Online articles are an essential part of modern research. The down side to the use of online articles is that most professors and other people that expect you to turn in original research know how popular this modern research method is. Once it is obvious that you have taken material from an unreliable source on the web, you will be exposed as a plagiarist. Being guilty of plagiarism is a good way to get expelled from school. It is also a way to get yourself shunned in an industry where credibility means everything. Protect yourself against the risk of plagiarism, whether intentional or accidental, by only trusting online articles from academic and other reliable sources, and not articles created solely for the purpose of creating online buzz.
Academic and other reliable sources refer to universities, libraries, government departments and more. These are sources that have to use reliable sources as they produced their online articles. If they do not use reliable sources, they can face legal action. They may also end up facing public embarrassment. This is an issue that many reliable sources want to avoid. They will only post articles through their Web services that you can read once they have verified the research for themselves. While this may lead to you having to pay to access their great online articles, the cost will be worth it. You will know that the money you spend on these articles is paying for future research from a credible source.
The cost of online articles will depend on the source you go through. Most students at a university have free access to popular networks that collect articles for research purposes. If you are not a student, you can find easy access to some of these networks through your local library. You may even be able to preview certain online articles through these services before you subscribe to them. This will help you conduct the first layer of research as you use the web.
Once you get past the first layer of research and have to dig a little deeper, your use of articles from the web it needs to be very specific. Be certain to understand citation principles before you get started. If you are not familiar with how to cite your sources, then the research you put in may not be given due credit. You can research citation policies online, as many universities host free citation guides for you to learn from as you do your research. The internet can also be a great source for online news and online ideas that you can use in your papers. Check out people who are professionally blogging online for the best sources.