What is a good amount of sources for a research paper?

I usually tell my students a good rule of thumb is about one source per page of the assignment length. If a teacher assigns a 10–20 page research essay, you need 10–20 sources. If it's 5–7 pages, you need about 5–7 sources.

How many sources should a 5 page paper have?

A good rule of thumb is to include 1 source for every page assigned (so a 5 page paper will use roughly 5 sources), and each paragraph will usually have about 2 citations within it.

How many citations for 20 page paper?

Your professor will guide you on the required length of your bibliography, but as a rule of thumb figure that for a carefully researched 15-20 page paper at least about 10-15 sources will be appropriate. For a five-to eight page paper, five sources will be appropriate.

How many sources should you use in a research paper?

It is much better to use a bibliography of 5-7 sources. The rule here is not to overdo the study; otherwise, your paper will not have value as a basis for awarding an academic degree.

How many sources do I need for a 10 page research paper?

Example: A paper that has 10 pages of content (the body of the paper) needs at least 10 sources in its literature review. A thesis of 100 pages (in the body) includes at least 100 sources.

How to Find Sources for a Research Paper

Can I write 10 pages in 4 hours?

Writing 10 pages will take about 2.1 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 4.2 hours for handwriting. However, if the content needs to include in-depth research, links, citations, or graphics such as for a blog article or high school essay, the length can grow to 16.7 hours.

How do you know if you re using too many sources in your research paper?

One way to gauge how many references you should have is to survey academic journals for your article type in your field. Review their author guidelines for limits on the number of references for your article type, and make sure your reference list complies with those journal restrictions.

How many sources is too many sources?

There is no official rule, as every paper is different with varying requirements specified by the Instructor. If your Instructor is not clear, here are some general guidelines: Usually 3-4 reliable sources should be sufficient. This should be enough external information to complement your original thoughts/ideas.

Can you have too many sources in a paper?

The number of sources you cite in your paper depends on the purpose of your work. For most papers, cite one or two of the most representative sources for each key point. Literature review papers, however, typically include a more exhaustive list of references.

Is 20 references enough for a 3000 word essay?

However, as a general rule, a 3,000-word essay should include at least 18–24 references.

How many citations is impressive?

Generally speaking, a good number of citations for a paper is considered to be more than 10–20 citations. However, some fields may require more or fewer citations depending on the topic and the journal.

Is 100 citations a lot?

A hundred citations is clearly “highly impactful” regardless of the year the paper was published. To get a better sense of papers that are above the baseline, we can take a look at the actual numbers.

How long does a 20 page research paper take?

A 20-page research paper could take several weeks to a couple of months to write, depending on the level of depth and research required.

What is the minimum number of sources must paper have?

As a standard rule of thumb for research paper sources, a page should have one source. Therefore, a 10-page paper should have a minimum of 10 references or credible sources. However, if the topic is too complex, you can still use the ten or 15 sources.

How many references are enough for a paper?

In Nature, original articles typically have 30–50 references. Our recommendation: Always consult the journal's author guidelines for specific limits, if any. Where not specified, skim recently published articles in that journal for a rough estimate.

How many references does a good paper have?

Most recent answer

30-40 could be enough but the number of references may be more or less depending on the nature of the research and the method of analysis. In short, there is no limited or fixed number for the use of references in a research paper.

What is considered a highly cited paper?

Highly Cited Papers are papers that perform in the top 1% based on the number of citations received when compared to other papers published in the same field in the same year.

What does it mean if a paper is cited a lot?

As some have pointed out that the paper is of interest to many so gets cited many times. This could be due to many reasons. The paper might have made an important point, and described a 'break-through' observation or a trendsetter so others in the field can follow. These are perfectly normal.

How many references is excessive?

The ideal number of references to provide is 3 to 4.

Any more than that can run the risk of someone slipping and giving a less than stellar comment or something that could be misconstrued – assuming the employer even contacts all the names provided.

Is 40 references too much?

There's no right or wrong answer answer as to how many references you need – it depends on how many you've cited in your writing! The most important thing is that you don't plagiarise. Make sure you include references for everything that you've cited in the text, so that it's clear where your information has come from.

Can you get marked down for too many references?

Do not worry about using referencing too often. As a general rule, it is better to use the references too often than not enough. This does not refer to the number of different authors/texts, but the frequency of citing those authors. It should be high-frequency overall.

Can a research paper have too many citations?

Flaws of having too many references

It sends a signal that your work is not very interesting. It puts your work at risk, making other reviewers overly critical of your work. You tend to flood your work with too many ideas.

What sources should not be used in research?

Usually inappropriate: magazines, blogs, and websites

These may include articles in popular magazines or postings in blogs, forums, and other websites. In general, although these sources may be well-written and easy to understand, their scientific value is often not as high as that of peer-reviewed articles.

What sources are not allowed in a research paper?

How many citations is good for a professor?

The difference between professors and associate professors begin rather to manifest at higher levels of performance, above around 15 publications and 100 citations. In numbers of individuals, 316 have more than 15 publications and 300 have more than 100 citations.