1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,166 Welcome to the Cerro Coso Community College Library’s tutorial on avoiding plagiarism . 2 00:00:06,166 --> 00:00:10,799 The first question we have to answer is: What is plagiarism? 3 00:00:10,800 --> 00:00:16,833 According to Cerro Coso Community College, the definition of plagiarism is “the act of using the ideas or 4 00:00:16,833 --> 00:00:22,533 work of another person or persons as if they were one’s own, without giving credit to the source. 5 00:00:22,533 --> 00:00:30,999 Such an act is not plagiarism if it is ascertained that the ideas were arrived at through independent reasoning or logic or where the 6 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:33,166 thought or idea is common knowledge.” 7 00:00:33,166 --> 00:00:36,199 To summarize, plagiarism is a form of copying. 8 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:41,266 If you copy someone else’s homework and pass it off as your own, you are plagiarizing their work. 9 00:00:41,266 --> 00:00:48,799 If you copy and paste a paragraph, an image, or a graph into your paper, that is also plagiarism – unless, of course, you give credit to the original 10 00:00:48,800 --> 00:00:50,600 creators by citing your sources. 11 00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:54,666 There are some instances where you do not need to give someone credit – namely, 12 00:00:54,666 --> 00:00:57,899 when the ideas are your own or when they are common knowledge. 13 00:00:57,900 --> 00:01:01,566 We will look at some examples of these later on. 14 00:01:01,566 --> 00:01:08,099 There are many types of plagiarism. The most commonly known form is the type where someone submits all or a significant portion of 15 00:01:08,100 --> 00:01:09,533 someone else’s work as their own. 16 00:01:09,533 --> 00:01:14,733 This includes having someone else write your paper for you or using a paragraph or image without credit. 17 00:01:14,733 --> 00:01:21,233 Some forms of plagiarism are less common. These may include taking someone else’s work and changing a few key words, or paraphrasing 18 00:01:21,233 --> 00:01:24,633 the content to make it sound original. It 19 00:01:24,633 --> 00:01:31,066 is also considered plagiarism if uncited sources are lumped together with cited sources, or if inaccurate or non-existent citations are created 20 00:01:31,066 --> 00:01:32,399 for uncited sources. 21 00:01:32,400 --> 00:01:38,366 Note that even if you include citations for your sources, your paper might be an example of plagiarism if you don’t include any original 22 00:01:38,366 --> 00:01:42,599 content, so don’t forget to analyze the information you get from your sources! 23 00:01:42,600 --> 00:01:45,600 So why should we avoid plagiarism? 24 00:01:45,600 --> 00:01:49,300 In academia, many people make their living off their ideas and research. 25 00:01:49,300 --> 00:01:54,933 It is important to give credit to the original authors in order to recognize their contributions to the field and 26 00:01:54,933 --> 00:01:57,299 ensure that they can keep doing what they are doing. 27 00:01:57,300 --> 00:02:00,866 By citing outside sources, you also strengthen the credibility of your paper. 28 00:02:00,866 --> 00:02:07,099 Not only will quoting other sources help prove that you are not making things up, but your essay will be more impressive if you can demonstrate 29 00:02:07,100 --> 00:02:10,133 that experts in your field are backing up your arguments. 30 00:02:10,133 --> 00:02:17,499 A paper that includes many voices and a long list of citations at the end is much more persuasive than a paper that expects its readers to take its 31 00:02:17,500 --> 00:02:18,933 word as fact without proof. 32 00:02:18,933 --> 00:02:26,133 Citing your sources also allows your readers to look up your sources and determine for themselves whether the information is credible 33 00:02:26,133 --> 00:02:29,499 and whether you might be misrepresenting the original author’s intentions. 34 00:02:29,500 --> 00:02:34,466 Finally, it is important to avoid plagiarism because there are often severe consequences for getting caught, 35 00:02:34,466 --> 00:02:41,466 both in school and beyond. In school, you are likely to be punished academically with a failing grade or even expulsion. 36 00:02:41,466 --> 00:02:44,532 In the working world, however, consequences can be worse. 37 00:02:44,533 --> 00:02:49,299 You may lose your job, get involved in costly lawsuits, and have to pay thousands of dollars. 38 00:02:49,300 --> 00:02:55,966 Even if there are no monetary consequences, it is very likely that you will lose your reputation in your industry. 