Plagiarism and Academic Integrity at UC Merced

• Proper paraphrasing requires A COMPLETE restatement of someone else's ideas IN YOUR OWN WORDS
   
• PARAPHRASES MUST BE CITED. Any idea or concept that is not your own must be cited, even if the expression of that idea is in your own words.
   
• PROPER CITING IS:
  • A full and correct citation in the format of your choice, showing the origin of ideas and words that are not your own
  • You MUST show where you found an idea or concept if you want to include it in your writing
  • TAKE NOTES ON EVERYTHING YOU READ, so you can create a full and correct citation!

EXTREMELY COMMON KNOWLEDGE / GENERAL STATEMENTS: DON'T CITE

"A properly managed information assurance (IA) program is crucial to the protection of the integrity, accuracy and reliability of the information flow of any corporation."

• Cite only if this is a direct quote from someone else's work.
   

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS COMMON TO THE DISCIPLINE (in the case above, information assurance or IA): DEPENDS ON CIRCUMSTANCE

"Organizations that establish standards for appropriate information assurance practice include ISO, NIST, and the Committee on National Security Systems."

• No need to cite if you're writing for someone already familiar with information assurance (say, your instructors, or a journal that publishes articles about IA
• You may have to cite if your writing is for readers who may not be familiar with IA (for example, an article to be published in a general interest journal)
• Always cite if the material is a direct quote from someone else's work!
• If you're not sure: Ask your instructor!
   

KNOWLEDGE THAT IS NOT COMMON AND MUST BE CITED:

"On trend from last year, three sectors exhibit steady growth, in particular information security management (ISO/IEC 27001) and food management (ISO 22001), respectively boasting a health 14% and 15% increase in certification, while the medical devices sector (ISO 13485) similarly shows a 15% increment."

International Organization for Standardization (2013). ISO Survey 2013, Executive Summary. Retrieved from http://www.iso.org
          /2013/iso_survey_executive-summary.pdf?v2013.

• The contents of the 2013 ISO Survey are not common knowledge, so they must be cited
• The above information includes numerical data; assuming you didn't invent those numbers yourself, you got them from somewhere, so you have to cite where you got them

There may be gray areas in your writing: ideas, facts, or phrases that are common knowledge in a particular discipline, but not common knowledge to non-practitioners.

EXAMPLE:

• A nurse will know what a nasogastric tube is and its proper use, so someone, say a nurse, writing an article for a nursing journal wouldn't necessarily have to describe such a device and where information about it came from, because one can assume that nurses who read the article will already know.
• But a nursing student, writing an assignment about nursing and including information about nasogastric tubes, might have to describe the device and its use so that the instructor can determine if the student knows what s/he is writing about. In such cases, a citation to the source of information about the nasogastric tube is necessary.

Here are some examples of things you don't have to cite.

• Very common knowledge:
  • "The sky is blue."
  • "The Pacific Ocean is a big ocean."
     
• General opinions:
  • "The skies are bluest and prettiest in the Sonoran Desert."
  • "The Pacific Ocean is the most beautiful of all the seas."
  • "Captain Jean-Luc Picard is a far better starship commander than Captain James T. Kirk."
     
• HOWEVER: If an opinion is at the center of your argument, you may have to back up your opinion with evidence -- and that evidence must be cited:
  • "Captain Picard is a better starship commander than Captain Kirk. This is why ..."
    • Cite the episodes in which you compare each starship captain's behavior, or problem-solving skills, or any other evidence you're using to prove that your opinion is correct
    • Example: "When their starships were threatened by enemies in the Neutral Zone, Picard did X, but Kirk did Y."
      • In which episodes did Picard and Kirk face danger in the Neutral Zone? Cite the episodes:
        "In Season X, Episode Y of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Picard did whatever. In Season X, Episode Y of Star Trek (the original series), Kirk did whatever, which was reckless. So Picard is a better starship captain."
      • Don't forget to include a full citation for the television show episodes!
         
• Still not sure? ASK YOUR INSTRUCTOR BEFORE COMPLETING THE ASSIGNMENT!