PLAGIARISM Plagiarism is a serious offence and there are severe penalties for it!

There are many definitions for plagiarism. In plagiarism.org we find one of the most inclusive: turning in someone else's work as your own copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit failing to put a quotation in quotation marks giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not

Avoiding plagiarism is simple: when you use ideas (spoken or written, quoted, paraphrased or summarised), facts, numbers or illustrations, you must acknowledge your source! Of course the way we acknowledge our sources is not done randomly. You should follow an appropriate referencing system which is applied in your text in a very specific way. There are different referencing systems which a writer can use. At BCA Business College we use one of the most widespread referencing systems, the Harvard referencing system or author - date system.

The Harvard Referencing System: In-text references

For citations inside the text all we need is just the authors surname and the year his work was published. When we quote the exact words from a work, we also add the page number/s in which the quotation appears in our source.

Watch the following variations:

INDIRECT QUOTATIONS (PARAPHRASING/ SUMMARISING) When we present details from a source in our own words (paraphrasing or summarising) then our quotations are called indirect quotations. The way we present them in the text is the following: When we dont use the authors name inside the text, we place both the name and the year in a parenthesis:

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While information sharing between the private and public sector has improved since 9/11, sharing of information requires additional enhancements (Dacey 2002). When we place the authors name inside the text, we put the year of publication in the parenthesis immediately after the surname: As Dacey (2002) writes, although information sharing between the private and public sector has improved since 9/11, sharing of information requires additional enhancements.

If the source is written by two authors: Earlier (Vroom and Jago 1988) we described a systematic evaluation... Vroom and Yetton (1973) studied this potential limitation.

If the authors of one work are more than two, we use only the surname of the first author mentioned and then the abbreviation et al.. (et alia, Latin, and others): ...the ability to respond intuitively and often very rapidly (Bar-Tel et al. 1999) is. Crossan et al. (1999) stress that the subconscious is critical to understanding how people come to...

If we cite more than two authors in a sentence: Several decades later, participation became a key ingredient of several management theories, including those of Likert (1967), Maier (1970), and Hersey and Blanchard (1982).

Note that when we place information inside the parenthesis we use a semi-colon to separate one source from the other: Although much recent research has focused on the importance of long-term strategic relationships (Morgan and Hunt 1994; Wilson 1995), .. The literature on cross cultural negotiations is expanding at a rapid rate and scholars have begun to develop both generic frameworks for explaining the dynamics of cross cultural negotiations (Brett 2000; Gelfand and Dyer 2000; George et al. 1998; Kumar 1999) as well as frameworks unique to a specific culture (Fang 1997; Faure 1998; Kumar 1999).

If the author has published two or more works in the same year, we distinguish between them by adding the letters a, b, c, etc. closed up to the year of publication to indicate the order in which they were published: Such is the scale of improvement within less than a year (Burt 2000a).

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If we need to refer to two works by the same author published in the same year: Between January and July 2000, 500,000 Focus magazines were sold world-wide and 300,000 of the sales were in Europe (Ford 2000a, b). If our source is trustworthy but the authors name is not known, we use the name of the source in the text: More people than ever seem to be using retail home delivery (The Times 1996). ...in order to unlock greater growth and competitiveness (European Commission 1998). ...so that local organizations can help new and growing businesses (DTI 2002).

Note that when the name of the source is too long and we use initials in the text, then we should not forget to provide the full name at the end of our assignment in the reference list/ bibliography (e.g. DTI: Department of Trade and Industry). If our source is from the internet, we follow the same principle: Authors surname year or, when the name of the author is not known: organisation/ name of website year. The website address should never be placed inside the text. For example, if the following source comes from a website, the reader will see that when he looks at our detailed bibliography at the end of the paper. Between January and July 2000, 500,000 Focus magazines were sold world-wide and 300,000 of the sales were in Europe (Ford 2000).

