Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

You may order a desk copy here. You may also get access to a free electronic copy that APA has kindly offered during the pandemic here. Although students aren’t eligible for desk copies, you can share the electronic link with them.

Plagiarism is “[u]sing another person’s words, ideas, results, or images without giving appropriate credit to that person” (“Code of Student Conduct,” 2018, para. 4).American Psychological Association (2020) defines it as “the act of presenting the words, ideas, or images of another as your own; it denies authors or creators of content the credit they are due. Whether deliberate or unintentional, plagiarism violates ethical standards in scholarship” (p. 254).

Improperly cited sources are not necessarily plagiarism. They are more likely to be formatting errors. Plagiarism is when a person tries to claim another’s work as their own without giving credit, usually for some sort of gain (e.g., a grade). If the student is attempting citations, they acknowledge that the work isn’t their own and are trying to give the source credit. This is an excellent opportunity to provide the student with guidance on proper use of research and APA formatting style. See Chapter 8, sections 8.1-8.6 of the APA Publication Manual for more information.

See answer above. 

See answer above.

It is plagiarism if the student does not include in-text and references page citations for that source. 

A references list is not adequate. Readers need to know where the information was used in the paper. This is done by using in-text citations. This not only protects you from plagiarism, but it helps differentiate your own unique ideas from that of other sources. In addition, you should use in-text citations any time you use a source whether you are explaining that research in your own language (through summary and paraphrasing) or whether you are using a direct quote from the source. With a few rare exceptions, every in-text citation should then have a corresponding entry on the references page. In-text citations signal to your reader that you’ve used research and the references page gives them the information they need if they’d like to look that source up and use it themselves. 

Accidental plagiarism is still considered plagiarism. Depending on how egregious the misuse is, you could file a plagiarism report. More often in these cases, it is appropriate to approach this as a learning opportunity. The CTL plagiarism flow-chart offers professors guidance on how to approach these instances. You could offer the student a chance to revise their work after discussing the problems with them and giving the resources on how to correctly cite sources. You could also request that the student complete the CTL’s remediation mini-course available in the classroom. Ultimately, the decision whether to report or offer remediation in cases of accidental plagiarism is up to the professor. Each situation may have a different set of circumstances and expectations. 

Over-use of sources with correct citations is not considered plagiarism. It could, however, still end up a failing grade because there is not enough of the student’s own ideas or writing to properly assess certain parts of the grading rubric. Over-use of sources with correct citations is not considered plagiarism. It could, however, still end up a failing grade because there is not enough of the student’s own ideas or writing to properly assess certain parts of the grading rubric.  

Two common types of plagiarism are identified: plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Plagiarism includes word/word-for-word/verbatim plagiarism and idea/intelligent plagiarism.

• Word plagiarism occurs when a writer uses strings of words or sentences verbatim from another source and does not cite them as quotations.

• Patchwriting is also a form of word plagiarism where a writer replaces several words with synonyms and keeps the original author’s sentence structure. If “a few words have been changed but content is largely the same” (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020), it is patchwriting.

• Idea plagiarism arises from borrowing other writers’ ideas without giving credit to the sources. This type of plagiarism cannot easily be detected by using plagiarism-detection software. 

Narayanan et al. (2020) identify three forms of idea plagiarism: idea adoption, text manipulation, and translation. Idea adoption occurs when a writer uses someone’s ideas or results of the work and does not give credit to the source. Text manipulation happens when a writer makes syntactical and lexical changes to the text and presents the idea as his or her own without citing the source. Translation plagiarism occurs when a text is translated from another language into English by using cross-lingual paraphrasing without giving credit to the source.

If a student uses a previously submitted assignment in a new course, it is self-plagiarism. “[U]sing the same paper in multiple classes may violate the academic integrity policy, honor code, or ethics code of the university” (APA, 2020, p. 256).

At Purdue University Global, a student can resubmit his or her assignment when retaking the same course. The student should notify the current professor about the date, the course number, and the former professor’s name before resubmitting the assignment (“Coursework Resubmission Policy Resource,” 2018). If the student fails to follow the policy and the professor reports it as a plagiarized assignment, this may be considered plagiarism.

According to American Psychological Association (APA, 2020), improperly citing sources is not plagiarism. If a student misspells authors’ names, omits the title or any other parts of a reference entry, it is not considered plagiarism, as long as the attempt does not show intent to plagiarize. Also, if a student provides an in-text citation but does not include a corresponding reference entry, there is no plagiarism, either (APA, 2020).

A reference entry may include up to 20 authors’ names. After the nineteenth author, add an ampersand.

Pegion, K., Kirtman, B. P., Becker, E., Collins, D. C., LaJoie, E., Burgman, R., Bell, R., DelSole, T., Min, D., Zhu, Y., Li, W., Sinsky, E., Guan, H.,

Gottschalck, J., Metzger, E. J., Barton, N. P., Achuthavarier, D., Marshak, J., Koster, R. D., & Lin, H. (2019). The Subseasonal experiment 

(SubX): A multimodel subseasonal prediction experiment. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 100(10), 2043–2060. 

https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-D-18-0270.1

In a work with 21 or more authors, include the first 19 authors’ names, insert an ellipsis, and add the last author’s name.  An ampersand should not be added. 

Flückiger, C., Rubel, J., Del Re, A. C., Horvath, A. O., Wampold, B. E., Crits-Christoph, P., Atzil-Slonim, D., Compare, A., Falkenström, F., 

Ekeblad, A., Errázuriz, P., Fisher, H., Hoffart, A., Huppert, J. D., Kivity, Y., Kumar, M., Lutz, W., Muran, J. C., Strunk, D. R., … Barber, J. P. 

(2020). The reciprocal relationship between alliance and early treatment symptoms: A two-stage individual participant data meta-

analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 88(9), 829–843. https://doi.org/10.1037/ccp0000594.supp (Supplemental)

Does APA 7th require one space after a period or two?

APA only requires one space after the period. You can find some additional helpful APA and Writing Across the Curriculum information on our WAC Page, too.

In print documents, the hyperlink should be removed to make the black font consistent. With documents submitted electronically, it's fine to leave the hyperlink so that readers can click directly to any sources of interest. 

For three or more authors, always use the last name of the first author plus "et al" for in-text citations (e.g., Gellens et al., 2021). On the References page, the first initial and last name of each author should be given up to 20 authors. For 21 or more, use the same format until after author 19; then add an ellipsis and the final author's name. 

The location requirement has been eliminated. With so much being published online, a geographic location seems irrelevant.