Disaster Network Library
Community database and disaster management information gateway
By Joseph Barnes
Three articles to get you started with referencing:
“He said, She said”
How to use academic references and research journals
How Athens passwords work
“He said, She said”What is referencing and why is it important?
Academic writing, towers of dusty old journals, plagiarism and many other such descriptions can seem like potential minefields for new students and in some cases they are; however with a simple understanding of how and why referencing is used then you can find your University work is improved and more importantly your knowledge of a subject is greatly enhanced. In this article I attempt to explain some of this with a focus on new undergraduate students and based on our my experience of trial and error learning whilst at Coventry University.
Academic Irrelevance?
First of all don’t be intimidated! Referencing is believe it or not all around you and not merely confined to the library – just look over at your DVD collection, pick one out at random – I just grabbed ‘rock profile’ a DVD from Matt Lucas and David Williams which has a series of quotes printed on the cover – ‘Excellent comedy’ – Sunday Mirror; ‘Wickedly portrayed’ – The Sun. Alternatively I can look inside the cover of The Da Vinci code (I mention this as everyone seems to have read the damn thing) and similarly there are pages of praise from various journals and authors. The point is that these everyday things do not just tell you how good they are but they reference other people’s opinions – the idea being that such references increase the credibility of the item in question. In other words if you religiously buy every book that the ‘Ottawa Citizen’ praises then chances are you will own the Da Vinci code!
So what’s in it for me?
Now admittedly whilst at university you aren’t going to be selling your presentations and reports (unless there is a specialised section of ebay I haven’t yet discovered). However you will be ‘selling’ their content to your lecturers in order to convince them that what you are saying has some kind of proven basis and is not simply just your opinion. To do this you have to ‘endorse’ your arguments/points of view with published arguments – only rather than quoting The Sun, chances are you will be quoting an author writing in a textbook or academic journal – although as you will see it is important to use a variety of sources.
Okay, seems simple…
Lets look at an example – say you are writing a piece on emerging security threats in the 21st century. You have just watched the six o clock news with stories of suicide bombings in Baghdad and kidnappings in Afghanistan. There was a small article about poverty reduction in Africa towards the end and a brief mention of climate change before the sports news. With this in mind you decide to state in your piece:
Feeling pleased with yourself you hand this in and retire to the pub for a well deserved pint. Two weeks later after receiving a poor grade and retiring to the pub to commiserate yourself you start to wonder why? The simple answer to this is that what you stated in the work may well be right or wrong, however where you fell down is that you expressed an opinion you hold but didn’t back it up with any evidence.
Anything you say will be used in evidence…
Evidence? You see here we get to the crux of what it is to be at Uni. Whereas at school and college you are taught a subject and how to understand it, University is different – ever heard of reading for a degree? Well that’s because you are taught the bare bones and are expected to read around them to expand your knowledge of it. With this in mind you determine that next time you are going to read some more – in this way you can see if anyone has published a similar idea based on their research. You find that they have and your revised statement now looks like this:
By doing this you have effectively said the same thing, but significantly you have endorsed your opinion with published work based on research – you have moved beyond your original statement and your grades will hopefully increase because of it.
Get the bigger picture
Of course university isn’t simply about grades – its about drinking, partying, wild sex and debt…oh and gaining a greater understanding of a subject you enjoy. This is where academic reading and referencing come into their own. Up to now you have demonstrated you can introduce other peoples ideas, however you begin to question why such ideas are so important. You begin to analyse. You can give examples of terrorism and its impacts but need to tackle the question of why it happens. To do this you need more sources – remember the sources that you use will demonstrate that you have read around your subject so try to approach the question from different angles – newspaper articles, academic journals, TV documentaries, radio programmes and a host of others might give you ideas. Rather than just backing up statements you may already know to have some truth you now begin to enter rather more uncharted waters using your reading to bring together reasons that might be new to you in an analysis. With this in mind your original statement might begin to look something like this:
So what started off as a simple idea from the news has now been expanded to a more in depth analysis backed up with academic evidence, the simple premise that terrorism is the biggest threat and therefore the largest news item now incorporates the other smaller news items – poverty and climate to produce a more comprehensive and convincing argument.
So there we have it, referencing is nothing intimidating, rather a useful tool for academic study and everyday life, speaking of which I think its time for me to get down the pub for a pint of ‘The taste of Britain.’ (Carling 2005: 1 Pint)
Words by S. Edgerleyshaun.edgerley@crownagents.co.uk
How to use academic references and research journals
The Harvard System of referencing (and all systems) gives essential information to the reader that means that they can look up exactly the same information source that the writer used when they wrote their work.
For writers this means that they have to use the information source in the context it was meant to be used in. However, for readers it means that every other piece of work that has been done previously on the subject is a rich source of information on where to find relevant articles. Once you have the core data that these references provide then you can use academic databases or portals (such as the Lanchester library portal) to find articles related to your research. Even better, most of these are now available to download online, so you don't even need to hunt through dusty copies in the library!
Every academic paper reference will include some core bits of information:
AUTHOR: these are the principle authors of the work and are usually known by their surname and first initial, e.g. BUCKLE, P., MARSH, G. AND SMALE, S.
DATE: this is the year that the article (or paper/book) was published in this form, e.g. 2002.
TITLE: this is the principle title of the article and may also include a sub-title, e.g. Re-Framing Risk, Hazards, Disasters and Daily Life: A report of research into local appreciation of risks and threats.
JOURNAL NAME: in the Harvard system this is in italics and will let you know which publication the article can be found in, e.g. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters
VOLUME NUMBER: many journals are published in 'volumes', or collections of issues, e.g. 20
ISSUE NUMBER: this is the particular number of the journal in which the article was published and appears in parentheses, e.g. (3)
PAGE NUMBERS: these help you find the exact location of the article in the journal. Sometimes page numbers are different for each issue and sometime they relate to a whole volume, e.g. 309-324.
So the above reference would look like this in the back of an article: BUCKLE, P., MARSH, G. AND SMALE, S., 2002. Re-Framing Risk, Hazards, Disasters and Daily Life: A report of research into local appreciation of risks and threats. International Journal of Mass Emergencies and Disasters, 20 (3): 309-324.
This is a real reference - so see if you can find it!
The best way to find this article if you are studying at university is to use the online library database, at Coventry this can be found by clicking here.
If you don't have access to such a portal then you can use online databases such as those listed below to find the article you want. If you have a subscription to these journals or an Athens password (see below) then you can also download the full articles to read.
If you are still confused then go to the library straight away and ask for help. You HAVE to be able to research academic papers to get your degree and once you start using them your work will become a lot better - as will your marks!
Words by J. Barnesjoseph.barnes@disasternetwork.co.uk
How Athens passwords work
Athens is a access-management system that all universities in the UK and most research databases use in order to allow students to download academic articles online.
Every student has an Athens USERNAME and an Athens PASSWORD.
This username and password can be used to access journals that your particular institution (for example Coventry University) is subscribed to. A full list of these will be available for your institution's library. Athens passwords are incredibly useful and valuable - so make sure you find yours out! The following information is from the Coventry University site advising Coventry Disaster Managers how to obtain their Athens username and password.
Your individual Athens details will
take the following format:
So next time you go to a research database like those listed above, look for the Athens logon link (this will be separate from the main logon) and enter your details. Once you are logged on to Athens then you will have access to all the databases which use it automatically.
Words by J. Barnesjoseph.barnes@disasternetwork.co.uk
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