Preventing Plagiarism I

Introduction

Citing sources in a paper is like cleaning up after a party. All the fun is over, but the mess remains.

Practical choices made before guests arrive help the host manage a get-together. Similarly, a plan for preparing references can make writing a research paper more manageable for an author.

Specifically, a strategy for organizing source information helps an author properly attribute the work of others. The practice of taking detailed notes increases the likelihood that sources are completely and accurately included in a text, preventing plagiarism.

Taking Thorough Source Notes

Before personal computers were available to authors, each key point with information about the source was hand written on 3- x 5-inch note cards. Today, technology makes documenting, sorting, storing, and finding source data much easier.

The types of data added to reference lists and in-text citations depend on the convention the publisher uses. This information is generally included in the Author Guideline section of a journal website.

However, many authors draft their manuscripts before identifying a journal for submission. Therefore, documenting all potentially relevant source information while taking notes is an important way to increase writing efficiency. That is, careful documentation may prevent the need to revisit a source solely to gather information needed for a citation.

Source information needed for reference lists

In general, more source information is needed in the reference list than in citations in the text. However, the reference list data needed for different sources vary.

For standard journal articles, the name, volume, and issue of the journal, article page numbers, the DOI or URL, as well as author names, are included in the list. For books, the author and publisher names, book title, publication year, and DOI are needed.

Prompts to include these data are generally included in citation generators, but this information may not be sufficient to create full and accurate reference list citations. Moreover, depending on the style guidelines of the publisher, the following information, among other data, needs to be included in reference list citations:

· The name of the series in which the book is published

· The name(s) of book and/or series editors

· The revision or edition number of the book

· The date the online document was accessed

· The type of certain nonacademic documents, such as a blog

· The name of the translator

· The original publication date of a reprint or ancient document

With thoughful planning, the source information can be systematically added to a dataset, generated into a citation, and added to the reference list. In addition, the data from each source can be added to the proper place in the text as authors draft a manuscript.

Source information to distinguish in-text citations

Links. A link to an online source can be easily added into a manuscript draft to identify the original author. However, publishers generally do not accept links as proper in-text citations.

Moreover, not all source material can be found through links. For example, citations to rare, print-only, or unusual information, such as a dataset obtained through personal communication, will need to be added manually.

In addition, some links are not sufficiently precise. A link to a book chapter, journal, or even a single article may not lead to the specific text cited.

In these cases, clarifying information can be added to the links inserted in text. When the quantity of source data, such as links or titles, becomes large, the information can be added in a comment in Word.

Clarifying information for in-text citations

Full names of all authors. When adding notes to manuscripts, authors may be tempted to cite only the first author of a paper. However, if the names of all source authors are added to the draft, the source can be accurately cited without the need to click the link or refer to the hardcopy.

This clarification strategy is particularly important when drafting long documents or manuscripts with several contributors. In long documents, citations to authors with the same surname who published works in the same year can be difficult to distinguish.

For example, if Henry Smith and Rachel Smith both published papers on bioengineered corn in 2023, then the author–date in-text citations for their independent work would be identical: Smith, 2023. In this example, including author initials in the source notes would enable the authors to differentiate these sources in the final draft.

Titles or medium. Prolific author groups may publish different types of documents with similar titles. For example, they may publish a series of articles or books in which only the subtitles or part numbers differ. Similarly, authors may present similar topics in different media, such as an e-book and podcast, under the same title.

In these cases, including the full title or type of media for an in-text citation in the draft may prevent confusion. During the revision process, authors can easily delete extraneous text. In contrast, they may need to launch an extensive search to find source information that was not included in an early version of the paper.

Page or paragraph number. A page or paragraph number is key for quickly referring to a source by authors or co-authors seeking to confirm an idea. Moreover, the page or paragraph number of quoted or closely paraphrased material is retained in the final document.

Cross-referencing

After the draft is finalized, the reference list can be properly ordered. First the data in the list are compared to the data in the text. Then, references in the list can be placed in alphabetical order or numbered, depending on the publisher guidelines. Finally, the extraneous source material in the text can be removed.

In Summary

Generating in-text citations and a reference list is a time-consuming, often frustrating, and generally boring task. For most authors, it is the least enjoyable part of writing a research paper.

However, proper source documentation is a critical requirement for publication and plagiarism prevention. Moreover, a clean paper with accurate and complete references demonstrates a scholar’s professionalism.