Taken from http://billmuehlenberg.com/2014/04/08/on-christian-plagiarism/
Misconceptions of Plagiarism By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano School of English Faculty of Social Sciences Universidad Latina de Costa Rica Saturday, February 27, 2016 Post 229
“As a researcher, it is important to understand the impact of validity and reliability and to be able to determine whether your research as well as others’ research is valid and reliable” (Laureate Education, 2015). Nevertheless, one other factor that can affect how valid and reliable a research project is 100% linked to
plagiarism, which “is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterward” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.). It is for this reason, as stated by Laureate Education (Inc., 2015), “committing plagiarism –whether by accident or purposely- is a serious form of dishonesty and has severe repercussions for academic researchers.”
“Although researchers can turn to guidelines and regulations for help in dealing with some of the ethical concerns likely to emerge in a case study” (Merriam, 1991), or in any other form of academic inquiry, “the burden of producing a study that has been conducted and disseminated in an ethical manner lies with the individual investigator” (Merriam, 1991). Plagiarism can have its bad repercussions in the validity and credibility of data analyzed for an academic research project; it can have an ulterior effect on the trustworthiness linked to an individual researcher who, by making trite mistakes, uses information wrongly to validate his/her findings. “Many people think of plagiarism as copying another’s work or borrowing someone else’s original ideas. But terms like ‘copying’ and ‘borrowing’ can disguise the seriousness of the offense” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.). Researchers may find beneficial
data
for
his/her
paper
among
another
author’s
findings
or
recommendations; the problem is that a direct quotation or paraphrase is not credited to the original writer becoming all of this section of the paper an ethical violation. “Researchers may copy complete or partial text from another source as long as quotation marks are placed around the original text followed by a citation to the resource and reference to the resource included in the bibliography or reference section” (Inc., Ethics in Research, 2013). The absence of any reference to the source becomes an unmindful act of plagiarism. What are other forms of plagiarism that must be avoided by any researcher? For Plagiarism.Com (What is plagiarism?, n.d.), there are six types of plagiarism that a researcher needs to stay away from, let us take a look at them: 1) “turning in someone else’s work as your own,” 2) using the same exact “words and ideas” from an author failing to give proper credit to his/her work, 3) “failing to put a quotation in quotation marks,” 4) providing the wrong reference in regards to the “source of quotation,” 5) “changing words but copying the sentence structure of a
source without giving credit,” and 6) using excessive “words and ideas” from a source and literally making it the most part of your project with or without credit to the author. Any of these four types of mistakes in one’s writings can make us researchers fall into a kind of fraud that will undermine our investigative projects.
Taken from http://news.milne-library.org/2013/01/
Among the most common misconceptions regarding plagiarism are the ones in direct connection with images, videos and music. “Using an image, video or piece of music in a work you have produced without receiving proper permission or providing appropriate citation is plagiarism” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.). All of us in the world of academic inquiry need to be aware that using a photograph or a scan of a copyrighted photograph is a violation. “Re-creating a visual work in the same medium” or “re-creating a visual work in a different medium” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.) is also an example of plagiarism. And what about “re-mixing or altering copyrighted images, videos or audio, even if done so in an original way” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.)? No doubt it is another form of plagiarizing someone else’s work and authorship. “While this is a breach of research ethics, it unfortunately occurs and in many cases is a result of misconceptions about plagiarism” (Inc., Journal 4:
Misconceptions of Plagiarism, 2015). All of us in the world of academic research must be in the lookout to avoid making mistakes that can take us into any form of plagiarism. As a matter of academic and professional integrity, it is our duty to create a sort of checklist that can help us track whether what we are doing with information is or is not making us fall into plagiarism.
References Laureate Education, Inc. (2013). Ethics in Research. Retrieved from Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/institution/LPS1/FD/.pdf Laureate Education, Inc. (2015). Journal 4: Misconceptions of Plagiarism. Retrieved from Faculty Development: http://global3.laureate.net/#/home/faculty Laureate Education, Inc. (2015). Blog 4: The Validity and Reliability of Research . Retrieved from Laureate Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent. jsp?course_id=_85522_1&content_id=_190137_1&mode=reset Merriam, S. (1991). Case Study Research in Education, A Qualitatiave Approach. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.
What is plagiarism? (n.d.). Retrieved from Plagiatism.Com: http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/