Avoiding accidental plagiarism is essential for maintaining academic integrity and ensuring the originality of your work. Here are some key strategies to help you avoid unintentional plagiarism.
What constitutes plagiarism?
- Using someone else's work, ideas, or words without proper attribution.
- Failing to quote and cite direct quotations.
- Paraphrasing too closely to the original text without proper citation.
- Using images, graphs, or data without proper acknowledgment.
Keep detailed notes
- Record bibliographic details (author, title, publication, date, page numbers) of all sources.
- Clearly distinguish between your ideas, direct quotes, and paraphrased content in your notes.
Use proper citation practices
- Make sure you’re using the correct citation style for your work.
- Include in-text citations for all paraphrased and directly quoted material.
- Ensure each citation matches the corresponding entry in the bibliography or reference list.
When in doubt: cite!
- If you are unsure whether something requires a citation, err on the side of caution and include it.
- It’s better to over-cite than to risk plagiarism.
The above is an adapted, edited, and librarian-reviewed version of ChatGPT 4.0’s reply to “how to avoid accidental plagiarism,” as generated on 5/22/24.