What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is defined in the OUHSC Student and Faculty Handbooks as the representation of the words or ideas of another as one's own, including:

• direct quotation without both attribution and indication that the material is being directly quoted; e.g., quotation marks;
• paraphrase without attribution;
• paraphrase with or without attribution where wording of the original remains substantially intact and is represented as the author's own;
• expression in one's own words, but without attribution, of ideas, arguments, lines of reasoning, facts, processes, or other products of the intellect where such material is learned from the work of another and is not part of the general fund of common academic knowledge

It is important to remember that any time you borrow from an original source and do not give proper credit, you have committed plagiarism and violated U.S. copyright laws. On the OUHSC campus the process for dealing with a plagiarism investigation is outlined in the OUHSC Student and Faculty Handbooks.

Access to Turnitin is available through the Writing Center in the Student Union or through faculty members who choose to utilize Turnitin for a specific class.

Your Responsibilities as Student and Faculty

Students
• Plan paper with a balance of previous works (cited) and your analysis
• Purpose of every assignment is to reflect your work
• Credit others – cite the works of others
• Evaluate – do not copy
• Take good notes and have appropriate information to credit others
• Each assignment is a learning process not just an assignment

Faculty
• Define purpose of assignment with clear expectations
• Identify grading aspects of the assignment
• Explain plagiarism
• Emphasize when using/borrowing words or ideas that appropriate credit must be given (cite)
• Inquiry, research, and analyze is what is expected of students – i.e. thoughtful, original work
• Consequences of using the work of others should be clear
• Indicate that a plagiarism software will be used by faculty or the student if this is the case
• Works cited should be in a bibliography and works used should be in a list of references
• Utilize drafts, outlines, introductions, descriptions of research, oral presentations help reduce plagiarism
• Graduate/Professional courses expects and/or requires more work by the student
• Support the student throughout the assignment of writing, research, and analysis

How do I avoid plagiarism?

It is easy to avoid plagiarism if you always cite the sources you use. Citing sources not only gives the appropriate credit to the original creator of the work but it also allows those reading your work to refer back to the sources you consulted.

In order to accurately cite sources you need to include things like the:

• Name of the author(s)
• Title of the work
• Date of publication
• Name of the publisher
• Page numbers that contain the content you're citing

The format of the information you include in your citations is governed by specific rules outlined in citation style manuals. Read on to find out more about the many options available in citation styles.

How do I choose an appropriate citation style?

The format you use in citing sources referred to within your own work and in creating a bibliography of works cited depends on the citation style you are using. Typically, your instructor will designate which citation style you should use but if not, ask.

There are a number of citation styles with particular relevance to the OUHSC campus:

The Library has a campus license for EndNote, Reference Manager, and RefWorks, products which make it easy to format references within your papers and bibliographies according to the citation style you need to use. To get more information about bibliographic management software go to http://library.ouhsc.edu/mainlibrary.cfm?where=BibManagement/bibmanagement.html.

How do I learn more?

Tutorials

There are a number of interactive tutorials and resources available to learn more about plagiarism. Here are a few of our favorites:

Turnitin Research Resources
http://www.plagiarism.org/research_site/e_preventing_p.html
This site provides access to a comprehensive collection of resources on plagiarism for students and faculty.

Bruin Success with Less Stress
http://www.library.ucla.edu/bruinsuccess/
From the UCLA Library this site provides a fresh, fun look at a wide variety of resources to educate students about plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
With content provided by Purdue University this is another site that provides a wealth of information about all stages of the writing process.

Additional Resources

Bird Library
Plagiarism Powerpoint
Plagiarism Handout

UCLA
http://www.library.ucla.edu/yrl/referenc/plagiarism.htm#strat

Indiana University
http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

Purdue University
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01/

Northwestern University
http://www.northwestern.edu/uacc/plagiar.html

Duke University
http://library.duke.edu/research/plagiarism/