10/11/2014

LSM103, LSM2251: Guidelines for Citation, Image Use and Search

LSM103, LSM2251: Guidelines for Citation, Image Use and Search

Citation, Image Use and Search Guidelines for LSM1103 & LSM2251 students
By N. Sivasothi, updated Oct 2014
http://.tinyurl.com/lsm1103-citation

1) Guidelines for Citation, 2) Terms of use for images obtained online,

and 3) Hints on searching for supporting articles

I - Guidelines for Citation

Why we cite
In our written work, we begin by providing a context to our work in the introduction, and this often
involves referring to prior relevant work. In the discussion, results are compared with similar work and
arguments supported by referring to other work. In all of this the primary source of facts and/or ideas
which a writer makes a reference to must be cited.
Citation provides credibility for arguments which rely on these facts for it allows the reader to examine
the primary sources and be satisfied of its claim. A reader might examine the context of the original
paper or seek further information from that source. This not only maintains intellectual honesty, it
prevents misdirection if facts are improperly represented.
A scholar is extremely well-read in their specific field, learns from and adds to prior work. The student
who adopts this to process accelerates learning and understanding. Hence we explain and emphasise
citation in written assignments, even in blogging.
Cite only what you have read
This is important - you cannot cite a paper you have not read. Citation implies you have read the
article yourself. Relying on another authors reference is essentially hearsay.
How we cite
For the LSM1103 writing workshop, the citation format described in this section is to be adopted. It was
adopted from the journal Raffles Bulletin of Zoology. It is meant as a training tool for the student to
clearly appreciate the details of their primary sources. For other assignments, if no citation style is
suggested, adopt one and be consistent.
There are two components to citation - i) in-text citation and the ii) Literature Cited section.

In text citation
In scientific writing, in text citation method is typically adopted. Citations are inserted appropriately at
the point of reference and are represented by the authors surname and year of publication.
You can see examples of a variety of in-text citations in this review paper which provides the examples
below.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1aTQGgipKywtbqCP8Kcb5ru0e_lpX7ipjD97crorBUJs

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Citations in the text provide the author's surname, a comma, and year of publication. E.g. for a single
author: (Xu, 2010); for two authors, an ampersand is inserted in between: (Xu & Sivasothi, 2010); and
for three or more authors, et al. (which means and others) is used: (Harrison et al., 1950).
E.g. (from Sivasothi & Nor, 1994):
In Singapore, otters have always been elusive and Harrison (1966) felt that during his time,
they were visitors rather than a permanent fixture of the Singapore coast.
Lekagul & McNeely (1988) state that they eat less fish and rely more on molluscs and crabs.
In Singapore, recent sightings were all in or near mangroves (Yang et al., 1990).
Reference to a specific section of a large volume requires greater clarity that the the author and year.
The specific page numbers can be included in the citation, and takes the following form:
Both Cantor (1846: 195) and Blanford (1888: 187) concur that hairs of the nose become
partially worn off in adults.
If you wish to use the exact words (i.e. quote) from a reference, you must clearly indicate the portions
of the text you are using:
Little is mentioned about calls. Cantor (1846) writes of L. sumatrana, "Its voice is a short shrill
whistling, not unlike the sound of the cricket, but stronger."
If more than one citation is required, the references should be listed in chronological order with the
publication year separated by a comma, e.g.:
Significantly, several lists and general accounts of the mammalian fauna in the region did not
include the Eurasian Otter (Flower, 1900; Kloss, 1908, 1909; Chasen, 1924, 1925a, 1940; Tate,
1947; Harrison,

1964, 1966).

Literature Cited
In this last section of a paper, all citations are included, including authorship of taxa. Note that the
heading of the section is Literature Cited and not References. Although these words are used
somewhat interchangeably, the former is the accurate description - only list the literature you cite.
References or Bibliography may be used for popular articles, where ease of reading may be
preferred for better readability.
Arrangement of first authors names
The full citations of primary sources are listed in an alphabetical order of first author surnames and
then in chronological order. E.g. if looking for Tan, 2009, look down the list of literature cited until the
Ts are reached then look for Tan. This is possible because names are specifically arranged to
enable this:
The normal way we write a persons name in western literature is to list the surname last, e.g. Amanda
Hui-Ning TAN or Weiting XU. In listing cited literature, however, the first author's name is rearranged to
provide the surname first. Additionally all remaining parts of the name are abbreviated to initials. The
names of subsequent authors, however, need not be rearranged, e.g. Tan, A. H.-N. & W.T. Xu, 2009.
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1aTQGgipKywtbqCP8Kcb5ru0e_lpX7ipjD97crorBUJs

