Avoiding Plagiarism Plagiarism is defined as intentionally or unintentionally claiming somebody else s work as your own. This is unethical and illegal because you are taking credit for someone else s copyrighted work. After successfully completing this module you will know: 1. Why plagiarism is wrong 2. How to avoid different types of plagiarism 3. When to cite a source 1. Types of Plagiarism 1. Copying information that is not common knowledge or self-evident without citing the source 2. Copying parts of a source including sentences or key phrases 3. Copying sentences from a source and just rearranging them 4. Copying sentences from a source and replacing a few words with synonyms 5. Paraphrasing without citation 6. Paying somebody else to do your work without citing them 7. Claiming your own past material as your new idea 2. What Types of Works Do I Need to Cite When I Reference Them?
1. Your own previous work 2. Copyrighted materials, figures, tables, & digital media (and obtain permission for these!) 3. Non-copyrighted materials, figures, tables, and digital media 4. Published literature; electronic and print 5. Works of art 6. Public data sets 7. Websites even if there is no author listed (try to avoid using websites in academic writing) 8. Government reports and other white papers 9. Emails, letters, and other written communications 10.Conversations and other verbal communications 3. Why is Plagiarism Wrong? 1. You miss out on learning and creating something original 2. People will hesitate to trust your integrity throughout your career 3. You steal credit from another author who deserves it 4. You disrespect your classmates and colleagues who put effort into doing original work 4. Accidental Plagiarism 1. See website for video 5. Ghostwriting as Plagiarism 1. Ghostwriting is either hiring or contracting someone to write an article that you then claim as your own. The ghostwriter remains anonymous, and there is no indication on the article that it is ghostwritten. This is a touchy subject because
it can be considered plagiarism or acceptable authorship under different conditions. See the module titled Authorship Issues for more about ghostwriting. Example 1: Ghostwriting as plagiarism Ghostwriting is common in the medical field because pharmaceutical companies will have articles written about their products and invite top scholars to add their name to the author list, boosting the article s credibility. This benefits the pharmaceutical company because they have credible researchers backing their products. In addition, it serves the invited authors because they receive more publications, often in very reputable journals, without doing much work. This is wrong because it pushes pharmaceuticals to market more easily and threatens the reputation of medical publications because it is difficult to tell which research articles are actually done by researchers. Here s an interesting Wall Street Journal article about medical ghostwriting. 6. How to Use a Style Guide 1. There are multiple ways to cite an author, and the format that you choose depends on the style in which you are writing in. The APA and Chicago manuals of style provide detailed instructions for formatting citations, and how to write in-text citations. For example, the Chicago Manual of Style describes citations in footnote, endnote, and in-text citation formats. Although each of these citation styles contains approximately the same source information, readers will navigate them differently. APA style uses only in-text citations that correspond to a reference list at the end of the article.
Example 2: Style guides APA In text citation: Critical theory is one of four paradigms of inquiry that influence educational research (Morrow & Torres, 2002). Also acceptable: Morrow and Torres (2002) assert that critical theory is one of four paradigms of inquiry that influence educational research Reference citation looks like this: Morrow, R. A. & Torres, C. A. (2002). Reading Freire and Habermas: Critical pedagogy and transformative social change. Amsterdam, New York: Teachers College Press. Chicago In-text footnote Critical theory is one of four paradigms of inquiry that influence educational research.1 Footnote 1Raymond Allen Torres and Carlos Alberto Torres, Reading Freire and Habermas: Critical Pedagogy and Transformative Change. Amsterdam, New York: Teachers College Press, 2002. This citation would then look the same in the bibliography at the end of the article, but without the 1 notation. 7. Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism 1. Do not copy and paste directly from a source. Read the information, close or minimize the source, and then restate it in your own words.
2. Always acknowledge the sources of information in your paper no matter whether you summarize, paraphrase, or quote somebody else. Check out our video Citations and Reference Managers to learn how to properly cite sources. 3. If you copy more than two words in a row from a source, you must enclose the phrase in quotation marks and add a citation. The exception occurs if the phrase is a commonly accepted way to describe a concept. 4. Cite a source every time you refer to it, even if it is the same source multiple sentences in a row. Some citation styles change how you cite after the first time, so check with the correct guide. 5. When you are not sure if a concept or fact is common knowledge, be cautious and cite the source. 6. Ask an expert in your field to review your manuscript. S/he will likely know if you have plagiarized and can advise you accordingly. 7. To avoid self plagiarism you must usually get permission from where you previously submitted your work to use it again and cite where you previously used it. Do not attempt to publish old data that has been simply augmented with additional data points and present it as a new study. Also, if the results of a single complex study are best presented as a cohesive single whole, they should not be broken up into several papers. 8. If you are attempting to use data, reviews, conclusions, etc. in your article that have already been published (via a journal, book, conference talk, the internet, or elsewhere), clearly indicate to the editors and readers the nature of the previous dissemination. 9. Paraphrasing is more than using a thesaurus to change a few words. See the Module The Art of Paraphrasing to learn paraphrasing techniques and guidelines.
Sources and Additional Resources: 1. PSU Plagiarism Tutorial 2. Plagiarism and You 3. When to Cite Sources 4. Citation Styles 5. PSU Citation Guide 6. Chicago Manual of Style: Notes and Bibliography (need subscription or access through a subscribing institution s network) 7. Chicago-Style Bibliography and Notes Websites that check for plagiarism: 1. http://en.writecheck.com/ 2. https://www.grammarly.com/plagiarism 3. http://turnitin.psu.edu/getstarted/