Now, if you refer to a source which is directly quoted in another source, you have to cite both in the text: A study by Smith (1960 cited in Jones 1994) showed that

DIRECT QUOTATIONS

When we use the exact words from a source, then our quotation is called a direct quotation and we place it within double quotation marks (). We also mention the page number from which the quotation comes from in a parenthesis (it comes after the year of publication and is separate from it by a comma): As Harvey (1992, p. 21) said: good practices must be taught.

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National culture is perhaps the broadest social context within which negotiation can occur (Carnevale 1995, p. 310).

If we want to omit material from a direct quotation we use ellipsis ( ). Make sure that what remains in the sentence makes sense: The literature on cross cultural negotiations is expanding and scholars have begun to develop both generic frameworks for explaining the dynamics of cross cultural nego tiations (Brett 2000; Gelfand and Dyer 2000; George et al. 1998; Kumar 1999).

Use direct quotations only when it is absolutely necessary!!!! When you have to quote a longer part from your source (more than two-three lines): it should be indented (1,5 cm, left and right) we should not use quotation marks we must single-space the text

These types of quotations are called block-quotations and should be used sparingly in our assignments. Here is an example:

As Sheridan Baker (2004, p. 245) notes, the importance of a good introduction cannot be overstressed in essay writing:

You can usually blame a bad essay on a bad beginning. If your essay falls apart, it probably has no primary idea to hold it together. "What's the big idea?" we used to ask. The phrase will serve as a reminder that you must find the "big idea" behind your several smaller thoughts and musings before you start to write. That is why a writer should come up with a solid thesis statement and with the appropriate ideas to support it.

In the next page there is an example of how various citations and quotations should be incorporated in our assignments (adaptation from Campbell & Finch 2004, p. 179):

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Organisational justice may be defined as employees' perceptions of the fairness with which they have been treated by an organisation or organisations. There are a range of theoretical perspectives which examine the concept of organisational justice and the importance of maintaining perceptions of fairness in the workplace. Examples include equity theory (Adams 1965), social exchange theory (Homans 1961), relative deprivation theory (Martin 1981), justice motive theory (Lerner 1977) and the justice judgment model (Leventhal 1976). Studies in these areas have shown that perceptions of injustice may not only lead to dissatisfaction, but also decreased job performance (Greenberg 1988), poorer quality of work (Cowherd & Levine 1992) and less co-operation with co-workers (Pfeffer & Langton 1993). The two fundamental building blocks of organisational justice theory are distributive and procedural justice, which are now amongst the most widely researched concepts in this field. The primary distinction between these two forms of justice is that the former refers to what the outcomes of organisational decisions are, whilst the latter is concerned with how the decisions are made. A third dimension of organisational justice, interactional justice, is concerned with the sensitivity with which information is communicated. .

Procedural justice, on the other hand, may be defined as the fairness of methods, mechanisms and processes used to determine outcomes (Folger & Cropanzano 1998), or the perceived fairness of the procedures used in making decisions (Folger & Greenberg 1985). Lind and Tyler (1988) investigated relational approaches to fairness and argued that norms that develop through identification with groups lead individuals to develop a commitment to social procedures and power relations. These in turn are used to make decisions on procedural fairness. Fair procedures should be consistent, bias-free, accurate, have correction mechanisms in the case of mistakes, take into account the concerns of all parties, and be morally acceptable (Leventhal 1980). Tyler and Bies (1990) identified five factors that influence employees perceptions of procedural fairness in organisations: 1. adequate consideration of the viewpoints of others; 2. consistency in the criteria on which decisions are based; 3. bias-free; 4. the provision of timely feedback; and 5. effective communication of the basis for decisions. A sixth element which may be added to this (although it is perhaps arguable whether it represents an independent criterion) is whether decision makers themselves accept the terms which they are presenting to employees. Thibaut and Walker (1975) further subdivided procedural justice into two components, namely process control (voice effect) and decision control (choice effect).

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ILLUSTRATIONS (CHARTS, GRAPHS, TABLES, PHOTOGRAPHS, etc.) When we want to include illustrations in our assignments it is important to remember to cite the source from which they come from. We should always number our tables, charts and graphs consecutively (table 1, table 2, etc., graph 1, graph 2, etc.)

See below some examples of how we present a table inside the assignment:

Figure 1: Developing strategy

Source: PMSU (2006)

Table 12: Staff numbers Year/period At Mar 2004 At Feb 2003 At Jan 2002 At Sept 2001 At Jan 2001 End 1999 End 1998 51 36 50-60 8ft/3pt 15 ft 17ft/ 3 pt PIU FSU PMSU 79 90

Source: HC Deb (2003-04c), (2002-03b), (2001-02c), (2000-01)

We never forget to fully cite the source in the bibliography at the end

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The Harvard Referencing System: BIBLIOGRAPHY

Our sources appear at the end of our assignment in the form of a list under the title Bibliography or References/ Works cited, and are in an alphabetical order. Watch the following: The differences in the use of the titles Bibliography and References are the following: References/ Works cited: A list of the sources to which you have made a reference in your text; the list appears at the end of the assignment on a separate page. Bibliography: A list of all the sources you have consulted in order to write your assignment, whether you mention them in the text or not. This list also appears at the end of the assignment on a separate page.

Books by one or two authors Authors Surname, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title. Edition (if not the first). Town of publication: Publisher. Authors Surname, INITIALS. and Authors Surname, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title. Edition (if not the first). Town of publication: Publisher. Abbott, A., 1988. System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Lewis, R. and Inglis, J., 1994. How to write reports: the key to success. London: Collins.

Books by four or more authors We write down the names of all the authors/ contributors in the order in which they appear in the publication. Books edited by one person Andresen, L., ed., 1994. Strategies for assessing students. Birmingham: SCED. Book edited by two people

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Brown, S. and Glasner, A., eds., 1999. Assessment matters in higher education. Buckingham: Open University.

A chapter from an edited book Contributing authors surname, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title of article. In: Editors Surname, INITIALS., ed./ eds. Title of Book. Town of publication: Publisher, page numbers in which article appears. If there are two or more editors, then instead of ed. use eds. Bourdieu, P., 1977. The forms of capital. In Richardson, J. G., ed. Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood Press, 311-356 .

A translated work Authors Surname, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title. Translated from .language by full name of the translator. Town of publication: Publisher (year when originally published). Bourdieu, P., 1977. Outline of a theory of practice. Translated from French by Robert Nice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (originally published in 1975).

Journal articles Authors Surname, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title of article. Title of journal, volume number (part/ issue number- if there is one), page numbers in which the article appears. Baron, R. M. and Kenny, D.A., 1986. The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51 (2), 1173-82. Guthrie, J. and Parker, L., 1997. Editorial: celebration, reflection and a future; a decade of AAAJ". Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 10, 3-15

Newspaper article Authors Surname, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title of article. Title of newspaper, day and month, page numbers and column number. Please note that if the article is anonymous, we begin the citation with the newspaper title. Smith, J., 1992. Picking up the bills. Independent, 4 June, 28a. Or, if anonymous, Independent, 1992. Picking up the bills. 4 June, 28a. Lecture Notes Panopoulou, M., 2008. Time management. Lecture notes, Study skills (BA, first year). BCA Business College.

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A government/ organization publication Name of issuing body, Year of publication. Title of publication. Town of publication: Publisher, report number (if available). Great Britain, Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions, 2002. Building Regulations 2000 - drainage and waste disposal. London: Stationery Office. UNESCO, 1993. General information programme and UNISIST. Paris: Unesco, PGI93/WS/22

Conference papers Authors surname, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title of paper. In: Surname, INITIALS., of editor of proceedings, ed. Title of conference proceedings, date, place. Town of publication: Publisher, page numbers in which the paper appears. Mackenzie, A., 2005. Staff information skills: strategies to influence up-take. In: University College & Research Group North West: Information literacy the whole shebang: theory, strategy, application and impact Conference, 15th March, EdgeHillCollege of Higher Education, Ormskirk, Liverpool. Liverpool: Journal of Information Literacy, 100-110.

