LibGuides

As an AIS-R Student, you have a wealth of options to help you with citing and referencing your paper. Using Noodletools and the automatic citation generators found in many databases can greatly improve your chances of not losing marks for improperly formatting your bibliography. Please see your DP Supervisor or your EE Supervisor for help if you have any questions about Citing and Referencing your sources.

Research practices when working on an extended essay must reflect the principles of academic integrity. The essay must provide the reader with the precise sources of quotations, ideas and points of view through accurate citations, which may be in-text or footnotes, and full references listed in the bibliography, which, regardless of the system used, must ensure the minimum requirements.

Producing accurate references and a bibliography is a skill that students should be seeking to refine as part of the extended essay writing process. Documenting the research in this way is vital: it allows readers to evaluate the evidence for themselves, and it shows the student’s understanding of the importance of the sources used.

Failure to comply with this requirement will be viewed as academic misconduct and will, therefore, be treated as a potential breach of IB regulations

AISR - LibGuides

NoodleTools

This guide covers the following topics: (1) How to create a new account; (2) How to start a new project and a source list; (3) How to create notecards; (4) How to share a project with your teacher; and (5) How to set up a project collaboration with your classmates.

Bibliography

A bibliography is an alphabetical list of every source used to research and write the essay. Sources that are not cited in the body of the essay but were important in informing the approach taken should be cited in the introduction or in an acknowledgment. The bibliography must list only those sources cited.

Citations

A citation is a shorthand method of making a reference in the body of an essay, either as an in-text citation or footnote/endnote. This must then be linked to the full reference at the end of the essay in the bibliography. A citation provides the reader with accurate references so that he or she can locate the source easily. How sources are cited varies with the particular referencing style that has been chosen. It is important to emphasize that there must be consistency of method when citing sources.

Referencing

A reference is a way of indicating to the reader, in an orderly form, where information has been obtained. A reference provides all the information needed to find the source material. References must be cited because:

they acknowledge the sources used
they enable the reader to consult the work and verify the data that has been presented.

References must be given whenever someone else’s work is quoted or summarized. References can come from many different sources, including books, magazines, journals, newspapers, emails, internet sites and interviews.

There are a number of different styles available for use when writing research papers; whatever style is chosen, it must be applied consistently and in line with the IB’s minimum requirements. The style should be applied in both the final draft of the essay and in the initial research stages of taking notes. This is good practice, not only for producing a high-quality final product, but also for reducing the opportunities and temptation to plagiarize.

The IB’s minimum requirements include:

name of author
date of publication
title of source
page numbers (print sources only)
date of access (electronic sources only)
URL.

Citing work that you have Translated

For some of you English is your second language. It is certainly permissible to obtain information from journals and other sources that are in your own language - however, how do you cite this effectively. The following extract is taken from the IB EE forum and was in response to the EE supervisor in the Concordia school in Thailand asking about using Thai language sources.

It is certainly permissible to use sources which are not in the language of the essay, but translation into the target language is required, one cannot assume that the reader understands the original language.

It is usual to quote the original as well as presenting the translation. [Do not put quotation marks around your translation, just around the original]

Umberto Eco argues ("in Mouse or rat?") that direct translation may lose meaning, paraphrase or use of different idioms may be required to get the ideas across. Paul Bellos ("Is that a fish in your ear?") makes a similar argument - direct translation may confound meaning... Direct translation may not be ideal - meaning and understanding are preferred - so, not to worry that your student with her good Spanish cannot present a direct translation.

What must be made clear is that the translations are those of the student; these are her understandings. Readers can make of that what they will - and if unsure, are presented with the original - they can seek another translation. A note in the acknowledgements and/or in the introduction to the effect that all translations are those of the writer is ... essential.

In response to the question about the Bibliography/Works cited, my preference would be to list the source in its original Arabic version, but perhaps with the English in brackets, to help the examiner.

Your bibliography will have the entries in Arabic characters first in the document. Any in-text citation to Arabic sources will be in (Arabic characters [English translation]).

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