Acceptable Types of References
Before conducting research you should find out what kind of sources your professor would like you to use. Generally, the following are acceptable sources of information for college papers:
- Scholarly books & journals, print or electronic versions
- Student Theses
- Government publications-technical or research papers (not brochures or pamphlets)
- Technical standards
- Articles from internet sites run by reputable resources
When using references from Wikipedia articles, make sure they come from one of these
sources.
Assess Wikipedia's References
This is a screen shot of the references from the taser article, accessed on Jan. 16, 2008. (The references may have changed since this page was last accessed.)
Let's take a closer look at where these references came from.
- This is a press release from TASER International about a new product of theirs. Keep in mind that this press release is designed to sell a product, not to critique it.
- The link goes to a .pdf file from the Las Vegas Police Department about the policy of using tasers on the job. This is a great source of primary information.
- The link goes to a paper published by the IEEE Spectrum- a very reputable source of technology information. The article critcally looks at the safety of this instrument.
- This link takes us to an article on the ACLU's website. The article talks about a report the ACLU did about the unregulated use of tasers. Unfortunately, the link to the actual report is broken. :(
- The link goes straight to a report from the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies- another source of high quality information- about the safety of stun devices.
- This link goes to an article from Europace (a peer-reviewed scholarly medical journal) about the effect of stun devices on pace makers and defibrillators.
The other references in this article lead to news articles, videos of people getting tases and pages from TASER International's website and product catalog. Since these references are not from scholarly sources, they may not be the best references to cite in a paper.