Throughout your project, you use information to arrive at a good end result. You may have already gone through the other information literacy building blocks which provide information and tools for finding information and evaluating its suitability. At this point you will have found some relevant information to use in your project. How do you include this information in your report (such as your plan of approach or a design document)? What should you pay attention to when you do this?
In this building block we explain what plagiarism is and how you can prevent it by citing and referring to sources in a consistent way.
We start with why you would want to cite other sources to begin with, followed by a section concerning what is plagiarism and what is not. To prevent plagiarism you will need to indicate your sources, so we will show you two often-used citation styles you can use to do this in a consistent way, followed by two ways to incorporate the original information: by citing and by paraphrasing. In the assignments you will look up how to cite often-used types of sources and apply it to your project. The self-assessment you can use to afterwards or in advance how well you (already) know the learning goals of this block. Be sure to check out the practical tips - they provide answers to questions and problems we commonly see in practice.
If you have any comments or questions about this building block, please contact Danny Plass (Saxion).
Learning goals
After this building block:
you know why you want to refer to sources.
you know what plagiarism is and how you can prevent it.
you know how to process information from sources in your own report.
you are familiar with two well-known styles for source references (APA and IEEE).
Citing sources is part of information literacy. These are skills that help you find, find, assess and process information. This generally concerns information from Available work, which is used within the research strategies Library and Showroom in the DOT framework.
Why cite?
By using the work of others (especially experts), your solution will be better than what you would be able to achieve all by yourself. Together you can do more than alone. You can also convince others of the truth of your statements more easily if, for example, you can substantiate it with data that has been researched by others, or the correctness of a particular choice if you can support it with ideas from experts in that area.
Just look at the following examples. Which do you find most convincing?
Statement
Statement with substantiation
Statement with substantiation and source
We will develop the application for the Windows operating system.
We will develop the application for the Windows operating system, since that is currently being used by most people.
We will develop the application for the Windows operating system, since that is currently being used by most people (W3Counter, 2018).
Besides the persuasive power, there are other reasons to refer to sources. If you indicate your sources, others can also read that if they want to know more about that subject. And you show that you are aware of what others have done on this topic. In addition, by explicitly stating which parts of the text come from others, you ensure that you cannot be accused of plagiarism.
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is: taking the work of someone else and using it as if it is your own (Plagiarism.org, 2017). So it is actually a kind of theft, whether you do it consciously or not. Make a clear difference between which ideas are yours and which ideas are from others. If you use someone else's text (or images), you have to indicate where you got it from. This is how you prevent plagiarism.
Note: If you have been guilty of plagiarism, your submission will be declared invalid. In more serious cases, it is also possible that you are not allowed to take part in tests for a certain period of time. In very serious offenses you can even be removed from your programme. Do not take it too lightly!
Forms of plagiarism
There are a number of forms of plagiarism (Plagiarism.org, 2017), such as:
Submit someone else's work as if it were yours.
Copy words or ideas from someone else without mentioning the source.
Quoting a literal quote without putting it in quotes.
Provide false information about the source of a quote.
Changing a few words, but taking the sentence structure of a source, without mentioning the source.
Taking so many words or ideas from a source that it forms the largest part of your work, without providing the source.
Using images from a source without acknowledging the source.
Note: even if you give the information in a source in your own words (paraphrasing), you still have to mention the source!
On this website of Indiana University there are more forms of plagiarism with examples (Indiana University, 2017).
What is not plagiarism
It is not plagiarism if you write the following:
Your own ideas
e.g. "Firefox is the best web browser because I really enjoy using it." Tip: Often you can make your own ideas look more convincing by supporting it with information from other sources, for example with a Techradar article in which the 7 most frequently-used browsers are compared. Then, of course, you give indicate the source again. General knowledge, e.g. "Chrome is a web browser."
General knowledge
e.g. "Chrome is a web browser."
Information from others (possibly in your own words) with correct reference
e.g. "Chrome was the most used web browser in 2018 (Statcounter, 2018)."
In the bibliography, you then include the complete reference:
"Statcounter (2017) Browser market share worldwide, retrieved from http://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share (2018, Nov 26)."
