At JEI, we do not tolerate plagiarism in submitted manuscripts; however, we understand that sometimes it can occur unintentionally and in most cases we give our authors a chance to fix it before publication. The information on this page will help you understand how to avoid plagiarism by thinking about when you should provide citations, and what it means to properly paraphrase information from other sources in scientific writing. We also provide you with a few tips and tricks our volunteers find helpful in their own research to avoid plagiarism!
When are citations needed?
There are only two cases where a citation is not needed:
Your own ideas - If you are providing your own opinion or thoughts on a subject, then you do not need to provide a citation. However, it is important to be clear in your writing when you are providing a personal opinion, so that the reader doesn’t think you are stating a well-known fact.
Common knowledge - If the information you are providing is common knowledge, then you do not need to provide a citation. It can sometimes be challenging to distinguish what is considered common knowledge, though. Ask yourself whether your peers at school would know and accept the information as reliable without having to look it up. If so, then it would probably be considered ‘common knowledge’. If not, you need to cite it. When in doubt, it is safest to cite your source.
In all other cases, a citation is needed to support your claims. Citations alone do not prevent plagiarism, you must follow additional guidelines in order to prevent plagiarism of others’ ideas in your manuscript.
How do I use information from my sources?
There are two main ways to incorporate information from other sources into your writing:
Paraphrasing
Taking the original author’s ideas and rewrite them into your own words. Even when you paraphrase information from other sources you still need to cite your source(s) as the ideas belong to the original author. At JEI, we anticipate that most of your citations will be associated with sentences paraphrasing previous studies or ideas that support your own research.
When paraphrasing make sure you are doing more than just rearranging the words and/or phrases from the source material. Making sure you fully understand the information you want to paraphrase makes it much easier to use your own words to explain the ideas of the original author!
Direct Quotations
Using the original author’s exact words and surrounding the quote with quotation marks. JEI discourages the use of direct quotes in manuscripts as paraphrasing is preferred in scientific writing.
Original Passage: "Long-term memory, that immensely complex storehouse, has also been most extensively studied with the use of verbal materials, usually presented in the form of long lists. As we shall see, this approach has resulted in some extremely important findings, but it has also been a bit misleading. After all, remembering lists of words is somewhat different from remembering a conversation, a recipe, or the plot of a movie" (Klatsky, 1975, p.17).
Inappropriate Paraphrase: Long term memory is a complex storehouse that has been studied extensively using verbal materials presented in the form of long lists. While this approach has resulted in some important findings, it has been misleading. Remembering a list is not like remembering a discussion or a movie (Klatsky, 1975).
Appropriate Paraphrase: Researchers usually study long term memory by having subjects attempt to recall aloud items from long lists. Because such a task is different in important ways from the kinds of tasks long term memory is usually called upon to perform, our findings are somewhat questionable (Klatsky, 1975).
The inappropriate paraphrase would be considered plagiarism because the student does not really use their own words. Instead, they simply rearrange the words and phrases from the original passage, only omitting a few words. Importantly, the inappropriate paraphrase could have been written by someone who did not understand the original passage at all. When paraphrasing, it is important to make sure you understand the original passage before rewriting it into your own words. You should never include material that you don’t understand in your own work.
Tips to help you avoid plagiarism
Keep detailed notes: By keeping detailed notes through the research process, you will not have to reference the original source material as you are writing. In this way you will have two rounds of paraphrasing ensuring that the final product is not too close to the original source.
Use a citation manager: Citation managers are programs that allow you to add citations as you write. They will automatically populate your references page and allow you to move sentences around without your citations getting out of order. Free options include Mendeley and Zotero. Endnote has a free online option or a paid desktop version which may be available through school systems that use Microsoft Office.
Take time for citations: Ensure that you designate enough time to focus exclusively on your citations. This is an important part of the writing process and can take several hours to complete properly.
Critically read the final draft: When you feel you have a finished product, carefully read through each sentence and critically evaluate whether it needs a citation and if the works cited are appropriate.
Ask for help: Teachers and librarians are wonderful sources of help. If you get stuck, have a question, or want to ensure that your manuscript is appropriately cited, reach out to someone who is an expert in writing. (Hint: Librarians get degrees in how to conduct research so they will be excellent sources of information)
“Plagiarism and You” is a short video from Algonquin College, Canada, that defines plagiarism, provides multiple examples, and provides tips on how you can avoid plagiarizing.