2025/013 | How to Avoid Plagiarism: A Researcher’s Practical Guide
How to Avoid Plagiarism: A Researcher’s Practical Guide
1. 🧠 Understand the Forms of Plagiarism
Be aware of the different ways plagiarism occurs, as even unintentional acts are still misconduct.
Direct Plagiarism: Copying text verbatim without quotation marks and proper citation.
Paraphrasing Plagiarism: Using a source's ideas and overall structure while changing only a few words; this is essentially presenting someone else’s sentence structure as your own.
Mosaic Plagiarism (Patchwriting): Borrowing phrases, clauses, or key structural elements from a source and mixing them with original writing without using quotation marks or proper citation.
Self-Plagiarism: Reusing your own previously published work (text, data, or figures) in a new publication without proper disclosure and citation.
Source Citation Failure: Citing a source incorrectly, citing the wrong source, or failing to cite at all.
2. 📝 Best Practices During Research and Note-Taking
Avoiding plagiarism begins at the research stage, well before you start writing the final draft.
| Action | Practical Tip | Why It Works |
| Use a Clear System | When taking notes, use a physical or digital system (e.g., Zotero, Evernote). | Separates your ideas from source material clearly. |
| Mark Source Type | Immediately tag all notes with one of three indicators: Q (Direct Quote), P (Paraphrase/Summary), or Y (Your Original Idea/Comment). | Prevents confusion when you return to your notes later. |
| Record Full Citation | For every piece of source material, immediately record the full citation (Author, Year, Source, Page/Paragraph Number) right next to the note. | Ensures you never lose the source information needed for referencing. |
| Avoid Copy/Paste | Wherever possible, read the source and close it before writing your notes or paraphrase. | Forces you to process the idea and write it using your own unique language and structure. |
3. ✍️ Techniques for Effective Writing and Paraphrasing
When drafting your manuscript, focus on changing both the words and the sentence structure of the original source.
A. Master Paraphrasing
The goal of paraphrasing is to restate the source's idea entirely in your own voice and structure, followed by a citation.
| Original Text | Researcher's Approach | Result (Good Paraphrase) |
| “The consistent degradation of neural networks following extended hypoxia is a key marker of cerebral vulnerability.” | 1. Identify key concepts (neural networks, hypoxia, cerebral vulnerability). 2. Restructure the sentence (focus on the cause first). 3. Use synonyms and change parts of speech. | Cerebral vulnerability is often indicated by the measurable breakdown of nerve cells after prolonged oxygen deprivation (Smith, 2023). (Citation) |
B. Use Direct Quotations Judiciously
When to Quote: Reserve direct quotes for when the exact wording is essential (e.g., a formal definition, a unique historical statement, or an author's specific terminology).
Formatting Rules: Always enclose quoted text in quotation marks (" ") and follow the quote with the citation, including the page or paragraph number.
Example: The authors defined the phenomenon as, "the process of metabolic shift within the mitochondrial matrix" (Jones, 2021, p. 112).
4. 📚 Proper Citation Management and Self-Plagiarism
A. Employ Citation Tools
Use Citation Managers: Tools like Zotero, Mendeley, EndNote, or LaTex packages (e.g., BibTeX) store citation details and automatically generate accurate in-text citations and reference lists in the required style (APA, Vancouver, IEEE, etc.).
Cite Everything That Is Not Common Knowledge: This includes specific facts, data, statistical findings, methodologies, theories, models, figures, and tables derived from external sources.
B. Handling Self-Plagiarism
Cite Your Own Work: If you reuse text, data, or figures from a paper you have previously published, you must cite that previous paper just as you would any other external source.
Permission: For substantial reuse of published material (especially figures or tables), you may need to obtain permission from the copyright holder (usually the journal/publisher).
Avoid Redundant Publication ("Salami Slicing"): Do not break up one comprehensive study into several smaller, minimal papers to inflate your publication count. This is a severe form of academic dishonesty.
5. 🛠️ Final Review and Plagiarism Checkers
Before submission, perform a final review using specialized tools.
Institutional Tools: Many institutions and nearly all reputable journals use professional services like iThenticate or Turnitin.
Review the Similarity Report:
Don't panic over a high score: A high score only indicates a high percentage of matching text.
Filter and check: Ensure that all matching text from your references, standard methods, and properly formatted quotes are excluded or correctly identified.
Fix flagged sentences: Focus on matching blocks that do not have quotation marks and are not cited. Rework these sentences thoroughly to reflect your own unique phrasing.