Thesis Authors surname, INITIALS., Year of publication/ submission. Title of thesis. Designation, (type). Name of institution to which it was submitted. Hounsome, I. W., 2001. Factors affecting the design and performance of flexible ducts in trench reinstatements. Thesis, (Ph. D). Napier University.

TV programmes News at Ten, 2001. Jan. 27. 2200 hrs.

Electronic material Here, we apply the same guidelines as above (depending on what type of source we retrieved, e.g. an e-book, an article or journal from the internet, a newspaper article, conference proceedings, etc). What is different here is that we do not add the place of publication and publishing house information but the web address and the date on which we accessed the source. For example, if we have to cite an electronic journal we follow the standard format for journals and add at the end: Available from: URL [date of access]. Please note that the date of access is the date on which you retrieved the source from the website. See the detailed examples below:

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Authors Surname, INITIALS., Year of publication. Title of article. Title of journal, volume number (part/ issue number- if there is one). Available from: URL [Accessed date].

Swaminathan, V., Lepkoswka-White, E. and Rao, B.P., 1999. Browsers or buyers in cyberspace? An investigation of electronic factors influencing electronic exchange. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 5 (2). Available from: www. ascusc.org/ jcmc/vol5/ issue2 [Accessed 15 June 2003]. Also, note that: When giving the URL (internet address), we include "http://" only if the address does not include a "www". Also, when giving the URL of a database then we write the address of the database not the full (long) address of the individual item. If we need to take information from an article on the internet whose author is anonymous, then our citation on the bibliography page starts with the name of the source, that is, with the name of the website from which we retrieved the information. The sequence is as follows: Name of the website, year of creation/ update of webpage. Title of article. Available from: URL [date of access]. Nstle, 2008. Creating Shared Value: Environment. Available from: www.nestle.com/SharedValueCSR/Environment/Introduction/Introduction.htm [Accessed 16 August 2008]. In the next page there is an example of how a References page/ Bibliography page should look like. Do not forget that a Bibliography/ References page begins always on a separate page in our assignments.

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References

Abbott, A., 1988. System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Andresen, L., ed., 1994. Strategies for assessing students. Birmingham: SCED. Apollo Enterprises, 1993. Annual Report , 8. Bank of England, 2003. Quarterly Report on Small Business Statistics. London: Bank of England. Better Business Bureau, 2001. Third-party assurance boosts online purchasing. Available from: http://bbbonline.org/about/press/2001/101701.asp [Accessed 7 January 2002]. Bourdieu, P., 1977. The forms of capital. In Richardson, J. G., ed. Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education. New York: Greenwood Press, 311-356. Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), 2002. White Paper on Enterprise, Skills and Innovation. London: DTI. Ernst and Ernst, 1978. Social Responsibility Disclosure: 1978 Survey. Cleveland: Ernst and Ernst. European Commission, 1998. Fostering Entrepreneurship in Europe: Priorities for the Future. Brussels: European Commission. Guthrie, J. and Parker, L., 1997. Editorial: celebration, reflection and a future: a decade of AAAJ. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 10, 3-15. Hounsome, I. W., 2001. Factors affecting the design and performance of flexible ducts in trench reinstatements. Thesis, (Ph. D). Napier University. Leeds Metropolitan University, 2002. Business Start-Up@Leeds Met. Available from: www.lmu.ac.uk/city/bus_startup.htm [Accessed 22 March 2002]. Marsh, D. T., 2000. Anguished voices: impact of mental illness on siblings and children. Innovations and research, 2 (22), 24-25. Munro, F. A., et al., 2000. Counselling: a skills approach. 3rd ed. New Zealand: Methuen Publications. Silverman, D.F. and Propp, K., eds., 1990. The active interview. Beverly Hills: Sage.

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