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An issue that isn't really copyright but gets confused easily
Important for its academic significance
Violations of the Code of Academic Responsibility (AU Student Handbook) "Appropriating the ideas, concepts, images (including but not limited to drawings, designs, or photographs) or language of another person and presenting them without attribution."
Not just at AU, but across higher education and in the professional world, using someone else's work without identifying the source compromises scholarly integrity.
Getting it right takes understanding and practice
Quote Your Source Properly
Paraphrase Your Source Properly Read more: Quoting and Paraphrasing @ The Writing Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Cite Your Source Properly In academic writing, there are standard ways of citing sources called “styles.” The style an author uses will depend upon the audience. It will usually be someone like a course instructor who will dictate what style to use for a paper or other kind of work.
Read more Giving Recipe Creators Their Due
Equally important for avoiding misunderstanding
Citing your sources or quoting exact wording with proper attribution is not. Paraphrasing effectively is not.
Citing common knowledge is also not. What is common knowledge differs depending upon the audience.
Read more What is Common Knowledge? (Academic Integrity at MIT)
An issue that's easy to get wrong
Everything on the internet was created by someone. Take the time to figure out who authored the text or the image you want to use.
Citation styles give options if you can’t find an author’s name, e.g., using an organization's name.
Tools for helping to get it right
Canvas (AU's course management system) has a built-in plagiarism checker to help instructors determine if work has plagiarized content. But that's too late to find out.
There are various free web applications that will highlight possible instances of plagiarism.
Learn more Search "review free plagiarism checker" (no quotation marks) in your favorite internet browser to find some to try.
A different type of tool for helping to get it right
Type in your information and the generator gives you the proper citation, hopefully. Garbage in, garbage out. You still need to know your citation style well-enough to proofread, but a generator could save you time and effort.
Compare the three but remember EndNote Web is paid for by Arcadia University.
Learn more Search "review free citation generators" (no quotation marks) in your favorite internet browser to find others to try.
The Fair Use provision of Copyright law favors quotation of someone else's work for scholarly purposes.
What's the Difference?
Plagiarism is an issue of scholarly practice.
Copyright Infringement is an issue of law.
Not Plagiarism and Not Infringement
Proper attribution in a typical scholarly amount and manner
Plagiarism and Not Infringement
Improper attribution in a typical scholarly amount and manner
Not Plagiarism and Infringement
Proper attribution but in an amount and manner outside the constraints of copyright law
Plagiarism and Infringement
Improper attribution and in an amount and manner outside the constraints of copyright law
MLA Style (Modern Language Association, 8th ed.)
Example “Public Domain.” The Copyright Desk. Arcadia University, 2020, https://www.arcadia.edu/landman-library/services/copyright/public-domain. Accessed 1 Sept. 2020.
Learn more Purdue Online Writing Lab [OWL]. MLA Works Cited: Electronic Sources (Web Publications). Purdue University.
APA Style (American Psychological Association, 7th ed.)
Example The Copyright Desk. (2020). Public Domain. Arcadia University. Retrieved September 1, 2020, from https://www.arcadia.edu/landman-library/services/copyright/public-domain
Learn more Purdue Online Writing Lab [OWL]. Reference List: Electronic Sources [APA]. Purdue University.
2008-2020 The Copyright Desk is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License
Read more "Some rights reserved" licenses