How many sources should i have for a research paper

If you need to write a 6-page essay, 6 sources would suffice. For lengthy papers, you can use fewer sources. However, never go below one source for every 2 pages. The reality is that many professors tend to consider papers with more sources better. Yes, some professors will appreciate the sheer number of sources instead of appreciating the quality of the sources. You can include more than 1 source of information for every page, but never use more than 2 for every page.

You now know how to classify sources for research and know which of the sources can infiltrate biased information into your academic papers. Of course, you probably already know how to use sources in a research paper citing, quoting, referencing, etc. However, do you know where you can find high quality sources of information quickly? The first place you will look for credible research sources is Google.

EDU websites. These are generally considered to be more credible. Another way to credible research sources is to subscribe to magazines Scientific American Magazine, for instance and journals Oxford Academic is just one of the many choices.

We mean a seasoned academic writer. These professionals are very well versed in the fine art of finding only the most accurate sources for academic papers. After all, they do this for a living. You find their web site on the main page of the Library web page. It takes about a week for most books to come in through OhioLink; Interlibrary Loan can take longer. Goleman, Daniel. Emotional Intelligence.

New York: Bantam, The card has the usual bibliographical information and a quick note to remind yourself about what you wanted to read. See the example below:. However, I wanted to see how much more I could go in depth on the topic. What I found was that there were many case studies, but all using the same conceptual framework. When I saw that basically every other paper was a variation of the same central 10 ones, but using different case studies.

Another way to respond to this question is: read enough to answer your questions properly. The two biggest questions that probably would encompass the previous ones are related to breadth and depth. How far reaching should your literature review be? Scoping a literature review, as Dr. Pat Thomson shows here , is not an easy task. It requires us to search through many months or even years of published literature.

I always do Google Scholar searches at least 7 years into the past e. My citation tracing process also looks at the last 7 years of scholarship of key authors. For me, this is the most challenging component. When I know a field very well for example, agenda-setting theory in public policy , I can easily decide which authors I will be seeking Stuart Soroka, Michael Howlett, Baumgartner and Jones, Kingdon. And then based on doing a citation tracing exercise , I will go to those younger scholars who are citing these key authors.

But again, this requires you to know the field already. This is where a supervisor, a coauthor, a colleague or a trusted scholar on Twitter may be helpful with narrowing the search scope.

And then use those authors to create a map of the literature. Do I need to do an in-depth reading of All The Things? This is completely a question that has arbitrary answers and a broad range of parameters to work around. It also depends on what type of literature review you are writing. Academic work requires vetted information that has been validated. Using good sources will strengthen your own arguments but how to know which to use?

Stay clear of websites and Internet sources such as Wikipedia. While Wiki is a wealth of information for personal use, it lacks the scrutiny that university work requires. So take a look at our list of credible sources to use in your research articles. Pick from our list to obtain the information you need for a great paper.

Additionally, you may take interest in our list of sources for science news for some added resources. Identify your research paper topic.

If you do not have an idea of what exactly you are looking for, later you can realize that you have wasted lots of time on discovering interesting but irrelevant facts that don't have anything in common with your subject.

Thus, this is your first step. Try to formulate a clear question from the very beginning. Choose an extensive topic, make a quick preliminary study before you formulate a specific question, and then edit it to make it look relevant and clear. Keep the purpose of work in mind. There are several types of research projects and each has a different purpose that you have to keep in mind in order to find the most appropriate and relevant materials.

Create a list of key concepts. If you have a list of relevant concepts and keywords that relate to the chosen topic, it should make the study much faster because you will easily be able to search for information on your topic on the Internet and beyond.