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University Library

UiA - University Library (UBA) offers many services to support your studies and research.

Welcome to Academic Writing

Welcome to the University Libraries Academic Writing page. By working with us and accessing these resources, you can learn about proper formatting, structuring essays or research papers, using academic language and citations, and developing coherent arguments. Acquiring these skills will not only make you a more successful student but will also help you throughout your academic and professional life.

Courses

The library offers several courses specifically designed to help with your thesis or research.

Click here for our: Courses

EndNote

EndNote is a helpful tool used by researchers to manage their bibliographic information. It allows them to store, organize, and reference their sources.

Click for full details and instruction: EndNote

EndNote is a helpful tool used to manage bibliographic information. It allows you to store, organize, and reference your sources.

  • Store, organize and manage references including tables, charts/figures, images, and PDFs in one place.
  • Import or search for references from many databases, including PubMed, EBSCOhost databases, OvidSP databases, Web of Science, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar, etc.
  • Create and format bibliographies in a style of your choice.
  • Cite and create reference lists of articles, pictures, tables, etc. in a Word document or documents in other word processors using EndNote’s CWYW feature.
  • Find fulltext articles.
  • Read, annotate, and manage your PDF files
  • Share your library or select group with other researchers from the desktop or online version with up to 100 people.
  • Create a citation report on references imported from Web of Science given you have access to this database.
  • Find a matching journal to submit your paper to publish.
Download program
Go to AppsAnywhere. Close all Office programs, WORD, email, PowerPoint, EXCEL). Choose EndNote 20. Note: Note: Earlier versions must be removed first. If you are using Windows and are running EndNote through Cloudpaging, open and remove before installation of a newer version. Before downloading the program, read the information carefully.

Create a new library
  • Choose a name for the library file
  • Choose folder for the library: Do not store the library in any folder that synchronizes to OneDrive, iCloud or Dropbox or similar services.
  • If all your document folders syncs to OneDrive or similar - save the library- for MAC; in the Application folder - create a folder first EndNoteLibrary, for PC; c:disk - create a folder EndNoteLibrary, then store the library in this folder.

Open an existing library
  • File – open library (alternative Open recent)
  • Choose your EndNote library. Note that an EndNote library consist of two parts. One .enl file (EndNote library) which You use to open the library with and an associated DATA folder with the same name as Your library.
  • Both parts must be stored in the same folder on Your machine. Do not move the .enl file (EndNote library) into the DATA folder

Kildekompasset

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Are you familiar with the rules applying to citing sources in written assignments that are submitted for evaluation?

Click for the website: Kildekompasset

Kildercompasset is a valuable tool that not only aids you in correctly citing your sources but also empowers you to critically evaluate them.

With this tool, you can navigate through the intricacies of proper citation practices, ensuring your academic work maintains accuracy and integrity. Moreover, it equips you with the skills to assess the credibility and reliability of your sources, enabling you to craft well-founded and well-informed academic content.

Whether you're a student, researcher, or writer, the Citation Compass is your reliable guide to excel in academic writing and research.
Referencing styles
  • APA 7th
  • APA 6th
  • APA 7th for footnotes
  • APA 6th for footnotes
  • IEEE

  • Tips and Help
  • APA 7th FAQ
  • APA 6th FAQ
  • IEEE FAQ

  • Source Evaluation
  • What is source evaluation?
  • Is the author credible?

Copyright and Licenses

Creative Commons licenses are developed to make it easy for readers and users of your work to understand what you allow them to do with your work. Creative Commons is a part of the Open Science movement. 

Click for more information: Copyright

The purpose of copyright law is to protect owners of intellectual property. Protecting creative work is intended as an incentive to produce more creative work, which in turn will benefit society.

What is copyrightable and what is not?
The Berne convention dictates that copyrighted material must be “fixed in some material form” (WIPO 2022a, article 2 (2)) As such an idea is not copyrightable. For a work to be copyrightable, it needs to have a degree of originality, be a result of choices and have a certain degree of independence from other works. This is why creative work can build on copyrightable work and still receive its own copyright. Still, this work’s copyright will only be on the original parts, not all of it. E.g. a movie can have its own copyright, even though it is based on a copyrighted book. The movie's copyright would then be based on the movie’s originality (such as an original script) and what it added to the story, in addition to the technical aspects, i.e. the recording which constitutes a work's independence. The story will still belong to the author of the work the film is based on, however and the film is considered an adaptation.

The holder of the copyright must be a legal individual or organization. If a work is created by an entity not defined as such, it is not copyrightable. (Such as non-human animals.) (Wikipedia, 2022c).

Articles 8,9, 11 and 12 of the Berne convention covers translation, performance, distribution, copying and adaptation. Which includes adaptation of a literary work to film, for instance.

How to receive copyright protection
For the most part all that is required for a work to receive copyright protection is to actually do the work. “[t]he expression "literary and artistic works" shall include every production in the literary, scientific and artistic domain, whatever may be the mode or form of its expression” (WIPO 2022a, article 2(1)). From this moment the work is owned by its creator, or other entity paying for the creation of the work.

However there are numerous practical exceptions to this, and under certain conditions it can be prudent to register a product to strengthen the legal protection of said work, especially in certain countries and certain types of work. For instance registering sheet music, music lyrics and recordings with agencies like ASCAP in the USA, TONO in Norway or PRS in the United Kingdom (Wikipedia 2022b).
In relation to Copyright
Creative Commons licenses cannot exist without copyright. Copyright exists in a work from the moment it is created and grants certain rights to its owner, which may or may not be the creator. A CC-license makes it easy for users to understand what the creator allows users to do with the work, without reaching out to the creator. All Creative Commons licenses allow distribution and reuse and the creator of the work retains full copyright.

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