How to Research for an Essay and Avoid Plagiarism

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How to Research for an Essay and Avoid Plagiarism

• For university and college students using
  Cognitive Psychology as an example

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Plan for today

• Look at a paper (journal article)
• Discuss researching for and writing essays
• Practice citations
• Discuss plagiaristic practices

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Researching for Essay

• Wikipedia NO
• Other websites, blogs, newspapers,
  encyclopaedias, summary sites NO
• Google Scholar YES
• Why is google scholar different?
• Because the articles presented by this database
  have already been published. After publication, a
  pdf file or other type of file is uploaded to a
  scholars database for use by searching. Google
  Scholar then searches all of the scholars
  databases.

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http//scholar.google.co.uk/
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Home vs College

• For some articles you may only be able to access
  the abstract this is still useful
• On the college network you will be able to access
  more full text articles, as they have paid a
  subscription
• Use the college network as much as possible but
  use home networks or other libraries if necessary
• Dont pay for an article! Use the abstract
  instead, or get it via the college network

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Advanced Search

• You can perform an advanced search on Google
  Scholar to restrict the search by year and by
  author name
• It is better to find more recent research
  especially in fast moving fields such as
  cognitive psychology
• The advanced search helps if you have a very wide
  area to narrow down, or you know the name of an
  author

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Abstract Only

• You may find an article in abstract but not full
  text, these are useful to increase your
  references

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No need to reference URL
Format for references name(s) date, title,
journal, vol(no), pages   Mather, G. Murdoch,
L. (1994) Gender Discrimination in Biological
Motion Displays Based on Dynamic Cues,
Proceedings Biological Sciences, 258(1353),
pp.273-279
You can use an abstract if you cant access the
full article, and do not generally need to admit
that you only used the abstract. However, if all
of your citations come from abstracts then it
will be obvious to the marker as you will only be
able to make general points.
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Full articles in pdf
Again, no need to reference the url as it is all
there for you to format as a reference for your
essay. Look at this heading (handout) and tell
me what the reference should be. Remember
name(s) date, title, journal, vol(no),
pages Grèzes, J., Fonlupt,P., Bertenthal, B.,
Delon-Martin, C., Segebarth, C., Decety, J.
(2001). Does Perception of Biological Motion Rely
on Specific Brain Regions? NeuroImage, 13,
pp.775785.
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Grèzes et al 2001 paper

• This paper is 11 pages long
• I have printed the first page and the last page
  of the article which includes references
• We will now look in detail at the paper
• You have five minutes to scan these two pages

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Processing an article for your essay

• What can you learn from only the abstract?
• The investigators stance, their premise and
  brief outline of conclusion
• What can you learn from the introduction on the
  first page?
• An overview of the previous literature
• Learn your own style from introductions like
  this, as these are basically essays
• What does the reference list give you?
• Information for your next search

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When to read the whole paper

• If the paper interests you then read the whole
  thing, it will enhance your understanding of the
  topic
• If it is the only paper you have been able to
  access
• If your essay is based specifically on this
  paper, e.g. you are replicating the study
• In most other cases you should skim the paper and
  pick out the pertinent points.
• If you read every paper meticulously, then you
  are spending too much time on it given the amount
  of time you have to write the essay.

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Reference List

• Learn from the reference list you see in
  published articles
• Learn the format of references
• Notice how many of the references are books and
  how many are other papers
• For your essays you wont be expected to include
  this many you should aim for one general
  textbook, one or two books specific to the topic,
  and 5-10 articles for a standard sized essay of
  1500 3000 words
• Use the references here for your own research
  (not just copying as this is plagiarism!)

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Stealing References Plagiarism

• What you cannot do because it is plagiarism
• Take a reference directly from a paper to use in
  your own essay without accessing the original or
  citing the author you are copying as a secondary
  source
• Copy a whole sentence including a reference from
  another paper without citing the author you are
  copying as a secondary source
• Any other form of copying from a research paper
  when you do not cite the author.

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Borrowing References is not Plagiarism

• Accessing the original The recognition of point
  lights occur early in visual processing
  (Johansson, 1973). Johansson appears in your
  reference list because you have found and read
  the original paper.
• Citing the source The recognition of point
  lights occur early in visual processing
  (Johansson, 1973, cited by Grèzes et al, 2001 ).
  Johansson does not appear in your reference list,
  but Grèzes does.
• Citing the source here is referred to as
  secondary referencing and you should minimise
  this in your essay keep it for those points you
  want to make but cannot access the original.

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Borrowing References

• Copying a reference list from another paper is
  unacceptable. THIS IS PLAGIARISM
• You can use legitimately use a reference list as
  a starting point for your own search, this is
  known as back-chaining.
• Highlight the references you want, search google
  scholar for author and keywords.
• You will find that paper plus any more recent
  papers which have referenced it, and will
  therefore also be relevant.
• This is perfectly acceptable academic practice
  and is not plagiarism.

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Academic Style

• You should develop an academic style in your
  essays. Reading papers will give you a style.
• Use impersonal statements, e.g. It has been
  demonstrated that not personal e.g. I think
  that
• Every main point you make should be supported by
  a citation (author name date in brackets).
• Reading articles will give you experience of this
  style so that you begin to soak it up yourself.
• It will become obvious to the tutor marking your
  essay that you read a lot of articles when you
  begin writing in an academic style.

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How Does a Tutor Spot Plagiarism?

• Software that scans your essay and compares it to
  others and the internet.
• If part of your essay is written in academic
  style and part of it is not, the academic parts
  will fall under suspicion.
• If they notice their own lecture notes
  regurgitated back to them.