Citations and Avoiding Plagiarism
Tip for Easier Citation
It's a good idea to track down the citations for your articles and books as you are researching.
Save time by using Citation Tools!
What is Plagiarism?
Seton Hall University defines plagiarism as the following:
"A student commits plagiarism when her or his assignment uses the words and/or ideas of another person without attributing those words and/or ideas using the required forms of documentation.
- For direct quotation, this means that the quoted words lack quotation marks, a signal phrase, and citation.
- For summary and paraphrase, this means that there is neither a signal phrase nor a parenthetical citation.
Please note that plagiarism, like documentation error, occurs regardless of intent. It requires certain actions (or the absence of certain actions) but not motive."
From The Seton Hall Academic Integrity Policy.
Build a Strategy to Avoid Plagiarism
Everyone works differently, and therefore there is no perfect strategy for avoiding plagiarism. The tips below will help you think about your own behaviors that might accidentally contribute to plagiarism and how you can build solutions and strategies that work for you.
1. Understand Plagiarism
Start by watching the 10 Types of Plagiarism Video below. It may surprise you how many kinds of unintentional plagiarism there are.
2. Set Good Researching Habits
Procrastination is frequently mentioned as a contributor to plagiarism and there are many reasons for this. Unintentional plagiarism mistakes are less likely to be caught when you don't have enough time to properly proofread your work. You might be more tempted to fake a citation, source, or quotation when you are stressed and operating on little sleep. The following can therefore be important things to think about incorporating into your workflows.
- Give Yourself Enough Time To Do Research and Take Good Notes When you do thorough research, have time to read, take notes and include in your notes references to your exact sources, passages, page numbers, etc. it will make the writing process easier.
- Check out the Academic Resource Center's Study Tools page for tips on Note-Taking, Time Management and more
- Lean On Your Support Systems Who do you need support from in order to get your best work done? Build in time and support for yourself.
- Have a study buddy or study group to help you build accountability.
- Reach out to CAPS to work on some stress management techniques.
- Book a research consultation to learn about citation styles or management strategies with the librarians.
- Check out the ARC Tutoring Center's Academic Integrity Tutorial.
- Set up a final paper and bibliography review with the Writing Center.
3. Cite Your Sources
You've come to the right place for this one! The rest of this guide will help you with all things citation-related.
- Citation Tools Learn about some easy to use options for copying pre-generated citations on the web as you work.
- Citation Styles Use this page to create or check citations that you've gathered from citation generators.
- Zotero Set up a citation manager for an organized and efficient citation gathering and note-taking process.