Consistently referring to sources
It is important to refer to sources in a consistent way. Look at the following example:
Van Doorn (2015) discovered with a survey that most people dislike pistachio ice cream (zie Wikipedia). However, in more recent research, pistachio ended up in the top-3 of favorite flavours [3].
Bibliography
Wikipedia, Pistachio ice cream.
Van Doorn, F. (2015). Opinions on pistachio ice cream. In: The yearly ice cream magazine. Ice print, Harlem.
[3] Ice cream favorites of 2017. A. Zuithoff. http:// zuithoff.nl/ijslijst2016.html
Is it easy to find which source belongs to which information in the text? And this was just with three citations. What if there are 20?
To solve this problem, citation styles have been developed. We show two commonly used styles here: APA and IEEE. APA is widely used in science. IEEE is often seen in ICT publications.
Is a certain style recommended in your study programme or are you allowed to choose?
APA
Next example gives a general impression of the APA style for citing:
Van Doorn (2015) discovered with a survey that most people dislike pistachio ice cream (Wikipedia, 2001). However, in more recent research, pistachio ended up in the top-3 of favorite flavours (Zuithoff, 2017).
Bibliography
Van Doorn, F. (2015). Opinions on pistachio ice cream. In: The yearly ice cream magazine. Ice print, Harlem.
Wikipedia, (2001). Pistachio ice cream. Retrieved from http://nl.wikipedia.com/Pistache-ijs (2018, Nov 25).
Zuithoff, A. (2017). Ice cream favorites of 2017. Retrieved from http:// zuithoff.nl/ijslijst2016.html (2018, Nov 25).
Convenient about the APA style is that without referring to the bibliography, you already know the author and how current the information is.
Van Doorn [1] discovered with a survey that most people dislike pistachio ice cream [2]. However, in more recent research, pistachio ended up in the top-3 of favorite flavours [3].
Bibliography
[1] F. van Doorn, "Opinions on pistachio ice cream" in: The yearly ice cream magazine. Ice print, Harlem, 2015.
[2] Wikipedia, Pistachio ice cream, 2001. [Online]. Available: http://en.wikipedia.com/Pistachio-ice-cream [Accessed Nov 25, 2018].
[3] A. Zuithoff, Ice cream favorites of 2017, 2017 [Online]. Available: http:// zuithoff.nl/ijslijst2016.html [Accessed Nov 25, 2018].
With this style, it is easier to find the references in the bibliography, as the sources are in the same order as they occur in the text.
Literal citation (name (year) is an APA style citation):
"My favorite for years now has been pistachio ice cream", says Van Doorn (2016).
In own words:
According to Van Doorn (2016) pistachio ice cream is the best.
In more general wording:
Some people prefer pistachio ice cream (Van Doorn, 2016).
You can also leave out parts of citations with(...):
"My favorite (...) has been pistachio ice cream", says Van Doorn (2016).
Or add some explanation with []:
"My favorite for years now [since 2001] has been pistache-ijs", says Van Doorn (2016).
Tip: It is customary in writing to have one thought per paragraph. If this whole paragraph is based on the same source, it is sufficient to mention the source once in this paragraph. So you do not have to repeat the source every sentence. But try to remain clear as to what information comes from you and what from others!
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is telling the ideas of others in your own words. By retelling the information you can emphasize the most relevant points and omit unrelated information. You can also combine information from different sources to make a certain point (e.g. based on differences or similarities).
The goal of this project is to develop an app that enables older people to live independently at home for longer. In spite of possibilities like this, elderly people make less use of the Internet and ICT in general (European Commission, 2004; Agerwal et al., 2009). It is therefore important to pay extra attention to the technological skills, opinions and daily life of the target group.
Agerwal, R., Animesh, A. and Prasad, K. (2009) Social interactions and the ‘digital divide’: explaining variations in internet use. Information Systems Research 20(2), 277–294.
European Commission (2004) eInclusion@EU: strengthening eInclusion & eAccessibility across Europe. Analytic framework – eInclusion and eAccessibility priority issues.
Note: You still want to cite the original sources when you paraphrase, as that is where the ideas came from. Paraphrasing does not result in less references. Be clear about what ideas are your own and what originates from other sources. Using other sources makes your ideas stronger, not weaker.
Assignments
Self assessment
Oefening: Self-assessment Citing Sources
0%
This test consists of 5 questions which you can use to check your understanding of the learning goals of this building block. You can use it beforehand to see what you already know, or afterwards to see if you understood everything correctly.
In this assignment you will find a couple of situations described. Indicate the correct source reference for each situation, both for the citation in the text and the full source reference for the bibliography. For this assignment, use the citation style as advised by your educational programme. In case you can choose yourself: some of the most common styles are APA and IEEE. Look up the corresponding "style manual" to do this assignment.
Interview with an expert
You are considering what the best development process is for your project: Scrum or Kanban? You talk to an expert in this area within the company where you do your assignment. He indicates that Kanban will be more suitable in this situation, because you will work on your own and because there is still a lot of uncertainty in the assignment itself. How do you correctly refer to your source in your Plan of Approach?
Entry in the text:
Entry in the reference list:
Forum post
You are working on developing a web application. The problem is that the web application must continue to work even if the internet is lost. That's why you make a Progressive Web App. Now you want to know how the application can check if the internet connection is back up. You find the following post on Stack Overflow: Progressive Web App: How to detect and handle when connection is up again. The solution by Tony19 seems to be suitable. How do you refer to this in your Technical Design document?
Entry in the text:
Entry in the reference list:
Book
In order to elicit the requirements for your assignment, you will observe how people are working at the moment. In the book Observing the user experience you find a good chapter on Field Visits from which you have adopted your approach. Use the information from the link.
Entry in the text:
Entry in the reference list:
Scientific article
Your team develops an extra secure browser. Your task is to determine what is and what is not communicated to the user and in what form. With Google Scholar you find the following article presented at a conference: How to design browser security and privacy alerts. Use the information you find through this link.
Entry in the text:
Entry in the reference list:
Project assignment
Step 1. What citation style do you want to use within the team (e.g. APA or IEEE)? Find out if there are any recommendations by your study programme. Look up the corresponding "style manual".
Step 2. Now take one of the documents you are working on right now (such as a plan of approach, a design document, a research report, ...). If you already have at least two sources per team member, you can go straight to the next step. If not, first look for supporting information to substantiate the statements and decisions your report. Consider, for example, evidence for certain assumptions (e.g. "Older people do not use apps" - what are the user percentages for different age categories?), justification for certain choices ("The programming language will be Java" - why is that a suitable choice?). Or did you perhaps use information, but did not indicate the source? Then search for the used sources.
Step 3. Each team member provides (at least) 2 correct references, both in the text and in the bibliography.
Step 4. Each team member now checks (at least) 2 references from another. Is a reference not correct according to the chosen style? Then give advice for improvement.
Step 5. Repair your own references for which you received advice for improvement.
Congratulations, you now have a better-substantiated document with neat source references and without plagiarism!
Practical tips
Always refer to your sources, even if you only take the idea and tell everything in your own words.
Use a consistent way to refer to the sources you have used, for example IEEE or APA style. In this way, the reader of your documentation (e.g. a team member, a client, or a team that builds on your work) can easily check whether the sources used are suitable, which makes your work more reliable and thus more convincing.
One of the guidelines for writing is to tell one thought per paragraph. If the whole paragraph is about the same source, then it is sufficient to indicate the source only once. You do not have to repeat the reference every sentence.
Always quote the most original source. So if you find a source and it uses information from another source, then you refer to the latter.
Word can help you with consistent referring according to a specific style. For example, consider this tutorial. Please note that you choose the right kind of source document and fill in the information in the correct fields!
In this building block we explain how to cite (and paraphrase) sources and how to refer to them in a consistent way. We also explain what plagiarism is and how you can prevent it by referring to sources correctly.
The rest of this teacher manual has not (yet) been translated.
Plaats in het curriculum en module
Deze bouwsteen komt het liefst zo snel mogelijk aan bod in het curriculum zodat studenten effectiever online allerlei soorten informatie op te kunnen zoeken en gebruiken.
