Instructions for authors of scientific papers, dissertations, theses
I. Why cite sources?
II. Citations and Footnotes
Citations allow readers to locate and further explore the sources you consulted, show the depth and scope of your research, and give credit to authors for their ideas. Citations provide evidence for your arguments and add credibility to your work by demonstrating that you have sought out and considered a variety of resources. In written academic work, citing sources is standard practice and shows that you are responding to this person, agreeing with that person, and adding something of your own. Think of documenting your sources as providing a trail for your reader to follow to see the research you performed and discover what led you to your original contribution.
III. There are different ways to invoke cited theses:
- You can cite literally, but then you have to separate the citation from your own text.
- In case you want to shorten the citation, please replace the part you want to leave out like this (…)
Example:
Advances in physics often translate to the technological sector, and sometimes influence the other sciences, as well as mathematics and philosophy. [27].
Shortened version:
Advances in physics often translate to the technological sector(.) as well as mathematics and philosophy. [27].
The number given at the end of the citation indicates the position of the source in the bibliography.
You can refer to somebody’s ideas, publications, etc. in various ways, e.g.:
Example:
As Kwiatkowski wrote in [7] (…)
The number [7] informs us that we can find the title of the book written by Kwiatkowski in the list of references.
If the author wants to give additional information about his own text, she/he can do it using footnotes.
IV. How do you cite sources?
Citations within your text link specific fragments to the sources you consulted or quoted. This can be done through in-text brackets notes, footnotes, or endnotes. In addition, a bibliography or list of works cited is almost always placed at the end of your paper. The citation style and format you use will be determined by the style you choose. Only one bibliographic style format should be used for the entire paper
See more - examples of citation styles:
Oxford:
Harvard:
http://education.exeter.ac.uk/dll/studyskills/harvard_referencing.htm
Gathering literature and creating references
How to manage your research (resources and references)
During your research and looking for input from books, journals or other materials, you will have to deal with a lot of information, while searching scientific information you are building up a collection of relevant literature – it means managing and processing references. You have to put it all together and manage references using special programme.
WUT ML recommends the following free programmes, for creating your own database. Special programmes can help you put it all together and create references automatically:
- Zotero - free access
- EndNote Web - free access for teaching and research staff via ISI Web of Knowledge platform
- Mendeley - free reference manager
References management software programme offers tools helping you “organize” all searching results. Here is what the programme can do:
- Your references will be in your own searchable database
- You can import descriptions from online databases, catalogues, journal indexes, full text sources
- Your searching results will be automatically formed for your references in the style you choose
If you collect references from many different resources, you have to remember to refer to the source you have been using, you should develop the list of cited papers as footnotes or endnotes
Copyrights
All researchers and students have follow the copyright law if they cite other authors` articles, books or the Internet links.
Remember to inform about authors` names and titles of the sources.
Plagiarism
Accusations of plagiarism can have devastating consequences:
- People in academic and scientific communities have lost their jobs and reputation for copying somebody work without giving credit to it, also financial consequences
- More details - see Polish civil and criminal law
See also useful publications:
- Martin, P. [online]. Introduction to basic legal citation. United States, 2012. Dostępny pełny tekst https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/99.
- Wytrębowicz, J. How to Write a Good Thesis. Some Tips [online]. Warszawa, 2018. Dostępny pełny tekst http://bcpw.bg.pw.edu.pl/dlibra/docmetadata?id=8245
Finding literature
How to search and review literature for dissertations and projects? Where to start? – Choose professional library resources
A Brief History
The history of WUT Main Library is closely connected with the history of the university.
- 1824 - The first idea of establishing a higher technical school - The Institute of Technology (Instytut Politechniczny)
- 1825 - April. The Library Council was established to elaborate the final project of The Institute of Technology (Instytut Politechniczny)
- 1826 - January 4 - Inauguration of the Preparatory School for the Institute of Technology. The first principal of the school was Kajetan Garbiński and the first librarian was Dionizy Lanckoroński.
- 1831 - All universities in the Kingdom of Poland were closed as a consequence of the November Uprising.
- 1895 - Opening of the Mechanical and Technical School of Wawelberg and Rotwald in Warsaw. In 1951, the collection of this school became a part of the WUT Library Collection.
- 1898 - Opening of the Emperor Nicolas II University of Technology, with Russian as a medium of instruction.
- 1915 - November 15 - Inauguration of the Warsaw University of Technology with Polish as a medium of instruction. Organizing the library collections after the damages of the World War I.
- 1918 - Opening the Library with collections of 32,000 volumes.
- 1939 - The Library collections amounted to almost 90,000 volumes.
- 1939 - October - WUT Main Building occupied by the German Army.
- 1944 - The Main Building and the Main Library Collection were burned down during the Warsaw Uprising.
- 1945 - The Commission for the University Restoration decided to rebuild the Library collection.
- 1996 - The extension of WUT Main Building to accommodate the Main Library started.
- 1999 – September - Opening of the new facilities of the Main Library.
- 2011 - WUT Main Library organized a IATUL conference.
