Referencing and plagiarism

Avoiding plagiarism

Plagiarism is passing off someone else's work as your own without acknowledging the source.

Common examples of this are:

• Copying a portion of text without giving credit to the resource, e.g. copying and pasting text from a website into your assignment
• Paraphrasing text without crediting the source, e.g. changing a few words from an article and including it in your work

You can avoid plagiarism by keeping track of the information you find and acknowledging it in your writing using accurate references. The Developing Good Academic Practices website provides more information on what constitutes plagiarism and includes the OU policy on plagiarism.

The Avoiding plagiarism activities on the Being digital site highlight what plagiarism is, the forms it can take, and how to develop your skills in order to avoid it.

Creating your references

When producing an academic assignment you are required to cite references in the text and create a list of references or bibliography at the end.

1. Make sure that you record the details (e.g. author, title, year, publisher) of the sources that you use in your written work
2. Find out which referencing style is required by your module by looking in your module materials or asking your tutor. Many OU courses use the ‘OU Harvard’ style and the OU Harvard guide to citing references (may require login) provides help and examples. The OU Harvard Guide is also available as a pdf. Please note that the most up-to-date version of the OU Harvard Guide is the online one. The Referencing styles page provides information about alternative referencing styles.
3. The Cite references page provides guidance on how to create your references.

Managing your references

Taking an organised approach with your references by recording details of the sources you find can help you to:

• keep track of the references you’ve gathered from different sources
• ensure that your references are complete, so you are able to provide full, accurate references
• save time in locating reference details
• help you to track down the original resource, if necessary

People develop their own methods for managing references and you need to find a method that works for you (e.g. saving reference details to a word processing file, using social bookmarking tools). To find out more about ways to organise your references, work through Section 6.3 of Safari.

Bibliographic management tools

Bibliographic management tools are database applications which help you store and present your references in your written work. These are particularly helpful if you are dealing with large numbers of references.

For guidance on using MyReferences and other reference management software, see the Bibliographic management page.