The legal and ethical issues surrounding the use of information goes beyond properly citing sources and avoiding plagiarism. Researchers should be knowledgeable about issues related to privacy and security, censorship and freedom of speech, as well as have an understanding of intellectual property, copyright, and fair use.
There are programs that helps educators check students’ work for proper citation or possible plagiarism by comparing it against continually updated content bases: billions of pages of web content, plus hundreds of millions of pages of proprietary content from subscription-based publications, and over 80 million student papers previously submitted to these programs.
Be aware that your teacher may choose to use these services.
At the senior level of high school and in university you are expected to research widely and build your knowledge on the expertise of others.
Referencing acknowledges the sources used to develop your ideas, and may include words, images, video, audio, statistics, or websites.
Quality information strengthens your arguments and adds credibility.
Referencing enables you, and your readers, to locate your sources and helps to avoid plagiarism.
A roadmap to referencing using the Harvard Style can be found here.
This is a complex issue. A YouTube clip relating to this topic can be found here.
