I’ve lost my identity – oh, there itis . . . in a style manual

Teaching citation styles and academic honesty

Sarah Park, Lori A. Mardis and Connie Jo UryB.D. Owens Library, Northwest Missouri State University, Maryville,

Missouri, USA

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to share the process that Northwest Missouri State UniversityB.D. Owens Library uses to decrease plagiarism including citation style guides, academic honesty andplagiarism tutorials, online movies, and interactive learning objects that teach citing, which can beused or adapted by other libraries in both online and on-ground information literacy instructionenvironments.

Design/methodology/approach – Rationale for the inclusion of citation instruction in on-groundand online formats, their application, and uses are discussed.

Findings – Citation reference questions as a percentage of the total number of reference questionsanswered by librarians are on the rise. This increase may be attributed to the growth of electronicresources, which are inadequately covered in citation manuals. Students frequently struggle withidentifying types of sources listed in database or bibliography citations, causing them to createbibliographies filled with errors.

Practical implications – Resources are presented that can be adapted by academic librariansseeking to curb plagiarism and student citation problems.

Social implications – Tutorials are listed and described which cover the ethical issue of plagiarism.These can be used in their native format or adapted with permission to meet the needs of localinstitutions.

Originality/value – To address an increasingly fluid online academic environment, this case studyprovides a systematic approach, which includes online style manual textbooks, tutorials, instruction,and reference.

Keywords Tutorials, Library instruction, Plagiarism, Students, Referencing

Paper type Case study

IntroductionHave you ever ended the day feeling that instead of helping students locateinformation, you have become a citation vending machine? When NorthwestMissouri State University (Northwest) students first began struggling withformatting citations, it followed the curve of three other trends: an increase inproprietary online full text sources; the explosion of the worldwide web; and arapidly expanding international graduate student population who were not used towriting papers requiring documentation of sources. The lack of citation examplesfor online sources spawned online style guides across the country and Northwestlibrarians followed suit – continuing through today to offer four style guides foronline sources – particularly those that help students cite information from oursubscription databases. Even though databases now provide citations in a variety of

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0090-7324.htm

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Received 15 July 2010Revised 30 September 2010Accepted 8 October 2010

Reference Services ReviewVol. 39 No. 1, 2011pp. 42-57q Emerald Group Publishing Limited0090-7324DOI 10.1108/00907321111108105

styles, our examples are as necessary today as they were in 1996 because more than90 percent of the citation examples provided by major databases include errors(Kessler and Van Ullen, 2006). During the same era, problems with plagiarismincreased dramatically. Online resources make it easy for students to cut and pasteinformation directly into their notes. Whether they forget to paraphrase materialtaken directly from a source or plagiarism is just easier to commit, it has become aglaring problem in academia. This paper includes a dialogue of the plagiarism andcitation challenges faced by the academic library audience; a discussion about whoshould develop and deliver plagiarism prevention and citation guidance; examplesof the process and resources that Northwest utilizes to educate users regardingthese issues and ways in which they can be adapted for assignments anddisciplines.

Review of literatureStudents are inclined to cite sources, and consequently include parenthetical citation,as an afterthought of the writing process. They are often frustrated by this detailand simply see it as a bothersome busy-work that is a requirement for a passinggrade. “Kenneth May identified citation abuses, including: citing friends, citingwidely to attract more interest, not citing ‘obvious’ sources, carelessness andplagiarism” (cited in Clarke and Oppenheim, 2006, p. 2). Students do not see thebeneficial connection that a correctly cited bibliography can offer themselves andother academics in the discipline through research validation, a portal to similarstudies, and recognition of original ideas of thought. In addition, “collectively,appropriate and accurate citations document how established scholarly works buildon one another over time to transform ideas and even entire fields of inquiry”(Casserly and Bird, 2003, p. 300).

In a study, Clarke and Oppenheim (2006) examined 310 references in student papersand found that 24.9 percent contained citation errors. Of the works cited lists, 80percent contained at least one error. They found that while students felt secure citingprint-based materials, “56.9 percent of students surveyed did not feel confident whenreferencing electronic journals. The younger students were found to feel moreconfidence when citing electronic formats. However, their perceived ability to cite doesnot necessarily match their levels of competence. Several students commented on thedifficulties of citing electronic materials” (p. 14). Students suggested that theirreferences might improve with more instruction, repeating the instruction at multipletimes for part-time students, and returning corrected reference lists during the editingphase.

