How to Avoid Plagiarism in Research

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is presenting another’s work or thoughts as your own. Some students believe that plagiarism only occurs when one intends to plagiarize—it’s only stealing if you know you’re stealing, right? But making a mistake using sources when researching a paper—not citing correctly or often enough, paraphrasing incompletely, etc.—is still plagiarism. Inadvertent plagiarism is still plagiarism. Ignorance of the rules of how to use and cite sources doesn’t mean those rules don’t apply to you.

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Plagiarism is more than purposefully or accidentally copying someone else’s work. Be warry of plagiarizing yourself, too. Reusing your own work across projects—unless explicitly allowed—is also plagiarism, even though it’s your own work. Like other kinds of plagiarism, self-plagiarism is both lazy and unethical.

Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism

Here are some tried-and-true approaches to preventing yourself from inadvertently plagiarizing one of your sources while writing a research paper:^1,2

Cite early, cite often.

Any idea that isn’t yours that you include in a research paper must be cited. Direct quotes—even those that you introduce by naming the source—need to be cited, and so do paraphrased passages and summaries of research. Every. Single. Time. Different kinds of research papers may require that you follow one of several style guides. Consult the style guide required by your course to see how cite everything from speeches to websites to social media posts correctly.

Paraphrase properly.

Changing one or two words of a source’s sentence or fact is not paraphrasing. Proper paraphrasing requires you understand the source material well enough to explain it in your own words, then that you rewrite the source material’s sentence or fact completely—new words, new sentence structure—without changing the meaning of the content. Paraphrasing also requires that you cite your source material just as you would a direct quote.

Double-check your work.

Check your citations every time you add to your work and during each new draft. Some schools and teachers choose to subscribe to web-based plagiarism checkers or suggest students use free versions. But there’s a powerful anti-plagiarism tool is built right into Word 365: the similarity checker. Take advantage of it to ensure you’re citing your sources correctly before you turn in your work.

Share your point of view.

Conducting research and writing a paper is about more than collecting facts and figures and repeating them. It’s about presenting your original thoughts on the topic and supporting your thesis statement. (Which is included at the end of your research paper’s introduction—right?) Including your original thoughts and unique point of view—based up your research—in your paper is not only appropriate and expected, it’s a surefire way to steer clear of plagiarism.

Quoting, Paraphrasing, Summarizing—What They Are & How to Use Each

Understanding the three ways to incorporate research into research papers is key to avoiding inadvertent plagiarism:³

Quoting

When you quote a source, you’re reproducing the source material word-for-word. And, yes, that word-for-word reproduction goes inside quotation marks.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing is rewriting a passage or fact from a source in your own words instead of quoting directly. Rewriting actually does mean rewriting—not just reordering the words in a sentence and getting creative with punctuation. Everything except the meaning of what’s being paraphrased needs to be changed.

Summarizing

Summarizing is condensing a passage, fact, or a collection of either or both from a source down to their main points and writing them in your own words. All summarizing is paraphrasing, but not all paraphrasing is summarizing.

Each of these approaches require citation—and again, how sources are cited in any given paper depends on the style guide being used in your course. Citing thoroughly, combined with appropriate paraphrasing and including your unique perspective on the research topic will help prevent inadvertent plagiarism—and the academic consequences that would result.