Plagiarism and Academic Integrity Tutorial

Information from the Internet:
A common mistake is thinking that, because Internet information is free and often appears to have no ‘owner,’ it can be used without giving credit. However, the source makes no difference what-so-ever.  When you use ideas or words that are not your own, no matter what the source, you must give credit.

Informal and non-fixed sources:
You also must cite ideas and words from informal and non-fixed sources, such as conversations, phone calls, emails, and letters or information heard on the radio, television or at a lecture or seen in a museum or art gallery. In all these cases, you are required to give attribution for ideas and words you take from those sources. Even if it is not possible for someone to find, hear, or observe the original source, you are still responsible for providing credit.

Relationship of plagiarism with copyright:
People sometimes confuse plagiarism with copyright. Copyright is concerned with whether you have the right to access and use a work. Plagiarism is about whether credit has been given for ideas or words taken from that work. For instance, it may be perfectly fine, as far as copyright goes, to copy a few paragraphs from a book but, if you put these words in your paper without crediting the source, you will have committed plagiarism. The bottom-line is that plagiarism has nothing to do with copyright. You are obligated to acknowledge your sources whether or not their work is copyrighted.

Self plagiarism:
Self plagiarism refers to the use of your own work, or a substantial portion of it, in another course than the one for which it was originally written. While you are not stealing an idea from someone else, it is still considered dishonest unless you have obtained permission from your instructor to reuse the material.

No author:
Credit must be given even when there is not an identifiable author to credit because it is the source of the idea, words, etc. that receives the credit, not an individual.