An introduction:
Referencing is something in which many students struggle with throughout their studies. This guide, put together by fellow students, aims to give you the opportunity to change this weakness into a strength. The aim of this guide, is to give you reliable sources to find information, books and journals, as well as giving you a step by step guide, tips and tricks and what not to do when referencing in an APA style.
Top 5 resources:
1 - Google scholar is a great database in which to find reliable sources. It is also very good to use as we are all familiar with google, and google scholar gives you a very similar experience however it is aimed at scholarly searches therefore finding relevant reliable sources.
2 - Microsoft academic is another great place to find relevant academic material. With over 80 million publications in the database with an easy to use search panel, it helps you to find very subject specific material easily. All of which comes from reliable sources ensuring that you wont be using inaccurate material in your own writing. It also shows you how many times the articles and journals have been citied by other users of the site which can be very helpful.
3 - For Northumbria students, a clear option would be the Northumbria library, which has a wide range of publications covering all subject areas. The Northumbria library offers an online search tool which allows you to find material not just in the library itself but also across the internet, this is a very reliable source to find the correct material to reference in your studies.
4 - If in need of course specific material, recommended by your lecturers and seminar leaders a great place to find these would be on Blackboard learn under the reading list, this list created by your course leaders offers articles, textbooks and journals recommended by themselves, so this would be a reliable source to find information on the issues raised on the course.
5 - The internet public library is one of the biggest online databases aimed at finding you academic sources from across the globe. It has a huge array of material, all of which can be seen as reliable due to its being mainly ran by educational bodies and even students themselves help run this site. The website has an easy to use search engine to quickly help you find the materials you need, in either broad spectrum or more course specific materials through there ‘resources by subject’ option.
2 - Microsoft academic is another great place to find relevant academic material. With over 80 million publications in the database with an easy to use search panel, it helps you to find very subject specific material easily. All of which comes from reliable sources ensuring that you wont be using inaccurate material in your own writing. It also shows you how many times the articles and journals have been citied by other users of the site which can be very helpful.
3 - For Northumbria students, a clear option would be the Northumbria library, which has a wide range of publications covering all subject areas. The Northumbria library offers an online search tool which allows you to find material not just in the library itself but also across the internet, this is a very reliable source to find the correct material to reference in your studies.
4 - If in need of course specific material, recommended by your lecturers and seminar leaders a great place to find these would be on Blackboard learn under the reading list, this list created by your course leaders offers articles, textbooks and journals recommended by themselves, so this would be a reliable source to find information on the issues raised on the course.
5 - The internet public library is one of the biggest online databases aimed at finding you academic sources from across the globe. It has a huge array of material, all of which can be seen as reliable due to its being mainly ran by educational bodies and even students themselves help run this site. The website has an easy to use search engine to quickly help you find the materials you need, in either broad spectrum or more course specific materials through there ‘resources by subject’ option.