Literature Searching, Referencing & Citation and Plagiarism

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Jamie Halstead

Information Specialist

Natural & Mathematical Sciences

Referencing & Citation

and Avoiding Plagiarism

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Referencing & Citation and Avoiding Plagiarism

• What is citation and why do it?

• What is plagiarism and why is it so serious?

• How to avoid it

• How to use other people’s work in your work

• Writing references and bibliographies

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What You Should Cite?

• Direct quotes– Part of a sentence, built into your sentences– Long quotes that are introduced by your

sentences– Block quotes (quotes of over 40 words)

• Paraphrases– Somebody else’s idea in your words

Why Cite References?

• To avoid plagiarism

• To get credit for the research you have done

• To substantiate what you have written

• To enable others to follow up your research

• To give credit to others for their work

• To enable you to go back and check information

• The presentation of another person’s thoughts or words as though they were your own

• Direct quotations from published or unpublished works of others (including lecture hand-outs) without proper citation.

• Paraphrasing – expressing another person’s ideas of judgements in other words without proper acknowledgement

What Is Plagiarism?

Reasons Why Students Plagiarise

• Cynical plagiarism

• Time pressure

• Poor notes

• Lack of subject knowledge

• Ignorance of citation rules

• Plagiarism is a form of cheating and a serious academic offence

• College Plagiarism Policy available from Onespace / Policy Zone

• You will have signed the School’s ‘Statement on Plagiarism’

Kings College Rules On Plagiarism

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• Turnitin (http://www.submit.ac.uk) may be used to check your work

• More information on OneSpace athttp://www.kcl.ac.uk/onespace/study/turnitin/

Turnitin

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Avoiding The Pitfalls

•Time management

•Note taking

•Understanding

•Your voice / contribution

Note Taking• In your notes identify:

–direct quotes (“Q”) and –paraphrases (“P”) or –your own ideas (“Me”)

•Make sure to include –page number, –volume/ issue, –author and –article/book/journal title

•Keep a working bibliography

Lack Of Understanding

• Not understanding your notes

• Assuming that you should understand the subject and will be “found out” if you ask for help

• Can’t find a way to express an idea better than the original author

Voice

• Can my reader tell which ideas are mine and which belong to other people?

• Have I represented other peoples work fairly?

• Have I contributed something of my own?

- Choosing a topic to research

- Choosing what information to read

- Agreeing / disagreeing with what you have read / quoted

- Choosing what information to include/exclude

- Developing your own writing style

Your Contribution

Citation Guidelines

• Citation in text– Paraphrases– Quotes

•Reference & bibliography

•User Guide on Onespace at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/content/1/c6/07/98/48/citing2009-10FINAL1.pdf

•Another suggested user guide http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pxc/refs/index.html

•Check with your lecturer

•“There is little doubt that future developments in string theory will utilize many mathematical tools and concepts that do not currently exist. The need for cutting-edge mathematics is promoting a very healthy relationship between large segments of the string theory and mathematics communities.” (Schwartz & Schwartz, 2004, p. 347).

• In the future, string theory will use mathematical concepts which have yet to be invented. The need for new concepts is already producing co-operation between mathematicians and the string theory community.

Paraphrasing (Incorrectly)

•“There is little doubt that future developments in string theory will utilize many mathematical tools and concepts that do not currently exist. The need for cutting-edge mathematics is promoting a very healthy relationship between large segments of the string theory and mathematics communities.” (Schwartz & Schwartz, 2004, p. 347)

• Schwartz & Schwartz (2004, p 347) accept that in the future, string theory will use mathematical concepts which have yet to be invented and they argue that this need for new concepts is already producing co-operation between mathematicians and the string theory community.

Paraphrasing (Correctly)

•“There is little doubt that future developments in string theory will utilize many mathematical tools and concepts that do not currently exist. The need for cutting-edge mathematics is promoting a very healthy relationship between large segments of the string theory and mathematics communities.” (Schwartz & Schwartz, 2004, p. 347)

• In the future, string theory will use mathematical concepts which have yet to be invented. The need for new concepts is already producing co-operation between mathematicians and the string theory community (Schwartz & Schwartz, 2004).

Paraphrasing (Incorrectly)

Quoting Tables, Diagrams & Equations

• To correctly reference equations, tables and diagrams you will need to consider the following:

– Equations, diagrams and tables = quotations in the text– Decide which steps of an equation to include and which to leave out

Citing Secondary Sources

•Reference: U. Bossel Does a Hydrogen Economy Make Sense? Proceedings of the IEEE. Vol. 94, No. 10, October 2006

• E.g. Equations from other people’s work

• Use primary sources where possible

• If you use a secondary source, make this clear in your citation

Writing a Bibliography/References

• Bibliography – List of consulted readings, e.g. list of textbook sources, studied

while composing your work, but not specifically cited in the text– Usually presented in author order

• Reference list – List of cited sources– Either

• Numeric: superscript numbers1,with numbered reference list• Harvard: (author, year), with author order reference list

Types Of References

• Book• Book chapter• Journal article• E-journal article• Electronic book• Web page• Images

• Illustrations and tables• Computer programme• Conference proceedings• Conference papers• Standards and patents

• Author (surname and initials)• Year of publication (in brackets)• Title (in italics)• Edition (only needed if 2nd or later edition)• Place of publication• Publisher

e.g. Schwarz P M, Schwarz J H. (2004). Special relativity: from Einstein to strings. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

Books

• Author (surname and initials)• Year of publication (in brackets)• Title of article (in quotation marks)• Title of journal (in italics)• Issue details (volume, issue number)• Page number(s) of whole article

e.g. Du Sautoya M (2006). “Burden of proof”. New Scientist. Vol 191, Issue 2566: pp 41-43.

Journal Articles

• Author• Year that the site was last updated (in brackets)• Title of website (in italics)• Available at: URL• (Accessed: date (in brackets)

e.g. Purdue University Writing Lab (2006). Owl on-line writing lab. http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/01

(accessed: 09/08/2008).

Websites

• Maughan Library and ISC Enquiry Desk020 7848 1178/243issenquiry@kcl.ac.uk

• Jamie HalsteadJamie.halstead@kcl.ac.uk

Further Information

Finding Quality Academic Information

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Finding Quality Academic Information

• Web sources and issues

• Journal papers

– Using databases to find them

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• There’s so much on the web that it’s hard to find the good stuff

• Try Google Scholar

• Change your preferences to link to Kings e-journals

Google

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• Good starting point?• Health warning!• Don’t rely on it for accuracy

• Always use authoritative sources

Wikipedia

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• Journals when you have a reference– Via the library catalogue

• Journals when you only have a topic– Web of Knowledge– SciVerse – IEEE Xplore– ACM portal– Lecture Notes in Computer Science

Finding Journal Information

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• Phrase Searching – e.g. “robotic fingers”

• Truncation *– e.g. Robot* retrieves robot, robotics, robots etc

• Wildcards $– E.g. colo$r retrieves colour and color

Search Tips

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Some Final Reminders

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• Senate House and other academic libraries• Other libraries in London• Specialist libraries (IET Library ) • British Library

• Inter Library Loans– £3.50 journal article– £6.50 book

External Resources

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Summary

• Make sure you don’t plagiarise

• Use the library e-resources to find quality information

• Impress your tutors with your references and bibliography

• Don’t leave it all to the last minute

• Make sure you keep back up copies of your all work

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Questions?

Jamie Halstead

Information Specialist for Natural & Mathematical Sciences

Jamie.halstead@kcl.ac.uk

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