In addition to instructional support of citation assistance, databases are also tryingto provide citation assistance. As vendors continue to enhance their products to meetthe needs of their users, many databases embed formatted citations within theresource, include links to citations, or export resources according to the citation formatselected by the user. However, the database’s citation accuracy is limited to the datathat is received to build the citations. Errors can occur when the author of the resourceincorrectly cites a source or by the database itself when information is incorrectlyentered into a field. These errors are then transferred and compounded when placedinto the user’s own bibliography. Pandit, Benning, Speer, and Pope studied citationerrors “within the library science literature and found error rates of 18 to 29 percent”

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(cited in Casserly and Bird, 2003, p. 300). Buchanan (2006) studied the frequency ofdata-entry errors in the citation databases SCIE and SFS and found that both databasemade, “transcription errors 0.5 percent of the time. Errors in the source articles of SCIEand SFS resulted in 0.4 percent more mapping errors . . . indicating a data-entry errorrate of 0.9 percent” (p. 302). Buchanan (2006) also identified 500 author errors withinthree chemistry journals’ cited-article lists and noted that SCIE corrected 46 percent ofthe errors while SFS only corrected 16 percent of the errors (p. 302). In addition todatabase entry errors and author entry errors, some databases apply informationentered into a database field to a variety of citation formats. For example, APArequires only the first word of a title and sub-title to be in capital letters unless it is aproper noun. MLA requires every title word to be in capitalized unless it is an article ofspeech. However, if a database title field has every word capitalized, the APA citationwill also result in a title with all capitalized words.

Because students are often warned that databases may contain citationinaccuracies, they use formatting software to assist in reference list production.Northwest does not subscribe to a citation generation software package. However,because the librarians have had inquiries regarding their availability, a CitationMakers web site (www.nwmissouri.edu/library/citing/makers.htm) was createdwhich lists four popular tools. The site lists which formats are covered by eachtool, access fees, features, and accuracy. Software can assist with capitalization,punctuation, and highlighting required elements, but the user must still input thereference’s information correctly. If the supplied information is inaccurate, thesoftware cannot identify the mistake. In many instances, students are unaware ofthe type of resources they are viewing (i.e. journal article, magazine article, book,eBook, web site), making it difficult for them to identify and select the correctformat within the citation software. Malone and Videon (1997) surveyed studentsand asked them to tally the number of electronic resources used within theirbibliographies. However, when the bibliographies were examined, there wasinconsistency between the numbers reported by the students and the actual numberof electronic resources used within the bibliographies, “Students said that 28.5percent of their citations were electronic. The authors found, however, that onlyslightly more than 7 percent of the 2,355 citations analyzed referred to electronicsources” (p. 154). The authors concluded that, “Because of the ‘fluid’ nature of theinternet itself, students must learn the importance of clearly identifying electronicresources and distinguishing them from paper sources” (p. 158).

Carroll-Johnson (2004) asserts that the author still bears the responsibility of:. checking each reference in the paper against the reference list to ensure that it

has been cited and cited correctly (spellings, year [and] punctuation). Rememberthat every reference must be cited in the text, and vice versa;

. checking each reference in the reference list against either the original referenceor in one of the reference databases to ensure accuracy of author names; completeand accurate titles and journal names; and accurate volume, issue, and pagenumbers; and

. ensuring adherence to the specified reference format, including correctpunctuation and capitalization. Remember these format requirements changeperiodically . . . (p. 100).

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ChallengesOne challenge that students face when citing a resource begins at the materialidentification stage. While many databases have started to classify results by type ofsource ( journal, magazine, newspaper, book, etc.), not all databases contain thisfeature. This information is also often lost when students export resources to e-mail orprint copies because the resources are no longer grouped into categories. If a studentdoes not understand what type of material s/he is examining, then it is impossible touse the manual to select the correct citation format.

The lack of database interface standardization also presents a challenge to students.While one database might precede a volume number with “vol.”, another databasemight list the volume number followed by a period and the issue number (23.5).Different vendors often uniquely organize the information in brief and detailed records.These differences aggravate students as they try to locate required citation elements ondatabase screens.

It is also difficult for the citation manuals to keep up with constantly shifting andexpanding technology. The holes in citation manuals necessitate that students try toplug elements into examples of other resources, which might not be comparable. Oneexample might be how to cite a printed format that has been transferred to an onlineformat. Another example might be the Amazon’s Kindle which does not provide pagenumbers for the books that are displayed. A faculty member at Northwest stated thatshe interlibrary loaned a print copy of the book so she could cite it correctly afterreading a book on her kindle.

Rising plagiarism rates can also be attributed to differences in customs regardingattribution. According to Boisvert and Irwin (2006), who are co-chairs of the ACMPublications Board, “cultural differences also play a factor in our shrinking world. Insome places, copying the work of a master in, say, art, is a sincere expression of respectand flattery” (p. 23). Librarians at Northwest have observed an influx of internationalstudents within certain graduate-level studies. During plagiarism instruction, thelibrarians encountered student resistance to citing sources and when asked forexplanations, learned that some students did not want to insult their professor bysuggesting that their instructor did not know the identity of the main key authors inthe field. Other students lived in societies where it is an acceptable practice to restatean author’s ideas without providing an attribution to the author or source. These issuesadded another layer of citation difficulties and confusion

Faculty can also present the challenge of resistance to new style manuals. Thepublication of manuals may not coincide with the academic calendar, andconsequently, not allow faculty members enough time to update class materials. Inaddition, at Northwest some faculty members wanted additional citation elements,which allow them to access student bibliography resources quickly. Some of theupdates in the revised style manuals lost elements, which facilitated easy retrieval ofmaterials (i.e. persistent URLs, database names, etc.). Also, faculty members who werefamiliar with citation styles could no longer quickly scan bibliographies for errorsbecause of unfamiliarity with new elements.

