Julie’s Blog Post Week 6: Academic integrity, plagiarism,
intellectual property and copyrights.
This week’s assignment was very enlightening
for me. I was under the impression that if I heard something I agreed with, I could
use it as if it is mine. Well that is not the case. Common knowledge is a belief
or understanding that has been used in at least five or more resources and can
be easily proven. When someone comes up with a new idea and publishes it that idea
becomes their property and therefore gives them the right to charge fees for copies
and to press charges if they are plagiarized. I must admit that I am guilty of plagiarism.
I have used and copied other people’s ideas from books and the internet and
signed my name to the paper. I have to admit that I was aware that it was
wrong. My only defense is that I was ignorant, and too lazy to look for ways in
which to use other people’s ideas and give them proper credit. I feel that the creative commons license is a
fair way for consumers to use other people’s intellectual property and yet
still give them credit for the original thought. The
organization lables the articles with symbols that represent they ways in which
the author wishes to share the information with the consumers. Open access databases are convenient
for looking for information about subjects, but due to copyrights and loss of revenues
many of the articles are unavailable without a fee. Since I have read this week’s assignment I have
now begun to recognize the symbols in research journals that represent a
copyright or paten. I’m still not sure if there are any types of intellectual properties
that cannot be used or cited and if they have special symbols to alert viewers. I
guess top secret government information would probably have safe guards and
special Icons warning viewers not to copy or share. To ensure that I abide by
the academic integrity rules my goal is to gain more knowledge about proper
citation and how to avoid plagiarism.
Bloomington, IN: IUniverse.
Creative Commons. (n.d.). About the licenses. Retrieved from
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Resources:
Badke, William(2011).
Research Stratigies: Finding your Way through the Information Fog.Bloomington, IN: IUniverse.
Creative Commons. (n.d.). About the licenses. Retrieved from
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
Hi Julie! You are not alone in the plagiarism department. I thought if I reworded/summarized something in the way of researach, that was OK and not breaking any laws. Back in the day when I was in high school, footnotes were the way to properly give credit, so I tried to avoid them as much as possible. They were a pain because you had to make a small pencil mark on the bottom of your page before rolling it into your manual typewriter, using that as a marker to not type past that point because you still needed to include your footnotes. I always thought plagiarism was more on the aspect of copying someone elses work, say another student, who had already taken a class and then allowed you to use their paper as your own. That I could never do, as I would not feel right and guilt would eat at me. Besides, I am too picky and want to do things my way, which makes it hard for me to engage in a group research paper. I don't have confidence in another's work to equal my own, or on the opposite view, I may not meet their expectations either. The common knowledge phrase is also something that I am now leary of as I am doing a research paper for another class. I have been doing my job for so many years, there are things that are just that, common knowledge; but when I use it in my research paper, I panic and see if I can actually find something in writing that supports my statements. I end up in a futile search with bloodshot eyes from too much computer exposure. (Can a person get radiation emissions from a computer similar to that of a cell phone? Hummm?) I agree that Creative Commons sounds like an awesome place to get exposure for yourself without all the hassle involved with legal issues. You Tube seems to do that already if I'm not mistaken. The only You Tube videos I have watched are informative links through Brandman, but I know many people view them for other purposes. Now that I am more knowledgable about when to cite; all that is left is to learn how to format the citation properly. I'm still taking baby steps with that process. You know what they say, "it is never too late to learn"...(oops! was I supposed to cite that? Is that a quote, or is it common knowledge?) Oh no! Here I go again!
ReplyDelete:0) Melodie Lawry
Julie! Thank you for the post! It was very treasuring that I am not alone when it comes to the confusion of citation. I myself get embarrassed and quite frustrated with myself that I cannot seem to clinch the art of citation. While I cite all my sources and use my original ideas, I always seem to cite wrong! No matter what the circumstances! I checked out those sources you listed, and the site by Will Badke helped refresh my memory!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Good luck with your project!
-Becca Knowlton