Stephens Library

 Plagiarism: A Library Guide

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is using the words or ideas of another person as if they were your own and without giving proper credit to the sources you have used. Plagiarism is often unintentional, because people are not always aware of all the ways they can accidentally plagiarize.

The following steps can help you avoid plagiarism:

  • Make sure you have the complete citations for all your sources.

  • Take notes during research. Note where in your paper you are using a particular resource.

  • Know what citation format your instructor wants you to use before you get started.

Avoiding Plagiarism

1) Plan ahead: When you have a plan, you’ll be more likely to incorporate effective citations. You must provide a citation for any facts, ideas, or data that you took from another source. You also must provide a citation for any images, graphs, maps, sound files, etc., unless you created them yourself.  

2) Choose when to summarize, paraphrase, or quote information from your sources: Some instances are better for each of these strategies than others. Choose the most appropriate option for each individual situation as you are writing. Common knowledge can be tricky. If you are unsure whether a fact or idea is common knowledge, cite your source. Generally, most of the information in a research paper will not fall into the common knowledge category. 

3) Provide proper citations for your paraphrased, quoted, or summarized information: Citing sources properly is the most important thing you can do when including thoughts that come from another source. This means including in-text citations and bibliographic material at the end of your writing. 

Citing Sources

Citing is the practice of acknowledging sources from which you obtained information. You cite your sources by providing information about the author’s name, publication date, and so on. Citations may take the form of parenthetical notes, footnotes, or endnotes.

The citations tell your reader where you found the information you are using. By citing your sources you are acknowledging that the words or ideas are borrowed, not your own.

For more in-depth information on how to create citations, check out our Citation Library Guide.

ChatGPT

Chat GPT is an artificial intelligence program that processes and analyzes large amounts of data to generate responses to user inquiries.  You can type in a question, and ChatGPT spits back out an easily understandable answer. For example, you can ask the question, “Explain how climate change affects endangered species.” You can say, “Now make it more exciting.” You even ask it to create a reference page and use APA 7th edition. 

While ChatGPT is a huge advancement in technology, it poses serious concerns and challenges for learning. Just like anything, AI tools can be biased based on the preconceptions of their creators or the accuracy of their data sources. 

Be aware of biases that may appear in ChatGPT’s answers, as well as the potential fallacy of the information.  

*Adapted from the University of Central Arkansas.

Credits

This Plagiarism Guide is adapted from the original Plagiarism Tutorial created by SFU Library (and further adapted by Jennifer Gravely and Emma Fernandez of Stephens College) and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This tutorial was originally created by Sara Davidson and Carolyn Soltau, co-op students working in the Reference Division at Simon Fraser University Library. The tutorial is based on materials developed by Susan Stevenson, Senior Lecturer in the School of Engineering Science at SFU.

The Canvas version of this tutorial was designed by Erin Ziegenfuss, Librarian at Simon Fraser University Library. In Spring 2015, this tutorial was updated to include self-plagiarism by Samantha Mills, Librarian at Simon Fraser University Library.