Module 3

Module 3 Objectives

Module Objective: Understand the necessity of properly documenting the source of research material.

By the end of the module, the learner will have achieved the following learning objectives:

• Learning Objective 1: Define plagiarism and identify common forms of plagiarism.

• Learning Objective 2: Cite sources in standardized formats.

• Learning Objective 3: Utilize Zotero to organize sources and create in-text citations.

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism refers to the act of plagiarizing, which means taking another person’s words or ideas as your own (Plagiarize, n.d.). This can mean copy and pasting phrases, sentences, or paragraphs from another source, which is direct plagiarism. It is often obvious that it is inappropriate to directly plagiarize another source’s work. However, there are less obvious forms of plagiarism, considered indirect plagiarism. This can range from taking a sentence and changing a few words to presenting another person’s ideas as your own using completely different words. Plagiarism can have consequences for both you and your organization. Not only does plagiarism affect your reputation and your organizations reputation, but it can also have legal ramifications for you and your organizations depending on the content plagiarized (i.e., if copyrighted content is plagiarized, the author has a legal right to take legal action against the person who has plagiarized their work) (Morrow, 2009).

“Turnitin”, a website used for plagiarism screening, has developed a white paper, The Plagiarism Spectrum, which defines and explains ten common types of plagiarism. Please review the white paper, as well as the other two links made available below, and familiarize yourself with the types of plagiarism before proceeding through the rest of the module. Note that this document classifies some forms of plagiarism as “less problematic.” However, “less problematic” does not mean acceptable. All forms of plagiarism should be avoided in any desk reviews to preserve the legitimacy of the document you create.

Avoiding Plagiarism

Avoiding plagiarism requires careful attention to detail. Using the Desk Review Resource Management tool provided in Module 2 can help you to track the sources of statistics and ideas you locate from sources, but this is only the first step in avoiding plagiarism. You must provide appropriate citations in your desk review to successfully avoid plagiarism, and you must also introduce some original ideas or interpretations of information to avoid plagiarism by aggregation.

An appropriate citation requires two components: the in-text citation and a reference list citation.

In-Text Citations

The in-text citation provides a notation at the end of a sentence indicating that a portion of the sentence relies on information from an outside source. An in-text citation is necessary even if you do not directly quote a source; if you have any information acquired from an outside source or sources, you must provide an in-text citation. You may have more than one in-text citation for one sentence. In text citations could be in a number of formats:

1. Parenthetical citations – Parenthetical citations are included in parentheses, or occasionally brackets, at the end of a sentence. The parenthetical citation should not come directly after the piece of information cited but instead at the end of the sentence. You may cite more than one source in the parenthetical citation Depending on the style guide you are using, the information included in parenthesis may vary. Citation styles are explained below. You may include the author name(s) and publication year or a number that correlates to the reference list, which is the list of all of the sources used throughout the paper that the author puts at the end of the manuscript. If you are citing the same source multiple times throughout a paragraph or desk review, you need to continue including a parenthetical citation with every sentence including information from that resource.

   1. • Many citation styles use Author Date format for parenthetical citations. Author Date format will look like this: (Author last name(s), Year of Publication). If you have multiple sources from the same author(s) in the same year, you will need to differentiate these resources. Every style guide has different requirements in this case, but many style guides will have you assign letters to each document. For example, if you have two documents published by Mooney in 2018, the first document published will be cited as (Mooney, 2018a) and the second document will be (Mooney, 2018b).

2. Footnotes – Footnotes assign a number to the sentence, which is a superscript at the very end of the sentence, that includes a reference to a resource. The number correlates to a citation at the bottom of the page on which the sentence appears. When using footnotes, you may or may not also have a reference list at the end of your desk review. Word processors typically have a feature to insert footnotes. This guide explains how to insert footnotes in Microsoft Word, and this webpage explains how to insert footnotes in GoogleDocs. You may see the term “Ibid.” in footnotes or endnotes (explained below). The term Ibid. comes from a Latin phrase that means “in the same place.” You may use Ibid. in your footnote if the footnote directly before the current footnote references the same resource.

