Web Investigations » How to Participate

Purpose of Web Investigations

The History Detectives Web Investigations gives you an opportunity to participate in and contribute to an investigation about a historical object and to share information with other online detectives. Your contribution will help to further these investigations and you may even be able to provide a missing piece of the puzzle that helps solve the mystery.

Ways you can contribute to a Web Investigation

The History Detectives will host the web investigations and each week they will review your contributions and update you on the progress of the investigation. The weekly updates will include specific “detective tasks”. These tasks replicate the research process of the History Detectives team and will require your knowledge and research skills in order to push the investigation to the next level.

The “detective tasks” will vary from week to week and will often include:

• Submitting original content in the form of an opinion, question, comment or information based on your personal experience or knowledge about the topic.
• Submitting the results of the research you’ve done for the “detective task”. You should follow our guidelines for contributing research.
• Submitting a photo you have taken or an image of an object you own.

To contribute to an investigation, review the list of detective tasks at the end of each weekly update. You can post your response or research using the Contribute form at the bottom of the page.

Guidelines for Contributing Research

It is important when you are researching and sharing information for the Web Investigations that you properly attribute the sources of that information. Attribution ensures that the information you provide can be verified and protects against potential issues of copyright infringement or plagiarism. It is best to assume that all works of other authors are copyrighted unless they fall into the public domain or their copyright is explicitly disclaimed. Attributing the sources you use also allows other Web Investigation participants to follow your sources and find additional information on the topic.

There are three ways you can submit research to the Web Investigation:

• You can summarize information from other sources. Be sure to rewrite the information in your own words and provide a reference to the original source.
• You can submit a passage from a source by putting the passage in quotation marks and providing a reference to the original source.
• You can share an extended passage, image or photo from another web site, by providing a short description and link to the original page.

Find information and suggestions for conducting research on the Tips and Resources page.

How to Attibute Sources

When posting your research to the Web Investigations, please let us know where you found the information. Here are some suggestions for formats you can use when attributing sources in your submissions.

Books:

book title, author(s), publisher, date of publication, and page number(s) if appropriate

Example: Ballet or Ballyhoo by Barbara Barker, Dance Horizons (December 1984), pg 200-201

Newspapers/Magazines

article title, author(s), name of newspaper/magazine, section title and page number(s) if desired, date of publication

Example: “Making the grade in today’s schools” by W. A. Henry, III. (1990, April 9) Time, pg 28-31.

Web Sites:

site title, article or page title, author name where appropriate, url

Example: PBS American Experience: Buffalo Bill, Introduction, http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/cody/intro/