Tag: academic writing
Academic writing in a nutshell
Throughout your career as a student and/or researcher you will produce a series of reports, papers, publications and other texts, in many cases in fluent English. Tips and tricks to improve your writing in English are collected on the UGent portal: How to write a paper.
The faculty of …
Read moreAPA: how to make a reference list
When you refer to someone else's work in your paper, you need to include that source in the reference list. A reference list only contains sources that were cited or referred to in your paper. Background readings don't belong in your reference list (but they can go in your …
Read moreAPA: how to refer within a text
The way you refer to a source in your paper is the same for physical and online sources. You need to refer to a source when you cite someone, or when you paraphrase their ideas, data, theory, ... Below you can find concrete examples that show you how to do …
Read moreAuthorship: authorship roles (contribution disclosure – author(ship) contribution statements)
Authorship
Recognition for a person's effective contribution to a scholarly publication is done primarily through the inclusion, or not, of the names of (individual) contributors on a (more or less) limited list of names associated with that publication.
The place on this list determines in most cases the "importance" of …
Read moreAuthorship: conditions to be included as an author
The conditions
Researchers who contribute significantly to the creation of the publication are added to the authors list.
This involves 4 (cumulative!) conditions:
- a significant contribution to the design of the research, relevant data collection, its analysis, and/ or interpretation;
- drafting and/or critical reviewing the publication;
- approval of the final …
Authorship: what is the Ghent University policy?
Authorship
Authorship is related to the actual contribution someone makes to a scientific publication.
Various stakeholders in science (research institutions, faculties, funders, publishers, journals, etc.) have developed standards to regulate this aspect of scholarly publishing.
Authorship is an important (co-)factor for the academic impact and reputation of individual researchers …
Read moreCollaborating on an article: what are your options?
These days, many projects are done as a team, and writing assignments are no exception. It can be challenging to collaborate efficiently on the same text, especially if you and your co-authors mostly communicate online. Fortunately, there are a number of online tools that allow you to write, edit, …
Read moreCopyright: my rights as an author
As the author of a work, you're the copyright holder. Sometimes, however, you transfer your copyright (the economic rights) to a third party, who becomes the copyright holder in turn. If someone wants to reuse (part of) your work, the copyright holder of your work must grant permission for this. …
Read moreDeposit number (D-number) behind a PhD thesis: what is it, is there a link with ISBN and is it obligatory?
What is a deposit number (D-number)?
A deposit number is assigned by the Royal Library of Belgium. It is the code that a publisher is obliged to include on the front or on the back of a book to enable identification of the book and the publisher.
Therefore, It must …
Read moreEndnote: find and remove duplicates
You can have duplicate references all removed in one click or one by one manually.
Manually remove duplicatesYou can find duplicates of references when you click Library > Find Duplicates. You will get a pop-up where you can compare possible duplicates. If there are fields that differ, they will …
Read moreEndNote: how to create a group?
You can create groups in EndNote to structure your citations. There are three different groups:
- a Group: you can add citations manually
- a Smart Group: citations are added automatically
- a Group Set: a cluster of (Smart) Groups
Group
If you want to create a group to which you can …
Read moreEndNote: importing references from Web of Science
You can import up to 1.000 references at the same time from Web of Science into your EndNote library.
To do this, enter your search query > click "Export" > click "EndNote desktop"
You will see a pop-up where you can enter the amount of references you want to …
Read moreEndNote: personalising your reference fields
You can personalise the fields in EndNote in two different ways.
Reference typesYou can choose which reference type is your preferred default, e.g: Journal Article. You can also choose which fields a certain reference type needs.
- Open EndNote via Athena
- Click Edit > Preferences, click on the tab "Reference …
GenAI: PhD research (proposal) and AI
Are you (co-)writing a PhD research proposal and would you like to use AI tools in the process? Maybe you want to have your proposal checked for language errors, rewritten, translated... or you want to generate graphics and/or images. You may also want to incorporate AI into the research you …
Read moreGenAI: Writing a (postdoctoral) research proposal
You are writing a research proposal and would like to use AI tools in the process. Perhaps you want to have your proposal checked for language errors, rewritten, translated... or you want to generate graphics and/or images. You may also want to incorporate AI into your research in another way, …
Read moreGenAI: Writing a scientific article
You are writing a scientific article or a contribution for a book and would like to use AI tools. Maybe you want to have your article/contribution checked for language errors, rewritten, translated... or you want to generate graphics and/or images. Is that allowed? And what should you definitely take into …
Read moreJournal: what does "peer-reviewed" mean?
