Undergraduate Research

There are many reasons to cite the information you use in your research:

• When you write a paper on a particular topic, you are joining an ongoing conversation about that topic. As you create your own research, you should be aware of what has already been said about the topic of your paper and you must cite your sources.
• It's important that you take the time to document each source you use in order to give credit to the original creators of the work and to avoid plagiarism. Not doing so means that you are misrepresenting your own work and may result in academic and legal ramifications.
• Citations provide a trail for your readers to follow to locate teh source you used in your research.

• Providing citations of credible and appropriate sources lends credibility to your research.
• In providing a bibliography, you show others the extent of your research efforts in consulting sources to support your work.

The LRU Honor Commitment and Statement of Academic Integrity states: 

"A fundamental purpose of a liberal education is its attempt to cultivate in the student a sense of honor and high principles pertaining especially to academics, but extending to all areas of life. An inherent feature of Lenoir-Rhyne University is its commitment to an atmosphere of integrity and ethical conduct. As a student of Lenoir-Rhyne University, I accept as my personal responsibility the vigorous maintenance of honesty, truth, fairness, civility, and concern for others. My devotion to integrity demands that I will not cheat in academic work and that I adhere to the established and required community code of conduct. I accept the responsibility for upholding the established standards against those who would violate them. And I understand and accept the consequences of infracting upon or assisting others in infracting upon this code. In addition to and beyond the requirements of any code or law, I affirm my own commitment to personal honor and integrity in all matters large and small. Even though the ideal of honor is an abstract one, by implementing this ideal, I join the men and women of Lenoir-Rhyne University in making the concept of honor a reality." 

Any time you quote, paraphrase, or summarize ideas that are not your own, you must cite. Undisputed facts (e.g., “The earth revolves around the sun”) do not need to be cited. However, all original ideas and opinions must be cited to give credit to the author. If you don’t cite your sources, you can give the impression that the author’s idea is your own, original idea, and this is plagiarism.

APA Format

Developed by the American Psychological Association, APA format is favored by those in the sciences and social sciences. Typically, professional researchers in these fields must use APA in order to have their work published.

From Purdue OWL's APA Style Workshop:Aside from simplifying the work of editors by having everyone use the same format for a given publication, using APA Style makes it easier for readers to understand a text by providing a familiar structure they can follow. Abiding by APA's standards as a writer will allow you to:

• Provide readers with cues they can use to follow your ideas more efficiently and to locate information of interest to them
• Allow readers to focus more on your ideas by not distracting them with unfamiliar formatting
• Establish your credibility or ethos in the field by demonstrating an awareness of your audience and their needs as fellow researcher

MLA Format

Developed by the Modern Language Association, this style is most widely used for research papers in the humanities. Typically, professional researchers in these fields must also write in this style in order to have their work published.

From Purdue OWL's MLA Overview and Workshop:

Using MLA Style properly makes it easier for readers to navigate and comprehend a text by providing familiar cues when referring to sources and borrowed information. Editors and instructors also encourage everyone to use the same format so there is consistency of style within a given field. Abiding by MLA's standards as a writer will allow you to:

• Provide your readers with cues they can use to follow your ideas more efficiently and to locate information of interest to them
• Allow readers to focus more on your ideas by not distracting them with unfamiliar or complicated formatting
• Establish your credibility or ethos in the field by demonstrating an awareness of your audience and their needs as fellow researchers (particularly concerning the citing of references)

RefWorks--Freely Available Through Summon

RefWorks is an online research management, writing and collaboration tool that is designed to help researchers easily gather, manage, store and share all types of information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies. You can access RefWorks from within Summon.

With RefWorks you can:

• Gather references automatically from article databases and indexes while you research
• Insert formatted references into your paper in a variety of styles (MLA, APA, Turabian, etc.)
• Format your footnotes and bibliographies
• Create a personal research database online 
• Store and organize references that are accessible from any computer linked to the Internet
• Search a wide variety of article databases and import references
• Share references with others
• Download and use Write-N-Cite

When accessing RefWorks, new users need to create a username and password.  Please use your LRU email to register.