39 00:02:55,966 --> 00:03:00,866 At Cerro Coso Community College, consequences for plagiarism are usually up to the instructors 40 00:03:00,866 --> 00:03:02,132 who discover the incident. 41 00:03:02,133 --> 00:03:06,966 They may choose to give the student a failing grade for the assignment, or they may fail the student for the course. 42 00:03:06,966 --> 00:03:13,366 If the incident is severe enough, the student may be sent to the Vice President of Student Services, or may be suspended from the college. 43 00:03:13,366 --> 00:03:19,799 The student who plagiarizes is not the only one at risk for these consequences. If a student allows another to copy a paper or exam, 44 00:03:19,800 --> 00:03:22,233 then both are equally guilty of plagiarism. 45 00:03:22,233 --> 00:03:26,499 To avoid plagiarism, you must always cite your sources whenever possible. 46 00:03:26,500 --> 00:03:30,400 The type of sources you should always cite include information that you quote directly, 47 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:33,100 as well as content that you paraphrase from another source. 48 00:03:33,100 --> 00:03:38,733 Paraphrasing means that you change the wording or summarize that source, but you still retain its meaning and information. 49 00:03:38,733 --> 00:03:45,699 Finally, you should always cite the source of images, charts, tables or graphs that you use, even they are widely found all over the internet. 50 00:03:45,700 --> 00:03:50,833 There are a few things that do not need to be cited and are not considered plagiarism. 51 00:03:50,833 --> 00:03:55,166 These include your own ideas and conclusions as well as data you collect yourself. 52 00:03:55,166 --> 00:04:01,699 For example, if you write a paper on a discovery you have made using data you found independently of others, 53 00:04:01,700 --> 00:04:05,800 it is not considered plagiarism even if you later learn that someone else has made the same discovery. 54 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:11,333 However, if you know about their discovery beforehand and try to take credit for their work, that is plagiarism. 55 00:04:11,333 --> 00:04:16,199 Although you need to cite the ideas that someone else has, you do not need to cite your own analysis of those ideas. 56 00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:22,000 Finally, you do not need to cite common knowledge which is known by many people and can be found in numerous sources. 57 00:04:22,000 --> 00:04:28,233 For example, many people know that Mars is closer to the sun than Jupiter, so there is no need to cite this information even if you have not 58 00:04:28,233 --> 00:04:30,333 personally travelled the solar system to prove it. 59 00:04:30,333 --> 00:04:35,799 On the other hand, if you are listing the exact percentage of the various elements that comprise Mars’ atmosphere without having 60 00:04:35,800 --> 00:04:41,833 measured them yourself, you should give credit to your source or risk being accused of plagiarism. 61 00:04:41,833 --> 00:04:48,999 While some people use the terms plagiarism and copyright infringement interchangeably, they are two different things. 62 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:54,133 Plagiarism is using someone else’s work without giving credit where it is due and citing the location of the original source. 63 00:04:54,133 --> 00:04:59,066 Copyright infringement is using or making a copy of someone else’s work without their permission. 64 00:04:59,066 --> 00:05:02,799 In general, you can avoid plagiarism by citing your source when you copy or use it. 65 00:05:02,800 --> 00:05:09,633 However, this does not mean you have avoided copyright infringement, unless you also have permission to copy it or if you can prove that it 66 00:05:09,633 --> 00:05:12,799 falls under public domain or fair use exemptions. 67 00:05:12,800 --> 00:05:18,033 Public Domain works are generally those whose intellectual property rights have expired. 68 00:05:18,033 --> 00:05:21,066 These dates vary depending on the location and type of work. 69 00:05:21,066 --> 00:05:27,099 In the United States, copyright generally expires 70 years after the author, or, if owned by a 70 00:05:27,100 --> 00:05:32,533 corporation, either 95 years after publication or 120 years from creation, whichever comes first. 71 00:05:32,533 --> 00:05:38,899 There are other specifications regarding the status of more recent works and those whose copyright has been renewed, but 72 00:05:38,900 --> 00:05:42,800 most books published before 1923 now fall under public domain. 