Chemistry

Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to:

• Cheating - intentional use or attempted use of trickery, artifice, deception, breach of confidence, fraud and/or misrepresentation of one's academic work

• Fabrication - intentional and unauthorized falsification and/or invention of any information or citation in any academic exercise

• Plagiarism - knowingly representing the words or ideas of another as one's own work in any academic exercise. This includes submitting without citation, in whole or in part, prewritten term papers of another or the research of another, including but not limited to commercial vendors who sell or distribute such   materials

• Facilitating dishonesty - knowingly helping or attempting to help another commit an act of academic dishonesty, including substituting for another in an examination, or allowing others to represent as their own one's papers, reports, or academic works

UMass Amherst Academic Honesty Guide for Students

UMass Amherst Academic Honesty Policy  The integrity of the academic enterprise of any institution of higher education requires honesty in scholarship and research, academic honesty is required of all students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.  Since students are expected to be familiar with this policy and the commonly accepted standards of academic integrity, ignorance of such standards is not normally sufficient evidence of lack of intent.

UMass Amherst Academic Honesty Policy & Procedures

Example Laboratory Report
Univ. of Delaware
Determination of the Alcohol Content of Whiskey
Univ. of Oregon
Synthesis and Characterization of Luminol
Truman State Univiversity
Example of a Good and Bad Lab Report
Santa Monica College

You need to cite your sources - whether it be an idea, figure, picture, data, or whatever, that comes from someone else's work.  Citing infromation allows the reader to trace the evolution of the work back to its orginal source.

Ciitng your work is not only the right thing to do, it is an accepted scientific practice.

There are many styles of citation, the important point is to pick one and be consistent.  In the Sciences, citation styles are usually associated with a particualr scientific journal or professional organization, such as the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Penn State Quick Guide to Citing Using the ACS Style Guide, 3rd Ed.

Chapter 14 of the ACS Style Guide
  See Appendix 14-1 for CASSI Abbreviations for the 1000+ Most Commonly Cited Journals

All sources, whether it be a book, journal article, website, patent, or whatever, has its own citation format in the citation style you choose.

From Chapter 14 of the ACS Style Guide:

Journal Article
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Title of Article. Journal Abbreviation Year, Volume, Inclusive Pagination.

Books without editors
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Chapter Title. Book Title, Edition Number; Series Information (if any); Publisher: Place of Publication, Year; Volume Number, Pagination.

Books with editors
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. Chapter Title. In Book Title, Edition Number; Editor 1, Editor 2, etc., Eds.; Series Information (if any); Publisher: Place of
Publication, Year; Volume Number, Pagination.

Series Publications
Publications such as book series that are periodical in nature but are not journals may be styled as either books or journals. Key words to look for with these types of publications include “Advances”, “Methods”, “Progress”, and “Series”.
Author 1; Author 2; Author 3; etc. In Title; Editor 1, Editor 2, Eds.; Series Title and Number; Publisher: Place of Publication, Year; Pagination.

General web sites
Author (if any). Title of Site. URL (accessed Month Day, Year), other identifying information (if any).

In ACS publications, you may cite references in text in three ways:

1. By superscript numbers, which appear outside the punctuation if the citation applies to a whole sentence or clause.
2. By italic numbers in parentheses on the line of text and inside the punctuation.
3. By author name and year of publication in parentheses inside the punctuation (known as author–date).

Purdue University Guide on Writing Lab Reports  - Here you can find tips about organizing your lab notebook, how to effectively create graphs and table for lab reports, places to locate protocols and property information, and how to properly cite resources.

Make an appointment for a research consultation.

Email Paulina pborrego@library.umass.edu