Really, this discussion thread initiated by Sai Kishore is powerful. However, some answers are more powerful and should be written with gold-water. I feel that I am a student in front of the following sentences, to name a few:
- Dr. Zulfiqar Ali Mirani said about her supervisor "She always insists on honesty. So whenever you follow the rules and apply these rules of honesty on every corner of life you never cheat."
- Dr. Natalie Reid taught me how to deal with my students when she said: "up to 25% of quotations as a real stretch (fewer are better), more than that shows the student's or beginning researcher's lack of original thinking."
- Dr. Natalie Reid also advise me when she said: "My advice is to make sure that you--and your students--do real research, not "Wikipedia" research when looking for attribution."
Yes, as Dr. Natalie Reid said "The rules of the game are fairly straightforward".
this term is usually used for research material ........ and it means the intimacy or closeness between your research material and any other research....(how much have to copied 'as it is' from some one else's work)
the best way to avoid it is that you go through a lot of research material from net or from print media.....read it thoroughly and then REPRODUCE it in your own words....(instead of copying a paragraph from one journal and one paragraph from other). Internationally around 5% Plagiarism is allowed...with reference....more than that will be considered as rejection of your research/paper/journal.
@Hira- Thanks for your crisp, brief explanation. Moreover, I feel that plagiarism destroys ones own ability to think properly. Not all good thinkers can be good writers, but, sometimes laziness as well as time factor might play a major role in people to involve in plagiarism.
@Rajesh- Well said Mr. Rajesh. I have a doubt. If any sentence said by 'xyz et al' in any article, can it be reproduced in our own words in the thesis we intend to write by citing that 'xyz et al' at the end of the line?
i think that the better way to avoid plagiarism is to put the original words of the writer in quotes and when you want to paraphrase the writer just put his name, BUT never use a idea,or expression which belongs to somebody else as yours.
i hope it was helpfull for you!
@Stavroula- Thanks for your expert opinion. I did not mean to say that "using someone's idea". What I meant was, "re-phrasing a sentence said by someone in our own words and mentioning their name as reference at the end of the line".
Example:- Imagine that an article has the following lines -> 'Diabetes Mellitus is caused due to insulin insufficiency. It is of two types, type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes; (xyz et al)'
If I re-phrase the above mentioned sentence in my article with citing the same author as; -> "Insulin deficiency that causes Diabetes Mellitus is classified as type 1 and type 2 diabetes mellitus; (XYZ et al)"
WILL YOU CALL THIS AS PLAGIARISM?
If YES, explain the reason, similarly,
If NO, explain why this is not a Plagiarism?
Thanks,. the answer is no...because, as i mention before , you have to make your reference to the original author ,thats all!
:) well Rajesh i was being brief :P :P
i didnt really go for PURE meaning of it in Academic writing and yeah, have seen researches being rejected thanks to that software :)
i am about to start final semester research so ..............have fingers crossed :P
too much work and less time.
@ stefan......thanks for informing about how the soft ware works......will keep that in mind
Dr Stefan has rightly said. i wnt to add little more, if u quote it as ref, it is research otherwise it is plagiarism. you can read any book and write in ur own words, if u dont quote, one can get out of it. otherwise caught. the present day software are filled with millions of documents and this software compares with wht has been written and identifies the copy materials
@ Stefan- Thanks a lot Sir, for taking time to comment on my post. I really appreciate your keenness. And a special thanks for mentioning the software.
@ Laxmanrao- Thanks a lot for your valuable input Sir. I will definitely make a not of your advice.
@ All - Thanks all for taking time to comment on this post. I appreciate all your valuable comments.
friends, i found this very useful t get clarified the issues. i think just one reading gave me some more thoughts and additional input had been added. I am thankful to all contributors and specially RESEARCH GATE.
Una buena forma de estar enterado sobre lo que se puede y debe hacer es atenerse a algunas de las normas internacionales, como por ejemplo la norma APA que determina cómo citar, parafrasear, comentar cualquier material ajeno.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm english please..........!!! @ Miguel Almenar :) i did translate it though :) and agree that one should stick to only one international standard for research as some people do mistake of using 2 or more ways to write a research paper which does not look appealing.
