In the previous steps you found information on a subject and determined whether the information is suitable for your project. In this step we will determine whether and how we can (re-)use this information in our own report. We therefore need to know what copyright is and how sources can be referenced.
There are several methods in which sources may be referenced. At the HAN we agreed to mostly make use of the guidelines from the American Psychological Association: the APA guidelines.
“Copyright is the exclusive right of the creator of a work of literature, science or art, or that of their assignees, to publish and to reproduce this work, subject to the limitations set by law” (Copyright law, 2010).
This article from the copyright act means that you are not permitted simply to copy another author’s work. Any work that is produced automatically has copyright on it, whether it is text, an image, video material, a program or something else. Copying another authors work and (consciously or unconsciously) presenting it as your own is considered plagiarism, which is considered illegal.
Citing and paraphrasing information is exempted from copyright law in order to further expand on existing knowledge. A proper reference to the source of the information is required and the presented information must serve a purpose other than re-publishing work.
The APA guidelines are (among other things) a way to reference sources when information is used. this source reference always consists of two parts; a short in-text reference at the place where the information is used, and a comprehensive reference in a reference list, usually placed near the end of a project.
The in-text reference usually consists of the last name of a few of the author(s) or an organisation name, followed by a publication year if available. An example of a piece of text followed by an in-text reference could be:
On-stage accidents are sometimes known to occur (Barden, 2020).
The reference in between brackets refers to an item in the reference list. Although the exact way of referring to a source depends on the type of source, it generally consists of four parts: Who (the author or responsible organisation), When (the year or date of publication), what (the title) and where (the source). The reference list item that corresponds with the in-text reference above would be:
Barden, B. (2020, March 14). The actor who was really stabbed on stage. BBC News. Retrieved June 13, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-51878964
There are several support options available for referencing sources:
There are programs available that can be used in creating reference lists. This is mainly useful for larger projects with a large number of references and usually involves downloading or manually entering information that is required for a reference list, and then placing an in text citation at a desired place in your project. Both the in-text reference as well as a reference list entry are then automatically created.