If you have obtained interesting results in your master’s thesis, your supervisor might suggest that you “make a paper” about it. But his thesis is much longer than an article could be. So how do you condense it and how do you decide what to leave out?
Here are my tips:
When is it okay to recycle your own work?
Reusing your own work is only acceptable when (1) it is necessary for your article; and/or (2) you have clearly identified or cited your prior work in the text. You can translate a published article in your native language into English to make it available to the international scientific community. But you can’t pretend it hasn’t been released before.
This means, for example, that you cannot count the two versions as separate articles in your publication list. You may also need to use published materials when writing or editing a book or contributing a chapter to a book on a topic you have been working on for some time. Again, this is not a problem if you cite all sources correctly and tell the editor/publisher which parts are new and original and which parts are taken from the original (perhaps even unpublished) work. Also, be sure to talk to everyone involved in any work you plan to reuse and get their permission first.
Why is plagiarism bad?
Although self-plagiarism may not be considered as serious as plagiarizing someone else’s work, it is still a form of academic dishonesty and can have the same consequences as other forms of plagiarism. Self-plagiarism:
- Demonstrating a lack of interest in creating new work
- This may constitute copyright infringement if you reuse a published work
- It means you are not making a new and original contribution to knowledge
- Damage to academic integrity, because you misrepresent your research
Use quotation marks
Use quotation marks to indicate that text has been extracted from another document. Words must be exactly as they appear on the document from which you take them.
- The best way to avoid plagiarism misconduct is to self-check your documents using plagiarism checking tools.
- Any word or idea that is not yours but taken from another article must be cited.
- Cite your own material – If you use material from your previous article, you must cite yourself. Using material you’ve already published without citation is called self-plagiarism.
- The scientific evidence you have gathered after doing your experiments should not be mentioned.
- It is not necessary to cite facts or common knowledge. If you are not sure, enter a reference.
How to avoid self-plagiarism
It is very easy to avoid self-plagiarism if you follow a few simple rules:
- Do not copy and paste text from a previous essay into a new one. If you have to go back to the same ideas, find a new way to express them.
- If you use ideas from an earlier essay, acknowledge them (for example, add a footnote “quoting” your earlier essay, even if it’s not a formal citation).
- Ask your course supervisor or tutor if you are not sure if you can reuse something from a previous test.
- If you want to publish part of your thesis or dissertation, make sure that your university and the journal you are applying to allow it.
- If you have published research somewhere, please check who owns the copyright before submitting a similar article elsewhere. And if you’re citing work that you’ve published elsewhere, be sure to state that clearly.
Check websites for self-plagiarism guidelines . You can also refer to your style guide for tips on citing previous work.