Usually a serious research is focused to falsify previus results (Karl Popper). So we need to work with citations, copying texts and formulas, but paying the cultural debt, citating the first author. This road is not the main one for those who have some problems in order of research production. In our University we have, now, a full professor who made plagiarism with a foreign author. But, every one of us usually have many friends and colleagues all over the word. So the best thing is to evitate completely plagiarism, also the one camoufled over the changing of worlds or phrase construction. I understand wery well those unhable to create an own research. But in this case the better way is to change profession.
@Miguel Almenar - Gracias, señor. Que es un excelente punto de que usted ha mencionado. Realmente lo aprecio.
@ Hira and Pietro Zennaro - Thanks once again for posting your expert opinion.
@ All - I am really overwhelmed by the response I have got so far.
Three questions. First, often as I read/research I make connections on my own. Later in further reading I find that someone else has also said (and published) said thought. Since I made a connection before I saw it written, how is citation handled?
Secondly, I often read the same (but different) thought in multiple sources; I cite it, of course, the first several times I see it. However I keep reading and see it again and again (often authors quote each other as well). but am not sure about citing the ten or more sources where I also read it.
Thirdly, I've found wonderful work within a work. Do I need to go back to the original (often unavailable?) or give credit to the original author within a citation of the second author?
@ Vicki - I am answering your queries with all the little knowledge I have.
1) It is good that you make connections of what ever you read, on your own. If you find that the inter-connecting sentence (what you thought) was already said in any article, (I feel that) there is nothing wrong in quoting that particular author. But in case, if you have already made an inter-connecting sentence on your own, and later you find that the particular line has been said by some other author, it is advisable for your good-self to quote that corresponding author itself in order to avoid being stamped as plagiarism during the time of review or publication.
2) You need not have to cite all the 10 or 12 articles where you find the same sentence being repeated. Yes, authors do cite/quote each other. In that case, it is better to pick that particular sentence from the latest published article and quote the corresponding author alone.
3) I have come across such kind. I completely understand what you are trying to say.
Example:- Consider that you come across a sentence like this ->
"Rifampcin is the drug of choice for tuberculosis" -> which was said by XYZ et al,2011. If suppose, that XYZ et al has taken the above line from some other paper, obviously he would have cited that author-> let's say that as "Rifampcin is the drug of choice for tuberculosis" [7] -> which means [7] denotes the reference as (say) ABC et al. Now, if you are confused which author to cite, You can simple write in the following format->
"Rifampcin is the drug of choice for tuberculosis", XYZ et al, 2011 (c.f [7], pg.550). Where "XYZ et al, 2011" denotes the author from whom you used that line and "c.f [7], pg.550" denotes ABC et al and their journal page number where it has originally been published.
(c.f = cited from)
I hope that this explanation has served your purpose.
@ Sal: THANK YOU! I've been searching for this information for some time; with your permission I will copy your reply and stick it in my APA book. At last, answers to these conundrums not found in "the book". I confess I often wish I could say, "I thought of that myself" (although I do cite it despite the hit to my self-esteem), but totally understand that I do not in anyway wish to be "stamped" as a plagiarizing (while in reality, someone did think of "it" ahead of me). I do appreciate not having to go back through all of the articles I pulled to cite them when they say the same thing (and worry about missing one); I like your suggestion to use the latest citation. Finally, I appreciate your example #3; I've been doing that instinctively but wasn't sure. Two follow-up questions re: answer #3.
A. If the article "c.f." is available, must I look it up or may I use the same procedure? I'm not lazy; I just have SO many articles already pulled.
B. How is article ABC (the original) referenced if I never saw it?
One more question: how can I tell what is "general knowledge" v knowledge that must be cited? What's general to me may be new to others.
This is my first experience with ResearchGate and I am very satisfied and enjoyed and learned from all the other posts as well. Thank you all.
I tell you about a really recent case we had here in Venice. A very famous historical architect, Michele Sanmicheli (1484-1559), come centuries ago wrote a document. Many researchers cite this document in the history. But this document was lost and the researchers continued work citating somebody who cite this document. At the end, the exact content was lost. After many years one of my searchrs discovered twice this document. It is very funny to see what appened into the chain of citations.
Obviously it's not easy to find the right way, but a kind of intellectual honesty may be the main way for the prosecution of our searches.