Plagiarism as a problemA search of Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts for librarians anddiagnosing and plagiarism retrieves articles that assume librarians perform the role of

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assisting faculty in locating students’ sources of plagiarism (Wood and Warnken, 2004;Drinan and Bertram, 2008; Nimsakont, 2008; Mandray, 2008). However, each of theseauthors calls for a wider role for librarians in the arena of academic integrity. Theyadvocate that librarians should be partners in campus-wide initiatives that teachstudents the tenets of academic honesty.

At Northwest, the librarians have a long history of providing assistance to facultywho are seeking help in locating sources of suspected plagiarism. Proficient in usingTurn-it-in.com, which the campus has a subscription to through the Center forTechnology in Education (CITE), they guide faculty through the process of checkingpapers using this software. Owens Library also maintains a web page that guideslibrarians and faculty in using databases, search engines, and selected web sites whichcontain free papers to search for phrases (Ury, 2010). Like the librarians describedpreviously, Northwest prefers to approach the problem of plagiarism holistically,participating in campus efforts to educate students about academic integrity. Librarianshave authored a tutorial about Academic Honesty that is used by professors in theironline courseware to make students aware of the nature and consequences of plagiarism(Ury and Park, 2010). They have also adapted a tutorial about plagiarism, which wasadapted from Empire State College (Empire State College, 2010; Ury and Mardis, 2010).

Who should teach students about plagiarism and citation?The debate continues about who is responsible for providing plagiarism and citationinstruction. The disputed parties might include the English department, writing center,tutoring center, every instructor who incorporates a research component, or the library.According to Mellon (1986), “feelings of library anxiety stem from either the relativesize of the library; inadequate knowledge about the location of materials, equipment,and resources of the library; lack of knowledge of how to initiate library research; orlack of awareness of how to proceed with a library search (cited in Jiao et al., 2008,p. 949). Jiao’s study (2008), “indicate[s] that students who reported the highest levels oflibrary anxiety associated with barriers with staff and comfort with the library tendedto commit the most citation errors and constructed reference lists that departed thefurthest from American Psychological Association (2001) stipulations” (p. 953).International students also struggle with the rules and conventions of citing, often dueto cultural differences stemming from the way in which they have been taught to learnand refer to the teaching and writing of others. For these students, learning the rules ofwriting and referencing involves adoption of a new perspective (Leask, 2006). Any typeof learning that challenges a student’s foundational perspectives produces anxiety. Ifsome students commit increased citation errors due to library anxiety or anxiety aboutappropriately referencing library sources, it seems logical that libraries developinstructional materials that will help students improve their citation skills, thusreducing this anxiety. While discussing the research process in both general educationand upper level courses, librarians can reduce anxiety by providing instruction in thecorrect citation of the resources that are located. At Northwest, librarians found thatfaculty and students were already drawing this logical conclusion and requestingcitation guidance and instruction in and outside of class.

Although traditionally writing centers help students with citing sources, theNorthwest Writing Center does not provide a lot of citation assistance (Buranen, 2009;Mueller, 2005). Students must make an appointment in advance for help with their

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citations and they often find themselves needing help in the last few days before apaper is due, when it is too late to get an appointment. Thus, scheduling concerns leadthem to turn to the librarians for help. The Northwest Talent Development Center(TDC), an academic assistance facility, does not specifically provide a citation service.Because of previous misunderstandings that they were “writing students’ papers forthem”, the tutors do not help students with editing research papers, thus limiting theopportunities they have for helping students with citations. Citing is also an area thateven accomplished student tutors sometimes approach with trepidation. With thecurrent level at which new electronic resource formats are appearing, librariansthemselves struggle to adapt citation formats to accommodate sources. For thesereasons, student tutors from both the Writing Center and the TDC often refer citingquestions to the librarians.

How to approach this problem systematically?In order to tackle the challenges in recent years, B.D. Owens librarians have developeda unique four pillared approach to teach students about the intricacies of citation:textbooks, tutorials, instruction, and reference (see Figure 1). Many academic librariansprovide library instruction about citing, supply citation examples via the web and meetwith students one-on-one to help them with citations. But few academic libraries havethe breadth of citation assistance that Northwest provides, extending their services toinclude online citation tutorials and citing instruction via courseware. Northwest’sreference service in the area of citation assistance is 21 percent of their total questions.In a recent survey of Midwestern academic libraries, 65 percent identified 1 to 10percent of their reference questions as citation questions and 21 percent identified 11-20percent of their reference questions as citation questions (Ury and Wyatt, 2009).

