to find.
• Anytime you are not simply talking about an 'entire' work, but a part of it.

(The following examples come from http://www.lib.monash.edu.au/infotech/computer_science/comp-cit.html. You are advised to look at this page in more detail if you would like more information. Only the very basics have been incorporated into this lecture.)

How to Format the References:

Books:

The information needed for the reference list is written in the following order:

• Author's surname and initials or given name
• Year of publication (in brackets)
• Title of book (in italics if word processed; underlined if handwritten)
• Edition, if given
• Publisher
• Place of publication

Journal articles:

The information needed for the reference list is written in the following order:

• Author's surname and initials or given name
• Year of publication (in brackets)
• Title of article (in quotation marks)
• Title of journal (in italics if word processed; underlined if handwritten)
• Volume number
• Issue number, if given
• First and last pages of article

Web site - known author:

The information needed in the reference list is written in the following order:

• Author/editor's surname and initials or given name
• Date (in brackets)
• Title of page (in quotation marks)
• Title of site
• online (in square brackets)
• Available: URL
• Accessed Date (in square brackets)

Web site - no author:

The information needed in the reference list is written in the following order:

• Title of page (in quotation marks)
• Date (in brackets)
• Title of site
• online (in square brackets)
• Available: URL
• Accessed Date (in square brackets)

E-journal - article:

The information needed in the reference list is written in the following order:

• Author's (Authors') surname and initials or given name
• Title of article (in quotation marks)
• Title of journal in full (in italics if word processed; underlined if handwritten)
• online (in square brackets)
• volume
• issue or part
• first and last pages of the article
• Available: URL
• Accessed: Access date (in square brackets)

Newspaper article:

The information needed in the reference list is written in the following order:

• Author's (Authors') surname and initials or given name
• Year (in brackets)
• Title of article (in quotation marks)
• Title of newspaper in full (in italics if word processed; underli ned if handwritten)
• Date (eg. day month, 30th March)
• page number (eg. p.5, pp. 2-3)