Glossary

Useful definitions of Citing Terms

Abstract

A brief description or summary of the contents of a book, article, or other document, published or unpublished.

Annotation

A note which accompanies an entry in a bibliography that tells what the item is about. It differs from an abstract in that it need not necessarily be a summary of the contents. It can be objective, evaluative, or promotional, depending on the purpose of the bibliography.

Annotated Bibliography

A list of books, articles, or other documents on a topic or by a particular author containing a citation of each item, as well as a brief description and/or a critical evaluation of it.

APA Style

A set of rules and guidelines for citing references as well as preparing and submitting manuscripts for publication from the American Psychological Association.

Bibliography

A compilation of citations of works by a given author or works on a particular subject.

Citation

Reference to a document or part of a document from which a passage is quoted, or to a source regarded as an authority for a statement or proposition.

Citing

The process of acknowledging the sources of your information and ideas.

Electronic Database

A general term for many methods of storing information electronically. In the library this includes the library catalogue and article databases.

Footnote

A style of citing that places a number in the body of the text. This number refers to a citation listed at the bottom of the page. Also known as Vancouver style.

Harvard Style

A style of citing that uses the Author-date system.

Index

Systematic guide to the contents of a file, document, or group of documents.

Journal

A periodical published by an academic press, learned society, government agency or professional organization, intended for scholars, students, professionals or experts, and featuring articles which disseminate results, critical interpretations or reviews of scholarly or scientific research in a particular subject discipline or profession.

Literature Review

A literature review is an essay or is part of the introduction to an essay, research report, or thesis. It provides an overview and critical analysis of relevant published scholarly articles, research reports, books, theses, etc. on the topic or issue to be investigated.

Magazine

A periodical published by a commercial press, intended for a general readership. Usually features news stories or articles on popular topics written by journalists, reporters or others rather than by scholars, professionals or experts.

MLA Style

A set of rules and guidelines for citing references as well as preparing and submitting manuscripts for publication from the Modern Languages Association.

Peer Review

A process that articles in many scholarly journals go through before they are published. Once an article is submitted for publication, it is sent to an editorial board comprised of experts in the field to be evaluated. The submitted article must receive the approval of the editorial board before it is published. The editorial board is usually identified at the beginning of each issue of a journal. Peer-reviewed journals may also be called juried or refereed journals.

Periodical

Primary material published at regular or irregular intervals. A type of serial. The terms journal, magazine, periodical and serial are often used synonymously.

Plagiarism

Taking, using, and passing off as your own, the ideas or words of another.

Primary Material

The raw, often factual data that underpins research.

Quotation

The copying of words of text originally published elsewhere. Direct quotations generally appear in quotation marks and end with a citation.

Reference

A direction from one heading or entry to another.

Reference List

Contains ALL the sources cited in a text or essay, and supports your research and/or premise.

Reference Source

Any publication from which authoritative information may be obtained. Not limited to reference works.

Secondary Material

Interpretation and commentary of primary material by others.

Thesaurus

Guide to use of terms, showing relationships between them, for the purpose of providing standardized, controlled vocabulary for information storage and retrieval.

Turabian Style

A set of rules and guidelines for citing references as well as preparing and submitting manuscripts for publication developed by Kate L. Turabian.

The following sources were used in compiling this glossary:

1. Glossary of Library Terms. University of Wisconsin - Whitewater Library http://library.uww.edu/guides/tutorial/glossary.html
2. Library Online Tutorials: Glossary and Index. Monash University Library http://lib.monash.edu.au/vl/glossind.htm