BIO1000H 2014

Evaluating Websites, Plagiarism & Vancouver Referencing

PRESENTED BY JEN EIDELMAN

2014E-mail: jen.eidelman@uct.ac.za

Telephone: 021 650 2773

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

How to

• Evaluate Websites• Avoid Plagiarism• Reference using Vancouver style of referencing

“On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”

Evaluate Websites

Steiner P. On the internet nobody knows you’re a dog. New Yorker. 1993 July 05;69(20):61.

Always evaluate the information you read.

Ask questions and look at a site critically

Be particularly careful when consulting Wikipedia and similar internet sites as the authority and reliability of the content cannot be guaranteed.

How does one evaluate a website? How does one make sure that the website one is getting information from is reliable, authoritative, accurate, objective or current?

When evaluating websites, remember to work SMART:

Source - is the source well known, reliable, up to date?

Motivation - why does this site exist? Are they selling a product? Supporting a particular lobby?

Authority - is the author's name on the page? Is the author well known in the field?

Review - has the information been reviewed/checked by others working in the field?

Two sources - is the information supported by other reliable sources?

The DATABASES that UCT Libraries subscribe to generally index articles that have been peer reviewed by experts in the field before being accepted for publication.

For more information on evaluating websites SEE: http://libguides.lib.uct.ac.za/biological-science-websites

Plagiarism – What is it & How to avoid it

Definition of Plagiarism from ‘Oxford Reference Online’:

“The practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own. Recorded from the early 17th century, the word comes from Latin plagiarius ‘kidnapping’.”

Oxford Reference Online. Plagiarism [Internet] 2014; [cited 2014 Apr 18]. Available from: http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100329803

http://www.toonpool.com/cartoons/Cartoon%20Plagiarism_183661

Toons. Cartoon plagiarism. [Internet]. 2012 Nov 06; [cited 2014 Apr 26]. Image available from:

When you are writing an essay or assignment, always ask yourself the question:

Is this my own idea, observation, insight design, conclusion ?orDid someone else come up with this idea, design or observation?

 UC Merced Library. [Internet]. 2014 Feb 2014; [cited 2014 Apr 26]. Graphic available from: http://guides.highpoint.edu/content.php?pid=399642&sid=3272839

How to avoid plagiarism – Do’s and Don’tsDo:• Always ACKNOWLEDGE the source that you consulted when you prepare your work• Always document any information that you did not create. These can be illustrations, graphics,

tables, words, pictures, audio, video• CITE and REFERENCE your sources

Do Not:• Copy other people’s words or creations, this includes someone else’s essay.• Use synonyms to simply change the words in a sentence that someone else has written. This is also

plagiarism.• Use information from different websites and mash-up information from the internet. This is

plagiarism and will be picked up in Turnitin.

• See UCT’s policy on plagiarism at: http://www.uct.ac.za/downloads/uct.ac.za/about/policies/plagiarism_students.pdf

Find more information in Vula by joining the UCT Writing Centre site

Vancouver style of referencing:

Overview

 Vancouver is a numbered referencing style commonly used in medicine and science

Main points to remember:

• When you cite someone’s work in your essay, use a number to refer the reference

• Your reference list at the end of your document, will provide full details of the reference and correspond in

sequence to the numbers in the text.

The Vancouver style used in this presentation is based on  Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors & publishers.

In-text citation:• In the Vancouver style of referencing numbers are used in the text to refer to

the reference list.

• A consecutive number is assigned to each new reference as it is cited in the body of the text.

• If the same reference is cited elsewhere again, the same number is used for that reference.

• Numbers in-text can be in superscript 1 or can be displayed in brackets (1)

• Numbers must appear after a full stop or comma, but before colons and semi-colons.

• When citing more than one reference join consecutive references with a hyphen (1-5)

• When citing multiple references that are non-inclusive, separate the references with commas. (2,5, 8, 10)

Vancouver style of referencingCiting in the body of your

essay

Reference list:• Include all the references that you have cited.

• List the references numerically as they appear in the body of the text.

• Only capitalize the first word of the title (and any other words that would normally be capitalized e.g. a name of a city or country.)

• If there is no author or editor, start the reference with the first word of the title.

• Journal titles are abbreviated (to decipher/find correct abbreviations see: PubMed Journals Database http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?db=journals

• For more detailed information SEE: Vancouver - citing and referencing – Monash University http://guides.lib.monash.edu/citing-referencing/vancouver

Vancouver style of referencingReference List

Vancouver style - In-text citation

Journal articles (print)Reference List

Example - One author:1. Van Vuuren L. Frog count: study confirms rich biodiversity of amphibians in Kruger. Water Wheel. 2012 May;11(3):24-27.

