Nutritional Sciences

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using someone else's ideas without giving them proper credit, that is, a citation in your paper.  The key to avoiding plagiarism is give credit where credit is due.

Click here to find some ways to not plagiarize.

Adapted from the Academic Integrity web page, University Library.

Problem:  Not properly citing sources
Solution:  Citation management software, such as Mendeley, Zotero, or EndNote. You can also carefully note citation information by hand in your research notes, then use the References function in Word to add citations.

Examples: 

When to cite:   When you have quoted someone exactly (placing the quoted material in quotation marks) or have used original information from someone else & have paraphrased it appropriately.

When you don't have to cite:  When you're reporting 1) your own original analysis of other people's original work or 2) common knowledge, that is, information that is commonly known by your peers.  Note that this can change, depending on the context of your writing assignment.

Problem:   Using someone else's ideas exactly as published.
Solutions:  Paraphrase (changing both words and sentence structure) or use the exact quotation and cite the source.

Example: 

Original text: Ethnic and racial diversity are increasing in many countries, primarily as a result of increased migration linked to globalization of trade, education and markets and to the movement of refugees.  This offers formidable challenges in the development of policies and strategies to promote the reduction in inequalities in health and improvements in health care.  From ch. 8, Raj S. Bhopal, Migration, Ethnicity, Race and Health in Multicultural Societies, 2d ed., Oxford University Press http://site.ebrary.com/lib/umich/docDetail.action?docID=10823205

Plagiarism:  Ethnic and racial diversity are on the rise in many countries, for the most part because of increased migration due to trade around the world, education and markets and to refugees. This makes it hard to develop policies and strategies to reduce inequalities in health and improvements in health care. (12).

This is plagiarism because both the words that are used and the sentence structure are very similar to the original sentence.  Providing a citation to the original source of information is not enough.

Acceptable:  When governments think about developing polices to decrease inequalities in health, it is important to take into account that the rise in refugees and in migration due to trade has increased the variety in racial and ethnicity in many countries. (12).

This is not plagiarism because the information has been summarized using different words and the sentence structure is different from the original text. 

Acceptable:  According to Raj S. Bhopal, the increase that we can see in racial and ethnic diversity around the world "offers formidable challenges in the development of policies and strategies to promote the reduction in inequalities in health and improvements in health care.”(12)

This is not plagiarism because a direct quote is used, with quotation marks, and  the quotation is properly cited.

Image courtesy of Tarleton State University.

The Center for Academic Integrity defines academic integrity as "a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility."

Click here to read more about academic integrity at the School of Public Health.

Remember that "academic integrity" is really "research/ professional integrity", something you'll be involved with for the rest of your professional life.

Taking notes properly is a skill that can help you avoid plagiarism.

They're magic! Programs, such as Mendeley, Zotero, or EndNote,  help you to do so much  more than just format individual citations or a bibliography.

• Collect references from article databases, library catalogs, or even web pages by importing them electronically.
• Organize references by project, topic, or any other way that makes sense to you. References can be placed in more than one folder.
• Insert citations and easily format citations and bibliographies in many different styles (such as APA, JAMA, Vancouver, or Zoonoses and Public Health).
  • And, if you learn that you've used the wrong citation style, you can easily change the style globally, with just a few clicks.
• Collaborate on projects with classmates/colleagues.

For an introduction to 3 citation management tools that the library supports, click here.  For complete information, including handouts & videos, see our Citation Management research guide.

Courtesy of Toothpaste For Dinner.com

It's not just words that need to be properly used & cited.  Use care in collecting data from journal articles or creating data in the lab. 

• Take careful notes while conducting research in books & journals.

• Cite your sources when using data created by other researchers.

• Document your own research in the field or in the lab thoroughly & completely.

Academic integrity in real life:   Years of Ethics Charges, but Star Cancer Researcher Gets a Pass  An unfolding story of how science can work--not the way it should work.