You tell everyone you know that there was a Bigfoot sighting in your neighborhood. While some people might beg for more details, a wise person will ask for proof.

The “proof” in your research project comes from your source material. However, just summarizing what a source says isn’t enough to convince most readers. You also have to show where you found the information.

What kinds of source information should you include in your report or presentation? The most important items are listed below. Click each one to learn more about where to find these details.

Titles

Besides including the title of the article, also include the title of the website where you found the article. This information is usually at the top of the page.

Authors

While many online articles have authors, some do not. Record the author’s name(s) if available.

Web Address

Copy and paste the URL into a word-processing document, preferably the one that includes your notes. This information should be part of your source information, and it can also help you easily find the website again if you need to refer back to it later.

Date of Publication

Most online articles will include the date when article was published. This date (which is called a dateline) often appears under the article’s title. Including this date tells your readers that the information is current. If no date appears, leave a note in your source information, so that later you will know that you didn’t miss it.

The easiest way to keep track of source information is to include it with the notes you take as you do your research. If you are using a table, create a column for each category listed above. If you are writing your notes as paragraphs, put the source information before your summary of the article.

Here is how Dev added source information to his note about the Shinto religion.

Question

Why do people need to know how to locate your sources?

Answer

If they have source information, they can prove your statements by looking them up for themselves.