Respond to discussion #4

Respond in one or more of the following ways:

• Ask a probing question.
• Share an insight from having read your colleague’s posting.
• Offer and support an opinion.
• Validate an idea with your own experience.
• Make a suggestion.
• Expand on your colleague’s posting.

Scenario 2:  Is It Plagiarism? 

This scenario Prof. Lee is writing a puzzle or research grant that is due for submission in the next two days. To complete the background section Professor. Lee copies a few isolated sentences from a journal paper written by another author. Both copied sentences are brief factual and one sentence summaries of the early layer articles. Professor Lee and adds a one sentence summary of the journal paper and cites it (National Academy Press, pg 18).

Two questions are posed in this scenario:

1. Does the copying of a few isolated sentences in this case constitute plagiarism?
2. By citing the journal paper, has Lee given proper credit to the other author?

In regards to question number one, were the sentence plagiarized? According to what is given in the scenario the answer would have to be yes the sentences were plagiarized. According to the American Psychological Association or APA, plagiarism is when researchers or others claim the ideas or words as their own and not give proper credit when credit is due (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2010). Also according to the APA is not just a matter of stating what was said but it is also citing correctly. “The key element of this principle is that authors do not present the work of another as if it were their own work” (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2010). This goes into question number two as well; the APA also has guidelines which must be followed for proper citing works which you are using in a paper. If these guidelines are not used properly then again you are committing plagiarism as well as research misconduct (National Academy Press, pg 15-18). In the American Psychological Association publication manual of 2010 starting on page 169, there is details on how to credit sources properly (Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 2010) these are items that can be easily missed which will cost a researcher credibility, grant money as well as possible dismissal depending on the institution they may be working at. 

So in conclusion to the question posed, is it plagiarism? The answer is yes, Professor Lee did commit plagiarism.

References:

American Psychological Association. (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological   Association (6^th ed.). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association

Committee on Science, Engineering, and Public Policy. (2009). On being a scientist: A guide to     responsible conduct in research(3 ed.). Washington, D.C.: National Academic Press