Plagiarism and ReferencingBecky Blunk

Subject Liaison Librarianb.blunk@ucs.ac.uk

Session OutcomesUnderstand what plagiarism is and how to

avoid it.Understand how to reference books, journal

articles and reliable websites.Understand how to use citations

in-text.Develop and understanding

about how UCS Harvard referencing works for numerous sources

Understanding plagiarism = Understanding referencing

What is plagiarism? Examples?

Is plagiarism theft/stealing?

What are the consequences of plagiarism as students?

What types of plagiarism are you aware of?

How can you avoid committing plagiarism?

Is this plagiarism?If you include the following information in an essay, is it plagiarism?

The Unicode Consortium develops, extends and promotes the use of the Unicode Standard.

Why? Why not?

What is common knowledge?

Common knowledgeAs a general rule, a fact is said to be “common” knowledge when:It is widely accessible- you may not know the population of

Germany, but you would be able to easily find the answer from numerous sources.

It is likely to be known by many peopleIt can be found in a general reference resource, such as a

dictionary or encyclopaedia

Within particular disciplines, the boundaries of what is “common” knowledge and what is “expert” knowledge can be ambiguous, especially the further you get into your studies. If it isn’t common knowledge, you are required to reference your source. If you are in doubt, ask your tutor or librarian.

Is this plagiarism?You have to write an essay for a module assessment. When studying for the essay you take notes from one of your course textbooks, without keeping a record of where you got the notes. You then add some ideas from notes you took during a seminar.You write up all of the notes in your essay, not remembering what came from your lecture notes and what came from the textbook.

Is this plagiarism?You have to write an other essay for a module assessment. You read a book chapter about the topic and get some good ideas for your essay.

You write your essay and use the ideas from the book but use your own words to describe the ideas.

You don’t reference the book in your essay.

Is this plagiarism?You and a classmate like to work together as you are good friends and are studying the same modules.

You work together on an essay for one of your module assignments. You work on one section while your friend works on another. You both work on some sections together and write your own introductions and conclusions.

Both you and your friend submit essays containing sections that have exactly the same content.

What is collusion?Collusion occurs when, unless with official approval (e.g. in the case of group projects), two or more students consciously collaborate in the preparation and production of work which is ultimately submitted by each in an identical, or substantially similar, form and/or is represented by each to be the product of his or her individual efforts. Collusion also occurs where there is unauthorised co-operation between a student and another person in the preparation and production of work which is presented as the student’s own.

http://www.liv.ac.uk/students/student-administration-centre/policies-procedures/plagiarism-collusion.htm

Is this plagiarism?You’ve written an essay and have provided a references/ bibliography/ works cited page, however you did not include all of your in-text citations and used Harvard, not UCS Harvard style to reference.

Does this still count as plagiarism, as you did provide a reference list?

Is this plagiarism?You had to write an essay about pseudocodes and found this on the internet:

No standard for pseudocode syntax exists, as a program in pseudocode is not an executable program. Pseudocode resembles, but should not be confused with skeleton programs, including dummy code, which can be compiled without errors.

You copied and pasted it into your essay from this website:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudocode

You provided an in-text citation and reference at the end of your essay.

Is this plagiarism? What are the problems associated with doing this?

Review of types of plagiarismCollusion

SelfWord Switch

Copy and pasteUndeclared

How to avoid plagiarism• Honesty- giving credit where

credit is due• Give yourself plenty of time to

complete your work• Make sure you have the study

skills you need• Use your own work as often as

possible*• Cite and references your

resources properly• When in doubt, ASK!

How do you know what websites to use?How do you know if you are using a reliable

internet source?What are your criteria for using free

resources from the internet (this excludes journal articles found through Summon and UCS databases)?

What are some examples of internet resources you consider to be reliable?

What types of information do you cite and reference from internet resources?

Referencing guide you MUST useUCS Harvardhttps://my.ucs.ac.uk/Library/Referencing/UCS-Harvard.aspx

Harvard Referencing Hard copy/Print items

Who? Wrote it - Author/s or Editor/s

(When)? Was it published (Year)

What? Is it called? Title (in italics)

Where? Was it published

Who? Published it - name of Publisher

Harvard Referencing Internet/Website sources

1. Who? is/are the author/s2. When? was it published3. What? is the title (italics)4. Where? can you find it online? -

Available at: web address5. When? did you access it (Accessed 1

January 2013)

Harvard ReferencingBooks: Print and Online (e-books)

Print exampleSheusi, J. (2013) Android application development for Java programmers. Boston: Cengage Learning. Electronic exampleSAME!Downloaded exampleSheusi, J. (2013) Android application development for Java programmers. Available at: http://www.amazon.co.uk/kindle-ebooks (Downloaded 17 September 2013).

Note: When downloading ebooks, you may find it helpful to add a general statement at the end of your reference list informing your tutor that the text are available on your e-device. You should also include the date that you downloaded them.

Harvard ReferencingPrint Journals/Electronic Journals

Print example:Reza, J. (2012) ‘Java supervenience’, Computer Languages Systems & Structures, 38(1), pp. 73-97.Electronic example:Reza, J. (2012) ‘Java supervenience’, Computer Languages Systems & Structures, 38(1), pp. 73-97. doi: 10.1016/j.cl.2011.08.002.

**Note: Even if you are only using the abstract of an article, you will need to provide the full reference in your list. You will need to indicate the use of the abstract in your in-text citation.**

Harvard ReferencingWebsite

The Chartered Institute for IT. (no date) Digital literacy and education. Available at: http://www.bcs.org/category/17855(Accessed: 17 March 2014).

Citing the report in an essay (in-text citation) QuotingUsing a direct quote from the report:

‘A benefit argued for qualitative frameworks is that it iseasier to gather input from, and display information to,users/stakeholders in qualitative terms’ (Kearney and Brunner, 2007, p. 143).

Direct quotes should be used sparingly and only when strictly necessary.Always give the page number for direct quotes

Citing the report in an essay (in-text citation) ParaphrasingParaphrasing: using your own words to describe what an author said:

Therefore, as highlighted by Kearney and Brunner, (2007, p. 142), there are advantages and disadvantages to increased system security, therefore it is best to weigh the risk and cost when deciding what amount to use.

Always give the page number when paraphrasing

Citing the report in an essay (in-text citation) General mentionWhen referring in a general way to the contents of a report:

The BT Security Research Centre continues working toward developing secure network systems (Kearney and Brunner 2009).

No page number necessary when making a general reference to a source.

Questions?For additional help, contact:UCS Library Help Desklibrary@ucs.ac.uk

Learning Development Teamlearningdevelopment@ucs.ac.uk

Meb.blunk@ucs.ac.uk