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Getting Started With Research Resources: Use Ethically

Information on how to find resources for research, evaluate, and ethically cite them, as well as writing and citation help.

Ethically Use of Resources

Plagiarism Graphic


The fifth and final step in Information Literacy is to ethically use the resources you have gathered in your paper or project. This means that you need to correctly cite them both in the text of your paper and in your references, works cited, or bibliography.

Even though information, words, and ideas are not concrete, they still can be stolen by them not being cited and those who commit plagiarism get in trouble.

Turnitin

Turnitin Logo
At CSS, Turnitin is embedded in Brightspace, so faculty wishing to have students use Turnitin should get information from our Center for Instructional Design (CID).

Turnitin compares submitted papers to its database full of Internet sites, other papers, and online resources. It generates an originality report which can be used to check for plagiarism and to double check student's work.

Plagiarism

According to The College of St. Scholastica's Academic Honesty Policy located in the Student Handbook,

"Academic dishonesty can include misrepresentation of the work of others as one's own; dishonesty in testing; violating authorized guidelines established by instructors for individual assignments; sabotaging or damaging the work of others; or engaging in dishonesty in other academic work."


The most common form of plagiarism when it comes to resources and research is misrepresentation of the work of others as one's own and using someone else's ideas or words without giving credit.

Cover of 2014-15 Student Handbook

Plagiarism and other academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to the following:

  1. Misrepresentation of the work of others as one's own
  2. Using someone else's ideas or words without giving credit
  3. Reusing work from another class without permission
  4. Falsification of data or quotes
  5. Giving or receiving unauthorized help on an assignment or test
  6. Dishonesty in testing
  7. Violating authorized guidelines established by instructors for individual assignments
  8. Sabotaging or damaging the work of others

At The College of St. Scholastica, academic dishonesty can result in failure of an assignment, a course, being denied admission to or dismissed from a department or program, exclusion from extracurricular activities, or expulsion from the College even on the first instance of academic dishonesty.

More information on academic honesty from the College's Student Affairs Academic Policies.

Avoiding Plagiarism

How can you avoid plagiarism? By carefully citing your sources when you use them in your assignments. This includes when you quote directly from a source, when you paraphrase or summarize a source's information, and even when you use an idea from a source. You must cite the source in the text of your paper and also in a PowerPoint presentation and have a references or works cited page, which lists all the sources you used.