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Biology: Writing and Citing - Biology

Style Guides

Most academic writing projects require you to gather, evaluate, and use the work of others.

When you draw upon the work of others, you must give proper credit. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism which is a serious breach of academic integrity. If you learn a few basic rules, you can quickly format your researched papers in accordance with the style required for your course.

Style guides are used to improve the quality and consistency of communications. They set standards for both writing and design, which leads to a unified presentation. Within academia, each discipline has its own documentation style. Biology courses usually require students to use either the Council of Science Editors (CSE) style or American Psychological Association (APA) style. Below are links to print books and web sources on CSE and APA styles.

Citation Management

Two web applications for organizing and managing sources are Zotero and Mendeley.

Zotero website

Mendeley Reference Management System

Microbiology Books at BC3

The Virus in the Age of Madness

With medical mysteries, rising death tolls, and conspiracy theories beamed minute by minute through the vast web universe, the coronavirus pandemic has irrevocably altered societies around the world. In this sharp essay, world-renowned philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy interrogates the many meanings and metaphors we have assigned to the pandemic—and what they tell us about ourselves.

Flu: The Story of the Great Influenzza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It

Ch. 1. The plague year -- Ch. 2. A history of disease and death -- Ch. 3. From sailors to swine -- Ch. 4. A Swedish adventurer -- Ch. 5. Swine flu -- Ch. 6. A litigation nightmare -- Ch. 7. John Dalton's eyeballs -- Ch. 8. An incident in Hong Kong -- Ch. 9. From Alaska to Norway -- Ch. 10. Mysteries and hypotheses.

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