Everyday Use of Source Material

In our everyday life, we often point out when we’re talking about someone else’s ideas. When we engage in conversations with other people, we might say things like, “I heard on the news today that…” or “The cashier at the store said…” When we do this, we not only give credit to the originator of the idea, but we also give more credibility to what we’re saying by letting others know the origin of the information.

The internet is full of content copied and pasted from elsewhere– usually without any indication of its origin.

In many cases, however, we don’t pay much attention to the source of a concept. This is especially true on the internet, where information is frequently cut-and-pasted from one site to another and anonymous authorship is the norm. It’s nearly impossible to find the origin of a viral meme online, and famously difficult to track the flow of information on social media. Stock photos pop up again and again in various contexts, and identical life-hacks and listicles appear on multiple websites. Except where it violates copyright law or a website’s policies, very little of this re-use is a problem in and of itself. By nature, the internet and social media encourage sharing and reposting.

Because internet culture plays so fast and loose with authorship and sourcing, academic standards for using others’ ideas can seem overly harsh or hairsplitting in comparison. As we’ll see, however, taking responsibility for one’s own work and giving credit for others’ work is one of the core ideals of the academic discourse community.

Academic Standards for Using Source Material

Academic research allows us to gain perspectives and understandings from other people through what we read, watch, and hear. In academic work we must tell our readers who and what led us to our conclusions. Documenting our research is important because people rely on academic research to be authoritative, so it is essential for academic conversation to be as clear as possible. Documentation for clarity is a shared and respected practice, and it represents a core value of the academy called “academic integrity.”^[1]

What Is Academic Integrity?

Different universities have different definitions of academic integrity. These are often spelled out in the academic handbook under a heading such as “Academic Honesty Policy” or “Academic Integrity.” One university uses this definition:

Academic integrity is a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility. From these values flow principles of behavior that enable academic communities to translate ideals into action.

According to this definition, academic integrity means taking full responsibility for your work, acknowledging your own efforts, and acknowledging the contributions of others’ efforts. Working and writing with integrity requires accurately representing what you contributed, as well as acknowledging how others have influenced your work.

Taking Responsibility for your Own Work

In the academic context, taking responsibility for your own work means that you stand by the quality of the information you pass on to others. Responsible use of information means not knowingly sharing false data, falsified results, or misinformation. (For more on stopping the spread of misinformation, see the section on Reliable Sources).

Any academic work you turn in should accurately reflect your knowledge, skills, and effort—in other words, cheating on a test or taking credit for a group project you skipped out on would both be violations of academic integrity.

Taking responsibility for your work also means being mindful, attentive, and informed about the way you use language to communicate; at the very least, avoiding statements that express or imply ideas that are sexist, racist, or otherwise biased, prejudiced, or denigrating to any particular group of people (for more on this responsibility, see the section on Writing with Awareness).

Giving Credit for Others’ Work

As long as you give credit where credit is due, using information from others to support your own thoughts, opinions, and research findings is good practice. Not only does it acknowledge the hard work of others, but it also shows that you did your research on the topic, you know what information exists about it, and you can integrate your knowledge into the existing research and contribute to the scholarly conversation.

The following video by NC State University Libraries has a great summary of what citations are and why we use them: