Information Literacy Guide: Legal & Ethical Use

Your institution or faculty will have a policy concerning this issue and the penalties may include the following:

• a failing grade for your assignment;
• a failing grade for the subject;
• probationary status;
• or even expulsion from the institution.
  (Source: http://www.plagiarism.org/faq.html; 2001) 

Plagiarism is simply using someone's idea or work as is yours. According to New York University  Academic Integrity Websites plagiarism "presenting others' work without adequate acknowledgement of its source as though it were one’s own"  It describes plagiarism  is  a form of fraud. Therefore ethical use of information becomes critical in research and scholarly process because information can be copyrighted.

Plagiarism can take various forms. It can be blatant theft or accidental "borrowing". See the following examples:

• You submit an assignment done by another student (or from a paper mill) as your own.
• You pay another student to write an assignment for you and hand it in as your own work.
• You copy and paste sections from someone else's work and add it to your work without acknowledging the source. 

(Source: http://www.engl.niu.edu/comskills/students/plagiarism/Plagiarism.html; 2001)

Tips to avoid Plagiarism

    Paraphrase your content

• Do not copy–paste the text verbatim instead, restate the idea in your own words.
• Understand the idea(s) of the reference source well in to paraphrase correctly

Use of Quotation Marks-  to indicate that the text has been taken from another paper.

Cite your Sources – identify what does and does not need to be cited

Plagiarism Software use plagiarism checker

Use citation styles  to avoid plagiarism and this are discussed in the next link on reference styles

There are certain detection tools available on the Internet to detect plagiarism in assignments. The following web site will explain how to use these tools as well as where to find them: https://www.plagiarism.org/

The law permits the making of limited numbers of copies without copyright permission for the following purposes:

1. Exceptions to exclusive right to copyright
2. Private reproduction for personal purposes
3. Quotation
4. Reproduction for teaching
5. Reprographic reproduction by libraries and archives
6. Reproduction and adaptation of computer programmes
7. Reproduction broadcasting and other communication to the public
8. Temporary reproduction
9. Importation for personal purposes
10. Display of works
11. Assignment and of authors rights