Is this plagiarism?

 Alex must write an essay worth 15% of the final grade. He found some journal articles that are relevant to his topic and added a few paragraphs to his paper without citations. His paper must be turned in as a print copy and will not be online or go through any Turnitin software. The instructor is the only person that will read it. It’s a printed copy and will not be published anywhere. Is Alex committing plagiarism?

• Yes, it's plagiarism

• No, it's not plagiarism

• This isn't technically plagiarism but it's not a best research practice

Answer explanation

All Alex has to do is cite the additional journal articles and it's no longer plagiarism.

  Kelly’s History instructor asked her to write an essay on a specific topic. She read several books about the topic. But when she wrote the paper, she forgot which books had which information. So, she took her best guess and added a few of these books to her works cited page. Is Kelly committing plagiarism?

• Yes, it's plagiarism

• No, it's not plagiarism

• This isn't technically plagiarism but it's not a best research practice

Answer explanation

Kelly needs to go back, check the books, and cite them to avoid academic misconduct. In the future, se needs to keep close track of the sources she's using when taking notes.

 Ana is writing a research paper. She found a newspaper article that summarized another article from an academic journal. She didn’t have time to read the peer-reviewed article, so she used the information in the newspaper article that summarized the peer-reviewed journal article. She paraphrased this information and included it in her research paper. Since the original source of the information was the peer-reviewed journal article, she cited the peer-reviewed article in her research paper rather than the newspaper. Is Ana committing plagiarism?

• Yes, it's plagiarism

• No, it's not plagiarism

• This isn't technically plagiarism but it's not a best research practice

Answer explanation

If Ana cites the newspaper article, it's no longer plagiarism. However, reviews of books or articles aren't the best sources for scholarship. Instead, Ana should read the peer-review article and cite it.

 Sonya is taking two classes this semester that require essays, but she is able to pick her own topic. The two classes are “Health Communication” and “Public Health”. Since the classes are similar, she decided to write one paper about a topic that would work for both classes and turns that paper in for both classes. She was careful to include proper references and citations. Is Sonya committing plagiarism?

• Yes, it's plagiarism

• No, it's not plagiarism

• Technically, it's not plagiarism but it's not a best research practice

Answer explanation

Self-plagiarism is a form of plagiarism. Also, you can't reuse work from another course unless your instructor specifically allows it - doing so would be academic misconduct.

 Stephen found some information online that he would like to use in his Psychology essay. However, the website has no author and no information about where the information came from. So, he didn’t mention the website in his references. Is Stephen committing plagiarism?

• Yes, it's plagiarism

• No, it's not plagiarism

• Technically, it's not plagiarism but it's not a best research practice

Answer explanation

He needs to cite the website even though there is no author. Check the citation handbook (for the MLA, APA, etc.) - it will provide instructions for citing a website with no author. Also, if the website is lacking this information, it may be unreliable. He should consider using a different source.

 Paloma has to make a video for her art class. She found a video on YouTube that was inspiring to her. It doesn’t have any words in it; it’s just a series of shapes moving around on a screen. So, she added 30 seconds of it into her video assignment for class. Since it doesn’t have any words in it, she didn’t include it as a source in her bibliography. Is Paloma committing plagiarism?

• Yes, it's plagiarism

• No, it's not plagiarism

• Technically it's not plagiarism but it's not a best research practice

Answer explanation

She still needs to cite the video. The citation handbooks (MLA, APA, etc.) provide instructions for citing multimedia sources.