Citation and Plagiarism

Plagiarism and how to avoid it?

Plagiarism occurs when the author deliberately uses someone else’s language, ideas, or other original material without acknowledging its source. This applies to texts published in print or on-line, to manuscripts, and to the work of other authors. Few ways to avoid Plagiarism:

1. Citation: Citing relevant works is one of the effective ways to avoid plagiarism. Citation is often used when quoting literally from another work, or when rewriting (paraphrasing) and discussing sentences and ideas in another work. Citing may work to refer to a previous work to clarify the importance of the work in enriching the ideas presented in the presented thesis/dissertation. To properly cite, the student should follow the instructions used by CGS for documenting citations and references.

2. Quoting: When quoting a source, use the quote exactly the way it appears by replacing it between quotation marks “…………”. No one wants to be misquoted. Short quotes are typically acceptable, particularly when the original author expresses an idea effectively. If necessary, quoting must be done correctly to avoid plagiarism allegations. For that reason, it is strongly advised to paraphrase the source using your own words.

Methods and Examples of Quotation

• If the quote is less than 40 words and it comes in the middle of the paragraph, then the author and the publication year should be mentioned before the quotation while the page number is mentioned after the second quotation mark. Example:

In addition, Ervin et al. (2018) indicated that “high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another” (p. 470) making it difficult to be described as effective teams.

• If the quote is less than 40 words and it comes at the end of the paragraph, then the author’s name, year and page number will be inserted after the quotation marks. Example:

Effective teams can be difficult to describe because “high performance along one domain does not translate to high performance along another” (Ervin et al., 2018, p. 470).

• In the event of block quotes (40 words or more), place the quote on a separate new line without quotation marks, and indent the quote an inch. The author name, publication year and page number are placed in parentheses. Example:

Researchers have studied how people talk to themselves:

Inner speech is a paradoxical phenomenon. It is an experience that is central to many people’s everyday lives, and yet it presents considerable challenges to any effort to study it scientifically. Nevertheless, a wide range of methodologies and approaches have combined to shed light on the subjective experience of inner speech and its cognitive and neural underpinnings. (Alderson-Day & Fernyhough, 2015, p. 957)

Paraphrasing

• If you have found information from an article, a book, or any other reference, that is useful and necessary to include in your work, then you need to summarize it and write it in your own words. Make sure that you do not copy verbatim more than two words in a row from the text you have found. If you do use more than two words together, you will have to use quotation marks.

• If the paraphrasing is direct (i.e. the author’s name is specified), then the author’s last name is indicated and the year of publication is enclosed in parentheses. Example:

Webster-Stratton (2016) described a case example of a 4-year-old girl who showed an insecure attachment to her mother; in working with the family dyad, the therapist focused on increasing the mother’s empathy for her child.

• In the case of an author mentioned earlier in the same paraphrased paragraph, the date is not mentioned in parentheses again. Example:

One of the reasons that researchers are interested in the concept of emotional intelligence is the limited measures of mental abilities to adequately predict the success of the individual in different life situations (Al-Mubarak, 2002). Al-Mubarak also stressed the importance of this concept in the social and professional field.

• In the event that there is more than one source for the same author and both sources are published on the same year, A letter “a” after the first sources, and the letter “b” after the second source needs to be inserted to differentiate between them. Example:

Adam (2010a, 2010b) reported ……..

Both studies showed that ..………..( Adam, 2010a; Adam, 2010b).

• If there are two authors with the same last name, the first letter of the first name of each is mentioned. Example:

A comprehensive analysis showed that there are differences in the results (Clark, D., 2000; Clark, M., 1999).

Self-Plagiarism

• Citing Your Own Material– If some of the material you are using for your traditional thesis/dissertation was used by you, a previous one, or anywhere else you must cite yourself. Treat the text the same as you would if someone else wrote it. Using material you have used or published before without proper citation is called self-plagiarism.

• Referencing– One of the most important ways to avoid plagiarism is including references of works cited. Again, the references page(s) must meet the thesis/dissertation writing guidelines used by CGS. This information is very specific and includes the author(s), date of publication, title, and source. For more information, please refer to the reference book of the American Psychological Association (APA):

American Psychological Association (2019). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). American Psychological Association.

Research Ethics

• Ethical Approval: Research involving human or animal subjects must receive prior approval from the appropriate ethics committee. The thesis must include documentation of this approval.

• Data Privacy: Ethical conduct in research extends to respecting the privacy and confidentiality of participants. Data must be managed in accordance with ethical guidelines and applicable laws.