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Getting Started: Information Research Tips

Introductory help in learning how to identify, locate, evaluate, and use information effectively and ethically for research assignments.

Avoiding Plagiarism

See the Citing Sources Research Guide Section on Avoiding Plagiarism for more information.

Turn It In

UCLA has a campuswide license to Turnitin.com. Some professors ask their students to turn their papers in electronically and the text is submitted to Turnitin.com where it is compared with a vast database of other student papers, online articles, general Web pages, and other sources. Turnitin.com then produces a report for the instructor indicating whether the paper was plagiarized and if so, how much. To access this resource, log in to MyUCLA and click on the Turnitin.com link in the left-hand column under "MyUCLA Features." There will only be a link if your professor is using Turnitin.com.

Citation Style Guides — Online

When citing sources be sure to use the proper citation style for the course. Below are links to ONLINE summarized citation rules from some of the more popular style guides:

Citation Style Guides — Print

For a general introduction to academic citation and intellectual property, see Citing Sources.

For more detail, consult the complete printed style manuals, available in many campus libraries:

Annotated Bibliographies

Preparing an annotated bibliography is often the first step in writing a research paper. Sometimes it is a stand-alone assignment. Annotations usually include both description and some evaluative comment. See Purdue University's OWL (Online Writing Lab) page (linked below) for more help in preparing an annotated bibliography.