It is essential to researchers to publish in peer-reviewed journals. A peer review means that the quality of the research will be assessed by colleagues (usually before publication). Some monograph publishers also work with peer review, which means that the quality of the books they publish has been assessed by …
Read moreOpen Access to your publications
Open Access refers to the practice of making peer-reviewed scholarly research and literature freely available online to anyone interested.
Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose, subject, at most, to requirements that preserve provenance and openness. It does not affect authors' freedom to choose …
Read moreOpen Access: How to use the Rights Retention Strategy?
Funders such the European Commission (Horizon Europe) require immediate open access with a CC BY license to all peer-reviewed scholarly publications. To meet those requirements, researchers have three options:
ORCID: what is it?
ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) provides a persistent identifier that will distinguish a researcher from other researchers throughout their scholarly career. An ORCID is globally unique and will continuously refer to the same researcher. Funders (e.g. NIH, HEFCE, ...) and publishers (e.g.. Elsevier, American Association for the Advancement of …
Read moreParaphrase: how to
You paraphrase when you explain another author’s idea(s) in your own words, often with added context. Here's how to do it:
- Extract the gist. For example, one of the main arguments in Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own (1929) is: women have the right to education.
- When you …
Plagiarism detection: use of the tool StrikePlagiarism
Where can you find the tool?
Checking articles or other textual work for plagiarism? Recently, it can be done with a new tool, StrikePlagiarism. The new tool is built into the Ufora learning environment.
Teachers are already familiar with it in the context of checking papers or assignments …
Read moreReference style: what is it?
A reference style defines the rules you have to follow to refer to sources. There are many different reference styles, often linked to a certain field. Also certain scientific journals have their own reference style. Some examples of reference styles are: MLA, APA, Vancouver, IEEE, OSCOLA,...
PointersReferences have to …
Read moreResearch integrity: trending topic – paper mills
This section draws on:
the relevant web pages of COPE concerning the paper mill phenomenon. https://publicationethics.org/publishers-perspective-paper-mills + related resources as mentioned on this page.
https://www.enago.com/academy/paper-mills-a-rising-concern-in-the-academic-community/
Current topics are often new and knowledge is subject to further development or deepening. This tip was prepared on the basis of the relevant …
Read moreResources: helpful tools to find literature
These tools will help you find literature on the topic of your choice.
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lib.ugent.be
You can find over 4.000.000 references for books, serials, images, theses, and databases in the library catalogue of Ghent University. Many of these can be consulted online, from the comfort of your home.
If you can't …
Resources: search and find information
Do you need to write a text or do you need to find information and you are looking for the right resources? Follow the step-by-step plan below.
Step 1: define your subject- Narrow down your subject based on the literature you find.
- Explore the subject. You can read a paper …
Resources: where to find information on retracted or contested publications?
Why is this important?
Knowledge accumulation is a fundamental principle in science and forms the basis for progress and innovation. Through a continuous process, knowledge is acquired, deepened, broadened and revised. This process enables researchers to continuously ask new questions and solve complex problems. This involves building on past research …
Read moreRetraction Watch: what is it?
Retraction Watch, acquired by Crossref in September 2023, is a database that lists retracted (retractions) or corrected (corrections) publications, or publications with an expressions of concern. A blog is connected to the database, highlighting some of the retracted publications. Though Retraction Watch only started in 2010, older publications can …
Read moreV&A ((Dutch) reference style for law school)
Within the scientific field of law in the (Dutch) Belgian context, the reference style juridische verwijzingen en afkortingen (V&A) is used to refer to sources in publications.
All information about V&A can be found in the manual.
In 2024, the style was substantially changed, among other things to facilitate …
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