Academic Insider: How to Find Sources for Your College Paper

You have a university research paper due next week (or tomorrow morning). You scour the internet for sources for your college paper and run across Wikipedia or Askjeeves.com. Should you use these sources? Or will your professor freak when she reads "According to Wikipedia, George Washington won the Civil War fair and square" ? Before making some major academic errors, read on to get the inside scoop on finding sources for your paper.

How to find Good Sources for an Academic Paper

For an academic paper, you typically want what is called a "peer reviewed source". What is a peer-reviewed source? Generally, a peer-reviewed source has gone through a rigorous editing panel that is recognized for its expertise in the field or its high editing reputation. That is why a book published by Oxford Press or the University of Nebraska Press or ASCAP has more repute than "Joe Shmo's Really Awesome Blog About Rocks".

"But isn't Wikipedia edited?" Yes and no.

Wikipedia consists of thousands of dedicated article writers who upload unedited articles about specific topics. While the rules are pretty strict about uploading regarding citing all information and avoiding self-promotion, there are just not enough good editors on Wikipedia to stop the crazies from posting malicious or untrue information on Wikipedia. A good example is the frenzy that happened on Wikipedia when Justin Bieber lost the Grammy. The winner, Esperanza Spalding, received malicious attacks to her Wiki page that were untrue by unhappy Bieber fans. Interviews with celebs will often mention how Wiki has untrue "facts" posted about them. Furthermore, despite the rules against self-promotion and biased articles, there are hundreds of writers who have bypassed this by storm, paying talented writers who know the Wiki ropes to circumvent the rules to post promotional content and untrue information.

When your paper has dozens of references to Wikipedia, you can understand now why your professor roles his or her eyes and reaches for the red pen.

Peer-Reviewed Sources are generally books, newspaper articles, journal articles. Many of these can be accessed through your university's online library, a public library, archive.org, and many other resources like Google Book. If you find an article that requires membership, check for the same title at your university library. Many times you just need a university library to help you access some sources.

If you are searching for online sources:

1) Use your university's online library resources. You can find valuable academic papers and scholarly journals much quicker than sorting through search engine results.

2) For university level papers, the following are not acceptable resources.

• General encyclopedia articles should be limited
• Wikipedia
• Yahoo! Answers, Answer.com, tripod.com, Askjeeves, etc.
• Websites ending in ".com" usually are not reputable since the articles are skewed to sell something
• Chat rooms
• Blogs (unless it is the official blog of an institution or expert in your field)
• Advertisements

3) For university level papers, the following can be acceptable resources:

• Online journals and newspaper articles (ex. NY Times)
• Some online magazines (ex. Newsweek, Electronic Musician)
• Websites of professional organizations (ex. American Medical Association, the Bach Society)
• Personal Composer "Official" websites (ex. Composer Alex Shapiro's Official Website)
• Personal correspondence with an expert via e-mail or phone.
  

You can find academic sources online through Google Scholar. To use Google Scholar, open up your Google Search. Go under the More menu, then click Even More. The Scholar option should be in the first column. Google Books also allows you a limited preview of many academic music history books and access to public domain books.The website Archive.org has many audio and video resources, as well as older texts. These might be valuable in finding peer-reviewed live interviews and performances.

Remember, the better your sources, the better your paper.

Always remember to cite everything!

Paraphrases, unknown facts, direct quotes, indirect quotes. If you did not know the information before you read the source, then cite the source.

Trust me, you follow these rules and find quality resources for your paper, and your assignments will stand head and shoulders above the guy next to you who copy/pasted from Wikipedia.