Research and Plagiarism by A. O. Eze

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Plagiarism


Plagiarism is a serious academic theft. It simply means an act of copying or using another person’s idea or expression without giving credit to the originator. It is called intellectual property theft. Academic community detests any act of plagiarism even if it is your own previous work (self-plagiarism). An act of plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. It can be unintentional when you express what another person has said without acknowledging the person because you were unaware that the idea has been expressed. Hence, it can also be intentional, when you deliberately expressed or copied another person’s idea or work without giving appropriate credit to the source. As stated in the sixth edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, researchers do not claim the words and ideas of another as their own; they give credit where credit is due (APA Ethics Code Standard 8.11).

More so, in accordance with APA and MLA rules, quotation marks should be used to indicate the exact words of another. Each time you paraphrase another author (i.e., summarize a passage or rearrange the order of a sentence and change some of the words), you need to credit the source in the text.

 

Example of in-text reference in APA 6th ed., format:

According to Nnamani (2009:69) dependency could be "a situation in which the less developed countries (LDCs) have to rely on developed economies and international economic policy to stimulate their own economic growth”.

Or

 In this order: Dependency could be "a situation in which the less developed countries (LDCs) have to rely on developed economies and international economic policy to stimulate their own economic growth” (Nnamani, 2009:69).

 

 In Nigeria, intellectual property rights are defined and protected in the “Copyright Act, Cap C28 Laws of the Federal of Nigeria 2004.” The institution that is in charge of copyright law in Nigeria is “Nigerian Copyright Commission.”  The commission is responsible for all matters affecting copyright in Nigeria. A plagiarist can be sued for damages.

Hence, in order to avoid all these, the key element of this rule is that authors should not present the work of another as their own work. And even if you are copying and citing the sources the principle of fair use must be adhere to. More so, to shun this dreadful act, a researcher must do thorough literature review before writing. It will also prevent re-inventing the wheel. There is now plagiarism checker software. This anti-plagiarism software can be installed in a computer.

 

Self-plagiarism

Author can be sued for self-plagiarism. That is, for copying his own previous work without giving credit to himself.  According to APA Manual 6th ed., just as researchers do not present the work of others as their own, they do not present their own previously published work as new scholarship.

 Although, there are limited circumstances under which authors may wish to duplicate without given credit to their previous work. The crux of the matter here is that the principle of fair use must be observed.© Oformatism

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