In order to tackle the challenges in recent years, B.D. Owens librarians developedfour different approaches to teach students about the intricacies of citation: textbooks,tutorials, instruction, and reference (see Figure 1).

Figure 1.Four pillars of teaching

citation

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TextbooksStyle manuals published from responsible organizations are inarguably the bibles ofall citation rules. However, for many reasons, librarians often create their ownextensions of style manuals via their library web pages. First, librarians providestudents and faculty with tailored resources and services for specific courses andsubject areas online. Second and mostly, these guides contain the agreements betweenfaculty and librarians on what to teach students regarding specific library resources,which might not be clearly identified within the official manual. “70 percent of . . .libraries provide web pages that include citation examples” (Ury and Wyatt, 2009,p. 142). In addition to the traditional style manuals, which might be placed on reserveor housed in the reference collection, citation web pages can become exemplarytextbooks.

According to the statistics collected through Google Analytics between May 1, 2007and April 30, 2010, the web pages created by librarians at B.D. Owens Library relatedto citations and academic honesty are listed in the top 15 in the page-view ranking (seeTable I).

Citing sources web pages include five major style manuals used on the Northwestcampus: APA, MLA, Scientific Style (CSE), and Turabian and Chicago Style. On eachstyle page, rather than replicating the manuals online, the librarians restructured theexamples to address the needs of our patrons based on the reference statistics. Eachpage shows basic examples, but also reiterates the most commonly asked questions onthe citation web page (see Figure 2). Business classes, for example, use special businessreports such as SWOT analyses from the Business Source Premier database. However,none of the style manuals directly provide a citation example to fit these reports. Afteranswering similar reference questions over time, librarians came up with a citationsolution for this resource, approved by the Business faculty, which satisfied the needsof students and faculty within the discipline.

Often the difficulty of working with HTML code in a web editing software, leftlibrarians unintentionally adding spaces between citation elements and punctuation

Ranking Page titlePageviews

1 B.D. Owens Library, Northwest Missouri State University 1,250,2342 Owens Library Hot Paper Topics 246,0943 Owens Library APA Citation Style Examples 214,9154 Owens Library MLA Citation Style Examples 200,3985 Owens Library Science Fair Projects 95,2516 Owens Library Directions for Off-Campus Access 71,2157 Owens Library Citing Sources 68,6398 Owens Library Turabian & Chicago Citation Style Examples 51,7019 Owens Library Scientific (CBE) Citation Style Examples 51,642

10 Owens Library Computers and Information Technology 25,77511 Oral Communication Homepage 22,48612 B.D. Owens Library Search Results 17,72413 Owens Library Recommended Psychology, Sociology & Counseling Databases 17,20914 Owens Library Help with Citing 16,27015 Practice Academic Honesty 14,145

Table I.Page view rankingGoogle Analytics fromMay 1, 2007 to April 30,2010

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errors. Librarians regularly invited faculty members to review the citation pages andreceived suggestions and corrections. This constructive feedback from the facultymembers allowed the campus a chance build consensus on citation gray areas. Facultymembers who found a simple error or had different interpretation on specific matterspromptly contacted librarians if any concern arose.

Because the numbers of citation questions have sharply increased with the rapidgrowth of online resources, librarians are much more involved in conversations withfaculty about citation styles. When faculty balk at adhering to a style manual update,librarians at Northwest have a difficult time helping their students. Librarians discardprevious editions of style manuals so that students won’t mistakenly use the wrongmanual and withdraw previous editions of the online style pages for the same reason.In 2009, after rolling out new web pages including changes from the 6th edition of thePublication Manual of the American Psychological Association and the seventh editionof the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, librarians had to personallyexplain to some faculty members or discuss in departmental meetings about the needto adopt the updated manual so that their students would be able to use style manualsand online resources for citation assistance.

Online tutorialsB.D. Owens Library takes a proactive stance on plagiarism and citation instruction,providing online instructional materials that are not available at many otherinstitutions. Of academic librarians, 25 to 30 percent create tutorials to teach studentshow to cite sources (Ury and Wyatt, 2009, p. 142). Based on the needs of faculty toaddress citation and plagiarism questions, Northwest librarians created several onlinelearning tutorials: The Practice Academic Honesty Tutorial (www.nwmissouri.edu/library/services/AcademicDishonesty.htm) is a self-guide which helps studentsunderstand academic dishonesty. Students are often required to sign an academichonesty policy by professors, and can fail classes if a violation is found. However, one

Figure 2.An example of journal

article with DOI

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of the librarians who served on the Academic Appeal Committee repeatedlyencountered remarks from students stating that they did not know they were inviolation. In order to address this recurring issue, librarians designed and created thistutorial. The tutorial provides examples of quotations, paraphrasing (both single andmultiple sources), and when to include a resource in a reference list. In addition, itincorporates two practice areas and suggestions for writing examples. Once studentslearn the basic concepts of academic honesty, they proceed to practice and determinewhether or not the provided sentence is properly cited when they compare it to theoriginal source (an online article). This tutorial can be taken by students alone or bepresented to a group with discussion.

