Stop by the Reference desk on the Main Level of the Library
Call: 206-281-2419
Email: reference@spu.edu
After completing this tutorial you will
Copyright is the legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work. (American Heritage Dictionary, 4th ed.)
So if you made it, only you can legally produce it and profit from it — whether it's a book, poem, song, photograph, or other creative work. And as soon as you make your creative work, you automatically have copyright of it. You don't have to do anything.
When someone has made a creative work that you want to use in your own work, you need to correctly cite it.
The five main categories of material are:
Of those five categories, the first two - your original thoughts and common knowledge - do not need to be cited. The final three categories - quotations, interpreted facts, and paraphrases - should always be cited.
Citation Styles - 4:11 minutes
Different disciplines follow different rules when citing the work of others correctly. These sets of rules are called citation styles. Each uses the same information about the source, but the information is presented in a different order, depending on the citation style.
Your professor will tell you which citation style to use for your papers, either in the syllabus or in the assignment itself.
This video shows Ronald White’s A. Lincoln: A Biography in different citation formats.
Below are some websites related to information ethics that you may want to visit.
Copyright and Use:
Avoiding Plagiarism:
Citation and Style Manuals Online: