Images of originality

robyn.owens — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 23:02:00 GMT

Any diagrams, figures, or images in your thesis must be treated in the same way as your text: they must be your own, or they must be appropriately cited. However, unlike text, when an image is copyrighted (and it is safe to assume that all are unless it is explicitly stated that they can be used with a citation only), then you must obtain permission to use someone else's image.

The over-use of figures downloaded from the internet detracts from the quality and it is preferable to see the candidate's own images, which then would be clearer and in some instances more appropriately targeted to the relevant information.

Self plagiarism and salami slicing

robyn.owens — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 13:55:00 GMT

Self plagiarism occurs when you re-use your own published work in your current work, without citing the original published work. It's considered an academic crime because in the act of publication you have assigned the ownership of your original work to someone else (the Journal), and now you are passing it off as it it were once again your own.

Salami slicing refers to the act of chopping your work up into tiny publons: units of publication that are minimal at best, just enough to get published (a publon is also known as a least publishable increment). Salami slicing usually occurs with the re-use of data, or with a slight change of data but saying essentially the same thing in another publication.

Both self plagiarism and salami slicing are considered poor practice because they flood the academic community with near identical papers, making it more difficult for scholars to find relevant information.

The very obvious use of cut-and-paste (identical wording for very large parts of the chapter) is disappointing. Perhaps this could have been avoided by structuring the results differently?

theEzone : Plagiarism

Images of originality

Self plagiarism and salami slicing