The Creating Citations & Works Cited in Word 2007 tutorial (www.nwmissouri.edu/library/articles/captivate/WordCiting/APAWord.htm) teaches students how tocreate citations and works cited in Word 2007. It uses Microsoft Word’s Citations &Bibliography tools in 2007. This tool itself is less than perfect, but it shows how to putin-text citations and bibliographies at the end of the paper. Several faculty of theComputer Science and Information System department at Northwest require studentsto watch this online movie prior to completing assignments. Faculty members in thepsychology department also incorporate this tutorial in their online course sites.

The Xtreme Plagiarism tutorial (www.nwmissouri.edu/library/courses/research/xplag.html) questions and answers were authored and reproduced with permission bySuzanne Hayes at Empire State College Library. This short self-paced tutorial helps theviewer to learn about how to avoid and prevent plagiarism. Several scenarios aredisplayed and students are asked to judge if plagiarism has occurred. This tutorial canalso be used for a presentation to a class and always generates a lively discussion.

Self-grading quizzes based on the content of the Practice Academic Honesty Tutorialand the Xtreme Plagiarism tutorials can be duplicated into courseware sites. Thequizzes ensure that the student understands and has mastered the concepts. Anotherbenefit of the tutorials and quizzes is that some professors require students to reviewand practice the tutorial before signing the academic dishonesty statement, so when astudent is found in violation, it is easier for the professor to enforce the rule since thestudent completed a tutorial explaining the mechanics of plagiarism, quoting,paraphrasing, and creating a reference list. The quiz can also be used to prove that astudent understood the concepts before beginning the research process.

As a service to the faculty, librarians created the Plagiarism (www.nwmissouri.edu/library/services/facplag.htm) web site, which shares tools and strategies to preventstudent plagiarism. It consists of four parts: Preventing, Avoiding, Diagnosing, andXtreme Plagiarism. The Preventing page contains a webliography of assignments thathelp to discourage plagiarism. The Avoiding page contains a webliography of tutorialsthat explain to students how to avoid plagiarism. The Diagnosing page contains a listof clues to consider when plagiarism is suspected and includes faculty-checkingstrategies for locating plagiarized sources via library databases, web pages, detectionsoftware, and/or free paper mills. Quick links to the Academic Honesty tutorial, XtremePlagiarism tutorial, the Northwest University Academic Dishonesty Policy, and thelibrary’s citing sources webpages are available (see Figure 3).

In addition to the tutorials created by B.D. Owens Library, many other librarieshave created tutorials, which can assist students with plagiarism prevention andcitation support. The Citation Tic Tac Toe game (www.lib.jmu.edu/games/tictactoe/),

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developed by James Madison University, helps undergraduate students to correctlyidentify a variety of bibliographic citations. Before students can correctly cite aresource, they must be able to identify what type of resource they are examining (book,journal, magazine, newspaper, etc.). McCabe and Wise (2009) stated that as a result ofplaying the Tic Tac Toe game, student scores had higher improvement rates from preto post test over students which only took an online tutorial. Each year, selectedNorthwest students take the Information Literacy Test (ILT) developed by JamesMadison University. One test item requires that students interpret a citation to identifythe type of source listed. Students consistently perform poorly on this question – in2009, 82 percent of Northwest students answered incorrectly. The Northwest librarianshave created the learning tutorial, What the Bleep Is It? (www.nwmissouri.edu/library/courses/research/WhatTheBleepIsIt/bearcats.html), with the goal of helping studentstell the difference between different kinds of sources by examining available citationelements. The APA Exposed: Everything You Always Wanted to Know about APAFormat but Were Afraid to Ask tutorial (http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword ¼ apa_exposed&pageid ¼ icb.page208276) was developed by HarvardUniversity. It is broken into a series of modules, which include information aboutformatting basics, citing sources, reference citations in the text, and references.

