Ethics and Avoiding Plagiarism in History Research

Beth Downey, Instruction and Research Librarian

Overview

• Research Ethics and Plagiarism– Why we cite– Examples of plagiarism and proper citation– Plagiarism and historians

• Research Process– Research strategies for avoiding plagiarism– Formulating search strategies

The MSU Honor Code: Defining Academic Misconduct

• Cheating• Fabrication• Falsification• Multiple Submissions• Plagiarism• Complicity• Violation of Department or College rules

Plagiarism as Defined in the Honor Code (http://honorcode.msstate.edu/policy/):

• “The appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results or words without giving appropriate credit.”– Presenting the work of another as one’s own.– Failing to credit sources used.– Attempting to receive credit for work performed by

another.– Failing to cite ALL resources used, including databases,

Internet and other electronic resources.

Why Cite?

• Citing is part of good research:– Connects to previous research.– Adds to the collective knowledge.– Assists future researchers.– Credits others for their ideas.– Defines the ideas that are unique.– Gives your ideas authority.

• Citing is about intellectual honesty:– Required in academia– Essential to retain integrity

Citing for History:

“…the best professional practice for avoiding a charge of plagiarism is always to be explicit, thorough, and generous in acknowledging one's intellectual debts.”

--Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct, American Historical Association

Types of Plagiarism

• Deliberate Plagiarism: Knowingly using material from a source without proper citation or credit.

• Partial Plagiarism: Taking pieces of the work (3-5 words) without proper citation.

• Rewording or Misquoting (Falsification)• “Accidental” Plagiarism: Copying instead of

paraphrasing; forgetting to place quotation marks correctly; incorrectly citing material.

Examples of Plagiarism

• Princeton University• Indiana University• University of Texas at Austin• The First Amendment Center – Ethics in Jour

nalism

Plagiarism scandals involving historians

• Stephen Ambrose– Plagiarized significant parts in The Wild Blue from

Childers’ Wings of Morning: The Story of the Last American Bomber Shot Down over Germany.

– Later investigation found that 12 authors were plagiarized in seven of his works.

– Ambrose had cited sources but did not use quotation marks or indicate direct quotes.

– Claims of inaccurate and inadequate research.– Ambrose died the same year the scandal broke.

Plagiarism scandals involving historians

• Doris Kearns Goodwin: – settled privately with author Lynne McTaggart

after plagiarizing significant footnotes in her book The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.

– Claimed she had not properly delineated direct quotes from paraphrases in her handwritten notes, and unwittingly plagiarized.

– Resigned from the Pulitzer Board; invitations for speaking engagements rescinded.

Plagiarism scandals involving historians

• Brian VanDeMark– Associate Professor of History at U.S. Naval

Academy; accused of “careless” plagiarism in book Pandora’s Keepers: Nine Men and the Atomic Bomb.

– Discovered after two of the authors that were allegedly plagiarized were asked to review the book.

– Publisher withdrew the book; VanDeMark lost tenure and received pay cut

Avoiding Plagiarism: Strategies

• Gathering Research Materials• Taking Notes• Documenting Sources

Gathering Research Materials

• Expect the research process to take time!• Learn the research tools needed for your

project.• Expect to use library resources---either in

print or online. (Research beyond Google!)• Allocate time for gathering materials.• Leave enough time to carefully read and

synthesize your research materials.

Tracking citations and primary sources:

• Try to trace citations back to the original source; don’t depend on a “citation-of-a-citation” in a literature review.

• If you use someone else’s field notes on a primary source, cite the author of the notes, not the source.

– NEVER claim you saw a primary source based on someone else’s notes. Bias and translation can misinterpret the source.

Taking Notes

• Document words that you copy directly from a source: do this as you are taking your notes!

• Jot down the page number and the author/title of the source each time you make a note (even when paraphrasing!)

• Plagiarism can occur with even one sentence.

• Keep a working bibliography.

Documenting Sources; you must cite…

• Direct quotes (and be sure to indicate with punctuation/block quotes).

• Paraphrased passages.• Anything that is not common knowledge.

– Common knowledge does NOT include professional terminology; definitions must be cited.

– Common knowledge is not easily defined; when in doubt, cite.

• Even unpublished work must be cited.

Managing Citations

• Keep a research journal or notebook.• Use a bibliographic management tool:

– EndNote (version X7 for Windows and Mac)• Available from Access Services

– Zotero– Mendeley– ProCite

Citation Guides (http://guides.library.msstate.edu/citationguides)

• Historians mainly use Chicago Manual of Style.– CMS is primarily for publications.– There are two methods of CMS citation: Author-

Date and Notes and Bibliography,– Turabian is a shorter version of CMS adapted for

students writing theses, dissertations, and papers. It is a modified version of Notes and Bibliography:• Superscript formatted numbers.• All citations indented on first line.• Separate “Bibliography” page.

Research Services

• Reference Collection– Includes style guides at Ready

Reference Desk

• Ask-A-Librarian– Online assistance via chat, email and

Twitter.– Phone or visit the department in person.– Schedule a research consultation with a subject

specialist (Nickoal Eichmann is the History Research Librarian).

Important links:

• Princeton University Examples of Plagiarismhttp://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/plagiarism/

• Indiana University Bloomington: How to Recognize Plagiarismhttps://www.indiana.edu/~istd/examples.html

• University of Texas Libraries Plagiarism Tutorialhttp://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/learningmodules/plagiarism/

• The First Amendment Center – Ethics in Journalism: Journalist Plagiarism/Fabrication Scandalshttp://catalog.freedomforum.org/FFLib/JournalistScandals.htm

Important links:

• American Historical Association Statement on Standards of Professional Conducthttp://www.historians.org/pubs/Free/ProfessionalStandards.cfm#Plagiarism

• History News Network: Plagiarism (George Mason University)http://hnn.us/articles/3781.html

• MSU Citation Guideshttp://guides.library.msstate.edu/citationguides

• Chicago Manual of Style Onlinehttp://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html