Copyright, Citing Sources And The Perils Of Plagiarism

GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

Information Overload

Citing your sources gives authority to what you have to say

Do you know everything there is to know about protozoa? What about post-impressionist art? Do you know how to take a tractor apart and put it back together again?

Even if you were an expert in any of these fields, you wouldn't know absolutely everything about them. Who could? In the information age every subject area contains more information than any one person can learn in ten lifetimes.

When an expert writes a paper they cite the original works they used as sources. Citing the sources demonstrates that they are familiar with, or even building on, the work that others have done.

Demonstrating that you have read what the experts have to say gives weight to your work. It also allows your instructor to look at the sources you used to further their understanding of the topic, as well as to evaluate your understanding of it.

Why Should You Cite?

It's the law and it's there for you too If you saw a Jaguar idling by the road, nobody in sight

anywhere, would it be right or wrong to jump in and take it for a spin, even just around the block?

When you see someone's work in a book or on the Web that says exactly what you want to say in your paper, is it right or wrong to use it without documenting its origin?

Taking the Jaguar for a spin is a form of stealing, even if it's temporary. Using someone's work without giving credit is stealing, too.

Why Should You Cite?

There are two reasons why you should bother citing your sources:

Number 1 — It's illegalYou could be caught and be expected to pay the price.

SCHOOL: If an instructor finds out, it could mean more than just a zero or an 'F' on a paper. Institutions impose penalties ranging from a failing grade on the assignment or for the course itself, to suspension, expulsion, and transcript annotations so that future schools or employers viewing your transcript will see a note indicating that you cheated.

IN THE 'REAL' WORLD: If the originator finds out, he or she could sue you.

Number 2 — It could affect you one dayIf you wrote a best-selling novel or invented an anti-gravity backpack, wouldn't you want to receive what's due to you based on its success?

Let's say you are that best-selling novelist and you found a copy of your novel made available on the Web to everyone who wants it. That means people are getting your work for free and you aren't getting the royalties from its distribution.

Or, let's say you are that inventor. Someone copies your anti-gravity backpack, calls it something else and puts it up for sale at Wal-Mart before you do. They make all the money, and you are left penniless.

Well, that doesn't happen because the law protects you.

Plagiarism - What it is, how to avoid it PLAGIARISM

DEFINITION #1: Plagiarism is copying something without crediting the source. DEFINITION #2: Plagiarism is stealing.

The difference between quoting and paraphrasing When you write a paper, you read a lot of material about the topic. This helps you to

examine the various aspects of a topic to understand it. By the time you have thoroughly researched what has been written, you will start to form ideas of your own, see patterns, and be able to think about the topic in your own words.

Along the way, you probably took a lot of notes, copied articles, and searched the Web looking for information. The material you find and include in your paper is what you have to list (or reference) in your bibliography.

Quoting What is quoting? To state what someone else has written, word for word, using their words.

Sometimes something you read is exactly the point you want to make, and is written so well you want to use it directly. You can do so legally by quoting. Anything you directly quote must be put in quotation marks and referenced.

Paraphrasing What is paraphrasing? To paraphrase is to say the same thing, but in your own words.

Sometimes you like the content of a paragraph or section of something you read, and want to paraphrase, or restate it in your own words for your paper. Although it is not illegal, paraphrasing in scholarly papers must be cited as a professional courtesy. You need not use quotation marks unless the statement is word-for-word as it appears in your source, but if you paraphrase in papers required for school, you must acknowledge you are doing so with a footnote/endnote or parenthetical

How do you avoid plagiarizing? Give the author of the material credit by " documenting" or

" citing" your sources (terms which mean you credit your source).

Give credit whenever you use a direct quote by placing it in quotation marks and giving the author credit.

Give credit whenever you paraphrase (state/write in a different way) a thought, idea, or words within the research paper and at the end of the paper in the bibliography

Give credit within a research paper through footnotes or parenthetical remarks.

Give credit at the end of a research paper in the bibliography.