@ Vicki -
RE: A - If you have that "c.f" article with you which was by ABC et al, still, the article of XYZ et al becomes the latest one comparing the both. So it's always better to cite your lines from the latest available articles.
RE: B - If you had never seen/ had that ABC et al article with you, then better don't use that author's name.
I shall make it simple for you ->
"DO NOT CITE ANY AUTHOR NAME IF YOU DO NOT HAVE THAT CORRESPONDING ARTICLE WITH YOU".
I gave you that #3 example only to clear your doubt. I am not saying that #3 was wrong. Such citations are carried out only in extreme cases, where that particular line becomes the heart of your whole article, and where, without that one particular line your whole article becomes life-less. Only in such cases you can quote two different authors who have said the SAME SENTENCE IN THE SAME MANNER. It is a situation where, it becomes unimpeachable for you also to neither avoid that particular sentence, nor you could say it differently. I hope you do not get confused.
There are also some styles for citing in an article available such as APA STYLE, VANCOUVER STYLE, etc., Everything depends on.,
-> which citation style you are following;
-> which journal you are intended to publish;
-> what the journal requirements are;
I am sorry, I did not understand your last question -> general knowledge vs knowledge. Please be clear.
@ Pietro - I really appreciate your example Sir. Good one. Thanks for sharing such interesting facts.
@ Jan Rasmus - Sure Sir, I shall correct my mistake. I apologize. Thanks to your good-self for pin-pointing those tiny errors.
Well, Jan, I wrote an article about this topic, but.... is in romanian language :( I don't agree any kind of plagiarism or auto-plagiarism. Try APA Manual. They define very well this problem. I can send you a PDF copy if you want.
@ Jan Rasmus - Thanks for your expert opinion Sir.
@ Cristian - It would be beneficial to everyone if you could share that PDF file here.
@ Sai - I know, but that can be quite difficult because of copywrite issues. I don't know what to do, but email sending cand be pretty good. Give me other sugestions.
@ Cristian - Please post your email id here so that who ever needs it can text you.
@ Sal: I've been pondering general knowledge (E=MC2) v what is general knowledge to me in the field I am currently writing. I can not even tell you where I got some of the knowledge that to me is a part of me because of my voracious reading habit. I think I mean that if my readers might now understand a term or concept that is familiar to me (but not them), I must look it up and cite it, but if they might know it already (ie., grass is green), "green grass" is general knowledge that need not be cited. For example, I know that children with chronic illnesses are usually ahead of their peers developmentally; I read it somewhere preparing for a class. However, my audience might need me to look it up and cite it to avoid plagiarism. Is that correct? Does "general knowledge" depend upon the audience? I appreciate your answers, and enjoy learning from everyone else on this post.
@ All - I thank everyone sincerely for participating in this debate which I consider it as a healthy discussion. I really enjoyed answering some of your queries, and learned a lot from all of your valuable inputs.
Hats-Off to all of you!
@Vicki: Just a loud thinking. If audience and the 'context' are one and the same then "General knowledge" may depend on audience. In the example you gave, I think the audience may expect the citation as they are unaware of it. If one is failed to cite correctly to substantiate any statement (ex: in class) I do not think it is plagiarism as faithfulness is maintained. If you see, particularly from Sanskrit literature, one can quote numerous citations, but many a time, they can't be attributed to certain author/text, say, with regard to 'wise sayings'. You can not afford one's ignorance at the cost of repeatedly citing generally known things. All that depends on how you treat "general" the "knowledge". Thanks.
When I teach, I often quote (aloud) various statements that I have picked up over the years. But when I started writing my book on getting published in international journals, I had to not only find the actual sources for all those statements but also formally request permission to use them. I'll get to plagiarism in a moment.
The rules of the game are fairly straightforward: when one is quoting another scholar, scientist, or philosopher in a professional paper for journal publication, a citation in parentheses (along with a full bibliographical citation) is sufficient. "'Social capital is.....' (Bourdieu, 19__).'" The author does not have to get formal permissions because the author is not making any money from using the quote. In contrast, if the quote is in a book for which a publisher plans to sell, then the publisher or the author has to get permission from either the publisher of the statement or, in some cases, the author's estate. (And permissions often cost money, e.g., I deleted a wonderful 13-word quotation, along with mention of the book it was in, because the publisher wanted about US $200 for its use.)
