Plagiarism and Academic Integrity Tutorial

Knowing how to quote correctly is key to avoiding plagiarism. Words that are an exact copy of the original should always be identified by quotation marks or, for longer quotes, set-off in an indented paragraph. The requirement to put quotation marks around material that has been exactly copied is the form of acknowledgement with which most people are familiar. However, while proper quotation will avoid plagiarism, it does not necessarily result in a good paper and using quotes does not relieve you of the responsibility of expressing the ideas for yourself.

• Students are often told to use direct quotes when they feel the original author’s phrasing expresses the idea so well that no better expression can be found. This is good advice but be sure to do more than just string quotes together with a few transition sentences. Even if every quote is adequately cited, the overall paper will feel plagiarized since the student has not written anything new.
• Each field of study has specific guidelines about direct quotation. For instance, direct quotation is often discouraged in the sciences, which prefer paraphrasing. Students can check with their professor on the preferred style in their discipline.
• Most quotes should be very short. A short quote is usually consider to be under two lines in length with the fewer the words the better. Even longer quotes should be as brief as possible. In general, the use of quotes should be kept to a minimum.

• Only use long direct quotes if:

  • the point is so important that it is worth saying twice (once by you and once by the original author),
  • you need to document that the original author really does say what you claim she says, (since it is a surprising or out of character thing for this author to say), or
  • the original author’s turn of phrase is so clever or so apt at expressing the idea in question that you cannot resist sharing it with your reader.

"As COVID-19 vaccine trials are advancing, so are numerous claims about COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy, some of which are false and misleading. While some national and international health agencies and fact-check organizations debunked these claims, the time gap between tracking and debunking misinformation, and its limited reach, may have left some populations vulnerable to vaccine hesitancy" (Islam et al., 2021, p. 12).

Islam, M. S., Kamal, A.-H. M., Kabir, A., Southern, D. L., Khan, S. H., Hasan, S. M. M., Sarkar, T., Sharmin, S., Das, S., Roy, T., Harun, M. G. D.,  Chughtai, A. A., Homaira, N., & Seale, H. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine rumors and conspiracy theories: The need for cognitive inoculation against  misinformation to improve vaccine adherence. PLoS ONE, 16(5), 1–17. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csusm.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.0251605

This use of short quotation is acceptable because:

• it’s brief,

• the phrase quoted is genuinely unusual and apt, and

• it cites the original source of the information.

There might be a low supply of evidenced-based COVID-19 vaccine information that allowed the opportunity to generate and spread misinformation. Like other infodemics, the COVID-19 vaccine rumor is highly contagious and can spread exponentially around the world. Development of interventions that target individual, community, cultural and societal-level factors are needed to protect people against rumors and conspiracy theories that flatten the misinformation curve. Online platforms and broadcasting channels, including radio, television, and cable channels, should be targeted to promote risk communication and community engagement (Islam et al., 2021, p. 13).

What Islam et al. is saying here is that it is extremely important to have evidence-based COVID-19 vaccine information available and ready to combat the spread of misinformation, which can spread so easily and exponentially through conspiracy theories, online platforms, and other more old-fashioned methods such as radio and television.  To counter this spread of misinformation, scientific based information needs to be disseminated through these channels as well.

Islam, M. S., Kamal, A.-H. M., Kabir, A., Southern, D. L., Khan, S. H., Hasan, S. M. M., Sarkar, T., Sharmin, S., Das, S., Roy, T., Harun, M. G. D.,  Chughtai, A. A., Homaira, N., & Seale, H. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine rumors and conspiracy theories: The need for cognitive inoculation against  misinformation to improve vaccine adherence. PLoS ONE, 16(5), 1–17. https://doi-org.ezproxy.csusm.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.0251605

This use of a long quotation is acceptable because:

• the passage quoted includes some uniquely stated ideas,

• we have included a paraphrase pointing out the ideas which should be emphasized, and

• it cites the original source of the information.