CRIJ 1307: Crime in America

Reference sources:

• are an excellent place to start research
• provide background information
• include basic information sources like dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, chronologies, and research guides.

Some of the most common types of reference sources are:

Bibliographies

Provide list of sources (books, articles, etc.) for specific subjects. May include annotations.

Guides to Research

Provide list of sources (books, articles, etc.) for specific subjects. May include annotations

Subject Encyclopedias

Provide in-depth, scholarly articles, focused on a specific subject or discipline. Often include bibliographies.

The library has many reference sources, both online and in print. Search the library catalog (advanced search) to find print sources, limiting to the Reference Shelves. Databases you may use include:

ebook Academic Collection - full-text, recent books online, mostly scholarly.

Gale Virtual Reference Library - reference books on a wide variety of topics.

Several other databases have reference sources on specific topics. You may see them in other searches that you do.

We have a number of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference sources that can be used for this assignment. Here are a few suggestions.

APA requires citing reference sources. Individual articles in subject sources are cited. It is also possible to cite an entire reference work.

The general pattern is:

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of work. Location: Publisher.

For a chapter, the pattern is:

Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (2005). Title of chapter. In A. Editor, B. Editor, & C. Editor (Eds.), Title of book (Vol. xx, pp. xxx-xxx). Location: Publisher.

As an example:

Goode, E. (2002). Drug legalization. In D. Levinson (Ed.), Encyclopedia of crime and punishment (Vol. 2, pp. 559-65). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

NOTE: in a document, references are double-spaced, with a hanging indent.