Information Packaging

Presentation and Ownership of Information

When citing the works you have used to prepare a paper or other research project, it's important (and ethical) to credit the authors of the information used. Your bibliography should follow a consistant style to make it easy for others to use.

COPYRIGHT BASICS

What is copyright?

• Copyright is protection provided by law to authors (or publishers) of original literary, dramatic, musical, and artistic works, and certain other intellectual works.
• Copyrighted applies to unpublished works as well as published works – just because something is not published does not mean that it can’t be copyrighted.
• Copyright owners generally have the exclusive right (with some exceptions such as “fair use” in educational settings) to reproduce the work, to sell or lease the work, to perform or display the work publicly, and to authorize others to do any of these things.
• Essentially, what copyright does is make sure that creative works are treated as “property,” just like land or stock in a company. By granting authors (or publishers) exclusive “rights” to sell, lease, perform, and display their intellectual creations, copyright law guarantees that authors are the only ones allowed to profit from their work. Within the ideology of free market capitalism, this right provides authors with the incentive to create. If they did not have the profit incentive, the argument goes, they would be much less likely to write, paint, sculpt, record music, etc.

How does copyright work?

• An author’s copyright exists from the moment the work is created in fixed form. If you go home today and write a short story or paint a picture, as soon as the story or the painting is finished, you own the copyright. This is true whether or not you ever register your copyright. This is also true whether or not you are a U.S. citizen or whether you created the work in the United States or abroad.
• However, If your work is published, in order to receive copyright protection, you must either be a citizen or resident of the U.S. or a country which has signed a treaty with the U.S. with regard to copyright; or your work must have been published in the U.S. or a country which has signed a treaty with the U.S. with regard to copyright.
• Copyright protection for works created after 1977 lasts for 70 years after the death of the author.

What is protected by copyrighted?

• Copyrightable works include literary works; musical works including any accompanying words; dramatic works including any accompanying music; pantomimes and choreographic works; pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; motion pictures and other audiovisual works; sound recordings; and architectural works.
• The above categories should be viewed broadly. For example, computer programs and most “compilations” may be registered as literary works; maps and architectural plans may be registered as pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.

What is not protected by copyright?

• Works that have not been fixed in a tangible form, for example choreographic works that have not been notated or recorded or improvisational speeches or performances that have not been written or recorded.
• Titles, names, short phrases, and slogans; familiar symbols or designs (e.g. a stop sign); variations of typographic ornamentation; listings of ingredients or contents.
• Ideas, procedures, methods, systems, processes, concepts, principles, discoveries, or devices, as distinguished from a description, explanation, or illustration.
• Works consisting entirely of information that is common property and containing no original authorship, for example calendars, height and weight charts, measurements, etc.

Along these lines, we can see that a cookbook could be copyrighted, because it is a unique compilation, but the recipes in it could not, as they consist of lists of ingredients and procedures.
 

How is copyright enforced?

• Copyright is not policed by the government — it is up to the copyright holder to defend him or herself from infringement. This is typically done by filing a lawsuit against whomever you think is violating your copyright.
• While publication and registration are not necessary to secure copyright protection for a work, the main advantage to registration and including a notice of copyright on your work (for example       © 2000 John Doe) is that registration is required in order to take to court a lawsuit against someone who has infringed your copyright.
• Registration entails filling out a form and sending a $30 fee plus a copy of your work to the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress.

Copyright in the digital environment

The Internet offers an unprecedented opportunity for people to (illegally) share copyrighted “intellectual property.” With the Internet, copyright holders face the same issues in defending their copyrights that they do with photocopiers, tape recorders, VCR’s, and CD burners, but on a much larger scale. There is a difference in magnitude between copying a CD for a friend and posting an MP3 on the Web for anyone to download.

With a growing amount of information (text, music, video) in digitized form, we are already seeing a shift from the concept of “ownership” to the concept of “access.” Copyright holders (publishers, record companies, etc.) are experimenting with charging information users “per-use” or for a specific time period instead of for indefinite rights to the information.

For example, instead of a buying a CD, in the future you might pay each time you listen to a particular song. Think “pay-per-view” movies applied to music. In libraries, this is already happening: instead of a library buying a book or database in printed or electronic form and sharing it with library users for years to come, libraries are paying annual subscriptions to access specific information. If they stop paying, all access to the information, even the older information, is lost. Will this ultimately limit access to information? Will it increase the gap between “information have’s and have-not’s”?

If it is indeed true that copyright once performed the function of increasing the output of creative works by ensuring the author exclusive rights to profit from the work, is this still the case? Given the huge amount of their own creative work and useful information that individuals make available for free on the Internet (for example freeware, MP3’s that haven’t been released by a record company, creative and scholarly writing), are copyright laws really necessary after all to provide an incentive for people to create and share their work? Do copyright laws, especially revisions of the copyright laws that apply to digital information, limit the sharing of information to the point of stifling creativity? Does the very concept of “intellectual property” and the limits on access to information that it implies now hold back the further development of human society?

