Journals Part 2: Primary Sources, Plagiarism,

and Paper Mills ANSWERS

My Name: Alisa Kohinova

Learning Objectives: By the end of this activity the students should be able to:
 Compare and Contrast scholarly vs popular
 List situations when citation or documentation is necessary
 List situations when citation or documentation is unnecessary
 Define the problems around paper mills and how to stop them
 List various types of referencing systems

Instructions:
1. Read and watch the material on e-learning from our last class (A, B, C, or D)
2. Complete the questions below in a group.
3. Submit the completed document individually.

Questions around the website called “Primary & Secondary Sources” from the Ithaca College Library
1. Pick your four favorite (or most surprising) examples of primary sources:
 art objects
 statistical data
 pieces of creative writing
 eyewitness accounts
a. Based on our first reading in our very first class, Academic Genres, under which of the five Academic
Genre categories would a primary source fall under? Serials
2. Pick your four favorite (or most surprising) verbs that describe what a secondary source might do to a primary
source: describe, interpret, comment upon, summarize
a. Based on our first reading in our very first class, Academic Genres, under which of the five Academic
Genre categories would a primary source fall under? Serials
3. Click down to the “Examples” at the bottom of this website and give one (your favorite or most surprising)
example of a primary source from a peer-reviewed journal and the corresponding secondary source.
a) Primary: Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
b) Secondary: An article in Parents Magazine discussing experts’ views on the harm of lying to children about
Santa Claus

Questions around the video “Popular Magazines vs. Scholarly Journals” from the University of Detroit Mercy

4. What question is this video trying to answer? How can you tell if an article or journal is scholarly?

Fill in the following chart comparing Scholarly Journals to Popular Magazines

Popular Magazines & Periodicals Scholarly Journals

Examples Prevention Magazine, The Atlantic Science, Nature, New England
Monthly, Time, Newsweek, Journal of Medicine, Journal of
National Geographic, U.S. News & Politics, Philosophical Quarterly,
World Report, The Economist Human Biology
Distribution Newstand or Grocery Store Directly from the Publisher
Purpose  Disseminate knowledge  Entertainment
 Money
Audience  General public 1. Scholars
2. Researchers
3. Students
Content 1. Articles are short 1. Articles are lengthy
 2. Actual research study 2. Summarizes research
3. No abstract 3. Usually include an abstract
4. Secondary source 4. Primary source

Authors  Journalist  Scholar or subject expert

 May or may not have subject  Credentials listed (like PhD,
expertise affiliation with a university, or a
short biography)
Language  Easy to understand  Specialized terminology
Eg. Heart attack (Jargon)
Eg. Myocardial Infarction
Reliability  Evaluated by editorial stuff  Reviewed by subject experts
 Not Edited for Content  Edited for Content
References  Usually now  Lots of references

Graphics  Many advertisements (up to  Few photos and ads

half!)  Numbered charts and diagrams
 Colorful glossy pictures ´
 Boring looking

Questions around “Is It Plagiarism Yet” from Purdue University in Indianna, USA

5. What are the three actions that are unquestionably plagiarism?

a. Coping a large section of a text
b. Buying, stealing or borrowing a paper
c. Hiring someone to write your paper
6. Give an example of a gray area:
Using the words if the source closely while paraphrasing

7. What is the key to avoiding plagiarism?

First deciding if this information is common knowledge and if your not sure just cite

8. What needs to be credited or documented?

a. Words or ideas presented in a magazine book, newspaper, song, TV program, movie, website
computer program, letter, advertisement, or any other medium
b. Information you gain through interviewing or conversing with another person face to face, over the
phone, or in writing
c. When you copy the exact words or a unique phrase
d. When you reprint any diagrams, illustrations, charts. Pictures or other visual materials
e. When you reuse or repost any digital media, including images, audio, video or other media
9. What are the things that do NOT need documentation (citation) or credit?
a. Writing your own lived experiences, your own observations an insights, your own thoughts, and
your own conclusions about a subject
b. When you are writing your own results obtained trough lab or field experiments
c. When you use your own when ou use your own artwork, digital forographs, video, audio etc.
d. When you are using “common knowledge” – things like folklore, common sense observations,
myths, urban legends, and historical events (but not historical documents)
e. When you are using generally -acceptet facts including facts that are accepted within particular
discourse communities
10. How can you tell if something is common knowledge?
If you find the information at least five times undocumented in credible sources.
11. When in doubt, what should you do?
Cite if it was unnecessary somebody will tell you.