Instruction“Nearly two-thirds of all librarians . . . teach students to cite sources during libraryinstruction” (Ury and Wyatt, 2009, p. 142). At B.D. Owens Library, plagiarism andcitation instruction is embedded within two general education courses. Within Englishcomposition courses (www.owenslibrary.org/course-guide/13-ENG112-115), studentscomplete the In the Know: Owens Library Research Tutorial (www.nwmissouri.edu/library/courses/english/intheknow/module1/1.0.htm), which contains a module aboutciting sources. During class, students complete book and article worksheets, whichcontain fields where students supply required MLA elements. The librarian then helps

Figure 3.Plagiarism web page

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students to make the connection between the fields required in the worksheet with thecitation elements located in the MLA Citation Style Examples web site (www.nwmissouri.edu/library/citing/mla.htm). Within Fundamentals of OralCommunication, the librarians use the Comm 102 site (www.owenslibrary.org/course-guide/14) to facilitate instruction. This site also contains a worksheet, but therequired citation fields, which are completed by the students’ are mandated by theAPA. Librarians connect the worksheet with the APA Citation Style Examples website at (www.nwmissouri.edu/library/citing/apa.htm). Additional citation guidance isprovided for databases discussed during class, which might contain content that doesnot easily fit into the examples provided on the web site or within the manual at www.nwmissouri.edu/library/courses/communication/tutorial/citation examples.docx.

Multiple upper-level and graduate level courses also receive citation assistance.Since students frequently state that they are proficient citation experts, they are askedto demonstrate these capabilities in a hands-on activity. Students are provided theelements, order, and formatting of a correct citation. They also receive a citation foundwithin a database that is showcased during the instructional session. Students areasked to use the database’s citation and correctly merge it into the required APA,MLA, CSE, Turabian, or Chicago format on a piece of paper. After students havewritten their responses, the instructor displays the correct response and students areasked to check their answers against the supplied citation (see Figure 4).

This process is repeated with multiple database citation examples that illustrate avariety of problems students might encounter during their research process (i.e. nosupplied author, multiple date formats, lack of ending page numbers, etc.). Theinteractivity of this exercise quickly generates conversation in a non-threateningatmosphere because the discussion takes places prior to the loss of points on a gradedpaper. It also can be used to underscore gaps in the students’ prior citation knowledge.

Figure 4.Citation exercise

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ReferenceThe traditional way for students to learn how to cite sources is through one-on-oneassistance from a librarian or faculty member. In addition to online assistance, phoneavailability, in-class presentations, and print resources, librarians are available toassist students with their citation questions. Students can ask for citation help throughregular reference hours or one-on-one help with citing, an online form, by phone, ande-mail. In 2001, Owens library removed the reference desk and replaced it with pagerbased on-call reference hours so that patrons can come to the Library Services Deskand librarians who are on-call respond to the question (Meldrem et al., 2005).

Since 2006, Northwest librarians have been tracking the number of referencetransactions in multiple aspects. The librarians noticed that through those years, thenumber of total reference questions (statistics include every question received)answered by librarians has increased slightly from 2,154 to 2,346 while the number ofquestions related to citation is rapidly rising over 100 percent from 258 to 527 (seeTable II).

In a 2009 survey of 232 academic undergraduate university and college libraries in anine state region of the Midwest, Owens Library found that “The majority of academiclibrarians reported that 1 to 10 percent of their total reference questions are citationquestions . . . These numbers confirm [B.D. Owens Library is] answering a high level ofcitation questions at 21 percent” (Ury and Wyatt, 2009, p. 141).

Figure 5 shows different angles of reference trends. Seven different types ofreference transactions are recorded, from simple circulation related questions tocomplex reference questions that require librarians to spend in-depth time searchingand finding resources for patrons. Overall, most types of questions are slightlydecreasing over the past six years. During the same time period, questions focusing on

Figure 5.Number of questions

per type

No. of citingquestions

No. of increase in number of citingquestions (%)

Total of reference questionsfor year

2006-2007 258 2,1542007-2008 347 34.50 2,2092008-2009 397 14.41 2,5862009-2010 527 32.75 2,346

Table II.Annual reference trends

from May 1, 2006 to April31, 2010

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citing sources have been increasing. This trend somewhat fills the gaps that have beenlost by answering traditional reference questions.

Table III further analyzes data from the same period of time. It shows how citingrelated questions were asked. Although Help with Citing service is offered, most citationrelated questions are coming in person whether a librarian on call or after hours.

These statistics confirm that personal interaction between librarians and students,whether they are using a style manual or an online resource to guide citation formats,is a sought after service that is in demand at Northwest.

ConclusionTwenty-first century academic librarians grapple with challenges created by rapidlychanging resource formats and evolving style systems. Style examples must often becreated “on the fly” to accommodate new genres of sources. Faculty and students oftenlook to librarians for guidance in developing citations for electronic sources, which arenot clearly delineated in style manuals. As stated earlier, 70 percent of academiclibraries provide online style guides to address this need (Ury and Wyatt, 2009, p. 142).More unique ways of tackling this challenge include the creation of online tutorials thatare self-paced or can be used to generate conversation on the topic.

