Avoiding Plagiarism

APA Editing

During the research process, researchers must appropriately cite and give credit to any other author’s work (APA Ethics Code Standard 8.11). Plagiarizing another’s work eliminates one’s credibility as a researcher and can have significant, negative ramifications to one’s reputation and career as a researcher. One such consequence may be that a student is kicked out of his or her program for plagiarizing another’s work. To avoid plagiarism, make sure to always include a citation with any information that is not your own thought or idea. APA6 states, “Every time you paraphrase another author (i.e., summarize a passage or rearrange the order of a sentence and change some of the words), you need to credit the source in the text” (p. 15).

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A frequent mistake students make when writing their dissertations is that they include only a citation at the end of a paragraph, assuming that one citation applies to all content in the paragraph. However, if alternating between sources or citing various authors, each sentence that contains information or an idea that is not your own must include a citation. Please view the following examples for clarity:

Correct: Creswell (2009) stated that while writing a research proposal, researchers must address all ethical issues that may occur throughout the study.  A researcher can conduct a pilot study prior to finalizing the proposal to identify and address any ethical issues that arise (Creswell, 2009).  Seidman (2006) indicated that all interviewing researchers should include a pilot test to assess their surveying design with a small number of participants.  Creswell stated, “A core idea of action/participatory research is that the inquirer will not further marginalize or disempower the study participants” (p. 88).

Incorrect: While writing a research proposal, researchers must address all ethical issues that may occur throughout the study.  A researcher can conduct a pilot study prior to finalizing the proposal to identify and address any ethical issues that arise.  Seidman indicated that all interviewing researchers should include a pilot test to assess their surveying design with a small number of participants.  “A core idea of action/participatory research is that the inquirer will not further marginalize or disempower the study participants” (Creswell, 2009, p. 88).

References:

Creswell, J. W. (2009). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Seidman, I. (2006) Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences (3rd ed.). New York, NY: New York College Press.