Plagiarism
and Falsification
Adopted and Revised from:
Victoria E. McMillan, Writing Papers in the
Biological Sciences (3rd edition, 2001)
Academic dishonesty, in any form, will
not be tolerated. You are responsible
for upholding University Academic Honesty standards, understanding what
constitutes acts of academic dishonesty, understanding academic honesty
procedures, and understanding what penalties can be imposed for acts of
academic dishonesty. This is what is usually we see in the beginning of every course. Here are some details about it.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the
representation of someone else's words, work, or ideas as your own. It includes such acts as (1) turning in a
friend's paper, or a paper copied from the WWW, and saying it is yours; (2)
using another person's data or ideas without acknowledgment; (3) copying an
author's exact words and putting them in your paper without quotation marks;
and (4) using wording that is very similar to that of the original source, but
passing it off as entirely your own even while acknowledging the source. This last example of plagiarism is probably
the most common one in student writing.
Here is an example.
Original Passage:
A very virulent isolate of Alternaria mali, the incitant of apple
blotch, was found to produce two major host-specific toxins (HSTs) and five
minor ones in liquid culture. The minor
toxins were less active than the major ones, but were still specifically toxic
to the plants which are susceptible to the pathogen (Kohmoto et al. 1976, p
141).
Plagiarized Passage:
Kohmoto, Kahn, and others
(1976) found that a very virulent isolate of Alternaria mali, the incitant of apple blotch disease, produced two
main host-specific toxins, as well as five minor ones in liquid culture. Although the minor toxins were less active
than the major ones, they were still specifically toxic to the susceptible
plants.
Although the writer has altered a few words here and there,
the second passage is strikingly similar to the original. It is still plagiarism if you use an author's
key phrases or sentence structure in a way that implies they are your own, even
if you cite the source. The only way to
make this passage "legal" as it now stands is to enclose everything
retained nom the original wording it quotation marks. Better yet, you should first determine which
facts or ideas in a source are relevant for your purposes, and
then put these in your own words and word order.
Plagiarism of this kind is
usually unintentional, the result of poor note taking and an incomplete
understanding of the ethics of research and writing. Typically the problem arises when you lean
heavily on notes that consist of undigested passages copied or half-copied from
the original source. These become the
source of all the information and ideas for your paper. When you sit down to
write the first draft, it is all too easy for this material to end up barely
changed as the backbone of your paper.
Thus your text becomes an amalgamation of other people's words disguised
as your own. Even if you cite references
for the facts and ideas, you are still guilty of plagiarism because the wording
is not completely yours.
Another problem with this
kind of note taking is that it consists of reading without thinking. It allows
you to speed through a stack of references without necessarily understanding
the material. It conflicts with your
major purpose in conducting a literature review: to evaluate and interpret
information on a subject. You need to
start making judgments, comparisons, and contrasts while you are still working
with the original sources; otherwise, your prose is just a mosaic of other
people's material. Your own paper, like
professional papers, should be more than just a sum of its parts.
Form the habit of taking
notes mainly in your own words. If you are not used to doing this, you may be
frustrated by the additional time it takes.
However, once you start the first draft, these notes will save you much
time and effort. You will have already worked through difficult material,
weeded out many inconsistencies, responded to the conclusions of other authors,
and made connections among related ideas.
Much of the preliminary work will have already been done. To take notes effectively you need to
understand how to paraphrase and summarize material. A paraphrase expresses certain facts or ideas
in different wording - your own - but in the same or fewer words as in the
original. A summary expresses the
important facts and ideas in fewer words than the original; for example, the
abstract of a research paper is a summary.
Both paraphrasing and summarizing require that you understand material
fully before you write about it.
Although you will probably use both methods as you work through your
sources, you'll find that learning how to identify and summarize the points
that are most relevant to your particular needs is a highly valuable research
skill. For example, the writer of the
plagiarized passage above might have written the following in his or her notes,
to be incorporated later in the final paper.
Kohmoto. Kahn, and others
(1976) cultured the fungus Alternaria
mali, which causes apple blotch, and isolated seven different toxins. Of
these, two were particularly toxic to susceptible plants.
Some
times it is difficult to determine when you must cite information in a
reference. It is not necessary to cite
the reference: 1) if the information is found in several books on the subject
(is common knowledge); 2) is written entirely in your words; 3) is not
paraphrased from a source; and 4) it is not summarized from a source.
Plagiarism
also includes allowing YOUR work to be copied by another student.
Falsification
Falsification is the intentional
fabrication or invention of information or citations. It is a blatant act of academic
dishonesty. Falsification can be an act
of inclusion. If, for example, you write
that 80% of GMOs produce toxic alcohols, but you not observed this in any
citable source, you have falsified information.
If you claim that the same fact in included in a reference by Smith and
Jones, but no such reference exists, you have also falsified information.
Falsification can also be an act of omission.
If, for example, you report that all published reports indicate that 80%
of GMOs produce toxic alcohols, but you omitted that two references in your
possession reported that only 50% produce toxic alcohols, you have falsified
information.
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