COMMUNICATION
IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Department
of Biology
COMMUNICATION
IN THE BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Department
of Biology
PRIMARY
LITERATURE
AND
OTHER APPROPRIATE TECHNICAL REFERENCES
When writing a scientific paper, you must formally acknowledge (or cite) ideas from scientific literature that you have used in shaping your study. References appropriate to use when writing a scientific manuscript include primary literature and several other categories of technical literature.
WHAT IS PRIMARY LITERATURE?
OTHER TECHNICAL REFERENCES APPROPRIATE FOR RESEARCH MANUSCRIPTS
Other technical references are appropriate to cite, even though they may or may not be peer-reviewed. Such references include
Because most sources of information on the Internet are not peer-reviewed and may be extremely transient, research papers do not usually cite sources of information from the Internet. Two common exceptions include (1) online peer-reviewed science journals, and (2) large, well-recognized scientific databases.
Your instructor will provide you with more specific guidelines about Internet-related information and how (and how not) to cite this information in your research papers.
MATERIALS THAT ARE DEFINITELY INAPPROPRIATE TO CITE
Newspapers
and popular magazines such as Natural History, National Geographic, Discover
Magazine, Time, Newsweek, etc. are not appropriate to cite in research
papers!
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