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Referencing, Citation and Avoiding Plagiarism

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Introduction

This lecture addresses the need to cite all the sources that you have read and consulted in the preparation of your work.

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Citation

AKA referencing. The practice of quoting from other writers’ works and listing their names, together with the titles and other details of their publications.

It has long been an established practice in academic writing of al kinds.

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Why Citation?

• To give authority to a statement.• To show how thoroughly you have dealt with

information in your field.• To show how up-to-date your reading has been.• To give credit to persons who first discovered or

thought of something.• To enable readers to check the accuracy of a quotation.• To protect you from plagiarism.

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Plagiarism

Presenting the work of someone else as if it were your own. It is the stealing of other people’s thoughts and ideas and is treated like fraud.

Plagiarism is deliberate when you omit citations with the intention of deceiving the reader.

It is inadvertent when the omission of citations results from carelessness or ignorance – but it is still plagiarism

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

How to avoid plagiarism?

• Acknowledge every single instance of using words and ideas that are not your own.

• When you quote someone’s words directly, place them in quotation marks.

• Ensure that paraphrased or summarized material is written in your own style and language.

• If you are using a longer quotation the entire section should stand out clearly.

• Provide a list of references at the end of the text.• Keep track of your reading as you go along and do not

keep citation for later.

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Citation styles

Scholars have developed several styles that are widely understood and used to encourage a clear and consistent pattern of citation.

These styles can be found in manuals such as the Chicago Manual of Styles and the manuals published by the Modern Language Association of America (MLA) and the American Psychological Association (APA)

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Citation styles

• The name(s) of person(s) intellectually responsible for the document (author, editor, or an organization)

• The date of publication or generation• The title of publication and journal, conference, or

edited collection.• The place of publication, the publisher (books), volume

and/or issue number (journal).• Inclusive page number(s).

All styles convey the same kind of information:

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Harvard Style

AKA the author-date method. Well-established in pure and applied sciences.

To show that you have used or borrowed ideas in papers or theses, you use a ‘reference indicator’ which contains the name of the author or other publication details in round brackets.

e.g. In an analysis of a robust estimation of a multi-layered motion representation, camera-induced motion may be modeled as a single, two-dimensional parametric transformation (Darrell & Pentland, 1991:173).orDarrell and Pentland (1991:173) model camera-induced …

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Harvard Style

To help readers find the original source of the idea or quotation, full details of all the quoted sources have to be listed at the end of the text.

This list may be called ‘References’ and it is different from ‘Bibliography.’

The list of references is arranged alphabetically by surname of the author or principal author.

Darrell, T and Pentland, A. 1991. Robust estimation of multi-layered motion representation. Proc. IEEE Workshop Visual Motion, Princeton, NJ. 173-178.

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Harvard Style

Different ways to reference different types of articles:

• Books (single/multiple author, produced by editors rather than authors, an edition other than the first.

• A journal or periodical (volume, issue).

• Conference publications.

• Unpublished discussion or thesis.

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Harvard Style

Burns, T. 1984. Mechanistic and organismic structures. 2nd ed. Edited by D. S. Pugh. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin: 40-51.

Bentz, D. P., Clifton, J. R., & Snyder, K. A. 1996. Predicting service life of chloride-exposed steel-reinforced concrete. Concrete International. 18(12): 42-47.

Li, Q. C., Cleven, M., & Isaac, F. 1999. Steel corrosion in concrete: A comprehensive experimental program and preliminary results. Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Durability Build Materials and Components. May 30-June 3, Vancouver: 331-340

Poole, E. L. 1996. Durability of polymetric composites after elevated temperature aging. Ph.D. Thesis. University of Washington, Seattle, WA.

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Other Scientific Conventions

Other conventions like IEEE differ in that the presence of a citation or quotation in the text is signaled by a numeral giving the number of the citation.

The numeral corresponds to either a numbered reference note at the bottom of the page (a footnote) or at the end of the paper or chapter as part of a list of endnotes.

Research Methods – Bazara Barry

Citing Electronic Sources

When citing WWW sources, It is important to show:

1. The format in which the information is stored.2. The protocol by which it is transmitted.3. The path to its location.4. The date of consultation.

Standler, R. B. 2000. Plagiarism in colleges in the USA. Available: http://www.rbs2.com/plag.htm [2004, October 3].