JSPN Vol. 12, No. 1, January, 2007 1

Blackwell Publishing IncMalden, USAJSPNJournal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing1539-0136© 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.121

EDITORIAL

EditorialEditorial

Editorial

Avoiding Unintentional Plagiarism

All of us were taught that it is unethical to presentsomeone else’s written words as our own, and few ofus would intentionally plagiarize text within a manu-script for publication or in any other document. Yetunintentional plagiarism is common, if not rampant.

According to Writing Tutorial Services at IndianaUniversity, plagiarism applies to another’s ideas,opinions, theories, graphs, drawings, and spoken words,as well as their written words (2004). Thus, authorsmust acknowledge the source of anything that is notoriginal. “But,” my students opine, “nothing I write isreally original!” Sure it is; your synthesis is original;your conclusions are original; your conceptualizationof the issue is original. But no matter how innovativethose sections may be, the paper or manuscript loses allcredibility when the author plagiarizes other content.

Avoiding plagiarism is simple: always give creditwhere credit is due. Although duly citing others’ workmay be simple, it is not always easy. Following arethree common pitfalls.

1. Inadequately Citing Original Work Because It Would Require Multiple Citations

When several sentences are necessary to describeanother’s ideas, it may seem redundant to place a citationafter each sentence; so in these instances, authors some-times reference selected ideas and not others, or evenworse, they surrender to the urge to just tack a citationon the end of the paragraph. The reader must then try todiscern what is original and what relates to the citation.

Failure to

clearly

cite another’s ideas is plagiarism. Avoid-ing plagiarism requires carefully identifying

each

idea youare citing. Notice how skilled authors accomplish thisby citing the first idea and then using bridge terms suchas “The authors also found . . .” or “Smith concluded that. . .” to avoid inserting the same citation over and over.

2. Paraphrasing to Avoid Quotation Marks

Paraphrasing means rephrasing original work suchthat the ideas are intact but the phrasing is completely

different. For example, my earlier comment thatplagiarism applies to another’s ideas, opinions, theories,graphs, drawings, and spoken words, as well as theirwritten words, was paraphrased from the followingtext:

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit wheneveryou use

• another person’s idea, opinion, or theory;• any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings—any pieces

of information—that are not common knowledge;• quotations of another person’s actual spoken or

written words; or• paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written

words (Writing Tutorial Services, 2004, para. 2).

In my second paragraph, I referenced the originalsource, but quotation marks were not necessary becausethe ideas had been completely rephrased. A commonpitfall for authors, however, is the urge to change just afew words to avoid using quotation marks. Changing afew words is not paraphrasing, and when done toavoid quotation marks, it is inappropriate. Wheneveryou include a statement that is essentially identical tothe original work, either quote the material exactly anduse quotation marks, or, if you change words to betterfit your style, omit the quotation marks but add thepage number in the text citation—a convention thatshows the statement is almost like the original.

Considering Information on the World Wide Web Different From That in Print Publications

Material on the World Wide Web (WWW) deservesthe same protection from plagiarism as printed mate-rial. Sometimes authors avoid citing WWW materialsbecause they are confused about how to do so. TheAmerican Psychological Association (2003) providesan excellent online style guide that describes a varietyof citations in text as well as the format for electronicreferences.

2 JSPN Vol. 12, No. 1, January, 2007

Editorial

Avoiding plagiarism is simple, but for most of us,writing is difficult. As you labor to create professionalcommunications, resist those oh-so-human tendenciesto take shortcuts in identifying others’ words andideas. Avoid plagiarism, and ensure that your writtenwork is credible.

Roxie L. Foster, PhD, RN, FAAN

roxie.foster@uchsc.edu

References

American Psychological Association. (2003). Electronic references.Retrieved September 29, 2006, from http://www.apastyle.org/electext.html

Writing Tutorial Services. (2004). Plagiarism: What it is and howto recognize and avoid it. Retrieved September 29, 2006, fromhttp://www.indiana.edu/

∼

wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml

Blackwell Publishing IncMalden, USAJSPNJournal for Specialists in Pediatric Nursing1539-0136© 2006 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.121

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Thank You

We wish to thank the following people for reviewing manuscripts for

Journal for Specialists in PediatricNursing

in 2006:

Becky Bossert, Ellen Buckner, Su-Fen Cheng, Lauren Clark, KC Clevenger, Paul Cook, Susanne Cook, DeborahWinders Davis, Ruth DeVoogd, Beth Ely, Cris Finn, Beth Grabiak, Angela Green, Dianne Haas, Sharon Horner,Myra Huth, Rosemary Jadack, Barbara Kiernan, Laura Kubin, Roberta Lavin, Janice Light, Ann Marie McCarthy,Shirley Becton McKenzie, Angela McNelis, Julie Meaux, Margaret Miles, Ki Moore, Madalynn Neu, MaureenO’Brien, Nancy Page, Mark Popenhagen, Ann Marie Ramsey, Lynn Rew, Susan Riesch, Nancy Riordan, CordeliaRobinson, Nancy Ryan-Wenger, Lynn Slepski, Leigh Small, Andrea Smith, Julia Snethen, Lynda Stallwood,Christine Stevens, Marie Talashek, Jacquelyn Taylor, Margaret Taylor-Seehafer, Debera Thomas, Teri Thompson,Barbara Velsor-Friedrich, Carol Vojir, Beth Wathen, Rosemary White-Traut, Gillian Woldorf, Lorrie Yoos, andJeannie Zuk.