Understandingreferencing and plagiarism

Edyta Krol

Academic Support Librarian

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Referencing is

‘an acknowledgement of someone else’s work or findings’

Dunbar (2007)

• Acknowledge sources

• Demonstrate breadth of reading

• To give your work scholarly credibility

• To allow you, you tutor and other readers to retrieve the documents cited

• To signpost to the reader that this idea is not your own

• To avoid accusations of plagiarism

Why do we need to reference?

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Whenever you draw on a source of information:

• As a general source of inspiration

• As the source of a particular theory, argument or viewpoint

• For specific information such as statistics, case studies or examples

• For direct quotations

• For text you have paraphrased or summarised

When to reference

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• Copying another person’s work, including the work of another student (with or without their consent), and claiming or pretending it is your own

• Presenting arguments that use a blend of your own and a significant percentage of copied words of the original author without acknowledging the source

• Paraphrasing another person’s work, but not giving due acknowledgement to the original author

Neville, C. (2007) The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism. Maidenhead: Open University Press

What is plagiarism?

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• A form of plagiarism where two or more students work together to produce a piece of work which is then submitted by each of them as their own individual work

• If a student gets someone else to compose the whole or part of any piece of work

• If a student copies the whole or part of someone else's piece of work with their knowledge and consent

• If a student allows another student to copy material, knowing that it will subsequently be presented as that student's own work

Collusion

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• To get a better grade – 59%

• Laziness or bad time management – 54%

• Easy access to material via the Internet – 40%

• They do not understand the rules – 29%

• ‘It happens unconsciously’ - 29%

• They do not think they will be caught – 16%

Dordoy, A. (2002) Cheating and plagiarism: staff and student perceptions at

Northumbria. Working paper presented at Northumbrian Conference:

‘Educating for the Future’, Newcastle 22 Oct. 2003

Why do students plagiarize?

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• Plagiarism

• Collusion

• Other kinds of cheating??

Academic dishonesty

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Do not even think about it!

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You need to know about:• Identifying sources and information that need to be

documented

• Staying loyal to the source material

• Creating in-text citation

• Blending quotations into your paper

• Documenting sources in Reference list

How to avoid plagiarism

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In-text citation

Reference list

Correctly referenced

How to reference

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Acknowledgment in your text directly after you have quoted or used someone

else's words or ideas.

Helps the reader locate the correct reference from the

reference list.

List of the full bibliographic information about the source

you have used.

Helps the reader know exactly what information you

used, and how to find it.

Written material which isn't your own can be included in your work in three ways:

Whichever one of these you choose to do, for each source you will need to provide both an in-text citation and a corresponding entry in your reference list

Citing in the text

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Quoting ParaphrasingSummarisin

g

• The author’s words are copied exactly – ‘verbatim’

• Quotation marks (“…”) are added – where quote begins and ends

• You need the author’s surname,

year of publication and page number

in brackets at the end

Direct Quotation

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Quotation marks

 

“When you make a claim about the way things are in the world, you must offer the reader evidence and say where it comes from.” (Northedge 1999, p. 191)

 

Author’s surname Year of publication Page number

 

Example

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• Writing out evidence in your own words

• You still need to put a reference

• Author’s surname, date of publication are required

• Its meaning is not changed

Paraphrasing

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Topic sentence

 

Many study skills guides include useful advice for helping a student insert references in his/her essay. For example, Northedge (1991) states that when you are presenting a point of view, you must support this with evidence and provide a reference.

 author surname date of publication paraphrased information

Example

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• Many find it difficult

• Not a case of just changing a few words

• You need to understand what you have read

• Take notes from books

• Use notes to put things into your own words

• Do not copy out whole sentences

How to paraphrase

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Your work flows better if you learn to put different authors’ ideas in your own

words

You can use some key words and phrases but the key is understanding

meaning and significance

Be careful not to change the odd word here or there. Direct quote if you can

not paraphrase

Always use a reference

Paraphrasing thoughts

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• A brief statement of the main points of an article, web page, chapter or book, known as a summary

• Only lists the main topics or headings,

• Most of the detailed information is left out

Example

Nevertheless, one important study (Harrison, 2007) looks closely at the historical and linguistic links between European races and cultures over the past five hundred years.

Summarising

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Direct QuotationInclude the surname, date and page number

Cottrell (2008, p.147) describes the Internet as “a wide interconnecting set of computers”.

Paraphrase or summaryInclude the surname and date in brackets

In a recent study (Evans 2010), qualifications........

If you include the author’s name in your sentence only the date is in brackets

Argyle (2006) has explored this concept in detail.

In-text citation: layout and examples

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Just Because You Put It In Your Own Words...

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What is the difference between references and a bibliography?

Some common issues

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Bibliography

•The same format as a Reference List

•Includes all material used in the preparation of your work

Reference List

Includes only sources cited in the text of your assignment as in-text citations

How do I reference a source I found in a book or article but I haven’t actually read it myself?

Example:

In the book “Seeds of Concern” by D. Murray (2003), Murray refers to a work by T. White (2001).

You must make it clear in your text that you have not read the original source (White) but are referring to it from a source you have read (Murray).

