This guide and the resources included within are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license, except as otherwise noted. Questions and requests may be directed to Meaghan Shannon, Copyright Librarian at Queen's University: meaghan.shannon@queensu.ca.
The information on this page is intended for Queen's students and addresses the following:
- The Relationship between Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism,
- The Plagiarism Spectrum,
- Best Practices for Avoiding Plagiarism, and
- How to (Actually) Use TurnItIn.
If you have questions or concerns about copyright infringement and plagiarism, please contact Meaghan Shannon, Copyright Librarian: meaghan.shannon@queensu.ca.
Queen's students are encouraged to consult with Queen's University's Student Academic Success Services.
Sections 14.1 and 17.1 of the Copyright Act confer the moral right of attribution on authors of copyright-protected works and require that authors be acknowledged whenever their copyright-protected works are used. For academic purposes, the moral right of attribution should continue to be respected when a work is within the public domain (when the term of copyright protection, generally, life of the author + 70 years), has lapsed). The Copyright Act does not prescribe formats for attribution statement and citation styles will vary from one discipline to another. Failure to respect the moral right of attribution by not citing or referencing content incorporated into academic works would represent copyright infringement, the infringement of the moral right or attribution.
Plagiarism is generally defined as passing off someone else's work (their content or ideas) as though it were your own. By failing to cite and reference or inaccurately/improperly citing and referencing the work of someone else that you have paraphrased or reproduced within your academic work, their work and your work become (somewhat) indistinguishable to your reader and it would appear to your reader that you are attempting to pass someone else's work off as your own work.
Any paraphrased text should be cited and referenced because by paraphrasing, you are interpreting someone else's ideas.
Any reproduced text should be quoted, cited, and referenced in order to acknowledge the author and source of the reproduced text.
Any reproduced content (ie images, diagrams, maps, etc.) should be accompanied by credit lines that provide the title of the content, the author, and the source which should also be listed in your references.
It is so important to keep track of what you are using and where it is coming from so that you can accurately and properly cite and reference authors and their works.
Queen's University Library maintains a Citation and Citation Management page and assistance as well as numerous online guides and tutorials are available from Queen's University's Student Academic Success Services.
If you have any questions or concerns about copyright infringement or plagiarism, please contact Meaghan Shannon, Copyright Librarian: meaghan.shannon@queensu.ca.
Always prepare, complete, and submit your own academic work.
Always cite and reference the sources of the content that you have paraphrased, reproduced, and incorporated within your academic work. Although citation styles can vary, proper citing usually requires both in-text citations and a list of references which should include the full source information of the cited sources. Consult Queen's University Library's Citation & Citation Management page.
Consider using TurnItIn to pre-scan your academic works before submission (see the infographic below). Highlighted content that you have paraphrased, reproduced, and incorporated into your academic work should be cited and referenced.
Consult with your course instructors to determine whether your previously completed and submitted academic work can be used in an upcoming assignment.
Consult with your course instructors to determine whether the use of AI products is permitted or even encouraged in their courses and for specific tasks and assignments. If permitted/encouraged, disclose the use of AI products by adding disclosure statements within your assignments.
For example:
Acknowledgement of the use of Artificial Intelligence: The ideas and the expression of them within my [assignment] are my own. I used [(link to) Name of AI product, version #], an AI product, to assist with [identify specifically what the AI product contributed to your assignment, ie your reason(s) for using the AI product]. [Name of AI product]'s role was limited to [identify what you prompted/inputted/instructed/asked the AI product to do] so that I could [identify how you used/enhanced/modified/adapted/edited the AI-generated output].
Read your assignment instructions carefully and be aware of when you are expected to work individually and when it's appropriate to collaborate with other students.
Avoid uploading your academic works to course content sharing sites (ie Course Hero and StuDocU). Doing so could be regarded as facilitating the plagiarism of your works by other students.
Avoid downloading others' academic works from course content sharing sites (ie Course Hero and StuDocU). There are no guarantees that these academic works are complete, adhered to current assignment instructions, or resulted in high marks or good grades.
Keep track of your due dates and plan ahead so that you can avoid situations where you may make decisions you otherwise wouldn't make.
Consult with Queen's University's Student Academic Success Services and review their online guides and tutorials.
