Ballotpedia:Plagiarism
Ballotpedia has a strict no plagiarism policy. When quoting information from other sources, quotes should be clearly defined and properly cited. When paraphrasing information from other sources or synthesizing multiple sources into an article on Ballotpedia, make sure to provide appropriate references to those sources as well.
If you encounter plagiarism on the website, please email editor@ballotpedia.org immediately. Your email should include the subject heading Plagiarism notification, the plagiarized text, and a link to the page in question.
Defining plagiarism
Plagiarism can be defined in two ways, and both should be taken equally seriously. Plagiarism is first defined as taking someone else's work, in either the fiction or nonfiction genre, and willfully attempting to pass it off as your own.[1] Secondly, plagiarism can be defined as using someone else's work and failing to properly cite your sources and provide attribution without the intent of passing the work off as your own.[2] While the first definition of plagiarism is arguably more blatant, plagiarism in either form is damaging.
Close paraphrasing
Close paraphrasing is related to plagiarism and copyright infringement, and, in some cases, may overlap with them. When you commit close paraphrasing of a source, you only superficially change or rearrange the wording from your original source.[3]
The best way to avoid close paraphrasing is to use multiple sources for your information and synthesize them, always in your own words. As always be sure to cite all sources and clearly demonstrate where all of your information came from.[3] Limited close paraphrasing is generally more acceptable than extensive close paraphrasing. For example, closely paraphrasing one sentence of an article and then clearly attributing that sentence to the source does not necessarily constitute a problem. However, closely paraphrasing an entire paragraph or article, even if you are attributing that information to the original source, may be considered plagiarism.
Example
Here's an example of close paraphrasing from the Ballotpedia article on Ron Knecht.
The original source read:
| “ | Born and raised in a small town in the Midwest, he has a lifetime record in public, community, charitable and professional services, and in writing, speaking and teaching.[4] | ” |
The close paraphrasing of that source read:
| “ | He has participated in public, community, charitable and professional services throughout his life and has been involved in writing, speaking, and teaching.[4] | ” |
You can see the difference pages for the removal of this instance of close paraphrasing here.
Fabrication
Fabrication is a separate issue from plagiarism. To fabricate is to make up people or facts and pretend that they are real.[5] For example, "Joe Smith received his B.A. from Harvard in 1977," would be fabrication if Joe Smith did not in fact receive his B.A. from Harvard.
Avoiding plagiarism
Even if the sources you use in your writing are in the public domain, you must still cite these sources (say where the words or images came from) and properly attribute all ideas, quotes and images.[6]
Another way to ensure that your sources are properly attributed is to begin sentences with a phrase such as, "According to the New York Times,..." This way, you state where your fact or idea came from up front, leaving no doubt about the origin of the following statement.[5] When taking wording directly from another source, such as a news story written by another news outlet like the Washington Post, you must place quotes around that directly quoted information and provide a citation at the end of the quote.
Length of quotes
Direct quotes should not be more than four sentences in length.
Detecting plagiarism
Reporting plagiarism
If an instance of plagiarism is identified, please report the issue immediately to editor@ballotpedia.org. Your email should include:
- The subject heading Plagiarism notification
- A link to the page containing plagiarism
- The plagiarized text
- Optional: You may place the {{Plagiarism}} template at the top of the page containing plagiarism
Methods
Detecting plagiarism on a wiki is more difficult than in traditional print mediums. One of the ways plagiarism has been detected in the past is through the sudden change of voice or marked increase or decrease in writing ability in a given piece.[5] This can be difficult to detect on a website where multiple writers are contributing to the same article. However, there are other methods of detecting plagiarism that may easily be employed in the Ballotpedia environment.
One sign that you may be dealing with plagiarism in a given article is that there are no citations in a given section, or perhaps there is no attribution at all.[5] If you encounter an article like this, or if you see other signs that indicate that plagiarism may exist in a given article, take a few sentences or sentence fragments and run a search for them on your search engine of choice.
It is not uncommon for plagiarized material to come from multiple sources. For this reason, using the sentence as your largest unit of measure when checking for plagiarism is a good rule of thumb. In addition to running the content in question through a standard web search, you may also wish to run your content through a plagiarism-checker. There are many different options that scan content for plagiarism; simply type "check for plagiarism" into any web search, and you will receive several options in the search returns.
Plagiarism vs. Copyright Infringement
Plagiarism is a separate issue from copyright infringement, however the two issues can occur concurrently with one another.[7][8] Plagiarism involves using someone else's work without the proper attribution, while copyright infringement involves using someone's copyrighted work without the proper permissions. Plagiarism is an ethical issue, while copyright infringement is a legal one.[8]
You can infringe upon someone's copyright even if you attribute the copyrighted work to its owner. If you do not have the right to reproduce someone's writing, images, or audio, then reproducing that work, even if it is obviously attributed, infringes upon copyright.[7] Copyright infringement varies from work to work and medium to medium, so be mindful whenever you are working with copyrighted materials. When copyright infringement and plagiarism occur concurrently with one another, a writer reproduces copyrighted works and fails to attribute them to their creator.
If you find a page that you believe contains copyrighted material being used without permission, please email us at editor@ballotpedia.org.
Reproducing Ballotpedia content
On other websites
Text on Ballotpedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and copyrighted by Ballotpedia's editors and contributors. Text is licensed to others under the GFDL License, and our content may be reproduced elsewhere with proper attribution.
See also
- Ballotpedia:Public domain
- Ballotpedia:Neutral point of view policy
- Ballotpedia:Policies
- Ballotpedia:Copyright
External links
- Society of Professional Journalists, "Plagiarism," accessed July 1, 2014
- Reynolds Journalism Institute, "Telling the Truth and Nothing But," March 25, 2013
- Council of Writing Program Administrators, "Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices," accessed July 1, 2014
- Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), "Avoiding Plagiarism," accessed July 1, 2014
- Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "Plagiarism," accessed July 1, 2014
- Plagiarism.org, "Main page," accessed July 1, 2014
- Plagiarism.org is a project of iParadigms LLC, the makers of various plagiarism-checking tools
- Poynter, "Is it original? An editor’s guide to identifying plagiarism," September 16, 2014
- Lifehacker, "This Flowchart Explains The Severity of Different Types of Plagiarism," September 23, 2014
Footnotes
- ↑ Merriam-Webster Dictionary, "Plagiarism," accessed July 1, 2014
- ↑ Council of Writing Program Administrators, "Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices," accessed July 1, 2014
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wikipedia, "Close paraphrasing," accessed September 5, 2014
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Preventing Plagiarism and Fabrication webinar, May 9, 2013
- ↑ Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), "Avoiding Plagiarism," accessed July 1, 2014
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 University of Connecticut Libraries, "Plagiarism vs. Copyright Infringement," accessed July 31, 2014
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Concordia University-Texas Library, "Plagiarism vs. Copyright," accessed July 31, 2014
