<![CDATA[The rapid development of digital technology has transformed the way students search for scientific references. This study aims to analyze the concept, platforms, ethics, and challenges of online-based scientific reference searching in student academic writing. The method is a literature review of relevant national and international journals from the last five years. The findings indicate that online reference searching is an integral part of information literacy, encompassing the ability to identify information needs, select appropriate databases, filter search results, and verify source credibility. Platforms such as Perpusnas e-Resources, iPusnas, Google Scholar, DOAJ, Scopus, and ScienceDirect offer different characteristics and coverage. Google Scholar is the most widely used platform due to its accessibility, although it has limitations in search precision and metadata consistency. Ethical practices include selecting credible sources, citing every borrowed idea, avoiding plagiarism, paraphrasing correctly, and using reference management applications such as Mendeley and Zotero ethically. The main challenges are limited access to paid sources, uneven digital literacy skills, and the risk of obtaining irrelevant or low-quality information. This study implies the need for information literacy training, institutional access support, and systematic integration of reference management in the higher education curriculum.]]>
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