Research ethics: Writing ethically
Introduction
If you've gone through the lesson "Arriving at your research
question", you would have learnt about the importance of doing a
literature survey before starting out on a research project. As a result
of a literature survey, you'll come to know about gaps or opportunities
that you can address through your research study.
During the course of your research study and the writing of your paper, you may continue with your literature survey, gradually increasing your knowledge of what is known and refining your own study.
And it is very, very important to keep a record of all the papers and other information sources you have referred to.
Whenever you learn anything during a literature survey, you need to record what you have learnt and where you learnt it from (that is, the paper or source where you found some information). If you mention this piece of information in your own paper, you absolutely must refer to the original source.
This reference is made up of two parts:
During the course of your research study and the writing of your paper, you may continue with your literature survey, gradually increasing your knowledge of what is known and refining your own study.
And it is very, very important to keep a record of all the papers and other information sources you have referred to.
Whenever you learn anything during a literature survey, you need to record what you have learnt and where you learnt it from (that is, the paper or source where you found some information). If you mention this piece of information in your own paper, you absolutely must refer to the original source.
This reference is made up of two parts:
- An in-text citation, alongside the relevant phrase or sentence in your paper
- An entry in the reference list at the end of your paper
-
Unethical practices
Isaac Newton famously said, "If I have seen a little further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants."What is it called when a researcher does any of the above? Write one word in the box below.
Google Scholar, which lets you search scholarly publications, has adapted this line in its motto: "Stand on the shoulders of giants".
"Giants" can be understood as a metaphorical term, referring to the vast volume of published research and the scientific enterprise in general.
Every researcher has a duty to ethically use information that is already known.
Unethical practices in research writing include the following:
- presenting published information as new information
- presenting someone else's findings as one's own
- presenting someone else's findings without a citation
- copying a substantial amount of text from past publications (even with a citation, direct copying without using quotations is usually wrong)
- repeating one's own previously published findings without a citation
The answer is plagiarism. This is an ethical violation, and it can lead to papers being rejected (at the submission stage) or retracted (if plagiarism is detected after publication).
Avoiding plagiarism
Question
Papers published in journals and presentations made at conferences are often foundations for new research. Which of the following should you do while using information from these or other sources in your paper?
Answers
4. Cite or reference past studies wherever needed
Option 3 is incorrect. The other options are correct. That is, you must do ALL of the below things in order to give credit where it is due (that is, to properly reference past studies):
- Understand published research that's relevant for your study or paper
- Summarize past research or findings in your own words
- Cite or reference past studies wherever needed
If you skip doing even one of these things, you could be accused of plagiarism. And of course, wholesale copying of sentences or paragraphs directly from published papers is a blatant form of plagiarism.
Self-plagiarism
Plagiarism is commonly thought of as stealing the text of others.
But can one steal from oneself? That is, can you copy text from a paper you have published and present it in another paper? Would that be plagiarism? Possibly.
Copying one's own text from a published paper and presenting it in a new paper can result in "self-plagiarism".
Some people may think there is nothing wrong in doing this. It is perhaps less of an ethical violation than stealing the text of others, but it is still a problem.
Below is an excerpt on self-plagiarism from the website of the Office of Research Integrity in the USA.
'When plagiarism is conceptualized as theft, the notion of self-plagiarism may seem impossible. After all, one might ask: Is it possible to steal from oneself? As Hexam (1999) points out, it is possible to steal from oneself as when one engages in embezzlement or insurance fraud. In writing, self-plagiarism occurs when authors reuse their own previously written work or data in a ‘new’ written product without letting the reader know that this material has appeared elsewhere. According to Hexam, “… the essence of self-plagiarism is [that] the author attempts to deceive the reader”.'
Source: http://ori.hhs.gov/plagiarism-13
The intention to deceive the reader is at the core of self-plagiarism.
But you can avoid self-plagiarism and at the same time republish your own text if you have the right reasons and intentions.
For example, you may wish to reproduce a few sentences from the methods section of a paper you have published, because you employed the same experiments in your current study. This may be permitted if you cite the original source and add a note saying that the text you have reproduced appeared originally in a previous paper.
Plagiarism checking software
The demand to check for plagiarism is high among both journal editors and authors. A number of online applications exist for this purpose, and one of them - iThenticate - is used by many leading journals. This is however not available free of cost.
Cheaper or even free alternatives may exist, but they may not be able to effectively compare a given piece of writing with the vast body of research literature.
If you're interested in plagiarism checking software, please do an online search to evaluate your options. Don't trust such software blindly. Understand how it works and see if it will meet your needs.
If you cannot pay for the right kind of plagiarism checking software, your best option - as an author - is to develop your own knowledge and skills so that you write ethically and avoid plagiarism. Some resources are given on the next page.
Resources to learn about plagiarism
Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical writingThis is a comprehensive document, with 26 guidelines elaborated over 60 pages, commissioned by the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) in the USA. The PDF is available on the ORI website as well, and we have made it available here for your convenience.
How to recognize plagiarism: a website with cases, examples, practice tests, and a certification test
This excellent interactive resource has been developed by the School of Education at Indiana University Bloomington. Aim to pass the certification test to become an expert at knowing and avoiding plagiarism!
Finally, you can find a growing number of free e-resources on plagiarism in the AuthorAID e-resource library: http://authoraid.info/en/resources/?q=plagiarism
End matter
This lesson has been developed by INASP, an international development charity in the UK, as an extension of the work carried out by the AuthorAID team. Visit inasp.info and authoraid.info to learn about our work.
This lesson was authored and developed by Ravi Murugesan, an INASP Associate. The content was reviewed by Dr Barbara Gastel, also an INASP Associate, and Dr Anne Riederer, an environmental health scientist and technical advisor to Blacksmith Institute. Parts of this lesson were based on material in AuthorAID workshops facilitated by Dr Gastel.
We have used a free and open source e-learning authoring tool called eXeLearning (http://exelearning.net/?lang=en) to create this lesson.
This lesson was last updated on 26 May 2015.
Licensing
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/.
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