As for plagiarism, again, I think the "rules" are fairly simple: If one quotes directly from another party, using his or her exact words, one must give attribution or one is plagiarizing. This is where paraphrasing comes in. If one takes several sentences or paragraphs from another party but rewrites or synthesizes the material in one's own words, then all one has to do is give general attribution (e.g., "In relation to social capital, Bourdieu says that..."). The "that" is the signal that one is explaining what Bourdieu says, in one's own words, rather than quoting Bourdieu.
I also agree with an earlier comment that professional or student papers should not be composed primarily of quotations. While I will accept, say, up to 25% of quotations as a real stretch (fewer are better), more than that shows the student's or beginning researcher's lack of original thinking.
Moreover, as far as quoting from the internet goes, I have learned to take anything I read there with a grain of salt. For example, the well-known American saying "There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting" is variously attributed to Louis Brandeis, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway.... My advice is to make sure that you--and your students--do real research, not "Wikipedia" research, when looking for attribution.
@ Prasad - Thanks for your expert opinion Sir.
@ Natalie - That was an excellent, brief description of the whole content Madam.
The Wikipedia issue both fascinates and saddens me. I remember using encyclopedias, knowing that the information contained in them would be accurate--outdated, to be sure, and with omissions (women's history, black history, being among the "missing"). But we also knew that serious scientists and historians were writing the articles (just as scientists and other professionals are involved in the making of unabridged English dictionaries), and that fact-checkers were on the job. Now anybody can say anything online and post anything online, with no attribution or source or proof of accuracy, and (sadly) online readers believe whatever agrees with their viewpoint or accept whatever seems to fill an academic gap.
Research demands time and perseverance, including lots of serious offline reading (libraries, anyone?) and double-checking of "facts" and sources. As Leon Litwack, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Been in the Storm So Long" and my mentor at Berkeley, always cautioned his history students (and returning to the issue of plagiarism), "Never quote a secondary source." In other words, if they can paraphrase the subject, you can paraphrase it just as well. Instead, go to the original source, the primary source. Nothing less will do.
@ Natalie - Those words were really awesome Mam - "If they can paraphrase the subject you can do it as well".
Cite words or paragraph u taken from research articles after paraphrase it. Researchers required citation and wikipedia is not acceptable as references in scientific journals.
@ all - I once again extend my sincere thanks to one and all for sharing your experience's and opinion's, without which this post would have become useless. It is only because of you all, I learnt a lot, which I consider priceless. (Information on Plagiarism, Everyone et al, 2011.)
I think the important thing to remember is, as the old saying goes, to give credit where credit is due. Put quotation marks around another person's words (those words represent that person's hard work), with the proper citation; and appropriately cite anyone whose words you have paraphrased (because those ideas are theirs, not yours). Only your argument and your ideas go "uncited."
@ Natalie - Thanks once again for your valuable comments Mam.
@ Stefan - Thanks a lot for your comments Sir.
I found this recent article on plagiarism which was interesting. I thought of sharing with you people. Here's the link ->
"Experiments to Investigate the Utility of Nearest Neighbour Metrics Based
on Linguistically Informed Features for Detecting Textual Plagiarism" by Per Almquist and Jussi Karlgren.
(https://dspace.utlib.ee/dspace/bitstream/handle/10062/17340/0Almquist_Kalgren_59.pdf?sequence=1)
Looks like we're talking about two different subjects here and conflating them: 'plagiarism' and 'copyright infringement'. "Plagiarism" is taking someone else's words or ideas and either overtly claiming them as one's own or implying ownership by not giving proper credit to the true author. Thus to avoid plagiarism all you need to do is make sure you put proper citations on all quotes, and attribute ideas to the correct authors even when 'paraphrasing'.
Copyright infringement, on the other hand, is a whole different can of worms. Generally speaking you can include up to about a paragraph of material from a copyrighted work without getting permission as long as you are not using the material for commercial purposes. It falls under "Fair Use": http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html in the US Code. More than that, though, and you have to go through the whole seeking permission rigamarole which is difficult, time-consuming, and expensive - and usually not worth it.
