National American University Online Library: Understanding APA, Academic Integrity & Plagiarism

What is Plagiarism and how does APA help avoid plagiarism?

• Plagiarism is stealing another person’s words or ideas and passing them off as your own. When you put your name on any assignment, you are presenting yourself as the owner of that work, and people assume the ideas within the work are yours. You are saying that you did the work and that the words and ideas in that work are yours and yours only.  By using APA in-text citations and including a reference page, you signal that you have used other people's work but that you are giving them credit for their work. This helps avoid plagiarism.
• Note: Plagiarism is not just about the written word.  Any source you use must be credited. This includes videos, sound clips, music, images, etc.

Academic Integrity

• Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, plagiarizing and/or cheating on assignments, tests or projects; misusing artificial intelligence (AI); or assisting someone else in these actions.

The resources below will help you understand the concepts of plagiarism and how to avoid it.

• Principles of Plagiarism: An Overview

• This interactive NAU tutorial will help you recognize the importance of giving credit to others for their work, identify instances of plagiarism, including the misuse of artificial intelligence, describe penalties for plagiarism, and recognize ways to avoid plagiarism.

• ChatGPT and Fake Citations

  This blog post from Duke University outlines research and writing tasks for which ChatGPT should be used and those tasks for which ChatGPT should not be used. Examples: do not ask ChatGPT for a list of sources or to write your paper, but use it to provide ideas for a particular topic, or revise an awkward sentence.

• Avoiding Plagiarism Guide (from the official APA Style website)

  This two-page handout describes two common types of plagiarism: the improper use of someone's words and ideas, and how to avoid these two types of plagiarism.

• Plagiarism.org

• This website supports the education community with a comprehensive set of resources to help students write with integrity.

• Plagiarism Awareness: Don't Stumble Into It Accidentally Tutorial

  A tutorial created by Arizona State University that covers types of plagiarism and the concepts of quoting, paraphrasing and summarizing.

In addition to providing in-text citations and reference lists, one can avoid plagiarism and academic dishonesty by: paraphrasing, applying quotes correctly, and analyzing your work to avoid unintentional plagiarism.  The tutorials below will help you understand these concepts.