Plagiarism continues to grow as a by-product of online full-text availability, culturalclashes, last minute completion of assignments, pressures to achieve high grades,beliefs that one will not be caught, and ignorance of the nature of plagiarism (Sharkeyand Culp, 2005). Education and hands-on practice provides students with real-timeexperience in non-threatening environments prior to situations in which students maybe penalized for infractions. In one such activity, Sharkey and Culp (2005) suggest thatlibrarians:

. . . present a case of plagiarism or a newspaper article reporting an incidence of plagiarism tothe class. In small group discussions, students can address why they support or don’t supportthe individuals involved in the case, discuss the punishment of the accused, and theconsequences of actions by the individuals involved in the case. Students can each write areflective piece about the case and their position (pp. 110-11).

How asked Number of questions

While on call 495In person while not on-call 602Via campus mail 7Via personal e-mail account 152E-mail a question 33Get an answer 1On the phone while on call 17On the phone while not on call 46Help with research 0Help with research online 1Dialog search 0Faculty office call 7Help with citing 74Library Express 1E-mail via vendors 2

Table III.How citation questionswere asked, RefPole fromMay 1, 2006 to April 31,2010

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In addition to teaching students about the nature of academic honesty, a wealth ofresources is available to academic libraries for use or adaptation to help students gainknowledge of appropriate citation practices. These resources include style manualexpansion webpages, online tutorials, instructional integration paradigms, and a widerange of reference models.

Further research regarding ways in which to help students learn to recognize typesof sources by analyzing a citation is needed. Malone and Videon documented thisproblem in their research study. Despite the use of the new What the Bleep Is It?Tutorial at Northwest, student performance on the ILT question mentioned in theTutorial section only increased by 1.5 percent in 2010. During the 2010-2011 academicyear, the English Composition 1 classes will be working with this tutorial again.However, the paradigm in which it is deployed has been significantly changed. Ratherthan assigning this learning activity for students to complete on their own outside ofclass with no assessment, English professors are asked to assign students to completethe tutorial, followed by a five question, ten point quiz. After answering each question,students are given immediate feedback about why their answer is correct or incorrect.It is hoped that with the addition of a quiz to the curriculum, and with Englishprofessors, discussing the citations with the students, that their skills will improve.

We are pursuing further questions. Are there other universities or collegesaddressing this issue? If so, what resources are they using? Have they been successful?If this issue is addressed, will many of the citation problems, and mistakes, whichplague twenty-first century students, be improved? Academic initiatives, which will beinvestigated include:

. A study in which students’ citing behavior was found to be rife with errors, evenafter in-class citing instruction; a tutorial was created to address common errorsand students completed the tutorial during the following academic year; thesame students were pre-tested before completing the tutorial and post-testedafter completing the tutorial, with the results showing improvement in someareas of student citation performance (Kendall, 2005).

. An experiment in which students learned writing skills in a general psychologyclass. Student papers were evaluated for “grammar, writing style, mechanics,and American Psychological Association referencing style”. The skill whichimproved most rapidly, using four modes of instruction, “in-class writinginstruction, practice, peer review, and feedback on writing skills”, wasreferencing (Fallahi et al., 2006).

. A survey exploring “faculty perceptions versus actual student usage of print andonline, full-text articles” and the ways in which these articles are cited.

Librarians at Owens Library hope that by exploring the findings of the studies listedpreviously, they will glean ideas they can use to improve Northwest students’ abilitiesto recognize the type of sources identified in citations through the enhancement oflibrary instruction via online tutorials and on-ground class activities.

References

Boisvert, R.F. and Irwin, M.J. (2006), “Plagiarism on the rise”, Communications of the ACM,Vol. 49 No. 6, June, pp. 23-4.

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Buchanan, R.A. (2006), “Accuracy of cited references: the role of citation databases”, College andResearch Libraries, Vol. 67, pp. 292-303.

Buranen, L. (2009), “A safe place: the role of librarians and writing centers in addressing citationpractices and plagiarism”, Knowledge Quest, Vol. 37 No. 3, pp. 24-33.

Carroll-Johnson, R.M. (2004), “Reducing citation errors”, International Journal of NursingTerminologies and Classifications, Vol. 15 No. 4, pp. 99-100.

Casserly, M.F. and Bird, J.E. (2003), “Web citation availability: analysis and implications forscholarship”, College and Research Libraries, Vol. 64 No. 4, pp. 300-17.

Clarke, M.E. and Oppenheim, C. (2006), “Citation behaviour of information science students II:postgraduate students”, Education and Information, Vol. 24, pp. 1-30.

Drinan, P.M. and Bertram, T. (2008), “Plagiarism and academic integrity systems”, Journal ofLibrary Administration, Vol. 47 Nos 3/4, pp. 125-40.

Empire State College (2010), “Academic integrity”, available at: www.esc.edu/academicintegrity(accessed 28 September).

Fallahi, C.R., Wood, R.M., Austad, C.S. and Fallahi, H. (2006), “A program for improvingundergraduate psychology students’ basic writing skills”, Teaching of Psychology, Vol. 33No. 3, pp. 171-5.