AUTHORSHIP AND PLAGIARISM

Author

What is an “author”? What does it mean to “author” something?

An author is…

• the person who originates or gives existence to anything.
• one who sets forth written statements, a composer or writer. — The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed, 1989.

• one who originates or creates.
• the writer of a literary work (as a book).— Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary <http://www.m-w.com/>

…The word “author” is related to the word “authority”…

In our society, we have a very individual notion of authorship, in all senses of the word. For example, we usually think of events in history as caused by the deeds of great individuals, as opposed to being caused by complex processes and groups of people acting collectively. We think of our ideas, writings, and inventions as coming from our minds alone—we believe that we, as individuals, are solely responsible for them. We conceive of our ideas as possessions that belong to us. We give little acknowledgement to the social context of our ideas—to the fact that we speak, think, and create only in the process of communication with others, through interaction with each other in an environment in which ideas and concepts float freely all around us.

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the act of…

• stealing or passing off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own.
• using (another’s production) without crediting the source.
• committing literary theft: presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source.— Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary <http://www.m-w.com/>

Why is it important to cite your sources when writing?

To avoid punishment, as the penalties for plagiarism are severe.

Perhaps this is the reason that most of us cite our sources. In our community and our culture, plagiarism is taken very seriously.

For example, at URI, in cases of plagiarism, instructors have the right to fail a student on the assignment in question. If the violation is severe, the instructor’s dean can authorize the instructor to fail the student in the course. Judicial action can also be taken, which, if the student is found guilty, can result in penalties as severe as disciplinary probation, suspension, or dismissal from the University.

Citing sources is also important in the “real world.” “Careers and reputations have been damaged by findings of plagiarism. Journalists have been fired from the [Chicago] Sun-Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Nashville Tennessean. A Harvard psychiatrist resigned after a finding of plagiarism against him. Art Buchwald sued Paramount Pictures (and won) over the idea for the plot of Coming to America.” (Source: University of Michigan Libraries, “Plagiarism,” 1998. Available: http://www.lib.umich.edu/libhome/handouts/plagiar.pdf)

To “give credit where credit is due”. To acknowledge another person’s “hard work”.

This is related to our ideas about authorship and the individual discussed above. We feel that if an idea “belongs” to someone, if it is “theirs”, they should get the recognition for having come up with it.

It is interesting to note, however, that not all cultures share our views on this. For example, students from non-Western countries who come to study in the United States are sometimes accused of not doing their own work when they help one another with assignments and tests. They have been brought up to work more collaboratively than we have been. They have no idea that they’re doing anything “wrong”.

As the author of one study comparing the attitudes of American and Israeli students to cheating wrote, “The issue of exams, competition, and right answers, as opposed to cooperation, understanding, and thinking, must be raised. Even in this study it is possible to interpret reports of copying from others and giving answers as ‘cooperative’ behaviors.” (Source: Enker, Myrna S. “Attitudinal and Normative Variables as Predictors of Cheating Behavior.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 18, no. 3 (Sept. 1987): 315-330.)

So you or others can find again the sources of information you used.

Sometimes, you will need to return to one of your sources, or someone reading your paper will want to consult a source that you listed. If you don’t properly cite your sources, it can be very difficult and time-consuming to track them down all over again.

To add support to your conclusions and credibility to your assumptions.

Quality citations show that your arguments and facts are based on careful research. Therefore, what you have to say will carry more weight.
 To be able to trace ideas and pursue a particular line of thought.

In my opinion, this is the most important reason to cite the sources of information you use. Academic research tends to draw heavily on the work of previous scholars and researchers. When we write, we place ourselves within a tradition of research on our topic. We explain how we agree and disagree with what others who have studied the topic before us have said.

Precise, formal documentation is essential if others are to be able to follow us down the path of knowledge. Our list of references is more than just a list of sources to which we make reference. It traces the intellectual content and history of our ideas. It allows others to investigate our reasoning in more depth, to pursue the topic further.

Peter Givler, executive director of the Association of American University Presses, makes this argument particularly eloquently in the passage below:

“Consider that basic signifier of academic writing, the lowly footnote, in its most mundane form, the bibliographic citation. As anyone who publishes a scholarly book or article knows, the task of writing such a citation is not to be undertaken in an antic or rebellious mood. Whether the title of a cited article should be in italics or quotation marks, how the names are to be listed in a work of multiple authorship, what style of punctuation is to be used in a footnote and how it differs from a style to be used in a bibliography—all these and many more such details are specified in rules as niggling as they are absolute, and as arbitrary as they may seem inconsequential.

