The Rensselaer Libraries provide guidance and support to faculty and students who are conducting and disseminating research. The Libraries' staff also includes information professionals who are knowledgeable regarding copyright and citation management and are available to assist you with your project at any stage of the research process. Request a research consultation for assistance.
What is Copyright?
Copyright is a type of intellectual property that protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression. In copyright law, there are a lot of different types of works, including paintings, photographs, illustrations, musical compositions, sound recordings, computer programs, books, poems, blog posts, movies, architectural works, plays, and so much more! Copyright law of the United States is contained in Title 17
What is Fair Use?
The Fair Use doctrine is part of copyright law that allows for limited use of copyrighted materials without having to gain permission from the copyright holder. This doctrine is explained in 17 US Code § 107 – Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use.
Copyright Resources
Creative Commons licenses give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law. From the reuser’s perspective, the presence of a Creative Commons license on a copyrighted work answers the question, What can I do with this work?
There are six different license types with varying levels of permission. You can view these licenses here: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/cclicenses/
Creative Commons also has a License Chooser that will give you options for CC licenses by answering a few questions: https://chooser-beta.creativecommons.org/
What is Plagiarism ?
Plagiarism is passing another’s work off as your own and is an ethical and often institutional policy offense.
The Handbook of Student Rights and Responsibilities outlines Rensselaer's policies on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism.
"Plagiarism is defined as representing the work or words of another as one's own through the omission of acknowledgment or reference. Examples include using sentences verbatim from a published source in a term paper without appropriate referencing, or presenting as one's own the detailed argument of a published source, or presenting as one's own electronically or digitally enhanced graphic representations from any form of media."
Be sure you are giving proper attribution to your sources.
Plagiarism and copyright
Plagiarism is an ethical and institutional policy, permission to use a work is neither necessary nor sufficient to prevent plagiarism.
Copyright is created by federal law and infringement of copyright is the unauthorized use of protected material from a copyrighted work. Attribution (citing) is neither necessary nor sufficient to prevent infringement.
Plagiarism resources
The library provides access to a self-guided information literacy tutorial that includes information about how to avoid plagiarism.
Percipio includes an online course titled Academic Integrity at Rensselaer.
Plagiarism.org is a useful site for information about types of plagiarism, tips on how to avoid plagiarizing material, and how to use various writing and citation resources.
Citation and Style Guides
Many style guides are available online, describing how to correctly format academic papers and cite sources. The library subscribes to select content of the resources listed below, which is noted in parentheses.
We recommend that individuals first consult with their instructor or publisher to determine which style is best suited for their project.
- ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication (Access provided through library subscription)
- AIP Style Manual
- AMA Manual of Style
- APA Style
- APA Style Guide to Electronic References
- Chicago Manual of Style Online (Access provided through library subscription)
- Scientific style and format : the CSE manual for authors, editors, and publishers
- Turabian Citation Style
Numerous other style manuals can be found in the library's collection. Print versions of some of the above guides can be found by searching in the Libraries' Catalog under the relevant title, such as The MLA Style Guide, The AIP Style Manual, etc.
There are numerous citation management tools from which to choose. While we do not promote the use of one over the other, popular tools include the following:
- Mendeley Reference Manager is an Elsevier product. It is entirely cloud-based, and its free plan includes up to 2GB of personal library space. Customer support is free to the RPI community through our subscription to Scopus. Elsevier maintains an online guide to help you get started.
- Zotero is a free, open-source research tool that allows its users to store their personal library locally with no space limitations. Optionally, up to 300MB of cloud storage is provided for free. While the library does not provide support for using Zotero, there is plenty of information available online, including Zotero's own documentation page.
- EndNote is a Clarivate product, which you can purchase and download from their website; student discounts are available. RPI does not offer a site license or support for using EndNote.
There are pros and cons to all citation management tools. We encourage you to do your own research and ask your professors and fellow researchers for more information before choosing one.
