How to avoid plagiarism while writing MS or Phd dissertation?
Mohammad Basit - Here are some common guidelines for avoiding plagiarism based on my book chapter, Research, Academic Integrity and Plagiarism in book: "Plagiarism and Its Impact on Academic Library in Digital Era", Edition: 1, Chapter: 4, Publisher: AVON PUBLICATIONS, New Delhi (India):
1. Acknowledge the contributions of other/s and the source of his/her ideas. It is very important to give credit to the original author and enclose that information in quotations and to indicate the specific source of that text including reference citation and page number.
2. Bad paraphrasing or patch writing must be avoided and deleting some words/phrases or inserting synonyms in original work is plagiarism without giving credit to original author. Inappropriate paraphrasing is perhaps the most common form of plagiarism and, at the same time, the most controversial.
3. While paraphrasing others’ work, it is essential to give proper credit and provide the proper citation. The significance lies in the fact that in good paraphrasing although the structure of sentence does change but the essence still remains the same.
4. What cannot be paraphrased properly it is good to put that in quotation marks with reference to original author (e.g., foot note or endnote) and thus maintain the proper citation.
5. General common knowledge is considered to be public domain and is assumed to be known by readership e.g., dates of historical events, information that most people know, such as that water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit etc. do not need to be cited.. A word of caution is that it is better to cite information if there is doubt on its belonging to public domain.
Dr Manzoor Hussain
Thank you so much for such a coherent answer, indeed you have pointed out very crucial points regarding plagiarism.
Thank you
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