Citing Information Obtained from the Internet 1. In general, acceptable references for a university research paper includes peer reviewed journal articles and books. Government publications usually are not peer reviewed, and therefore are often considered unacceptable sources of information. If you are uncertain whether a reference is acceptable, ask your instructor. Types of papers.
Books generally provide a summary of the information known about a specific topic.
Books and review articles will reference primary research papers. When you first start researching a topic, it is wise to start with review papers. Start with references provided in the back of your textbook. Go to the library and find other appropriate textbooks, and check the back for relevant references. Obtain some recent review articles in the journals and check the list of references.