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Human Geography: Ambassador Project: Citation

Use this guide to find authoritative sources to support your assignments for Human Geography's Ambassador Project.

Set up NoodleTools

NoodleTools helps you create bibliographies and organize research projects. For the Ambassador Project:

1. Create a new project.

  • Ambassador_COUNTRY NAME
  • Chicago/Turabian
  • Advanced

2. Share your project with your teacher's inbox.

You can copy and paste citations in CHICAGO STYLE from the databases into NoodleTools, but sources from the web must be entered manually.

Characteristics of Information Sources

 

You can use reference material (such as dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographies, almanacs and atlases) to find short, basic,  and factual information. Reference articles are written in simple language for a general public and are authored by editorial teams. They are good sources to use when initiating a research project.

How do I identify reference articles in a database?

Some databases, such as Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia, only contain reference articles, so you would cite them as REFERENCES. But in other databases, the results of a keyword search come from many different types of information sources. In these databases, results are subdivided into categories based on where the information was originally printed, so look for the REFERENCES link.

Popular magazines (such as Scientific American, Sports Illustrated, Time Magazine) contain articles written by journalists, who are often not experts on the topic they are writing about, but professionals with good writing and research skills. Magazine articles are geared toward a general audience, go into more detail than reference sources, and tend to be accompanied by advertisements and photos. They rarely contain bibliographic citations. 

How do I identify magazine articles in a database?

Some databases, such as Scientific American, only contain magazine articles, so you would cite search results as MAGAZINES. But in other databases, the results of a keyword search come from many different types of information sources. In these databases, results are subdivided into categories based on where the information was originally printed, so look for the MAGAZINE link.

 

 

Newspaper articles are usually published daily about current events and developments. They are considered primary sources. because they report on events.

Newspaper articles are written for a general audience by journalists, who are not necessarily experts on a subject, but writers with strong professional ethics about telling the truth. 

Where do I find newspapers in databases?

Some databases, such as Newsbank Access World News, only contain newspaper articles. In other databases, look for articles categorized under NEWS or NEWSPAPERS to get newspaper articles.

 
Academics, scholars, researchers and other experts in a field often publish in journals (also known as peer reviewed, scholarly, or academic journals). The articles in journals tend to focus on a specific area or discipline (e.g. Nature or the New England Journal of Medicine) and as a result contain vocabulary aimed at an expert audience. Articles published in these journals have abstracts, graphs and data, and are heavily supported by references to other scholarly material (both in text and in extensive reference lists).

 

How do I identify journal articles in a database?

In many databases, the results of a keyword search come from different types of information sources. Results are subdivided into categories based on where the information was originally printed, so look for the link that says ACADEMIC JOURNAL, SCHOLARLY JOURNAL, or PEER REVIEWED JOURNAL to access journal articles in a database.

A vast array of information (such as government reports, statistics, and MSDS) is freely available on the Internet. 

Before using a website as a source to support your academic work, you must evaluate it because information on the open web can be authored by anyone. Consider the website's currency, authority, purpose, objectivity, and writing style. Ask your teacher or librarian if you are not sure if the website is a good source.

When citing a website, please look for the following important pieces of information:

  • The website's URL
  • The date of publication. Use the most recent update or revision
  • Note the day you accessed the website
  • Look for an author. In many cases, websites have corporate author, so put the company name as the author
  • Look for the website host
  • Look for the title of the page - this is usually the heading that specifically relates to the content of the page

 

Streaming video and other multimedia are information sources that are not text based. They can be helpful in understanding a topic and can be found on the open web as well as databases, such as Discovery Education. If you find your multimedia information source on the open web, remember to evaluate the currency, authorship, purpose and objectivity of it.

If you are using NoodleTools to help you cite your information sources, select VIDEO CLIP (ONLINE) or the multimedia description that best fits your source. 

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