Plagiarism is described in the W&L Catalog, and cited by the Student Executive Committee, as "the use of another's words, figures, or ideas without proper acknowledgement."   The resources listed here should be considered reliable sources of advice about what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it.

• Plagiarism Advice

Unfortunately, there is no universally agreed-upon "style" for documenting the use of sources in research -- no single method for formatting footnotes, bibliographies, endnotes, in-text citations, etc.  Instead, there are more than a dozen, most of which are specialized for use in one or more subject areas.   The W&L University Library maintain a collection of resources on these styles:

• Citation Styles

Students in Politics courses should consult their professor for the preferred style guide. The American Political Science Association provides a Style Manual for Political Science (PDF full guide, rev. 2018). Website

What is involved in creating an annotated bibliography?   Here are some guides:  Purdue University  |  University of Wisconsin  |  Hunter College

A journal article's literature review discusses the existing research on aspects of the topic.

• This article includes a clearly-labeled literature review section:  Social Distraction? Social Media Use and Political Knowledge in Two U.S. Presidential Elections
• The literature review in this article actually appears within the Introduction:  Facebook Dethroned: Revealing the More Likely Social Media Destinations for College Students' Depictions of Underage Drinking
• Some articles consist entirely of a literature review:  Characteristics of the Mass Media's Coverage of Nuclear Energy and Its Risk: A Literature Review