As plagiarism continues to be on peoples’ minds, it is probably a good time to take a moment to review the module on ethical writing provided on the website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Research Integrity (ORI).

As per the ORI website – https://ori.hhs.gov/avoiding-plagiarism-self-plagiarism-and-other-questionable-writing-practices-guide-ethical-writing:

“Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices: A Guide to Ethical Writing

The purpose of this module is to help students, as well as professionals, identify and prevent questionable practices and to develop an awareness of ethical writing. This guide was written by Miguel Roig, PhD, from St. Johns University with funding from ORI.

This module was originally created in 2003 and revised in 2006 and 2015.”

In addition to the HTML version, there is also a downloadable 71-page PDF version, as well as an abridged HTML version entitled 28 Guidelines at a Glance on Avoiding Plagiarism.

Questions related to citing references that often are asked of librarians are nicely addressed in these four items in particular that have been highlighted below:

From https://ori.hhs.gov/28-guidelines-glance-avoiding-plagiarism:

“Guideline 15: Authors are strongly urged to double-check their citations. Specifically, authors should always ensure that each reference notation appearing in the body of the manuscript corresponds to the correct citation listed in the reference section and vice versa and that each source listed in the reference section has been cited at some point in the manuscript. In addition, authors should also ensure that all elements of a citation (e.g., spelling of authors’ names, volume number of journal, pagination) are derived directly from the original paper, rather than from a citation that appears on a secondary source. Finally, when appropriate, authors should ensure that credit is given to those authors who first reported the phenomenon being studied.

Guideline 16: The references used in a paper should only be those that are directly related to its contents. The intentional inclusion of references of questionable relevance for purposes such as manipulating a journal’s or a paper’s impact factor or a paper’s chances of acceptance, is an unacceptable practice.

Guideline 17: Always cite the actual work that is consulted. When the published paper cannot be obtained, cite the specific version of the material being used whether it is conference presentation, abstract, or an unpublished manuscript. Ensure that the cited work has not been subsequently corrected or retracted.

Guideline 18: Generally, when describing others’ work, do not cite an original paper if you are only relying on a secondary summary of that paper. Doing so is a deceptive practice, reflects poor scholarly standards, and can lead to a flawed description of the work described.”

Questions? Ask Us at the MSK Library.