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Environmental Protection Technology

Resources for your research in Environmental Protection Technology

Research and Writing in the Life Sciences

Writing Lab Reports

Using sources in science writing

Why Citations are Important

In science communication, include citations to external and reliable sources in order to:

  • increase the credibility of your own work
  • provide your reader with additional sources of information
  • acknowledge the work of others who have gone before you
  • ensure that your work is transparent and unbiased

Direct Quotation, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing

There are certain conventions in science writing that make it a little different from other academic and non-academic writing:

  • Rarely, if ever, are direct quotations taken from other works. This is largely because the actual words that an author uses is not as important as their findings and theories.
  • Paraphrasing the work of others is done by carefully altering sentence structure and terminology while adhering to the original meaning.
  • Most often, when writing your lab reports and research papers, you will be summarizing other works.

Citing ENVI sources

See KPU Library's guide to the 7th edition of APA Style for details on how to correctly cite sources in your writing.

The short video below, from the American Psychological Associaton, outlines some of the basics.

 

For your lab reports you may be citing sources from government websites and technical publications.

NOTE:  See the Title section of The BC Environmental Laboratory Manual, 2023 edition, for publication details (note author)

Activity:

We'll use this Google Doc to practice making a few references to various types of sources you're most likely to use in your reports.

 

Verify your sources!

Verify your sources

If you have used generative AI to help find sources for your assignment, you will need to go the extra step and verify that they actually exist. You've probably heard about "hallucinations" and fake sources that might appear in the search results of some generative AI tools. In some cases, the journals themselves may be legitimate, but the articles or authors don't exist.

Be suspicious! It is up to you to ensure that the sources you include in your assignment exist and are credible!

If you cite sources that don't exist, you will be in violation of KPU's policy on Academic Integrity.

Here's how you can check:

1. If the article citation includes a DOI, check to make sure it leads to an article on a journal or publisher's platform. 

  • You can do this using the Crossref search tool. Copy the DOI (without the https://doi.org/) into the search box. You should be directed to the article on the publisher's site. 
  • Double check the author and title to make sure it's the same article.

2. Put the entire title of a book or article into the Library's Summon search.

  • Refine the results to "scholarly and peer review articles" or "books/ebooks". Your item should be at the top of the list. 
  • Double check using the authors' names: are the authors of your article or book the same as the ones listed?
    Still not sure?

3. Copy the entire title into Google Scholar.

  • Again, verify this is the same article cited by the generative AI tool.

 

Your instructor will offer guidelines as to the acceptable use of Artificial Intelligence for your course assignments. Refer to Academic Integrity's infographic on ChatGPT and Other AI Tools at KPU. Or review KPU Library's guidelines on our Artificial Intelligence guide.

Zotero Citation Manager

Zotero is a free browser tool that keeps track of your articles and webpages, and creates citations in several formats. Sign up for a free account, and your personal library will be accessible from any computer with an internet connection.

For help learning how to use Zotero, please visit the library's Zotero guide.