Reviewing your original question in the context of your search results is an important final step.
Do the articles retrieved during your literature search process (the "identify specific information" step) fulfill your information needs? Can you respond to your research question?
If not, how can your search strategy be modified to get back on track?
Look for resources to fill in gaps or clarify other materials.
Is the information you retrieved timely? Credible? Authoritative? Reliable?
*If you came up empty-handed, revisit your research question and tweak as necessary. The process is often not a linear one.
Citing sources in an important part of your research process as it documents what sources you have used in writing your paper and enables the reader to locate the sources you have consulted. An excellent APA citation guide is provided by Purdue's Online Writing Lab ("OWL").
Many students, particularly upper-year and graduate students, use citation management tools to help collect, organize, cite and share references. Queen's IT Services has obtained licensing for EndNote. There are numerous free options, namely Zotero and Mendeley, that are worth consideration as well. For a comparison of citation managers as well as instructions for downloading EndNote visit the library's Citing and Citation Managers Libguide.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines plagiarism as the “wrongful appropriation…and publication as one’s own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) of another (2nd ed., 1989).
Plagiarism is a serious offense. Check Iowa State University’s guide on Understanding Plagiarism and the website Academic Integrity @ Queen's.
Refer to the following guides for more information:
A citation is a reference to a source that enables readers to identify it. Citations usually include the author, title, name of book or journal and volume (for articles) publisher, date and other identifying information.
Portland State University Library shows how to read a citation to determine if it is a book, book chapter or journal article.
