Avoiding Plagiarism Presentation

Overview

Teaching: 31 min
Exercises: 31 min

Questions

• How to cite other researchers’ work wisely?

Objectives

• Avoid plagiarism in your writing.

Avoiding Plagiarism Presentation

Feel free to use the silence in between to think about and write your own answers to the posted questions.

Presentation Summary (If you have no time to watch the video)

Paraphrase

• Not just a matter of using synonyms
• You need to create a new sentence structure
• Present in a distinct way
• Preserve the essence of original text
• Add our own “Scholarly voice”
• It should sound like it has been written by someone else

Steps

1. Ensure you understand the work you want to cite.
   • What key ideas can you highlight?
   • Use the key ideas to develop new vocabulary to use in your paraphrase.
2. Just try it then evaluate your attempt. Use multiple techniques from the following rather than just a few.
3. Add the citation.

PS: Ideally you would write the first draft without looking at the original!

Techniques

• Synonyms can help to create some differences, but don’t rely on this technique too heavily.
• Change the order of the information provided: focus on the key point and start there.
• Change sentence structure, change sentence length, active vs. passive sentences, change parts of speach, verb vs. noun
• Use difference punctuation (use semi-colons to join two ideas).
• Having style or sense of voice. Make sure the quote matches the style of the rest of your work.
• Use quotation marks for 4+ content words in a row.
• Use signal words like “reported by”.

Useful Resources

1. University Library Provides
   • Math Help
   • Grad Skills
   • Research Support
   • Writing Help
2. University Library Writing Help
3. Grad Help Online Resources
4. Ask Jill McMillan a specific question.

Key Points

• References are required when using other people’s work.

• Use your unique language but keep the same meaning from the original work.

• Changes in sentence length/structure or information order are all good techniques to use.

Images and plagiarism

Overview

Teaching: 5 min
Exercises: 5 min

Questions

• How much do you need to change on the image before it is considered yours?

Objectives

• Avoid image plagiarism when writing your thesis.

Please Note

The following context originally presents in a question-answer format between Dr. Bett’s team and Kate Langrell. Kate Langrell is a copyright coordinator on the library staff at the University of Saskatchewan. Kate approached the question from the perspective of using such images in a thesis. Any question regarding images being submitted to a publication, please contact Kate Langrell directly.

Case 1:

If the image that you are creating looks substantially different than the original(s), copyright permission is not required (i.e., the image is considered your own).

Case 2:

If the image that you create looks mostly or entirely like a copy of the original(s), then this requires permission from the copyright holder(s).

Overall

It is difficult to describe how to make your own image “different enough” from the original in order not to require copyright permission. It’s somewhat of a grey area and depends on the type of images you’re working with. If you are combining elements of different images into a new single image, then it might be possible to use that in your thesis without needing copyright permission.

Also, any images that have a Creative Commons (CC) licence can be used in your thesis without needing copyright permission, and some of the CC licences also allow adapting and modifying the images. If you’d like help to find more Creative Commons images, you can search for them at Creative Commons Search. In addition, information about the different CC licences and the uses they allow (e.g., whether an image can be modified or not) is available at [Creative Commons Licenses]https://creativecommons.org/licenses/.

Key Points

• It’s safe to use an image directly that is substantially different than the original in your thesis.

• Permission from the copyright holder(s) is needed if the image you created looks mostly/entirely like the original.

• For more specific questions, please contact Kate Langrell.

Data and plagiarism

Overview

Teaching: 5 min
Exercises: 5 min

Questions

• How to attribute where you found data apart from citing the original author?

Objectives

• Avoid data plagiarism when using other people’s data.

Please Note

The following context originally presents in a question-answer format between Dr. Bett’s team and Kate Langrell. Kate Langrell is a copyright coordinator on the library staff at the University of Saskatchewan. If you have more questions about data citing, please contact Kate Langrell directly.

Useful Resources

Some basic data citing guidelines can be find on Citing Data, but also links out to other sources of information. For example, the UBC guide provides a detailed overview of how to credict dataset repositories. Of interest is the note that “Some dataset repositories also have their own guidelines and suggestions for how to construct a data citation, which elements to include, and where to find those on the site. Look carefully around the repository’s website to see if you can find any information about citing their data.”

Key Points

• Check the data repository website to see its data citing guidelines

Self-plagiarism

Overview

Teaching: 10 min
Exercises: 10 min

Questions

• What is self-plagiarism and how do we avoid it?

Objectives

• Avoid self-plagiarism in your writing.

What is self-plagiarism?

• Self-plagiarism: An introduction
• Text Recycling in Scientific Writing

How to avoid self-plagiarism?

• Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical writing

Key Points

• It’s essential to understand the definition of self-plagiarism in your field of research.