3. Endnotes – Similarly to footnotes, endnotes assign a number to the sentence that includes a reference to a resource. However, the citation appears at the end of the document you are writing. The citations for endnotes typically serve as your reference list. Word processors typically have a feature to insert footnotes. This guide explains how to insert footnotes in Microsoft Word.

Reference List

The reference list is included as an appendix to your desk review and lists all of the sources cited in your desk review. How sources are listed in your reference list will be dependent on the style guide you use.

The format of the components of your citation may vary slightly based on the citation style you utilize in your desk review. Citation styles will be discussed in the next section.

Citation Styles

Citation styles are determined by the style guide or manual you use. The style guide or manual you use will vary for every desk review you write. You may use your own discretion in choosing a citation style, or you may have a citation style mandated by your organization or a partner organization. You should understand the expectations for the citation style for your desk review before you begin writing the review. Journals also have citation requirements, so when submitting your desk review for peer-review publications, you may need to change the style you may have used for your initial document to comply with the journal requirements.

Style guides can be used to guide the format of citations used in a desk review. There are also helpful tools used to create and manage citations, which will be discussed in the next section of this module.

Common style guides include:

• • • American Psychological Association (APA) Style Guide

    • Modern Language Association (MLA) Style Guide

    • The Chicago Manual of Style (CMS)

If you are preparing a desk review as part of an agreement with another organization, that organization may have a specific style guide by which you must abide. For example, USAID utilizes a standardized style guide for all internal and external documents, which can be found here. This style guide is based on other style guides but has unique features. You can review another example of an organizational style guide from the Millennium Challenge Corporation here.

Managing and Creating Citations

Tracking your resources – using a format like the Desk Review Resource Management tool or another method – is the first step to managing and creating citations. It is important to track all of the pieces of information you need for citations. The style guide you use will determine what information you need from each source you include in your desk review. You will likely need to track the name of the author(s), the year of publication, the title of the resource, any publication information (like book or journal name), and website URL. The information you need will vary by the type of document you are citing – the reference listing for a journal article will differ from the listing for a book, website, or grey literature publication.

You can create in-text citations and reference lists manually by hand. This requires a high level of attention to detail. If you choose to create citations manually, you should reference your chosen style guide often to ensure you have included all relevant information in the citation. You may rely upon the style guide to develop your citations, or there are other support sites that can help you develop citations. The Purdue Online Writing Lab has guides for several different citations styles, including APA, MLA, and CMS. You may also be able to get support from a research librarian at a local library or university library.

If you do not want to create citations manually, there are other options to create citations. There are a number of websites that create citations for a reference list based on common style guides. EasyBib, Citation Machine, and BibMe are websites that allow you to input information about your resource and will provide you with a citation for that resource for your reference list.

There is also a variety of software that can help you manage your resources and create citations. Much available software can create reference lists and also integrate in-text citations into your desk review depending on the word processor you use. Zotero is a free software that can help manage resources and create citations for your reference list. It can also be integrated into Microsoft Word to create in-text citations. Zotero also allows for team collaboration, which is beneficial when you are co-authoring a desk review. To begin orienting yourself with Zotero, you can review the Zotero Quick Start Guide or review Zotero tutorial videos. This video tutorial (1 minute) covers how to insert in-text citations in Microsoft Word. This webpage, which includes a video tutorial, discusses how to add resources and PDFs to your Zotero library.

There is other comparable citation software available. EndNote and Mendeley are also common citation tools. You should choose the citation software that best suits your needs and the needs of your Organization. University of California San Diego has created a comparison between Zotero, EndNote (online and desktop), and Mendeley that could help guide your decision about which citation software to use.

If you choose to use a website or software to create citations, you must ensure the citations are properly formatted. These tools are not infallible and may not be able to format citations perfectly. You should review the citations created and make alterations as needed to abide by your chosen style guide.

Note that the websites and software discussed in this section may not be able to create citations using non-standardized style guides.

Desk Review Development Checklist

The checklist below includes the main activities you need to complete during the desk review process. You may download it and use it as a reference as you begin to complete your own desk reviews.

Congratulations! You have completed the course!