Understanding and Avoiding Plagiarism
What is plagiarism?
Caltech's honor code states:
"No member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community."
Plagiarism is the appropriation of another person's ideas, processes, results, or words without giving appropriate credit, and it violates the honor code in a fundamental way. One of the collective goals of Caltech is to produce new knowledge through research and writing, and we often do that work through collaboration. For this process to work, we need to be able to trust that when our ideas or words are taken up by another thinker, we will be credited for our contribution to his or her thinking. Not crediting the author of writing or ideas takes unfair advantage of the intellectual work that indivdual has done.
How do academic writers cite their sources?
Scholarly communities have very specific rules about how attribution works. You should be aware that the particulars of citation vary by discipline and context. Many fields have developed complex systems for this purpose which are presented in published guides, such as Modern Language Association (MLA) style, American Psychological Association (APA) style, and the Council of Scientific Editors (CSE) style. Because these systems differ in both major and minor ways and there are dozens of citation systems in common use (and many more in less common use), we cannot present a thorough introduction to them here. We advise writers to seek out guides to citation written about the particular citation style they are using. The essential features of attribution that are present in every system are:
- In-text citation: Any time you borrow language or paraphrase ideas, processes, or results from another text, you must make this clear within your text. This is usually done within the sentence itself, parenthetically, or with a footnote or endnote. Every citation system has a specific format for in-text citation.
- List of references: Every essay or document you produce that contains in-text citations should also have a list of references, in which you present the complete bibliographic information for the cited texts. Again, each citation system handles the particulars differently (including having different names for what this part of a text is called), but it often requires a list of texts that appears at the end of the document.
The results of properly done in-text citations and a references page are (1) that a reader ALWAYS knows without question or ambiguity which ideas, processes, results, and language were developed by you, and which come from other sources and (2) that a reader can easily locate that original source if they want to know more about your sources. It takes careful notetaking, writing, and revision to accurately complete the citation process. Keep in mind that plagiarism isn't just about taking sentences from other writers; even if you change all the words by paraphrase, if the idea or finding comes from someone else, you are required to make that clear to your reader.
How do I know when to cite and when not to cite?
As a student writer, if you are not sure if you are required to cite a source, it is always better to err on the side of caution and cite; academic readers are more tolerant of overcitation than undercitation. However, it's always ideal to consult your instructor for guidance so you avoid both overcitation and undercitation.
Who can help me avoid plagiarism and cite sources correctly?
Your instructor and TAs are great resources for answering questions about what citation system to use and which citation conventions are to be used for a particular assignment.
If you need help with the implementation of a citation system, you can make an appointment with a writing specialist in the Hixon Writing Center. We're glad to work with you on the sentence level to help you with this core feature of academic writing.
For more online resources related to citation, see our Resources page. You'll find links to specific guidelines for working with sources at Caltech as well as links to information about the major scholarly citation systems.
For guidance in using a the citation management system Zotero, contact the Caltech Library.
What happens if part or all of an essay I submit to an instructor is plagiarized?
As stated above, plagiarism violates Caltech's honor code. As a result, cases of plagiarism in undergraduate courses are referred to the Board of Control for review.