The following terms and definitions will help you become familiar with the concept of plagiarism and other important concepts dealing with academic integrity and proper citation of sources. Use this list as a reference tool when working on your research papers and when exploring other sections of this web site.

• Attribution: Attribution is the act of accrediting an author or an artist for creating a specific work or idea.

• Citation: When you cite a source, you include a brief note within your paper indicating that the information comes from an outside source. You must cite direct quotations, as well as paraphrases.

• Source: A source is where you got your information from, whether it is a book, journal article, web site, or a database.

• Paraphrase: A paraphrase is when you take information from a source and put it entirely in your own words (changing one or two words is not paraphrasing). Paraphrases must be cited within the text.

• Direct quote: A direct quote is when you take information from a source and put it in the exact words from the source itself. Put quotation marks at the beginning and end of the quote.

• In-text citation: An in-text citation is when you provide information about the source in the text of their paper. Often, in-text citations include a signal phrase which gives the author’s name and a parenthetical reference, which can include the author’s name and the page number.

• Parenthetical reference: The parenthetical reference is part of the in-text citation. At the end of the source material, whether it is a paraphrase or a direct quote, there should be parentheses with the page number of the source material. Often, you can also include the last name of the author of the source in the parentheses.

• Works cited page: The works cited page should be the last page of your paper, and it lists identifying information, such as the publication date and location, for each of the sources that you cited in your paper. The sources are listed in alphabetical order by the author’s last name.

• Bibliography: A bibliography is a list of sources that you used in preparing your paper.

• Copyright: Copyright is legal protection provided by the laws of the United States (title 17, U.S. Code) to authors, artists, publishers, composers, and distributors of “original works of authorship,” such as literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work (U.S. Copyright Office). The owner of the copyright has the exclusive right to reproduce the work, distribute the work, to publicly perform the work, or to publicly display the work (U.S. Copyright Office). The information itself is not protected by copyright, but the way in which the information is expressed is protected (“Terminology”). Thus, if you copy information from a copyrighted work and put it into your own words, it is not copyright infringement, but can be considered plagiarism (“Terminology”).

• Common knowledge: Common knowledge is information that is so well-known that it can be found in numerous sources and does not have to be cited (“Important Terms”).

• Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s work without giving that person the proper credit or no attribution at all (“Important Terms”).

• Cyber-plagiarism: Cyber-plagiarism occurs when you download or copy in part of or all of an article, research paper, or ideas found on the Web, without giving the original author credit (“Terminology”).

• Intentional plagiarism: Intentional plagiarism is when the writer purposefully uses someone else’s ideas or work without properly acknowledging the source or not acknowledging the source at all (Guiliano 22).

• Unintentional plagiarism: Unintentional plagiarism usually occurs when someone attempts to paraphrase source material or cite source material, but does not properly do so. Unintentional plagiarism constitutes academic dishonesty and can be punished (“Plagiarism and How to Avoid It!”).

• Fair use: Fair use is the guidelines for determining whether or not using a particular source is legal or a copyright infringement. (“Important Terms”). The guidelines address the nature of the use of the material, the amount of the material the person uses, and the effect the use of the material has on the original material (“Plagiarism FAQ”).

• Infringement: Infringement occurs when someone copies, distributes, publicly performs or displays copyrighted work without the permission of the artist or author of the work (“Terminology”).

• Intellectual property: Intellectual property is an idea or a concept, or any other intellectual work that has “commercial value” (“Important Terms”).

• Paper mill: Paper mills are online databases that provide thousands of research papers on a wide variety of generic topics (“Paper Mills”).

• Public domain: The public domain includes works that are not copyrighted, meaning that individuals can use information from these works as long they give proper credit (“Plagiarism and How to Avoid It”).