Hypothetically speaking. Let say I’m a astrophysicist. I’m well read in the field, made my own observations and conclusions.
Lets also say I’m writing a book about the solar system. I’ve studied all the planets, but Mars. I know nothing about mars. But the book needs Mars.
I know I can go Nasa’s and Steven Hawking’s websites and get all the information I need on the subject.
But there’s no way for me to directly confirm any of the material myself. I’m basically just regurgitating what I read on Nasa’s and Steven Hawking website.
How do I go about giving them credit while also not plagiarizing? Does the fact of me giving them credit omit me from plagiarizing? Can I use their information without their direct consent(lets says Mr. Hawking is still alive and can be contacted.)?
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I don’t think there’s as much of a difference between the sections you describe as you think there is.
> Lets also say I’m writing a book about the solar system. I’ve studied all the planets …
Unless you’ve personally gathered all the facts you present in your book, you’re going to need references for all of them, and you’re going to have to cite them.
> I know I can go Nasa’s and Steven Hawking’s websites and get all the information I need on the subject.
But there’s no way for me to directly confirm any of the material myself.
And that’s true for all the other planets as well. (Again assuming you haven’t done original research on the other seven and just skipped Mars somehow.) The *only* difference here is how long ago you read someone else’s work to form your understanding.
> I’m basically just regurgitating what I read on Nasa’s and Steven Hawking website.
I hope not, because otherwise this book is useless, references or no. Presumably you’re interpreting their work, combining them together, and synthesizing new ideas from their conclusions. Your use of their work, either paraphrased or quoted, is just to establish a baseline with your reader that you can proceed from together.
Your new ideas may just be to provide an understandable overview of the subject of Mars, but that’s still adding *something* to the scientific conversation.
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