Common Knowledge

What you don't have to cite You don't have to cite some things because they're common knowledge

and are not considered the work of any particular person. Examples of common knowledge are:

There are four seasons in the year. There 365 days in a year. The U.S. entered World War II after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. The state bird of Georgia is the brown thrasher.

How can you tell if something is common knowledge?

Common knowledge is information that the majority of people either know or can find in a number of sources. Common knowledge is factual information that is beyond dispute. Sure, you might not remember (or ever have known) what Georgia's state bird is, but you can easily look it up in an almanac, encyclopedia, the state's Web site, or other resource.

If you're not sure whether something is common knowledge or not, go ahead and provide a reference for it.

Citations

Where did you get that information? " Where did you get that dress?"

When you reply, " I got it at Macy's," you are citing the source.

Citing on paper is the same thing. When you cite a piece of information, you're telling everyone where you got it.

There are many different styles of citation. For example, the Modern Language Association (MLA) bibliography style is used in literature classes, and the American Psychological Association (APA) style is used in psychology and many social science classes. The MLA style gives very specific instructions on citing lines from a poem, but the APA style doesn't (after all, how often do you need to quote poetry in a biology paper?)

Style Manuals

What are style manuals and why do you use them?

Style manuals are books that illustrate how to correctly format and record information. They are most frequently consulted for information on formatting citations, but they also include a variety of other information that is useful for research, including where to find information for the bibliography, general rules of punctuation, formatting footnotes, spacing, indention, form of author's name, etc.

When your professors publish an article, they follow a style manual, too. Using the right citation style is an important part of learning to do research in your field.

There are several different styles used in research with style manuals for each style. Only three of the styles are shown here. The three that are shown below are styles which are frequently used in colleges and universities.

Where do you find style manuals? Bookstores Reference section of academic libraries The reference section of some public libraries

Style Manuals

MLA Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed., NY: Modern Language Association, 1999. Used for literature, arts, and humanities papers.

APA Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 6th ed. Washington: American Psychological Association, 1994. Used for psychology, education, and other social sciences papers. The APA guide was published too early to provide formats for electronic sources. They have a Web

site which provides this information: Electronic Reference Formats Recommended by the American Psychological

Turabian Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 7th ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Designed for college students to be used in various subjects.

How do you know which style manual to use?The instructor for a course will usually indicate the style you should use to write the paper and prepare your bibliography.

The style used is also determined by the subject area in which you are conducting research and writing a paper. If you don't know, then ask.

Keep in mind that style manuals are updated as it becomes necessary to add or modify information in them. Therefore, at some point in time, the style manuals shown above will be updated as later editions (and have different covers).

The Styles

A brief showcase Although the styles are different, all styles require the same three pieces of

information. That is: 1. author (when a work has an author),

2. title

3. publication information

The following examples illustrate how the same information about a book is recorded differently according to a specific style:

MLAList, Carla. Introduction to Information Research. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1998

APAList, C. (1998). Introduction to information research. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt.

TurabianList, Carla. 1998. An introduction to information research. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt.

Note that all three styles include the same information (author, title, publication information) recorded in a slightly different fashion (placement of items, italics, parentheses).

Where You Give Credit

Bibliographies, footnotes and parentheticals You give credit in two ways: within the paper in footnotes or parentheticals and

at the end of a paper in the bibliography.

Bibliography Definition: A list of sources used in a research paper. It is composed of a list of citations. Citations include the author, when listed on

the work, the title, and the publication information of a work. The bibliography usually appears at the end of a research paper. Depending on the style used, it may be called bibliography, references, works cited, or other terms.

Footnotes and parentheticals Most styles use either footnotes, endnotes, or parentheticals. Footnotes are

placed at the bottom of a page, and endnotes are placed on a separate page at the end of the paper. Most word processors will do these for you automatically.

A parenthetical is a brief reference in parentheses at the end of a sentence referring the reader to a full citation in the bibliography. The name 'parentheticals' comes from the fact that this type of citation is enclosed in brackets — which is another word for 'parentheses'.

