Are you struggling with writing your research paper? Well, according to professors, bibliography is one important part of a dissertation, as crediting is an ethical gesture. You always want others to use your ideas and words only with credit. Anyone using someone else’s ideas must quote and credit where they copied the idea from. In academic research, citing every source you use in your writing is critical. Suppose you are using the scholarly work of any author. In that case, it is mandatory to cite the author within your text and then provide a full reference at the end of your paper.
The bibliography section of your research paper is the last. You mention all the references in alphabetical order. Bibliography for a research paper is an essential component that you must not forget or skip. Moreover, there are different formatting styles that you must follow to write your bibliographies, such as MLA (Modern Language Association), Harvard, Chicago, and APA (American Psychological Association). According to your supervisor’s demand, you must create a complete bibliography for a research paper that also makes up 20% marks of your entire research paper.
Suppose you fail to cite a source or author in your research paper. In that case, you are committing a serious offence of plagiarism. It is immoral, so you must use suitable quotation marks and provide all the relevant information about the work. Also, the bibliography for the research paper must include the title, publication date, type of publishing, page, and other details of a source. If you face any issues, you can get research paper help from the best firm, Affordable Dissertation UK.
Importance of bibliography
Bibliography for a research paper and citations are crucial components of any work. It allows you to credit the actual author and source of information. Suppose you incorporate portions of someone else’s work within your work and under your name. In that case, you may violate the actual author’s rights. You must attribute the ownership of a book to the author in your writing. If you violate the author’s rights, the author might take legal action against you and file a lawsuit. If the claims of plagiarism are true, you may face monetary penalties.
Prevents Plagiarism
Plagiarism is a serious crime and is considered a kind of cheating. The authors and researchers may cite or paraphrase portions of other people’s work. Still, you need to prevent plagiarism from the bibliography in a research paper. Plagiarism includes the following essentials:
- Quoting other authors’ words without using quotation marks
- Misquoting an author
- You are writing someone else’s work under your name and paraphrasing portions of the authors’ work.
- Offer inaccurate information in the bibliography.
Thus, a bibliography helps prevent plagiarism and maintains ethical conduct on the researcher’s part.
Maintains accuracy
Providing some information sources within your bibliography for the research paper allows the reader to analyse the specifications. In case of any doubts, the reader can use the reference on the web to double-check the information. If you are claiming a fact without citing the source, your readers may find it difficult to determine if it is true. Information about facts, figures and statistics must accompany the correct citation. Using an in-text citation and its complete reference in the bibliography provides accuracy to your information.
Represents you as a good writer
Maintaining a proper writing style or format is crucial for any good writer. Yet, it is vital to offer thorough arguments based on accurate facts. In an argumentative writing style, you must argue on both sides of the topic. To strengthen your claims and arguments, you need to refer to the excerpts from others’ work as well. In this respect, a bibliography for research paper helps avoid plagiarism when you refer to the correct author. This act represents you as a good writer and shows ethical conduct.
It helps readers know about something
When you include a bibliography when writing a research proposal, it is easier for readers to choose publications from the list and study them. Depending on the bibliography and citations, scholars working on a similar scenario may learn how to browse books and other relevant materials.
Bibliography in research proposal
A research proposal’s bibliography is no different from a research paper since you must state complete references in both. List the papers or publications you mentioned in your proposal on a separate document. You should do it alphabetically by the author’s last name. Every field in a bibliography for a research paper has a different formatting style than your professor tells you.
How do you write a bibliography for research paper?
For a book entry into your bibliography for research paper, you must state the following in sequence:
- Last name, comma, first name, period.
- Title of the book in italics.
- Capitalise the words in the title just like they are in the book.
- City the book was published in. Add a colon.
- The name of the publisher, comma.
- The date article was published and a full stop.
Format: Author’s last name, first name. Book Title. Place of publication: publisher, date of publication.
For a journal article, follow the following format:
- Author’s last name first, followed by a comma, then the first name and full stop.
- Title of the article in inverted commas, full stop.
- Title of the journal is in italics, followed by a full stop.
- Date and year, followed by a colon
- Next are the page numbers, followed by a full stop.
Format: Author’s last name, first name. “Title of the Article.” Magazine. Month and year of publication: page numbers.
For a website entry:
Include the details a reader wants to know to locate the source.
- Begin with the last name of the author.
- Name of broadcaster, person and document title.
- Publication or website title.
- Date of publication.
- Date of access.
Format: Author. “Document Title.” Publication or Web site title. Date of publication. Date of access.
Conclusion
Suppose you fail to cite a source or author in your research paper; you are committing a serious offence of plagiarism. It is immoral, so you must use suitable quotation marks and provide all the relevant information about the work. Your bibliography must include the title, publication date, type of publishing, page, and other details of a source. Use this bibliography for the research paper article as a guide to help you create a correct bibliography section.
Read: How Is A Bibliography Different From A Reference List?
