Academic integrity requires that we not try to pass other people's work off as our own. The things that have happened on term papers that led me to file charges of academic dishonesty against students, in past years, have been:
Large portions of a term paper copied from a few books or web sites, or even just one, without any indication that the material was copied. Typically this involves both large amounts of material quoted word-for-word, without quotation marks, and also a serious shortage of source notes pointing to the book from which the material came. Often there are misleading source notes claiming the material came from sources other than the ones from which it was actually copied word-for-word. These false source notes are especially strong evidence that there is deliberate dishonesty involved, not just carelessness.
Whole term paper obtained from some source (a commercial term paper service, or the Internet, or the collection of term papers that one of the fraternities used to have, and may still have).
While it is not exactly plagiarism for you to turn in a term paper in my course that is indentical or very closely similar to on you have done in another course (in the same semester or a previous semester), it is not acceptable unless you have discussed the matter with me and obtained my permission.
If you are doing any battle or campaign of the Civil War, you should use
The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate
Armies and Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies. These huge collections of documents
contains the reports and orders written by officers of both sides in the war. You should use a lot of
different documents from these collections, not just three or four documents. They are on
level 3 of the library, call numbers
W 45.5: [for the armies]
W 45.6: [for the navies]
Bibliography of the Vietnam War: If you are thinking of doing a term paper on the Vietnam War, you should check this bibliography to get ideas about sources you could use.
Bibliography of the Iraq Wars: If you are thinking of doing a term paper on either the First (1991) or the Second (2003- ) US-Iraq War, you should check this bibliography to get ideas about sources you could use.
There is a useful web page "Using Primary Sources on the Web" written by the American Library Association.
The Cold War
International History Project (CWIHP), based at the
Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, has recently been publishing a considerable
amount of good scholarship on the Cold War, and English translations of documents
recently released from Chinese and Russian archives. There is quite a lot on the Korean War,
and some on other aspects of the Cold War. Most of this material is available at CWIHP web sites.
CWIHP
Publications.
Combined Arms Research Library of the
U.S. Army Command and General Staff College.
There are many topics for which the published transcripts of congressional committee hearings can be useful sources. The published transcripts are often accompanied by considerable amounts of documentation, or the documents may even be published without the excuse of a hearing. Transcripts of important committee hearings, if not classified, are usually published by the Government Printing Office (GPO), in Washington. In the Clemson University Library, these are located on Level 3 (one floor down from where you come in), and usually have call numbers starting with Y 4.
The GPO issues monthly and annual subject indexes to its publications, and you can also do a search of recent ones on the GPO web site.. But for the years from 1970 onward, the index published by the Congressional Information Service (CIS) is better. For each year since 1970 CIS has published two volumes. One, titled Abstracts, has all the hearings published that year, arranged by committee. The other, Index, is the subject index. Look up whatever you are after, such as "Laos" or "Colby, William" in the Index, and you will see a list of items. If one looks as if it might be interesting, look it up in the Abstracts to get a more detailed description, and the call number that will let you find it on the shelf (at least in most cases) two floors up on Level 3. Bear in mind that a hearing held in one year may be published in a later year. (In the Clemson University Library, the CIS volumes have recently been moved down to Room 104, with a sign "Abstracts" by the door, in the back on the lowest floor of the library. The last time I checked, these volumes were in the middle aisle, right side, but I presume the room will soon be reorganized; when that happens, look for them under call number KF 49 .C62. They may be moved again when the current renovation program is completed.)
Foreign Relations of the United States is a huge compilation of documents on U.S. foreign policy, including wartime policy, published by the
State Department. Bound volumes are on level 3 of the library, call number S 1.1: The series provides very thorough coverage of U.S. policy in the
Vietnam War, and somewhat less thorough coverage of earlier wars.
The State Department has been making the complete texts of
recent volumes available through the Internet, at its
Foreign
Relations of the United States web site.
The University of Wisconsin has
made many of the older volumes available online at its own
Foreign
Relations of the United States web site.
U.S. Army Oral Histories: The U.S. Army War College and the Military History Institute associated with it have had a variety of oral history programs over the years, including the Senior Officers Debriefing Program, the Senior Officers Oral History Program, and others. An impressive number of oral histories from these various programs have recently been placed online in the Army Heritage Collection Online,
An impressive number of books and documents on the history of the U.S. Army Medical Corps have been placed online in the Medical Corps' Books and Documents site. Some of these (particulary some of the memoirs) might have relevance for research in some topics other than medical care.
Military Journals: There are a number of U.S. military journals people might find useful, many of which can be found in the Clemson library (see further comments at the end of this page). Such journals include:
ADA Magazine. Fort Bliss, Texas: U.S. Army Air Defense Artillery School. Formerly titled Air Defense Trends (1968- ), then Air Defense Magazine (1976-1982), then Air Defense Artillery (1983-1990) (Clemson has only a handful of issues, call number, on level 3 of the library, D 101.77: ). Publication on paper appears to have ceased at the end of 1997; it was replaced by ADA Magazine Online in 1998. Issues from Winter 1998 to April 2001 can be found at an ADA Magazine Online Archives. There is another ADA Magazine Online Archives containing the issues from May 2001 to September 2006. The print publication came back as Air Defense Artillery at some point--at least issues seem to have been published in 2005 and 2006, and are also available online, but it was terminated at the end of 2006. The plan is for the print publication to merge with that for the Field Artillery School under the title Fires Magazine, to begin publication at some point in 2007. There will continue to be an online publication from the Air Defense Artillery School, Air Defense Artillery Online.
Army. Washington, D.C.: Association of the U.S. Army. Call number, on level 6 of
the library,
U1 .A7
Army History: "The Professional Bulletin of Army History" Fort McNair, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military
History. A typical issue has a couple of long articles, not a
lot of short ones. Call number, on level 3 of
the library,
D 114.20:
Aviation Digest. The monthly professional journal of US Army helicopter
forces. Call number, on level 3 of the library:
D 101.47:
Armor. Fort Knox, Kentucky: U.S. Army Armor School. Call number,
on level 3 of the library:
D 101.78/2:
Field Artillery. Fort Sill, Oklahoma: U.S. Army Field Artillery School.
D 101.77/2:
The Clemson library does not seem to have paper copies for years before 1997. This journal began
in 1911 under the title The Field Artillery Journal, and it has been published intermittently
under various titles for most of the years since then. Issues all the way back to the beginning are
available on a nicely organized web site (you can choose to access a whole issue in one very large .pdf
file, or an individual article) through the
Field Artillery archives page. The titles include:
The Field Artillery Journal (1911- )
Artillery Trends
The Field Artilleryman
Field Artillery
Infantry. Fort Benning, Georgia: U.S. Army Infantry School. Tables
of contents for issues since 1982, with actual links to the texts of articles
in issues since 1988, can be found on the
Infantry
web site. Call number,
on level 3 of the library:
D 102.83:
Marine Corps History magazine, formerly Fortitudine, published quarterly. The new version has more pages per issue, and more per article, than the old. Current and past issues are available though Marine Corps History and Fortutudine web pages at Marine Corps University.
Military Intelligence Professional Bulletin. Fort Huachuca, Arizona:
U.S. Army Intelligence Center. Some issues used to be available online at a
U.S. Army web site, but this appears no longer to be the case. Some have been
placed online at a website of a private-sector organization, the
Federation of American Scientists. The Clemson University
Library has the issues from 1997 through 2005 on the shelf.
D 101.84:
Military Review. "Professional Journal of the US Army." Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas: US Army Command and General Staff College. Publication began
in 1922. There is an index giving a table of contents for every issue on a
Fort Leavenworth web site. This index has
links to the individual texts of the articles all the way back to 1922. Call number,
on level 3 of the library:
D 110.7:
Parameters. "Journal of the U.S. Army War College."
Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania: U.S. Army War College.
Publication began in 1971; Clemson's holdings begin 1977.
D 101.72:
Quartermaster Professional Bulletin. A quarterly publication. Issues since 1995 are available online in its Archive File.
Special Warfare. Fort Bragg, N.C.: John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School. Issues since 1990 are online at the
Special Warfare Archives.
D 101.124:
Air University Review, "The Professional Journal of the United States
Air Force." Published by the Air University, Maxwell AFB,
1947-1987. (It was replaced in 1987 by Airpower Journal, in 1999 by Aerospace
Power Journal, and in 2002 by Air & Space Power Journal--see below.)
D 301.26:
Many articles published in the Air University Review have been placed on-line. There is an index to the available articles, Air University Review Index, with links to the full texts.
Airpower Journal, Aerospace
Power Journal.
Call number, on level 3 of the library:
D 301.26/24:
Air & Space Power Journal Index. This is a complete subject index to articles published since 1987 in the journal, published by the U.S. Air Force Air University, at Maxwell AFB, Alabama, now called Air & Space Power Journal, formerly Airpower Journal (1987-1999) and Aerospace Power Journal (1999-2002). The texts of the articles are available online. Some of the ones relevant to the conflicts in the Persian Gulf are:
Airman, "Official Magazine of the U.S. Air Force." Monthly, published
by the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force.
D 301.60:
Air Force Journal of Logistics. Published
quarterly by the Air Force Logistics Management Agency, Maxwell AFB, Alabama.
D 301.91:
Leatherneck: Magazine of the Marines. This monthly magazine is published by the
Marine Corps Association, which is nominally a private organization, but has its offices
on the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Virginia. The Clemson library only started getting
this a couple of years ago. A lot of articles have been appearing about the Marines'
involvement in Korea, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf conflicts.
Call number, on level 1 of the library:
D731 .L4
Naval Aviation News. Washington, DC: Navy Department.
Publication apparently began in 1920. NOTE: shorter articles may
not be mentioned in the table of contents just inside the cover of
the magazine. Issues since late 1996 available online at
Naval Aviation
News. Call number, on level 3 of the library:
D 202.9:
Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute. The monthly professional journal of the
U.S. Naval officer corps, with the Marines also included to a significant extent. Call number,
on Level 6 of the library:
V1 .U8
Naval War College Review. Issues
since 1996 are available online. Bound volumes on Level 3 of the
library, call number:
D 208.209:
Joint Force Quarterly. Published for the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, by the Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University. All issues are available online, beginning with issue #1 (Summer 1993).
Huge collections available online through Clemson University: There are now commercial services making available online, for a fee, huge amounts of documents of various sorts. Clemson University has paid the fees for a lot of these collections, so you can access them if you are browsing the Internet through the Clemson University computer system, going through the Library's web pages. (If you are reading this from some university other than Clemson, your institution probably has a fairly similar system. Check and find out what is available to you.) There are far more than I can discuss here, but I particularly thought I would mention:
LexisNexis has articles, transcripts, etc., published in recent years in a huge variety of publications. This is the best place I know to find newspaper articles published in the past few years.
If you go to the Alphabetical List of Article Indexes & Databases, one of the Library's web pages,
Under "D" you will find "Dissertations and Theses - Full Text," which links to the full texts of most Ph.D. dissertations written at universities in the United States in the last few years, and some M.A. theses.
Under "N" you will find "New York Times - Historical," giving the full texts of issues from 1851 to 2005.
Under "W" you will find two links for the Wall Street Journal, which between them give all issues from 1889 to the present, and a link for the Washington Post, issues from 1877 to 1990.
All opinions expressed on this page are my own, although I am sure Clemson University agrees with at least a few of them, such as that plagiarism is bad.
Copyright © 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2018, Edwin E. Moise.
Revised March 8, 2018.