73 00:05:42,800 --> 00:05:49,066 Please note that although a work might be considered public domain, a specific performance or iteration of that work may still be 74 00:05:49,066 --> 00:05:50,099 within copyright. 75 00:05:50,100 --> 00:05:57,266 For instance, Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is in the public domain, but if someone else takes a photograph of the Mona Lisa and posts it online, 76 00:05:57,266 --> 00:06:01,232 they own the copyright of that image and the image is not in the public domain. 77 00:06:01,233 --> 00:06:04,733 An up and coming alternative to copyright laws is something called Creative Commons, 78 00:06:04,733 --> 00:06:09,866 which gives authors greater freedom and flexibility in granting permissions to use, alter, 79 00:06:09,866 --> 00:06:11,032 and distribute their works. 80 00:06:11,033 --> 00:06:13,999 You can find out more about this at creativecommons.org 81 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:19,900 Ultimately, you should cite all works you use which are not yours, regardless of whether or not they are in the public domain. 82 00:06:19,900 --> 00:06:26,066 If they are not in the public domain, however, you also need to determine whether you are actually allowed to use them without permission. 83 00:06:26,066 --> 00:06:34,599 In many cases, you are allowed to use quotes and images in your academic papers based upon a section of copyright called Fair Use. 84 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:40,166 Fair Use determines the extent to which you can use or distribute copyrighted works without permission. 85 00:06:40,166 --> 00:06:45,332 Some examples of fair use include criticism, commentary, parodies, or educational purposes. 86 00:06:45,333 --> 00:06:51,699 This last one is what gives the majority of instructors and students the ability to use copyrighted materials in a classroom setting. 87 00:06:51,700 --> 00:06:59,100 There are four main factors that determine Fair Use: Purpose, nature, amount, and effect on the market. 88 00:06:59,100 --> 00:07:03,800 All four of these factors are taken into consideration in determining whether a situation is fair use. 89 00:07:03,800 --> 00:07:11,233 The first factor, the Purpose of the use, generally considers something fair use if it being used for educational, nonprofit, preservation or 90 00:07:11,233 --> 00:07:13,433 transformative purposes. 91 00:07:13,433 --> 00:07:20,999 While the majority of academic usage is justified by this factor, using something for educational purposes is only considered fair use if it 92 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:23,766 conforms with the other three categories as well. 93 00:07:23,766 --> 00:07:27,199 The nature of the original work is the second factor taken into consideration. 94 00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:35,066 Fair use tends to apply to published nonfiction and educational works, and less to unpublished works or creative works of art, fiction, and film. 95 00:07:35,066 --> 00:07:38,099 It almost never applies to consumable products like workbooks. 96 00:07:38,100 --> 00:07:41,266 The third factor is the amount of the original work used. 97 00:07:41,266 --> 00:07:44,266 The less you use of a work, the more likely it is to fall under fair use. 98 00:07:44,266 --> 00:07:51,799 One rule of thumb suggests photocopying no more than 1 chapter, 1 article, or 10% of a book to be used in the classroom. 99 00:07:51,800 --> 00:07:59,233 In the case of poetry or short stories, it may be easy to reproduce the whole thing in an essay, but this is unlikely to fall under fair use. 100 00:07:59,233 --> 00:08:02,633 The final factor is the effect on the market of the original work. 101 00:08:02,633 --> 00:08:09,966 Your use of the work should not deprive the copyright holder of income, which means that copying large portions of a work so that someone 102 00:08:09,966 --> 00:08:15,332 else does not have to buy a copy would not fall under fair use. 103 00:08:15,333 --> 00:08:19,399 If you are unsure as to whether or not using portions of a work will fall under fair use, you may wish to err on the side of caution. 104 00:08:19,400 --> 00:08:26,500 When in doubt as to whether something falls in the public domain or fair use, or whether something might be considered plagiarism, 105 00:08:26,500 --> 00:08:27,700 ask your professor. 106 00:08:27,700 --> 00:08:32,700 If necessary, find out who holds the copyright and contact the owner for permission to use their work. 107 00:08:32,700 --> 00:08:36,000 After all, wouldn’t you want credit if someone used something you made?