Both footnotes and parenthicals are ways in which the researcher gives credit within a research paper. For more information on footnotes and parentheticals, refer to a style manual.

Copyright Law

What is it? Copyright is about protecting creators. Whenever someone

creates something new by putting pen to paper, choreographing a dance, designing a graph, or taking a photo — it is theirs from the moment of its creation forward. And the creator's rights to benefit from that work (literary, artistic, musical, dramatic, written or unwritten) — financially or otherwise — is protected by law.

Copyright law protects authors from having their works copied without their permission. (Title 17 of the United States Code; Copyright Act of 1976).

When the creator of a work dies, the rights to benefit from a work passes to his/her family and continues for 70 years after the creator's death; at that point, the work enters the 'public domain.'

Public Domain

Definition: Works which are not owned by someone, and therefore not protected by copyright. A work may be in the public domain because: 1. it was created before copyright laws (example: the Bible),

2. its copyright protection has expired (example: Moby Dick),

3. it never had copyright protection or its protection was lost (example: a work published before March 1, 1989 and did not carry a copyright notice),

4. it was dedicated to the public domain.

In addition, the following items are never covered by copyright:1. works created by the U.S. government (except under contract).

2. reprints of works in the public domain (but a license may restrict use.)

3. ideas, facts, and common property (i.e., calendars and phone books)

4. federal laws and court decisions

5. words, names, slogans and phrases

6. most blank forms

7. recipes, discoveries, procedures, and systems (but not the words that describe them.)

If the work is not one of these works and was published after 1988, it is not in the public domain. Due to new laws extending copyright, no new work will enter the public domain until 2019.

Fair Use

The reasonable limits of copyright protection There are limitations on copyright protection. The Copyright Act

allows " fair use" of copyrighted materials for three purposes: 1. Creative fair use by authors who copy from other works to create their own

work.

2. Personal fair use by individuals who copy from works for their own learning or entertainment.

3. Educational fair use by teachers, scholars, and students who copy for teaching, scholarship or learning.

There are four factors that determine whether a use is fair:1. The purpose of the use. — Is it for commercial or non-profit educational use?

2. The nature of the work. — Is it a creative work, a compilation, or a derivative work?

3. The amount used in relation to the work as a whole. — The greater the amount used the more likely the use will infringe on the owners' right of duplication.

4. The effect of the use on the market or potential market for the work. — The greater the market impact the less fair the use.

Fair UseExample of Fair use Theft• You bought a CD and want to make copies of a song to use in a presentation.

• You bought a CD and want to make a copy of a song to use in a play — you will be charging at the door.

Fair use because: You already paid for the CD. You are using the song one time only. You aren't profiting monetarily from the presentation.

Not fair use because: You will profit from the venture. The composer of the song is due royalties.

• Your professor wants you to read an article from a 1985 magazine. She puts it on reserve in the library for your class to read.

• The required textbook for your class is very expensive. You pool your money with your classmates, buy one copy of the book, and make photocopies of it for everyone else.

Fair use because: The magazine is no longer sold, so you couldn't buy a copy even if you wanted to. If the professor didn't put it on reserve, students would still read the library's copy.

Not fair use because: The author of the book is getting (almost) nothing for his work. The book is in print and available for purchase. What you have done is not that different from walking into the bookstore and stealing twenty copies of the book.

• You're creating a Web presentation for your philosophy class on ethics and you've found this 'Far Side' cartoon that gets across your point perfectly. You scan in the cartoon and upload it to your presentation page in your WebCT class site.

• You're doing a Web site on your favorite cartoons. You include your all-time favorites.

Fair use IF: It's in a password-protected class Web site where only students enrolled in the class have access to it for the duration of the class. It is a one-time use, then it is deleted.

Not fair use because: You have just made the cartoonist's products freely available to the entire world. A cartoonist's livelihood depends on people paying to see these in newspapers and books. Do you feel lucky? Because you might just get a call from the cartoonist's lawyers.

Additional Resources

http://library.acadiau.ca/tutorials/plagiarism/

http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/ http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/

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