In text citation:

White (2001, cited by Murray 2003) believes genetic abnormalities in crops are…

Reference List:

Murray, D. (2003) Seeds of concern: the genetic manipulation of plants. Sydney: UNSW Press.

In the list of references at the end of your work you should only include a reference to the source you read

Some common issues

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Referencing several authors who have expresses a similar view

If you want to show that a number of authors hold a similar view for something which you have paraphrased, you can simply list them all with the date of publication

Example

It has often been argued that motivating staff is key to business success (Smith 2004; Jones 2009; Wilson 2010)

Some common issues

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How do I reference a web page?

Try to find an author and year – as you would for a book.

Example - in text citation

“50 years after being published, To Kill a Mockingbird is still devoured by students” (Geoghegan, 2010)

  Example - in List of References

Geoghegan, T. (2010) Why is to Kill a Mockingbird so popular? [Online]. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8740693.stm [Accessed: 14 February 2013]

Some common issues

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• Never cite the URL. Always put the name of an author, or the organization

• Do not separate list of www sites in your “References”. Internet sites are incorporated alphabetically along with other sources

• Do not paste in a URL address to a list of “References” without any other supporting information

Web sites – Common mistakes

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1. In-text citation

Example

Northedge (1999) argues that students need to be introduces early to good study skills.

2. List of references

Example

Northedge, A. (1999) The Good Study Guide. Milton Keynes: Open University Press

Two kinds of references - recap

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Tips for avoiding accidental plagiarism

• Keep thorough notes including • Full reference for each source• Page numbers for each quote

• When paraphrasing in your notes remember to note the author so you don’t mistake it for your own ideas

• Record the full details of all resources you use during your research for any assignments and projects - use screen capture functions if possible, or photocopy

• Databases / Summon/Library Catalogue provide tools to save, email or export to reference management software

Recording references

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Exercise

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Which do you think is the mostimportant reason to reference properly?

a) To avoid accusations of plagiarism.

b) Because that's what the regulations say you have to do.

c) To get better marks.

d) To acknowledge debts to your sources and support your argument.

e) Because that's what proper academics do.

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a) Direct quotations from sources.

b) Basic facts and information.

c) Whenever you refer directly to a source even if you don't quote it.

d) Ideas and arguments from your source.

e) Ideas and arguments from someone else which are discussed in the source.

What should be referenced?

a) Direct quotes must always be referenced.

b) Basic information is not usually referenced unless it was the discovery of a specific individual.

c) Definitely.

d) Definitely.

e) Correct; if you haven't been able to get hold of the original, you need to credit the place where you did find the information.

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a) Yes

b) No

Is the following an acceptable form of citation?

It has been argued (Hayden White, 1978) that history is simply a special sort of fiction governed by particular rules of presentation.

It serves the basic function of indicating the source of the idea, but the formatting is not ideal: it should give just the author's surname and the date of publication.

It has been argued (White 1978) that history is simply a special sort of fiction governed by particular rules of presentation.

OrWhite (1978) argues that history is simply a special sort of fiction governed by particular rules of presentation.

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Historians, as Morley (1999) has argued, are expected to 'show their working' through footnotes.

Is the following an acceptable form of citation?

a) Yes

b) No

Since there is a direct quotation from Morley's words, there needs to be a page reference.

Historians, as Morley (1999, p. 255) has argued, are expected to 'show their working' through footnotes.

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Garnsey, P. & Whittaker, C. Trade in the Ancient Economy (Cambridge University Press, 1983).

Garnsey, P. and Whittaker, C. (1983) Trade in the Ancient Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Identify common mistakes:

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Hopkins, Keith, Introduction, in Trade in the Ancient Economy, 1-14.

Hopkins, K. (1983) Introduction. In: Garnsey, P. and Whittaker, C. Trade in the Ancient Economy . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-14.

Identify common mistakes:

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Howgego, 'Supply and use of money in Rome', in Jnl of Roman Stud. volume 23 (1990) pp.1-31

Howgego, L. (1990) Supply and use of money in Rome. Journal of Roman Studies. 23 (5) pp. 1-31.

Identify common mistakes:

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Hudson, P. (1992) The industrial revolution, 2 edition London.

Hudson, P. (1992) The industrial revolution. 2nd ed. London: Palgrave

Identify common mistakes:

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Hunt, A. (2011) Credit crunch. Economist, 465 (7381), p. 36, Online. EBSCOhost

Hunt, A. (2011) Credit crunch. Economist, 465 (7381), p. 36. EBSCOhost: Business Source Premier [Online]. Available at: http://search.ebsconet.com [Accessed: 07 May 2014]

Identify common mistakes:

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Greetham, B. (2008) How to write better essays. 2nd ed. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.[Accessed: 20 July 2011]

Gallagher, M. (2004) The impact of monitoring media images of women. In: Carter, C. & Steiner, L. (eds.) Critical readings: media and gender. Open University Press: Maidenhead.

Spot the mistakes

Hunt, A. (2011) Credit crunch. Economist, 465(7381), p. 36, EBSCOhost: Business Source Premier [Online]. Available at: http://search.ebsconet.com [Accessed: 20 July 2011]

p.148-161