General Research (Callahan Library): Plagiarism

St. Joseph's University Academic Integrity Pledge

We, the members of the St. Joseph's University, New York, commit ourselves to academic integrity. We promise to pursue the highest ideals of academic life, to challenge ourselves with the most rigorous standards, to be honest in any academic endeavor, to conduct ourselves responsibly and honorably, and to assist one another as we live and work in mutual support.

The following websites explain paraphrasing and summarizing. These sites include examples of proper ways to paraphrase.

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What is Plagiarism? 

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, plagiarism is defined as...

"The action or practice of taking someone else's work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one's own; literary theft."

"plagiarism, n." OED Online, Oxford University Press, September 2022, www.oed.com/view/Entry/144939. Accessed 8 September 2022.
 

Did you know that credit must be given to borrowed images, music and videos as well - anything that is not yours? Yes, that includes YouTube!

Plagiarism

There are several different types of plagiarism; these include:

• Paraphrasing the words of another without documenting the source
• Summarizing the words of another without documenting the source
• Blatantly "cutting and pasting" information from the Internet or copying words verbatim from a print source and inserting them into your research paper.
• Turning in another student's paper as your own.
• Purchasing and turning in a canned research paper

If you plagiarize here at St. Joseph's University, NY

• You are failing to uphold the school's pledge of Academic Integrity
• Doing something that is unethical
• Cheating yourself of the opportunity to learn and to apply the skills necessary to do well in your career
• Missing the opportunity to practice and hone your research and writing
• Risk leaving SJC without a degree

Consequences of Plagiarism

The student handbook states that all forms of academic dishonesty "are subject to appropriate disciplinary action, which may result in a reduction of grade, failure in the course, suspension, or expulsion."

 FYI:

Think twice before committing plagiarism. Professors at St. Joseph's use TURNITIN - a software program that is designed to detect plagiarism.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

To avoid committing plagiarism, cite all of your sources properly according to the rules of the specific citation styles your professors require.  Three of the most commonly used citation styles are:

• MLA
• APA
• Chicago

Check the "Citing Sources" tab for information on style guides.

Quick Reference Guides & Posters

• APA 7th ed. Common Reference Examples Guide
  Guide from the APA website listing commonly used reference examples based on the 7th edition of the APA style. 
• Chicago Quick Reference
  Quick reference poster with basic CMS guidelines. The Purdue OWL CMS NB Classroom Poster was developed by Megan Lancaster for the Purdue Professional Writing - Editing and Publishing class, English 515, in spring 2011.

Citation Resource Websites:

• Purdue OWL: Research and Citation Resources
  From the Online Writing Lab (OWL) of Purdue University

• University of Wisconsin Madison Writing Center
  From the Writing Center of University of Wisconsin-Madison, this guide gives examples for APSA, APA, Chicago, CBE and MLA.

Tutorial:

• Basics of APA 7th edition
  From the American Psychological Association

Citing Business Sources:

APA 7th ed. citation for business sources.

This document is the result of a grassroots effort undertaken by several business librarians in early summer 2020, simply to try to provide examples for a variety of business sources and save the time of other business librarians in generating sample citations for their campus communities. 
The organizer did correspond with APA’s official style experts for direction on several questions, but this document is not officially authored by APA in any way. 

This extensive business citation guide was created by business librarians from across the country.
Schemm, N., Dellenbach, M., Grisham, Z., Hageman, M., Tingle, N., Trowbridge, M., & Wheatley, A. (2020). APA 7th ed. citation for business sources.

Why You Should Cite Your Sources:

• To give credit where credit is due
• To give credibility to your research
• To enable your readers (professors and peers) to retrace your research steps
• To practice academic honesty and integrity 

Do You Need to Cite Everything?

No.  If something is common knowledge (it can be found in many different sources and is a well known fact) it does not need to be cited.  The following are common examples of common knowledge: 

• Water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit
• George Washington was the first President of the United States