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 am going to have to disagree with the other answers.
Lets take an extreme example, lets say I’m writing my PhD thesis and I’m doing it on the expansion of the universe. Well Stephen Hawking was a smart person, and thats what his PhD was in, how about I just copy the entire thing and then reference him at the end. Thats fine right because I’ve referenced him? No. Of course not. This is plagiarism.
There is some subtlety to it. The most important thing is that you do reference, the next most important thing is that it should either be in your own words or a direct quotation and marked as a quotation (using quotation marks). If you directly quote someone without marking it as a quote, then that is plagiarism even if you reference them.
When doing this, it should only be enough to convey whatever point you are needing to set up for whatever is coming next. You should not just be spewing stuff from your references for the sake of it.
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