Radiological Technology: Referencing
Avoiding Plagiarism: Why Use References?
From Michener’s Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure:
Plagiarism is the portrayal, claiming or use of another person’s work or ideas (sentence, thought, paragraph, intellectual property, data, drawings or images) without specific reference. In the academic world this is considered to be theft. It is dishonest and irresponsible and will result in serious consequences.
Doing any of the following would be considered plagiarism if you don't reference where the words/ideas came from:
- Copying a sentence (or part of a sentence) word for word.
- Taking someone else's sentence (or idea) and rewriting it in your own words.
- Reusing part of an assignment you previously submitted for marks.
The way to avoid plagiarism is to give credit to the sources you have used in your research. We call this process referencing because you are creating a reference in your paper to each of the sources you have used. At Michener, the commonly used referencing styles are Vancouver and APA. Check with your Professor to see which style they would prefer you to use, and then read the appropriate box below.
Not sure whether what you've done is plagiarism? Check out this handy graphic (click to make it bigger):
Vancouver Style
For full details, visit the LRC's Vancouver Style guide.
The Vancouver Style is formally known as Recommendations for the Conduct, Reporting, Editing and Publication of Scholarly Work in Medical Journals (ICMJE Recommendations). It was developed in Vancouver in 1978 by editors of medical journals and well over 1,000 medical journals (including ICMJE members BMJ, CMAJ, JAMA & NEJM) use this style.
Why Reference?
A short, humourous video from Seneca Libraries explaining the importance of referencing (AKA citing).
APA Style
For full details, visit the LRC's APA Style guide.
The APA style consists of rules and conventions for formatting term papers, journal articles, books, etc., in the behavioural and social sciences. This user guide explains how to cite references in APA style, both within the text of a paper and in a reference list, and gives examples of commonly used types of references.
Citing ChatGPT
For full details, please read the APA blog post.
ChatGPT and other Large Language Models are useful tools for developing a research question or drafting preliminary text, but the results it produces are not reproducible or retrievable -- therefore, the "chat" produced is more analogous to a personal conversation.
When citing ChatGPT, use the same citation standard as that used for algorithms and similar software. Authors should also describe the use of ChatGPT in the introduction section of their papers.
ChatGPT may not be authoritative, even when providing "sources" upon request.
When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain real or a metaphor?” OpenAI (2013) responded with the ChatGPT generated text that, although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notion that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth”.
In-text Parenthetical citation
When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).
Reference
OpenAI. (2023), ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
Plagiarism: How to Avoid it
For more information on avoiding plagiarism and using other sources in your work, please visit the LRC's Plagiarism guide.
Zotero - Referencing Software
Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share your research sources. It can help you format your references in a variety of styles, including APA and Vancouver.
You can download it from the Zotero website.
Learn more at the Michener LRC Zotero guide.
Creative Commons License
Michener Institute of Education at UHN, 2018.