POLS1009 Chap.12 Sources, Citation and Academic Integrity
Sources, Citation and Academic Integrity
This chapter covers the part of the course that deals with other people's work: how to find it, how to judge it, how to bring it into your own writing and how to stay inside the University's integrity rules. It begins with the two purposes of a citation and the kinds of material that need one, from definitions and theories to datasets and survey instruments, with common knowledge judged by your intended audience.
Four sourcing habits that blur your own argument are then paired with practical repairs. A sliding scale of rigour separates general, secondary and primary academic sources and explains what each can safely support, with tips for finding material and confirming that it was peer reviewed. The chapter models quotation, paraphrase and summary on one invented report and shows why a reference alone does not excuse copied wording.
It closes with one-line versions of the integrity definitions, the line between poor academic practice and misconduct, and the rule that generative AI use depends on each task and must be acknowledged where allowed.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Two reasons to cite and what counts as common knowledge
- 02
Back-to-back citations, stacking, poor weighting and lazy sourcing
- 03
General, secondary and primary academic sources on a scale of rigour
- 04
Finding sources and checking that they were peer reviewed
- 05
Quoting, paraphrasing and summarising, from narrow to broad
- 06
Plagiarism, collusion, fabrication and recycling
- 07
Poor academic practice versus academic misconduct
- 08
Generative AI permissions and acknowledgement
Worked example · free
Placing five sources on the sliding scale of rigour
- 1General sources. The wiki entry and the campaigner's thread sit at the low-rigour end, because anyone can post them; use them only to find leads, then trace each fact to something firmer.
- 1Secondary source. The newspaper feature is lightly checked journalism; its quotes from teenage voters make good illustrations but cannot carry a causal claim.
- 1Primary academic, peer reviewed. The refereed comparison of municipalities has survived expert scrutiny and should anchor the main argument about turnout.
- 1Primary academic, reputation based. The statistics agency release counts because the agency would lose credibility by misleading readers; it supplies enrolment figures.
- 1Weighting. Build the argument on the article and the agency data, add the feature for colour, and cite neither general source in the final draft unless nothing better exists.
Key terms
- Primary academic source
- A source at the high-rigour end of the scale, either peer reviewed, such as a refereed article or scholarly book, or published by a body like a government agency whose reputation depends on accuracy.
- Paraphrasing
- Restating and condensing a longer passage of a source in your own words while still citing it, a middle step between an exact quotation and a broad summary.
- Plagiarism
- Presenting another person's words, ideas or scholarship without proper acknowledgement, which includes using their exact wording without quotation marks even when a reference is given.
- Collusion
- Academic dishonesty involving more than one person, in which all participants are treated as in breach; it differs from collaboration, which is legitimately shared work.
- Recycling
- Submitting work that was already presented for another assessment, here or at another institution, which breaches the rules even though the work is your own unless reuse is expressly allowed.
Sources, Citation and Academic Integrity FAQ
Do I need to cite something everyone already knows?
Not if it is common knowledge for the readers you are writing for. A political science audience may accept a widely known fact without a reference that a general audience would need sourced. The test depends on audience, so when you are unsure, the lecture's advice is simply to ask rather than guess.
Can I use Wikipedia in a university essay?
Treat it as a place to begin rather than as evidence. Anyone can edit a general source, so follow its references to the primary or secondary work behind a claim, check that work, and cite that instead. Information you cannot trace back to a more rigorous source should not carry weight in your argument.
What is the difference between paraphrasing and summarising?
A paraphrase condenses one larger section of a single text in your own words and sentence structure. A summary is broader still: it captures the gist of an idea entirely in your own words and often blends several authors, which is why a summary sentence may carry two or three citations together.
Is reusing my own old essay plagiarism?
It is recycling, which is a separate breach. The University's rule says that work largely presented before, whether at this university or elsewhere, cannot be submitted again unless the lecturer specifically allows it. Being the author does not change that, so ask before reusing any earlier assignment material.
Can I use generative AI for my assignments?
Only where the course and the particular task permit it, because the rules are set assessment by assessment. Check each set of instructions, ask if they are unclear, and where use is allowed, state how you used the tool. Undisclosed use, or passing off generated text as your own, counts as an integrity breach.
Exam move
Turn this chapter into checks you run on your own drafts. Take a recent piece of writing and mark every citation as general, secondary or primary academic, then ask whether your main claims rest on the right end of the scale. Read each paragraph for the four sourcing problems: does your own point appear, are sources synthesised rather than queued, and is the weight spread across the list?
Practise writing one quotation, one paraphrase and one summary from a reading you already know. Finally, learn each of the five integrity terms well enough to classify a short scenario, since distinguishing recycling, collusion and plagiarism is a matter of who did what, and with whose work.
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