Students can avoid plagiarizing by carefully organizing and documenting materials gathered during the research process. Notes attached to these materials, whether in the form of informal notes, photocopied articles, or printouts of electronic sources, should carefully identify the origin of the information. Such attention to detail at every stage of the process will ensure an accurate bibliography that documents all the outside sources consulted and used. Students should follow these general principles when incorporating the ideas and words of others into their writing:
- The exact language of another person (whether a single distinctive word, phrase, sentence, or paragraph) must be identified as a direct quotation and must be provided with a specific acknowledgment of the source of the quoted matter.
- Paraphrases and summaries of the language and ideas of another person must be clearly restated in the author’s own words, not those of the original source, and must be provided with a specific acknowledgment of the source of the paraphrased or summarized matter.
- All visual media, including graphs, tables, illustrations, raw data, audio and digital material, are covered by the notion of intellectual property and, like print sources, must be provided with a specific acknowledgment of the source.
- Sources must be acknowledged using the systematic documentation method required by the instructor for specific assignments and courses.
- As a general rule, when in doubt, provide acknowledgment for all borrowed material.
- Guidelines for referencing style in pharmacy academic work can be found on the Loyola Notre Dame Library Web site.
- Personal communication such as interviews etc. must be referenced.
- Refer to the Guidelines for AI Use at NDMU SOP for academic honesty when using AI.