Example - Two authors:

2. Wolff S, Dillan A. The stressful influence of microbes. Nature. 2014 Apr;508(7496):328-329.

* Example - Three or more authors:

3. Dornelas M, Gotelli NJ, McGill B, et al. Assemblage time series reveal biodiversity change but not systematic loss. Science. 2104 Apr;344(6181):296-299.

* Please note that there is an optional limit to this rule which can be discussed with your lecturer.

How to reference Journal articles (print)

There is a standard format in which references need to appear in the Reference List.Take careful note of full stops, commas, semi-colons, hyphens and spaces.

Journal articles (internet)Reference List

One author:1. Van Vuuren L. Frog count: study confirms rich biodiversity of amphibians in Kruger. Water Wheel [Internet]. 2012 May [cited 2014 Apr 14];11(3):24-27. Available from: http://search.sabinet.co.za/WebZ/Authorize?sessionid=0&bad=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sabinet.co.za%2Findex.php%3Fpage%3Dbad-sa-epubs&portal=ejournal&next=/WebZ/images/ejour/waterb/waterb_v11_n3_a9.pdf Two authors:

2. Wolff S, Dillan A. The stressful influence of microbes. Nature [Internet]. 2014 Apr [cited 2014 Apr 18];508(7496):328-329. Available from: doi:10.1038/nature13220

* Three or more authors:

3. Dornelas M, Gotelli NJ, McGill B, et al. Assemblage time series reveal biodiversity change but not systematic loss. Science [Internet]. 2104 Apr [cited 2014 Apr 25];344(6181):296-299. Available from: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/344/6181/296.full.pdf

* Please note that there is an optional limit to this rule which can be discussed with your lecturer.

How to reference Journal articles (internet)

BooksReference List

Book

4. Zimmer C. A planet of viruses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2011. p 109.

Format:Author AA. Title of book. # edition [if not first]. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year of publication. Pagination.

Edited book

5. Wink M, editor. An introduction to molecular biotechnology: fundamentals, methods, and applications. 2nd ed. Weinheim: Wiley-Blackwell; 2011. p 601.

Format:Editor AA, Editor BB, editors. Title of book. # edition[if not first]. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year. Pagination.

How to reference Books in Vancouver Style

BooksReference List

Chapter in a book

6. White D. The physiology and biochemistry of prokaryotes. New York: Oxford University Press: 1995. Chapter 11, Inorganic metabolism; p 224-45.

Format: Author AA, Author BB. Title of book. # edition. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year of publication. Chapter number, Chapter title; p. [page numbers of chapter].

Chapter in edited book

7. Wadsworth P. Microinjection of mitotic cells. In: Rieder CL, editor. Mitosis and meiosis. San Diego: Academic Press; 1999. p 219-31.

Format:Author AA, Author BB. Title of chapter. In: Editor AA, Editor BB, editors. Title of book. # edition. Place of Publication: Publisher; Year of publication. p. [page numbers of chapter].

How to reference Chapters in Books Vancouver Style

How to reference a web page – Vancouver Style

Example Calata A. University of Cape Town. HIV surveys findings a mixed bag [Internet]. 2014 Apr 24; [cited 2014 Apr 25]. Available from: http://www.uct.ac.za/dailynews/?id=8666

FormatAuthor/organization's name. Title of the page [Internet]. Place of publication: Publisher's name; Date or year of publication [updated yr month day; cited yr month day]. Available from: URL

The Vancouver style used in this presentation is based on  Citing medicine: the NLM style guide for authors, editors & publishers

Van Vuuren L. Frog count: study confirms rich biodiversity of amphibians in Kruger. Water Wheel. 2012;11(3):24-27

Title of article

Date of publication

Author of article

Title of journal

Volume & issue number

Page numbers

How to identify a journal article

How to identify a book

Zimmer C. A planet of viruses. Chicago: University of Chicago Press; 2011. p 109.

Author of Book

Title of Book

Date of publication

Place of publication & publisher

How to identify a Chapter in a book

Wadsworth P. Microinjection of mitotic cells. In: Rieder CL, editor. Mitosis and meiosis. San Diego: Academic Press; 1999. p 219-31.

Author of Chapter

Title of Chapter Editor of Book

Title of book Place of publication & publisher

Date of publication Page numbers of Chapter

IN