• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Citing Articles (in print and online)
• Citing Web Pages
• Creating Bibliographies with RefWorks

Avoiding Plagiarism

Plagiarism is "the uncredited use (both intentional and unintentional) of somebody else's words or ideas." --from "Avoiding Plagiarism", The OWL at Purdue

According to UC Berkeley's Code of Student Conduct, Section V.102.01, plagiarism is academic misconduct, and is grounds for disciplinary sanctions, including a failing grade, suspension or dismissal from the University.

You probably know that:

• copying a friend's homework,
• paying someone to write a term paper for you,
• or copying large sections of text and claiming it as your own work...

are all examples of plagiarism.

But did you also know that:

• paraphrasing someone else's idea without giving credit is also plagiarism?
• many professors use software that can help detect plagiarized material from the Web or other sources in students' assignments?
• that academic misconduct cases at UC Berkeley have increased more than 250% over the last ten years?*

  *(UCB Center for Student Conduct and Community Standards)

Whenever you discuss someone else's ideas, their data, or the results of their research, you must cite that work! Citations are needed for paraphrases or quotations from another's work.

• This statement needs a citation: "Prairie dogs impact the species richness of insect communities in grassland ecosystems."
• This statement does not: "The theory of evolution via the process of natural selection is one of the underpinnings of modern biology."

Information that's common knowledge does not need a citation. But how do you know if it's common knowledge? One simple rule applies: When in doubt, cite it!

Students are caught plagiarizing and cheating on this assignment and term papers in Bio 1B every semester. This usually results in course failure and a letter placed in the student’s file which will be shared with graduate program application materials.

 

Citing Articles (print and online)

Why do you need to cite your sources?

Citations fulfill several functions:

• They give proper credit to the work others have done.
• They allow readers of your work to follow up on the sources you've used.
• They show that you have appropriately incorporated the scientific literature in the area you're writing about into your own work.

Citation Styles

Full citations, or references, at the end of a paper or article need to provide the reader with enough information to find the work that's referred to. The examples given in this guide use APA (American Psychological Association) style.

There are hundreds of different ways to format citations, and they vary among disciplines (humanities, sciences, social sciences, etc.). Usually, professors will specify what format they'd like students to follow for an assignment. In the sciences, it's common for peer-reviewed journals to have their own set of formatting rules for citations, which authors must follow; professors may request that you use the formatting style of a particular journal in preparing references for your assignments.

There are a number of style manuals, some designed especially for bioscience literature, located in the Bioscience Library’s reference area and on the web.

Read more about APA style:

• APA Style Quick Guide [UC Berkeley, Teaching Library]
• APA Style.org [American Psychological Association]
• Lipson, Charles. (2006). Cite Right: A Quick Guide To Citation Styles - MLA, APA, Chicago, the Sciences, Professions, and More. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Bioscience Library: PN 171 .F56 L55 2006, Ref Shelves.

Important notes for the Bio 1B library assignment:

1. Unless your instructor specifies otherwise, you do NOT need to use a specific citation style when you provide citations on your worksheet. However, be sure to include all the elements of a journal article citation listed above!

2. For the Bio 1B library assignment, you do NOT need to include a URL for journal articles you find online; just include items 1-7 below for a complete journal article citation.

 

Basic elements of journal article citations (in print OR online):

1. Author name(s)
2. Publication year
3. Article title
4. Journal title
5. Volume number
6. Issue number (optional; include ONLY if each issue begins with page 1)
7. Page numbers
8. For online articles: URL or DOI can be included (not always required)

Journal article (print, or online with print equivalent):

Fraser, C., Donnelly, C. A., Cauchemez, S., et al. (2009). Pandemic potential of a strain of influenza A (H1N1): early findings. Science, 324, 1557-1561.

Mueller, G. M.; Wu, Q. X.; Huang, Y. Q., et al. (2001). Assessing biogeographic relationships between North American and Chinese macrofungi. Journal of Biogeography, 28(2), 271-281.

 

Citing Web Pages

Basic elements of web citatations:

• Author name (may be an organization)
• Publication year
• Page title
• Date you retrieved the web page
• URL for specific page

Association/society sites:

Association of American Medical Colleges Web site. (c1995-2009). Retrieved June 24, 2009, from http://www.aamc.org/.

Online document available on university program or department website:

Chou, L., McClintock, R., Moretti, F., Nix, D.H. (2003). Technology and Education: New Wine in New Bottles: Choosing Pasts and Imagining Educational Futures. Retrieved September 4, 2008, from http://www.ilt.columbia.edu/publications/
papers/newwine1.html.

Page from a website, no author identified, no date:

The Talk.Origins Archive: Must-Read FAQs. Retrieved June 24, 2009, from http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-mustread.html.

Creating Bibliographies with RefWorks

What's RefWorks?

• RefWorks is a web-based software application that offers a way to collect, store, and manage references easily.
• RefWorks helps you keep track of references you've collected for papers and projects.
• RefWorks works with Microsoft Word (and other word processing programs) to easily create bibliographies for your papers with just a few clicks, with hundreds of different citation styles to choose from!
• RefWorks is free for UCB students, faculty, and staff. The UCB Libraries have purchased a site license to RefWorks.

Sign up for a free account, and manage your references and format bibliographies with just a few clicks. 

Learn more about RefWorks