When in doubt, paraphrase :)
Plagiarism – I learnt from the editor of Euresian Publications:
1. Not to repeat the sentence/s or not even repetitions of continual few words of the author but you can quote their work as reference and say what you have to say about that worker’s work in your own words applying to your context.
2. You cannot comment on the other workers’ faults or negativity or mistakes or wrong data. But you can write this way: “according to the workers (quote authors names and year of publications) and say what they have found. Then you continue with your work saying, “ the present study reveals that ,,,,,,,,,,.
3. Explaining or depicting materials and methods in total detail is also plagiarism.
4. Kindly read the Euresian Publication’s manuscript format and they have given files on plaigiarism.
@ Jenna - The main idea was to bring 'Plagiarism' into lime light. But it's a double bonus if we get to know about 'copyright infringement' too. Thanks a lot for your comment and also for that (LII) link. I wonder if that law is applicable only inside US or elsewhere too..!
@ Sunitha - Thanks a lot for your comment. It would be beneficial for all of us if you could kindly share that Euresian Publication Manuscript (if available) here.
You can use this "plagiarism detector" eTBLAST http://etest.vbi.vt.edu/etblast3/ . It is easy to use, just enter the text of interest in the box, select the database you want to search and hit "search for similar text" button
Rolando mil gracias por el detector de plagio lo utilizaré
@ sai About Plagiarism - Euresian Publications
www.environmentaljournals.org/About%20Plagiarism.pdf
@ Rosa Maria - Gracias por la Señora comentario..!
@ Sunitha - Thanks a lot for sharing the article Madam..!
I think this is a nice article about plagiarism: http://writingcenter.unc.edu/resources/handouts-demos/citation/plagiarism.
Sai check this link out too good review on plagiarism
https://ilrb.cf.ac.uk/plagiarism/tutorial/index.html
@ Owais - Thank you so much for the wonderful link Sir. I too feel it's a must for every researcher.
IMHO the problem is in delimitation of two properties:
an author "property" of saying smth in a uniquely defined form as a first one;
an economical "property" of making exclusive profit of using of such expression alike a material thing;
I agree with authorial properties, but I (by myself) strongly disagree with economical properties;
And another problem - there is a problem of priority (we know that some discoveries were made simultaneously by different authors;
in that case there are working mechanisms of glorifying, but not of real importance for science (as a real sphere of an application of human efforts);
Use the software Turn-it-in. If in doubt, check the original articles repeatedly to ensure that your understanding and paraphrasing is correct.
Thank you all intellects, for your wonderful and witty comments. I really appreciate and value all the comments made here. I feel really humbled and honored and hope I am not the only one to be benefited out of this.
Hola, para evitar el plagio, es necesario que los alumnos conozcan las reglas del manual de la APA y/o MLA. En la Universidad Virtual del ITESM utilizamos el SAFE ASSIGN que es una herramienta muy útil para detectar el plagio.
El sistema para detección de plagio Safe Assign mantiene una base de datos internacional en la cual residen los documentos enviados por los alumnos, así como referencias a otras bases de datos similares.
El software se basa en un algoritmo único de comparación de texto capaz de detectar similitudes exactas e inexactas entre el documento y material existente, de tal forma que los documentos enviados al sistema de SafeAssign se comparan con varios recursos:
Internet. Fuentes disponibles y catalogadas de Internet donde los alumnos puedan encontrar contenidos.
ProQuest ABI Inform database. Una base de datos con más de mil 100 títulos publicados y alrededor de 2.6 millones de artículos desde 1990 a la fecha, actualizado semanalmente.
Documentos institucionales. Un archivo que contiene todos los documentos evaluados a través de Safe Assign por diferentes usuarios en sus respectivas instituciones.
Base de datos de referencia global. Contiene documentos enviados voluntariamente por estudiantes a través de Blackboard para prevenir el plagio entre instituciones.
Una vez procesado el documento, el profesor puede revisar el reporte de autenticidad a través del Panel de Control de su grupo en Blackboard. Después de que el profesor revisa el reporte, puede proceder a asignar una calificación o a aplicar la política institucional en caso de detectar deshonestidad académica.
