Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a guiding principle in education and a choice to act in a responsible way whereby others can have trust in us as individuals. It is the foundation for ethical decision-making and behavior in the production of legitimate, authentic, and honest scholarly work. 

The IB defines academic misconduct (plagiarism, collusion, and duplication of work) as behavior that results in, or may result in, the student or any other student gaining an unfair advantage in one or more components of submitted student work. 

For current GJS policy concerning plagiarism please see the Academic Integrity Policy.

Preventing Plagiarism - 7-point guide for students

In a research paper, you have to come up with your original ideas while at the same time using work that’s already been done by others.  But how can you tell where their ideas end and your own begin?  What’s the proper way to include sources in your paper?   If you change some of what an author said, do you still have to cite that person? 

Confusion about the answers to these questions often leads to plagiarism.  If you have similar questions or are concerned about preventing plagiarism, we recommend using the checklist below.

1. Consult with your teacher

Have questions about plagiarism?  If you can’t find the answers on our site or are unsure about something, you should ask your instructor.  They will most likely be pleased to answer your questions.  You can also check out the guidelines for citing sources properly.  If you follow them and the rest of the advice on this page, you should have no problems with plagiarism.

2. Plan your paper 

Planning your paper well is the first and most important step you can take toward preventing plagiarism.  If you know you will use other sources of information, you need to plan how you are going to include them in your paper.  This means balancing the ideas you have taken from different sources and your original ideas.  Writing an outline, or coming up with a thesis statement in which you formulate an argument about the information you find, will help establish the boundaries between your ideas and those of your sources.

3. Take Effective Notes 

One of the best ways to prepare for a research paper is by taking thorough notes from all of your sources so that you have much of the information organized before you begin writing.  On the other hand, poor note-taking can lead to many problems – including improper citations and misquotations, both of which are forms of plagiarism!  To avoid confusion about your sources, try using different colored fonts, pens, or pencils for each one, and make sure you clearly distinguish your ideas from those you found elsewhere.   Also, get in the habit of marking page numbers. Make sure that you record bibliographic information or web addresses for every source right away – finding them again later when you are trying to finish your paper can be a nightmare!                                                                 

4. When in doubt, cite sources – see the citations page

Of course, you want to get credit for your ideas.  And you don’t want your instructor to think that you got all of your information from somewhere else.  But if it is unclear whether an idea in your paper really came from you or whether you got it from somewhere else and just changed it a little, you should always cite your source.  Instead of weakening your paper and making it seem like you have fewer original ideas, this will strengthen your essay by 1) showing that you are not just copying other ideas but are processing and adding to them, 2) lending outside support to the ideas that are completely yours, and 3) highlighting the originality of your ideas by making clear distinctions between them and ideas you have gotten elsewhere.

5. Make it clear who said what

Even if you cite sources, ambiguity in your phrasing can often disguise the real source of any given idea, causing inadvertent plagiarism.  When you mix your ideas with those of your sources, you always clearly distinguish them.  If you are discussing the views of more than one person, watch out for confusing pronouns.  For example, imagine you are talking about Harold Bloom’s discussion of James Joyce’s opinion of Shakespeare, and you write: “He brilliantly portrayed the situation of a writer in society at that time.”  Who is the “He” in this sentence?  Bloom, Joyce, or Shakespeare?  Who is the “writer”: Joyce,  Shakespeare, or one of their characters?  Always make sure to distinguish who said what and give credit to the right person. 

6. Know how to Paraphrase - see the three skills to avoid plagiarism

A paraphrase is a restatement in your own words of someone else’s ideas.  Changing a few words of the original sentences does NOT make you’re writing a legitimate paraphrase.  You must change both the words and the sentence structure of the original without changing the content.  Also, you should remember that paraphrased passages still require citation because the ideas came from another source, even though you are putting them in your own words.    

The purpose of paraphrasing is not to make it seem like you are drawing less directly from other sources or reduce the number of quotations in your paper.  It is a common misconception among students that you need to hide that you rely on other sources.  It is advantageous to highlight the fact that other sources support your ideas.  Using quality sources to help your thoughts makes them seem more robust and more valid.  Good paraphrasing makes the source’s ideas fit smoothly into your paper, emphasizing the most relevant points and leaving out unrelated information. 

7. Evaluate Your Sources

Not all sources on the web are worth citing – in fact, many of them are just plain wrong.  So how do you tell the good ones apart?  For starters, make sure you know the author(s) of the page, where they got their information, and when they wrote it (getting this information is also an essential step in avoiding plagiarism!).  Then you should determine how credible you feel the source is: how well they support their ideas, the quality of the writing, the accuracy of the information provided, etc.

Three Skills to Avoid Plagiarism

Direct Quotations

• When the writer uses the exact words from a source. 

• Quotations should be used sparingly and when the language is important.

• These words are, of course, surrounded by quotation marks.

• Quotations must be combined with the writer's original words.  Example:  We know Santiago, "...had seen many great fish" (Hemingway 63). 

• Omitted words are noted by ellipses (...), but one must be certain the context of the quote stays the same.

• Long quotations of more than four lines are set off by a colon, NOT enclosed in quotation marks, and indented 10 spaces/2 tabs.

Paraphrasing

• As always, if you use someone's information, it needs to be cited even when using your own language.

• Therefore, paraphrasing is expressing someone else's idea and/or work in your own words.

• Use a parenthetical citation at the end of the paraphrase.  Example:  ..until the idea becomes a reality (Smith 62).

Summarizing

• A shortened version and/or a broad overview of a source that focuses on the key points.

• Written in one's words

• Use a parenthetical citation at the end of the summary.  Example:  "...the law will take effect in 2014" (Lewis and Buckley).

Short Video on Plagiarism

Here is, a very informative little video that will help you understand whether or not you are plagiarizing and how to avoid it.