Questions around "Should I Cite?” flowchart (available in today's class of e-learning) from Purdue University in
Indianna, USA
12. Within the flowchart, is the question "Have you published this info before?". Who is the "you" referred to in
this question?
To the person who is writing something and not sure if the information should be cited
13. Is it possible to plagiarize from your own self?
Yes if you use the exact words again they you should cite yourself
14. What is an antonym for "credible"?
Incredible, a source which contains information that are not reliable and peer review
15. Use the internet or the link on the lower left hand side of the flowchart, what do the acronyms APA and MLA
stand for?
APA: = American Psychological Association; means you should format your writing according to the guidelines
in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th edition.
MLA: Modern language Association; means you should format is a style of crediting sources you use to write a
paper, typically used for research papers
16. Name one other citation style or referencing system (pick your favorite):
There are also Chicago- Style and IEEE. For education and Science there is often used the APA- Style

Questions around "How Not to Plagiarize” website from the University of Toronto (Writing Advice)

17. As an author, how is having a clear set of in-text citations and references a “courtesy to your readers”?
It’s a courtesy to your readers because it helps them consult the material you’ve found. In academic papers,
you need to keep mentioning authors and pages and dates to show how your ideas are related to those of the
experts. So you show directly what is the idea from another person and what is your idea. You can show that
your idea is based on scientifically sound findings.

18. According to the website, mentioning what others have said can add to your credibility as an author. Although
not stated in the article, give at least one reason as to why the website is correct.
It shows the process of how you arrived at your ideas and results. Always showing how you arrived at your
results is crucial for the traceability of the respective research process and therefore part of scientific work.

19. (Yes or No) Can’t I avoid problems just by listing every source in the bibliography?
No, because then the reader does not know who you are referring to in the individual aspects of your text. For
example, it may be that you follow one author's thesis but not another. It is therefore easier to understand if
you state the page number. People may want to read the source again and develop their own ideas based on it.

20. (Yes or No) If I put the ideas into my own words, do I still have to clog up my pages with all those names and
numbers?
Yes, of course, because you're using someone else's idea. If you don't quote that person, then it looks like
you're passing off their ideas as yours. You are showing so that you are referring to others.

21. Why is it, “sensible to use your own words”?

It’s sensible to use your own words because that saves space and lets you connect ideas smoothly.

22. How does the University of Toronto define “common knowledge”?

Facts easily found in standard reference books are considered common knowledge. So some ideas are
“common knowledge” in a specific field—that is, taken for granted by people knowledgeable about the topic.

23. Give two examples of “common knowledge” in the text:

a. the date of the Armistice for World War I
b. the present population of Canada

24. According to the paragraph that starts with the heading “How can I tell what’s my own idea and what has come
from somebody else”, along with careful record-keeping, what should a person taking notes, “make a
deliberate effort” to do?
a. notice connections among ideas, especially contrasts and disagreements
b. jot down questions or thoughts of your own
c. write your own words
 d. Always write down the author, title and publication information
25. List at least two of the various referencing systems given in the examples:
a. APA
b. Harvard Chicago
c. MLA

Questions around "Fake Scientific Papers Are Alarmingly Common” website from Science

The following questions are based on the accreditations and the first seven paragraphs and the graph at the end of
the article.

26. What is the name of the publisher of this article? science

27. What type of article is this? News update
28. When was this article published? 9.3.2023
29. Who is the author of this publication? Jefferey brainard
30. Is the word “shocked” in quotes to show a quote, or is it a scare quote to show irony or a different meaning
from the actual meaning of the word? He expected it

31. What university is Sabel’s alma mater? Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg
32. What is a preprint? Hint: Check the glossary of vocabulary for RR class a paper without peer review
33. What is the name of the journal where Sabel works as the editor-in-chief? Science
34. What words does the article use to define a “paper mill”? secretive businesses that allow researchers to pad
their publication records by paying for fake papers
35. According to the article, the publisher called Hindawi shut down four of its journals. How many journals is one
publisher (private company) allowed to own?
36. What do paper mills churn out that is “partly or wholly plagiarized or fabricated”? papers
37. Use your own words to explain the difference between something that is plagiarized vs. something that is
fabricated? Plagiarized is stolen but right, fabricated is wrong

38. According to Joris van Rossum of the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers
(STM), one is one reliable sign of a fake paper? Referencing many redacted papers

39. Is the publisher of Science listed amongst the examples given? yes secretive businesses that allow researchers to
pad their publication records by paying for fake papers secretive businesses that allow researchers to pad their
publication records by paying for fake papers
40. According to the article, it is unethical to send a manuscript to more than one journal. In your opinion, why is
this considered unethical? Because it takes the spot away from other papers
Consider the graph at the bottom of the online article:
41. During what timespan did the survey of papers take place? 2012-2020
42. In what year did the “Not flagged as suspicious” number of papers (gray) reach its peak? Teacher’s note: Sorry,
but I didn’t make this graph!
43. In what year did the “Flagged as possibly suspicious” number of papers (blue) reach its peak? 2016
44. In what year did the “Flagged as highly suspicious” number of papers reach its peak? 2020