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Academic Integrity & Avoiding Plagiarism

An introduction to the definition of plagiarism and what will be outlined in this Libguide. The bottom section contains a quiz testing plagiarism knowledge.

Introduction

 

Academic work, at all levels, draws on texts, ideas, images, sounds, designs, research, or coding produced by others.  Not all students will be referencing these from the start of their degree, but when you do come to it, you must give full credit following the conventions for your discipline. If you don't cite an idea or direct quotation, you could be accused of plagiarism: intentionally or unintentionally taking another person's ideas, research, or work and presenting it as your own. Or, to put it another way, submitting a paper or assignment without citing your sources of information.

 

PLAGIARISM: 

Intentionally or unintentionally taking another person's ideas, research, or work and presenting it as your own.

 

This tutorial is designed to explain the concepts of academic integrity and plagiarism to you. It will review how they relate to specific situations, including:

 

  • What situations are considered plagiarism
  • how to use other people's ideas in a fair and honest ways
  • when and how to cite something directly (that is, put it in quotation marks “  ”)
  • when and how to use someone’s ideas without quotation marks and more

 

This tutorial will explain the concept of academic integrity, provide examples of various types of plagiarism, show you common research and writing missteps, and give you some citation examples. It is designed to help you develop successful academic skills and learn to credit the authors or creators of all the sources you use, and to let you set good academic standards for yourself.

 

Just as becoming a good writer takes time and practice, so does learning how to do academic research and how to cite it properly. Working though this tutorial should give you the tools necessary to write and cite papers with confidence as a full participating member of the scholarly community.

 

Think you've got a pretty good understanding of academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism? Why not try the multiple-choice quiz below?

 

Sources and image credits:

Adapted from "UG CamGuides: How do I reference and avoid plagiarism?: Introduction" by Cambridge University Libraries, licensed under a Creative Commons CC-By-NC 4.0 license.

Photo by Free-Photos, used under CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

Staff and student perceptions of plagiarism by jobadge , used under Creative Commons CC BY-NC 2.0 license