Hoe deze bouwsteen precies wordt aangeboden is aan de betreffende moduleverantwoordelijke. Het materiaal is met opzet flexibel, zodat het in verschillende contexten goed ingepast kan worden. Het advies is om er een begeleidingsuur/workshop aan te besteden.
Deze bouwsteen is goed te combineren met andere informatievaardigheden, zoals informatie vinden, scannend en begrijpend lezen, en evalueren. Het is een goed vervolg op Informatie vinden en beoordelen.
Voorbeeld lesplan
Kortste variant lesplan in projectcontext
Huiswerk voor student (1.5 u):
1 uur Neem de bouwsteen door
10 min Doe de zelftest
20 min Maak de individuele opdracht
Workshop (1 lesuur van 45 min):
10 min Docent geeft korte herhaling
25 min Studenten gaan aan de slag met de projectopdracht; docent loopt rond als coach
10 min Afronding met korte herhaling kernpunten
Korte variant zonder huiswerk
Workshop (1 lesuur van 45 min):
05 min Studenten doen de zelftest om te zien wat ze al weten
10 min Docent geeft korte uitleg
25 min Studenten gaan aan de slag met projectopdracht; docent coacht
5 min Afronding met korte herhaling
Tips bij de opdrachten
Zelftest:
Kan de student vooraf doen om te zien wat hij/zij al weet
Kan de student achteraf doen om te zien of hij/zij de lesstof wel goed heeft begrepen
Individuele opdracht:
Gaat vooral om het opzoeken van hoe je netjes verwijst naar verschillende soorten bronnen volgens de gekozen referentiestijl. Kan als huiswerkopdracht, of bijv. in tweetallen in de klas.
Je zou er ook een meerkeuzevariant van kunnen maken en een Socrative-wedstrijd in de klas kunnen houden, als start van de les.
Projectopdracht:
Je kunt studenten evt. al de aanbevolen referentiestijl en een bron met goede uitleg daarvan meegeven aan het begin van de opdracht.
Soms denken studenten dat verwijzen alleen iets is voor wetenschappelijke bronnen en boeken. Laat studenten vooral ook een aantal andersoortige bronnen citeren, zoals een website, een forum, of een gesprek met een expert.
Laat studenten ook eens zien hoe ze van tools zoals Word gebruik kunnen maken om consistent te verwijzen volgens APA of IEEE.
Tips voor projectbegeleiding
Zie docenttips bij Tips bij de opdrachten \ Projectopdracht.
Beoordelen
In deze pdf staan 2 beoordelingsmodellen voor informatievaardigheden in het algemeen.
Het arrangement Citing sources (and preventing plagiarism) is gemaakt met
Wikiwijs van
Kennisnet. Wikiwijs is hét onderwijsplatform waar je leermiddelen zoekt,
maakt en deelt.
Dit lesmateriaal is gepubliceerd onder de Creative Commons Naamsvermelding 4.0 Internationale licentie. Dit houdt in dat je onder de voorwaarde van naamsvermelding vrij bent om:
het werk te delen - te kopiëren, te verspreiden en door te geven via elk medium of bestandsformaat
het werk te bewerken - te remixen, te veranderen en afgeleide werken te maken
voor alle doeleinden, inclusief commerciële doeleinden.
Van dit lesmateriaal is de volgende aanvullende informatie beschikbaar:
Toelichting
You use information throughout your project to arrive at a good end result, but how do you refer correctly to the information sources you have used? How do you prevent plagiarism? In this building block we explain what plagiarism is and how you can prevent it by citing and referring to sources in a consistent way. This is an HBO-ICT building block for Research in Education.
Leerniveau
HBO - Bachelor;
Eindgebruiker
leerling/student
Moeilijkheidsgraad
makkelijk
Studiebelasting
2 uur en 0 minuten
Trefwoorden
apa, available work, bronverwijzing, building block, hbo ict oio, information literacy, library, plagiarism, research, showroom
You use information throughout your project to arrive at a good end result, but how do you refer correctly to the information sources you have used? How do you prevent plagiarism? In this building block we explain what plagiarism is and how you can prevent it by citing and referring to sources in a consistent way. This is an HBO-ICT building block for Research in Education.