Niggling, certainly, and arbitrary, perhaps, but inconsequential? The rules impose consistency, and consistency insures that the threads connecting a scholar’s work to her sources and to the work of other scholars can be followed easily. Such ease of tracking allows a scholar’s work to be evaluated and built upon. In this sense, scholarship—even though it may be best pursued in the solitude of a carrel or study—is always collaborative. It is a quest for the meaning of one’s sources (and sometimes a search for those sources themselves), as well as a conversation with one’s colleagues, living and dead, who have wrestled with similar questions. Bibliographic references provide a stable, clear, and public system of referencing other texts, and thereby of acknowledging one’s sources and the work of one’s peers. Bibliographic citations are the humble pegs that hold together the elaborate edifice of written scholarly communication. Without them, modern scholarship would be, quite literally, unthinkable.”

(Source: Givler, Peter. “Books in Bytes? Not Yet.” Academe, September / October 1999, 62.)

CITING YOUR SOURCES

Elements necessary in any citation:
 

Source: List, Carla. An Introduction to Information Research. Dubuque, Ia.: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., 1998, p. 129.

 BOOK

Turabian
Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

MLA
Taylor, Charles. The Ethics of Authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.

APA
Taylor, C. (1992). The ethics of authenticity. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

JOURNAL ARTICLE

Turabian
Donohue, Kathleen G. “What Gender is the Consumer?: The Role of Gender Connotations in Defining the Political.” Journal of American Studies 33, no. 1 (April 1999): 19-44.

MLA
Donohue, Kathleen. “What Gender is the Consumer?: The Role of Gender Connotations in Defining the Political.” Journal of American Studies 33.1 (1999): 19-44.

APA
Donohue, K. (1999). What gender is the consumer? The role of gender connotations in defining the political. Journal of American Studies, 33 (1), 19-44.
 

MAGAZINE ARTICLE

Turabian
Bozza, Anthony. “Slipknot: Rage Against Everything.” Rolling Stone, 6-20 July 2000, 74.

MLA
Bozza, Anthony. “Slipknot: Rage Against Everything.” Rolling Stone 6-20 July 2000: 74+.

APA
Bozza, A. (2000, July 6-20). Slipknot: rage against everything. Rolling Stone, 844/845, 74-78, 105.
 

ARTICLE ACCESSED ONLINE

Turabian
There is no specified format for citing a web site using Turabian format. However, it is standard practice to include, in addition to the article information, the name of the database supplier, the date you accessed the article, and the URL of the database supplier.

MLA
Bozza, Anthony. “Slipknot: Rage Against Everything.” Rolling Stone 6-20 July 2000: 74. ProQuest Direct. 27 Nov. 2000. <http://proquest.umi.com>.

APA
Bozza, A. (2000). Slipknot: rage against everything. Rolling Stone 844/845, 74+. Retrieved November 27, 2000, from ProQuest Direct on-line database (Research Library) on the World Wide Web: http://proquest.umi.com

WEB SITE

Turabian
There is no specified format for citing a web site using Turabian format. However, it is standard practice to include the title of the document/site, the author or responsible party, the publisher of the site (if different from the author of the page), the date the page was last updated, the date you accessed the page, and the URL.

MLA
King, Martin Luther, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University. 2000. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University. 27 November 2000 <http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/index.htm>

APA
King, M. L., Jr. (1963, April 16). Letter from Birmingham Jail. Stanford, CA: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project at Stanford University. Retrieved November 27, 2000, from the World Wide Web: http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/frequentdocs/
birmingham.html

For more information, see:

Turabian
Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. Sixth edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. Available at the URI Library Reference Desk.

MLA
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 2nd ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1998. Available at the URI Library Reference Desk.

Bibliography Styles Handbook: MLA Format. Sep. 1999. Writers’ Workshop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 27 Nov. 2000 <http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/
bibliography/mla/mlamenu.htm>

APA
American Psychological Association. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association. 4th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association, 1994. Available at the Reference Desk

Electronic reference formats recommended by the American Psychological Association. (2000, August 22). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association. Retrieved November 27, 2000, from the World Wide Web: http://www.apa.org/journals/webref.html

Writers’ Workshop, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. (1999, September 21). Bibliography styles handbook: APA format. Urbana-Champaign: Author. Retrieved November 27, 2000 from the World Wide Web http://www.english.uiuc.edu/cws/wworkshop/
bibliography/apa/apamenu.htm

MLA & APA
Li, Xia and Nancy B. Crane. Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information. Medford, N.J.: Information Today, 1996. Available at the Reference Desk.

This course was developed by Joanna Burkhardt, Mary MacDonald  and Andrée Rathemacher and was adapted for online use by Jim Kinnie as part of the URI Libraries Plan for Information Literacy - http://www.uri.edu/library/instruction_services/infolitplan.html

Copyright © 1994-2002. University of Rhode Island. Disclaimer: http://www.uri.edu/home/about/disclaimer.html