Citing your sources

Citing your sources correctly is the difference between plagiarizing and not plagiarizing someone’s information

Formatting and Citing

Any information or outside source used in a paper or speech which is not your own idea or creation must be cited or documented, giving credit to the original source. The following is an excellent resource for looking up citation requirements http://owl.english.purdue.edu/

1. What are the intellectual property issues involved with documentation?
2. What are some general rules of documentation?
3. How do I document sources according to the APA (American Psychological Association/ Harvard Referencing Guide)?

Plagiarism:

To use and pass off (the ideas or writings of another) as one's own.

1. To appropriate for use as one's own passages or ideas from (another).

Plagiaries: accidental using and passing off someone's work or ideas as your own
Presenting another's words or ideas as your own (i.e., not documenting them) is called plagiarism. This form of intellectual theft may range from an intentional purchase of a research paper to an inadvertent failure to use proper documentation in a paper or speech. In any case, plagiarism is a serious academic offense and can lead to serious consequences.

Copyright

Copyright is a legal concept, initiated by governments, giving the creator of an original work of authorship exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time, after which the work enters the public domain.
Generally, it means ‘the right to copy’. However it usually provides the author with other rights as well, such as:

• the right to be credited for the work
• to determine who may adapt the work to other forms
• who may perform the work
• who may financially benefit from it
• other related rights.

It is a form of intellectual property (like the patent, the trademark, and the trade secret) applicable to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete.

Copyright was initially conceived as a way for governments in Europe to restrict printing. The contemporary intent of copyright is to promote the creation of new works by giving authors control of and profit from them.

You should consider everything you retrieve electronically as well as in print as copyright protected unless the item is in the public domain or the author expressly gives permission for duplication.

"Fair use" allows for the educational use of copyrighted material without having to ask for permission from the author. You will be able to incorporate electronic items into reports and speeches as long as you properly document the source, the item used is a short excerpt of the whole and your usage of the source does not harm the commercial value of the source.

What Should You Document?

• Document any material you quote exactly even if there are spelling errors.
• Document any material you summarize or paraphrase.
• Do not document material that is common knowledge such as historical dates and facts, most verifiable facts and information that can be found in standard reference sources such as dictionaries or encyclopedias.
• Follow the rules of APA regarding in-text or parenthetical references.

APA Documentation of Sources

The APA citation for a document obtained electronically, whether it be a Web site or a document from a library-based electronic source will include as many of the following available elements in the order listed.
For some Web sites you may only have a title, a date of access and an address to cite.

1. The author(s) last name and initials, if available. If not available, start with the title of the article.
2. The date of publication, in parentheses, if available. The date should be expressed as either a year, a year and a month, or a year, month and date depending on what information is available from the Web site or what type of library-based electronic resource you use.
3. The title of the Web site, italicized. If the source is a periodical article, include the title of the article, and then the name of the periodical, italicized, followed by a volume number, also italicized, if available. Pagination information, if available. More often than not, this will not be available for Web sites.
4. Retrieval information which includes the date of retrieval as well as the unique URL of a Web site. This should be expressed as follows: Retrieved September 11, 2001, from : http://valencia.cc.fl.us
   • If the source is from a library-based electronic resource the retrieval information will include the date of retrieval and the proper name of the database. This should be expressed as follows: Retrieved August 22, 2001, from: FACTS.com database.

Example of APA Documentation of an Article/Transcript from LexisNexis Academic Universe

Article with an author from a newspaper

Thompson, S.B. (2002, May 17). Botox parties smooth out the worries. The Tampa Tribune. Retrieved August 8, 2002, from LexisNexis Academic Universe database.

Transcript

Hansen, L. (2002, April 16). Dr. Joseph Eviatar discusses botox injections and the idea for having parties where they are administered. [Radio transcript, interview with Joseph Eviatar]. All Things Considered. National Public Radio. Retrieved August 8, 2002, from LexisNexis Academic Universe.

Example of APA Documentation of an Article from SIRS

Article from a weekly periodical with an author

Glazer, S. (1993, May 14). Preventing teen pregnancy. CQ Researcher. Retrieved August 4, 2001, from: SIRS database.

Article from a monthly periodical with no author

Sexuality in the postmodern age. (1997, November). Family in America. Retrieved September 11, 2001, from: SIRS database.

APA Documentation of an Article from Issues & Controversies

School vouchers. (1999, May 21). Issues and Controversies. Retrieved June 30, 2001, from: FACTS.com database.

Disclaimer and Privacy statements

A site should also contain information known as disclaimers and information about your privacy.

• Look for the Disclaimer and Privacy statements on a website. This will indicate how and when you can use the information on the site and how responsible the author is for the information on the site.

An organisation’s privacy statement usually indicates that you are dealing with a slightly more reputable organisation because it is at least willing to tell you how it uses your information.

Why document your work with that of others?
Why reference, footnote, endnote?

• Your research will be better as you document the quality of your sources
• Your argument will be better with the support of authorities and statistics you quote, paraphrase, and summarize
• Your writing style will be better if your readers can see how you build on, and agree or disagree with the work of others
• Sometimes the source says it better and you may as well use it and cite it
• Your readers may be interested in exactly what your reference says, or in its context, etc.
• Citing sources may demonstrate that there are opposing points of view, even opposing statistics! or establish consistency for the sake of argument

When is it appropriate to reference another's work?

• Quoting directly
• Using unique expressions or ideas of another, whether from printed resources, the Internet, interviews, even casual conversations
• Documenting facts, reproducing images, tables, etc.
• Referencing opinions of experts, whether or not you agree with them
• Getting extraordinary help from someone, a tutor, a teacher, even a roommate or parent. Why not?

When don't you reference:

• A fact or idea is commonly understood
• A reasonable search has led to no author or source (for example the phrase "give credit where credit is due" seems to be a common expression without an author
• What you say is commonly accepted and not cited elsewhere

Referencing is a standardised way of acknowledging sources of information. The (author, date) is one style chosen from many acceptable methods for citing information within the text.

It is used to avoid plagia­rism and enable the reader to identify and trace sources of information. Readers can then look in the reference section of the paper and identify the exact source of the information.