Substantial Papers Defined by Bibliography
This section discusses what counts as a substantial paper and how to find bibliography entries for substantial papers:
A substantial paper will have at least twenty bibliography entries from peer reviewed journal articles. Bibliography entries should reflect material that is discussed and cited within the text of the paper. If you read something but have no reason to cite it, it does not belong in the bibliography.
A correctly formatted bibliography entry will have hanging indentation (if it is more than one line long, the second and subsequent lines are indented, you can use your software to make this happen). The bibliography will be single spaced and there will not be a line gap between entries (as occurs on this site because hanging indent cannot be set in the software). Bibliography entries are usually two to three lines long. With Times New-Roman 12 point or Calibri 11 point font, there are about 46-50 usable lines on a page. See this page for more guidance on sources.
If you want to know whether you have a substantial topic (a requirement in most of my courses), you should start by determining whether you can find enough material for a substantial bibliography (probably a fair amount more than 20 articles, because when you read them, you will find that some are not that useful). If you cannot find enough peer reviewed journal articles after a reasonable effort, you should select a different topic.
You may want to include other kinds of material: news articles, websites, or reports from various organizations: These should be used sparingly and generally will not be counted as fulfilling the expectation that you have a substantial bibliography. If you have a special reason why something that is not a peer reviewed journal article should be counted, you should ask me. You will notice that I have not included books as the same as peer reviewed journal articles. The reason is that the quality of the book depends on the quality of the publisher and I am unaware of a comprehensive list of publishers who have adequate academic standards. You might include a couple of books or book chapters, but don't make this your primary type of source.
By this point, you probably realize that I am expecting you to use peer reviewed journal articles. You might wonder what those are: As a hint, the vast majority of the non-book material that I provide you in class comes from peer reviewed journals. More generally, you can find peer reviewed journals at the library. These days, that means using article databases provided by the library. If you have never used such a database, I recommend that you visit the reference desk at the library and ask for assistance.
If you are at home and want to use a database you should click on the library link on the school's home page or within Blackboard. Take note, at some stage as you follow the rest of this guidance, you may be asked to log into the school's proxy server using your school ID and password. This log-in process allows you to use the material you find without paying fees to publishers. The exact steps after clicking on the library link change every 2-3 years, so this guidance is a little abstract: From the landing page at the library, find the database page (at present in late 2017 there is a drop down menu labeled "Define Your Search" which allows you to search for "Databases From A to Z"). Select the JSTOR database. In the drop down menu labeled "Select an access type" choose "All Content", which should also find material in other databases supported by the library. Put your search term in the first search window. There are many options to narrow your search, but you should use these options sparingly and only after the broadest possible search turns up many irrelevant items. However, do narrow your search to articles as you will not know whether the other possibilities are peer reviewed. As you become more skilled, you will be able to make more selections and gain a better ability to recognize peer reviewed sources.
A substantial paper will have at least twenty bibliography entries from peer reviewed journal articles. Bibliography entries should reflect material that is discussed and cited within the text of the paper. If you read something but have no reason to cite it, it does not belong in the bibliography.
A correctly formatted bibliography entry will have hanging indentation (if it is more than one line long, the second and subsequent lines are indented, you can use your software to make this happen). The bibliography will be single spaced and there will not be a line gap between entries (as occurs on this site because hanging indent cannot be set in the software). Bibliography entries are usually two to three lines long. With Times New-Roman 12 point or Calibri 11 point font, there are about 46-50 usable lines on a page. See this page for more guidance on sources.
If you want to know whether you have a substantial topic (a requirement in most of my courses), you should start by determining whether you can find enough material for a substantial bibliography (probably a fair amount more than 20 articles, because when you read them, you will find that some are not that useful). If you cannot find enough peer reviewed journal articles after a reasonable effort, you should select a different topic.
You may want to include other kinds of material: news articles, websites, or reports from various organizations: These should be used sparingly and generally will not be counted as fulfilling the expectation that you have a substantial bibliography. If you have a special reason why something that is not a peer reviewed journal article should be counted, you should ask me. You will notice that I have not included books as the same as peer reviewed journal articles. The reason is that the quality of the book depends on the quality of the publisher and I am unaware of a comprehensive list of publishers who have adequate academic standards. You might include a couple of books or book chapters, but don't make this your primary type of source.
By this point, you probably realize that I am expecting you to use peer reviewed journal articles. You might wonder what those are: As a hint, the vast majority of the non-book material that I provide you in class comes from peer reviewed journals. More generally, you can find peer reviewed journals at the library. These days, that means using article databases provided by the library. If you have never used such a database, I recommend that you visit the reference desk at the library and ask for assistance.
If you are at home and want to use a database you should click on the library link on the school's home page or within Blackboard. Take note, at some stage as you follow the rest of this guidance, you may be asked to log into the school's proxy server using your school ID and password. This log-in process allows you to use the material you find without paying fees to publishers. The exact steps after clicking on the library link change every 2-3 years, so this guidance is a little abstract: From the landing page at the library, find the database page (at present in late 2017 there is a drop down menu labeled "Define Your Search" which allows you to search for "Databases From A to Z"). Select the JSTOR database. In the drop down menu labeled "Select an access type" choose "All Content", which should also find material in other databases supported by the library. Put your search term in the first search window. There are many options to narrow your search, but you should use these options sparingly and only after the broadest possible search turns up many irrelevant items. However, do narrow your search to articles as you will not know whether the other possibilities are peer reviewed. As you become more skilled, you will be able to make more selections and gain a better ability to recognize peer reviewed sources.