Jiao, Q.G., Onwuegbuzie, A.J. and Waytowich, V.L. (2008), “The relationship between citationerrors and library anxiety: an empirical study of doctoral students in education”,Information Processing and Management, Vol. 44, pp. 948-56.

Kendall, M. (2005), “Tackling student referencing errors through an online tutorial”, AslibProceedings, Vol. 57 No. 2, pp. 131-45.

Kessler, J. and Van Ullen, M.K. (2006), “Citation help in databases: helpful or harmful?”, PublicServices Quarterly, Vol. 2 No. 1, pp. 21-42.

Leask, B. (2006), “Plagiarism, cultural diversity and methaphor – implications for academic staffdevelopment”, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, Vol. 31 No. 2, pp. 183-99.

McCabe, J. and Wise, S. (2009), “It’s all fun and games until someone learns something: assessingthe learning outcomes of two educational games”, Evidence Based Library and InformationPractice, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 6-23.

Malone, D. and Videon, C. (1997), “Assessing undergraduate use of electronic resources:a quantitative analysis of works cited”, Research Strategies, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 151-8.

Mandray, A. (2008), “The anatomy of a plagiarism initiative: one library’s campus collaboration”,Public Services Quarterly, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 111-25.

Meldrem, J.A., Mardis, L.A. and Johnson, C. (2005), “Redesign your reference desk: get rid of it!”,Currents and Convergence: Navigating the Rivers of Change, Proceedings of the12th National Conference of the Association of College and Research Libraries inMinneapolis, MN, Association of College and Research Libraries, Minneapolis, MN,pp. 305-11.

Mellon, C. (1986), “Library anxiety: a grounded theory and its development”, College & ResearchLibraries, Vol. 47 No. 2, pp. 160-5.

Mueller, S. (2005), “Documentation styles and discipline specific values”, Writing Lab Newsletter,Vol. 29 No. 6, February, p. 6.

Nimsakont, E. (2008), “How can academic librarians educate students about plagiarism?”, PLNAQuarterly, Vol. 72 No. 3, pp. 10-12.

Sharkey, J. and Culp, F.B. (2005), “Cyberplagiarism and the library”, The Reference Librarian,Vol. 44 Nos 91/92, pp. 103-16.

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Ury, C. (2010), “Guide to diagnosing plagiarism”, available at: www.nwmissouri.edu/library/services/plagiarism.htm (accessed 28 September).

Ury, C. and Mardis, L. (2010), “Xtreme plagiarism”, available at: www.nwmissouri.edu/library/courses/research/xplag.html (accessed 28 September).

Ury, C. and Park, S. (2010), “Practice academic honesty”, available www.nwmissouri.edu/library/services/AcademicDishonesty.htm (accessed 28 September).

Ury, C.J. and Wyatt, P. (2009), “What we do for the sake of correct citations”, Brick and ClickLibraries: Proceedings of an Academic Library Symposium in Maryville, MO, Brick andClick Symposium, pp. 126-44.

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About the authorsSarah Park is a Web/Reference Librarian at B.D. Owens Library, Northwest Missouri StateUniversity, where she has worked since 2002. She coordinates web development among thelibrarians and oversees the development of the library web site. She teaches library instruction ingeneral education and upper level courses and provides reference service. She received her MS inlibrary and information science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2002. SarahPark is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: gopark@nwmissouri.edu

Lori A. Mardis is an Assistant Professor at Northwest Missouri State University where shehas worked since 2001. She teaches general education and upper level undergraduate libraryinstruction, provides reference and collection development services, teaches two educationalcomputing and technology courses, and develops web resources at B.D. Owens Library. She hassupervised the creation of over 35 learning objects and web-based tutorials that are used in avariety of course applications. She has given national and regional presentations and workshopson Open URL resolvers, gaming strategies to foster eLearning, learning objects, development ofonline tutorials, Generation X learning styles within web-based instruction, internet plagiarism,and redesigning the reference desk.

Connie Jo Ury is an Assistant Professor and library outreach coordinator at B.D. OwensLibrary, Northwest Missouri State University where she has worked for 25 years. She overseesthe assessment of information literacy initiatives, has been the co-editor of the Proceedings forthe Brick and Click Libraries Symposium, and is the co-coordinator of the Undergraduate LibraryResearch Awards. Connie has published journal articles in The Reference Librarian, ReferenceServices Review, Internet Reference Services Quarterly, Research Strategies, School LibraryJournal, The Journal of Computing in Small Colleges, and Information Systems Education Journaland papers in national conference proceedings including ACRL, The Annual Conference onDistance Teaching and Learning, LOEX of the West, and Internet Librarian about topicsincluding information literacy instruction and assessment, learning objects, internet plagiarism,online instruction, and evaluation of web resources.

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