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Academic Integrity

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Words are very powerful. Therefore, it is important to use them truthfully, accurately, and responsibly. Statements should be accurate both in terms of how information is managed and how it is credited

Managing Information

Ethical management of information requires both factual and accurate presentation. Individuals who alter results by reporting truthful but incomplete data that will skew the findings are mismanaging information. Ethical writing requires that, with access to the same information and knowledge, others may reasonably reach the same conclusions as the writer.

Crediting Sources

A second ethical consideration involves crediting information that you acquired from other sources. It is important to credit others sources in order to

• situate your thinking in the ongoing thinking of specialists on your topic. With many types of papers, grounding your line of reasoning in the ongoing work on the topic by making reference to key sources increases the credibility of your argument.
• avoid claiming another's work as your own--plagiarizing, in other words. Not to give credit to others for their ideas, whether or not their exact words are cited, is to commit intellectual theft, a very serious offense.

Sometimes writers are uncertain when to give credit. Use research procedures as your guideline: Who or what is the original source that another researcher should contact to clarify information appearing in your writing? As you write, note that

• agreeing with the material that someone else wrote does not make it your own.
• rearranging words from someone else's prose does not change the fact that it is not your own work.
• writing a paper that consists of numerous quotations strung together does not qualify as one's own work. The fact that there are quotation marks and citations is not a substitute for the requirement that a piece of work is to be a product of the writer's own mind.

Sometimes writers are uncertain how to give credit. Here are tips and additional resources:

• if you write word for word what appears in another source, put double quotation marks around the words and cite the source.
• if you borrow ideas, arguments, data, or other information from another source, cite the source even if you put the material in your own words.

Incorporating References will help you incorporate information into your paper, and Citing/Documenting Your Sources will explain the format used to cite your sources.

Learn more about Avoiding Plagiarism