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Information Seeking Compass

Guide to help with your information searching

6. Use your sources

6 Use your information

Use and refer to your information sources

Information sources always bring something relevant to your work, so the references must be precise and correct. With their help, it must be possible for anyone to find the sources you use..

Work systematically

When you do information seeking and find sources suitable for your work, act systematically. Take the sources down immediately and learn how to refer them in accordance with Jamk's project reporting instructions at the beginning. This allows you to save time and effort at the finishing stage of your work.

In-text citations

Within the text, you refer to the source with a narrow in-text citation. Using an in-text citation, more detailed information about the source can be found in the list of references. The basic structure of the in-text citation is the author's surname + year of publication + page (s). Learn how to use in-text citations with help of Jamk's project reporting instructions.

List of references

The list of references mentions every source that appeared in the text. The basic structure of the references answers questions WHO? WHAT? WHEN? WHERE? Learn how to mark sources in the list of references using the reporting guide.

Reference Management

There are many ways to collect and manage the sources you find. The the most important thing is that it is done systematically. For example, in Janet you can use the "Saved Items" function for collecting references. In many databases provided by library there is also possibility to collect and order references inside the database. In addition, references can be managed using reference management software. With software you can be manage references from multiple databases, add your own notes to references, and automatically create a list of references according to a wide variety of models. Below are links to a couple of free online reference management software:

Assessment

Assessment belongs to every stage of the process. This figure reminds of assessment and evaluation in the different situations.

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Assessment and references

  • Will the reader be able to clearly distinguish between the source based part of your text and the part of your own thinking?
  • Are the notes in your list of references so accurate that the reader is able to easily verify the source you use if they wish?
  • Does the information of the in-text citation and the list of references accurately match each other?

Use permitted images

Copyright law allows to use an image in non-commercial scientific presentation. The image needs to be published, and all authors must be mentioned.

See further information in ImagOA Guide and use Creative Commons images.