More information go------->http://safeassign.com/
Saludos,
Margarita Vázquez
@ Margarita - Gracias señora por la descripción hermosa sobre el software de plagio. Yo definitivamente se mira en él.
(Thank you madam for the lovely description about the plagiarism software. I shall definitely look into it.)
Sat sri akaal, Sai Kishore....the software works very well and I used with my students in their thesis.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!
Margarita Vázquez
Basically it is used to check if u have copied from anything ot not.....if u have copied from sum paper it will reveal it..and u caught red handed..... ;) but there is also 1 way to avoid it ;)
Recently I saw one good article related to plagiarism in academic writing. Please go through it.
Says:-
Thanks Dr. Mohammad for the nice article.
Thanks for the comment, Mr. Sarvesh.
This has helped us here in Brazil
SITES AND PROGRAMS FOR DETECTING PLAGIARISM
ScholarOne - http://scholarone.com/ (manage all the processes of publishing and scientific publication, covering flows and review tools and prevention of plagiarism.)
Turnitin - http://www.turnitin.com/ (services for the identification and prevention of plagiarism that aggregates educational tools)
Docxweb: http://www.docxweb.com (used to check plagiarism in papers, thesis)
http://www.plagium.com/ ( it creates a appropriation's timeline of the investigated text)
Plagiarism:http://www.plagiarismdetect.com/
Norwegian video on plagiarism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0iGFwqif5c&feature=player_embedded
Code of Good Scientific Practice in portuguese: http://www.fapesp.br/boaspraticas/codigo_fapesp0911.pdf
Says:-
Thank you so much Ms. Lina for all those lovely links. I hope these would serve our purpose too.
Says:-
Thank you Ms. Lucy for the article.
Ms. Sofia, that looks like a good question Madam. I hope you do get favorable replies.
Why not just make sure you reference and refer to the original theorist when discussing it.
I haven't tried the links as was suggested but I will try it out because I personally have problems with citations when writing. Thanking all of you.
Consider submitting your work to an online anti-plagarism program such as "Turn-it-in".
I've been working hard to avoid plagiarism, however I think it' s very dificult for us to correct texts and to make researches in the internet trying to find out if the student's lines are really of his own or not. In the last years I prefer to select the texts I intend to work with, and to ask the class to write reviews. This tecnique I use with the beginers (engeneering classes). In the second cicle I introduce books, and in the third I work with cientific articles. As far as they become more mature, they begin to develop their critical thinking, and it seems that they begin to leave behind the necessity of reproducing in their texts the same words and sentences they have already read.
Like Starr, I have used turnitin.com in some of my classes and always find it to be satisfying to know that my work is original. I do not want to present someone else's ideas as my own.
Says:-
Ms. Jennifer Betts & Ms. Sophia Daries - Thank you so much for your valuable suggestions.
Ms. Starr Eaddy & Ms. Wendi Beatty - Thanks for suggesting 'Turnitin'. They are one of the best anti-plagiarism software providers. Also one can try www.plagiarismsearch.com
Ms. Maria Emilia Tôrres - I wish I had a teacher like your good self.
Thanks everyone for your lovely comments and worthy suggestions..!
Most students don't want to "cheat", they just have a poor understanding of what plagiarism means. When my students copy and paste content into their assignments, I see it as a failure on my part as a teacher. When we spend time (a lot of time) discussing attribution and citation, the level of plagiarism drops.
Says:-
Well said Mr. Michael Rowe. It is not only the poor understanding alone, but the negligence to correct the mistakes makes it more difficult to avoid plagiarism.
One way of avoiding plagiarism is to understand the purpose of your writing and look for previous work or study that related to your study then reference it properly
Another way to avoid plagiarism is to write on your area of specialization and choose interesting/challenging topic
Says:-
Thanks for the 'two-point view' on plagiarism, Mr Adeyeye Adeyemi.
All ways reference at the end of every sentence you have paraphrased or quoted from or summarised from any book,journal,website etc. and also reference in your bibliography.
There is no harm in using other people's ideas and knowledge after all the wheel was invented long time ago but we have had modifications of the wheel since the first man made it. However, there is a problem when you use other people's ideas without acknowledging and claim they are your original ideas. That is plagiarism.
Francis Anyenda
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