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Format of text
All literature cited have a hanging indent of at least 5 mm. All references are to be complete; a period
after author's initials should be followed by a single space. The word 'page' is abbreviated to 'p.' and
'pages' to 'pp.'. The word 'plate' is abbreviated to 'pl.' and 'plates' to 'pls.'. The references should follow
the formats of the examples listed below precisely, including the punctuation, style and spacing:
1. Journal article
Include the year of publication, title of the paper, the journal name in full and italicized, volume in bold,
issue should be in parentheses, and page numbers.
Murphy, D. H., 1990. The natural history of insect herbivory on mangrove trees in and near Singapore.
Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 38(2): 119-204.
Komai, T., 2000. Redescription of Pagurus pectinatus (Crustacea: Decapoda: Anomura: Paguridae).
In: Komai, T. (ed.), Results of Recent Research on Northeast Asian Biota. Natural History Research,
Special Issue, 7: 323-337.
2. Book and theses
Book references should include authors surname, initials and year of publication; the title of book
(italicised); publisher and city of publication; and the number of pages. Take note of the punctuation in
the examples below. Theses and dissertations are to be cited as books but clearly indicated as
unpublished theses.
Medway, Lord, 1977. Mammals of Borneo: field keys and an annotated checklist. Monographs of the
Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society No.7. Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Kuala
Lumpur. 172 pp., 24 pl.
King, B., M. Woodcock & E. C. Dickinson, 1975. A Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia. Collins,
London. 480 pp.
Hong, R. X., 2004. Population and distribution of horseshoe crab Carcinoscopius rotundicauda at the
Kranji Nature Trail estuaries, Western Johor Straits. Unpublished Undergraduate Research
Opportunities in Science (UROPS) project report., National University of Singapore, Singapore. 49 pp.
3. Book Chapter
Book chapter citations are similar to book citations but the editor or editors are included as part of the
citation. The citation consists of the authors surname, initials and year of publication; title of the
chapter; the editor(s) names and title of book (italicised); the publisher, city of publication; and the page
numbers of the chapter.
Nakasone, Y. & M. Agena, 1984. Role of crabs as degrader of mangrove litters in the Okinawan
mangals, and food habits of some estuarine fishes. In: Ikehara, S. & N. Ikehara (eds.), Ecology and
Physiology of the Mangrove Ecosystem. College of Science, University of Ryukyus. Pp. 153-167.
4. Non-journal sources
Abstracts, blog posts and web pages, if used, must be cited as well. The citation format should follow
the style of a journal paper as closely as possible. For online material, the date of access is included as
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1aTQGgipKywtbqCP8Kcb5ru0e_lpX7ipjD97crorBUJs

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sites may change. The date of access can enable the original page to be viewed via the Internet
Archive.
Blog post
E.g. Sivasothi, N., 2009. 300 entangled horseshoe crabs rescued at Mandai Besar mangrove. Habitatnews, 29 May 2009.
URL: http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/index.php?entry=/marine/20090529-xiphosuran_rescue.txt (accessed on 19 Aug 2012).

You may have to search for cite-able details if this is not immediately obvious in the blog post.
What if a primary webpage location not found?
E.g. This article below first appeared in The New Paper which does not have an accessible online
archive. But the article was reproduced in a reliable secondary source and if used, must be indicated in
the citation.
John, A., 2008. Monkey mayhem in Bukit Timah. The New Paper, 12 Mar 2008. Hosted on WildSingapore:
http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.com/2008/03/monkey-mayhem-in-bukit-timah.html (accessed on 21 Aug 2012).

II Terms of use for images obtained online

Cite all material all material reproduced in articles and blog posts must be cited.
Use of material Not all material on the internet can be freely used but some allowance for use is
provided by the terms of "fair use" or fair dealing. This is not always clear so it is best to check for
indication of the authors intent of permission. This can vary from no permission (all rights reserved),
some permission (some rights reserved) to full permission (public domain):
No permission - "all rights reserved" requires permission to be granted before material can
be reproduced. Some sites may expressedly forbid the use of their material elsewhere. When
no indication of permission if provided, it is best to assume you require permission to reuse
material. However, exceptions are available under Fair dealing especially for educational use
with acknowledgement.
Some permission - authors who adopt a Creative Commons license have granted specific
permissions regarding use of content. At minimum, all CC-licensed content must be attributed
to the author/creator which is covered by citation. Other conditions may apply, depending on
the type of CC licence of which there are a variety.
E.g. I adopted an attribution-non-commercial-sharealike license (logo in the sidebar) which
links to a clear set of terms provided by Creative Commons, as shown below:

https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1aTQGgipKywtbqCP8Kcb5ru0e_lpX7ipjD97crorBUJs

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Flickr, a photo-hosting site, has an advanced search function which allows you search only
CC-licensed photos (scroll to bottom of the advanced search page to select this option):
http://www.flickr.com/search/advanced/

Public domain (free) - these are materials which are free for use and modification even for
commercial purposes. Many US government sites release resources free to the public domain,
such as .
Some sites will indicate free use for educational or non-profit purposes only.
Wikipedia (Wikimedia) is gradually shifting towards the use of public domain and Creative
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Commons material only each image has information about permissions, always check this
before use. You can contribute material here too.

III Searching for scientific literature

1. To search for peer-reviewed journal articles, the fastest way may be to simply use Google
Scholar - http://scholar.google.com
2. Insert the NUS libproxy address .libproxy1.nus.edu.sg after the root URL to access the full
article in scientific journals.
a. For example this article requires payment before you can access its content:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v415/n6869/full/415279a.html

b. After insertion of the NUS Digital Library proxy URL, the URL
becomes: http://www.nature.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/nature/journal/v415/n6869/full/415279a.html which
provides you with access to the complete pdf.
3. Note that the value of your article is based on the credibility of the sources you are citing.
4. Other hints:
a. Learn the nomenclature used by the particular field you are investigating and apply
the specific words in a search. This will provide more specific literature.
b. The introduction section of the first few papers will help you unearth directly relevant
papers quickly.
c. Some databases will suggest related articles.
d. You can restrict your search to recent publications in Google Scholar to search for
recent progress in a field, which may be useful for areas of high volume of interest.
e. An old article may still be of critical relevance if the work has not been superseded.
This is sometimes indicated when a paper is still being discussed and cited in recent
literature.
f. A recent paper alone may not necessarily be the most appropriate for you to use;
examine its content carefully! Also, some papers may be suggesting ideas but not yet
be ready to be adopted as fact - read the authors context and limitations carefully and
review comments or letters to the editor as other experts weigh in.
g. Read any paper you cite carefully - you know where and when the study was
conducted, the methods used, etc. For example temporal variation of basking monitor
lizards or mudskippers may have significance in areas where sunspots are less
plentiful, but this may not be true in the tropics or require a longer period of study
(across monsoons or dry periods) to detect.
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