Research Project

Legal and ethical issues go beyond properly citing sources and plagiarism. Researchers should also understand issues related to privacy, security, censorship, and freedom of speech, as well as have an understanding of intellectual property, copyright, and fair use.

Principles of Academic Honesty

1. When you say you did the work yourself, you actually did it.
2. When you rely on someone else’s work, you cite it. When you use their words, you quote them openly and accurately, and you cite them, too. 
3. When you present research materials, you present them fairly and truthfully. That’s true whether the research involves data, documents, or the writing of other scholars.
   {from Doing Honest Work In College by Charles Lipson (2004)}

Here is the excerpt from the LCCC Code of Conduct that addresses plagiarism:

 VI. Academic Misconduct:
(B) Plagiarism
      (1) The act of presenting the words, ideas or work of another person as one’s own.
      (2) Presenting as one’s own the ideas, words, images, or any other supporting material for an academic assignment without appropriate citation of sources.
      (3) Copying, pasting, downloading or importing any electronic material into work submitted for an academic assignment without appropriate citation of sources.
      (4) Utilizing copyrighted material in violation of U.S. Copyright Law.
      (5) Allowing one’s own work to be utilized by another student as if it were that student’s own work.

To avoid plagiarizing someone else's words or ideas, make sure you:

• Paraphrase the original text into your own words. The goal is to re-express the thoughts, not just to rearrange phrases or replace a couple of words. 
• Use quotation marks around text that has been taken directly from the original source.
• Cite every source of information you use to write your paper unless it is common knowledge or the results of your own research. This includes facts, figures, and statistics as well as opinions and arguments.

Below are links to short videos, tutorials and lessons to help you avoid plagiarism: