Question 18

Correct answer is d) statement of a commonly known fact

Why are citations needed?

· To give credit for other people’s work.

· To show the intellectual underpinnings of your own work and place it in the context of relevant theory and research.

· To allow your reader to find the works you refer to. Reference lists and bibliographies are important research tools.

These are the reasons for paying so much attention to the references in your paper. Honesty and intellectual integrity are a big part of it, but it’s also a practical matter.

Penalties for plagiarism are severe at the university and in the professional world.

Information ethics is part of the Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association. Take a look at this Code at http://www.apa.org/ethics/code2002.html

Carnegie Mellon University’s Policy on Cheating and Plagiarism states that

In any presentation, creative, artistic, or research, it is the ethical responsibility of each student to identify the conceptual sources of the work submitted. Failure to do so is dishonest and is the basis for a charge of cheating or plagiarism, which is subject to disciplinary action.

Carnegie Mellon defines plagiarism in this way:

Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, failure to indicate the source with quotation marks or footnotes where appropriate if any of the following are reproduced in the work submitted by a student:

1. A phrase, written or musical.

2. A graphic element.

3. A proof.

4. Specific language.

5. An idea derived from the work, published or unpublished, of another person.