Write a Unique Academic Paper and Avoid Self-plagiarism

Though the notion of stealing ideas from yourself may seem utterly ridiculous self-plagiarism is a quite widespread phenomenon. It implies that a person reuses their own ideas from previously written and published scientific publications.

Technically, it cannot be considered stealing, but it may have a negative impact on the writer’s reputation and credibility. In case you didn’t know, one smart way of fighting self-plagiarism is using plagiarism checking programs or asking “fix my essay” services for help.

To avoid any potential problems with your future publications, you should abandon the vicious practice of recycling your own works and concentrate more on creating original content. Fortunately, it is very simple. Today, we will discuss tips for avoiding self-plagiarism in your academic works.

Review Your Notes

While writing an academic paper, avoid copy-pasting from your recent writings. This is one of the most frequent mistakes students make. Of course, you can rewrite some parts of the text, but an experienced lecturer can easily detect them. Even if your recycled paper is perfect, there is always a risk of you being accused of reusing your previous works.

Try using the notes that you made while working on your previous papers. They can help you remember the main ideas and improve on them without citing yourself. The best part is that the majority of students create better content if they work with the same topic for the second time.

Cite Yourself

In case you cannot explain the material better than you already did, just cite yourself. You can use phrases like “As it was previously discussed in …” or “the best explanation for this phenomenon can be found in my previous work.”

Citing yourself helps avoid self-plagiarism because it is considered an ordinary citation. But do not use quotes too often! A vast majority of scholars tend to overfill their scientific works with self-citations, which can negatively reflect on their ratings in academic databases.

Talk to Your Professor

Sometimes, professors allow their students to develop their ideas by referring the reader to the list of works cited. It directly depends on the policy of a particular university. Thus, make sure you can cite yourself without the risk of facing negative consequences.

If you are allowed to, you can investigate the major citation formats your university requires you to adhere to. Use Scribbr.com to learn about the main types of citations in scientific papers.

Develop Your Ideas

If you recycle your old ideas, make sure you augment them with a totally new concept. It can be done in several ways.

Firstly, you can amend your findings. Try finding any other possible solutions to the problem you investigated. For example, if you have written about innovations in IT, amend your thesis by including information about cryptocurrencies and NFC.

Secondly, you can use your previous works as a background for new research. For example, you can conduct research into trends that emerge every year.

You can also incorporate your work into a paper written by another researcher. However, you should ask for their permission first. Collaboration is a good thing both for developing your own ideas and widening your horizons.

Use Plagiarism Checkers

First of all, find out more about different types of plagiarism and ways of avoiding them (for more info, visit Scbirr.com). Having this knowledge will let you write a text from scratch without the fear of making a mistake.

You can also use online plagiarism checkers (Content Watch or Advego.com), but do keep in mind that they only consider your paper original if it has a uniqueness level of at least 80%.

Find New Information Sources

As you research the topic, you collect a list of frequently used sources to support your ideas. Using the same books all the time can play a dirty trick on you — you can get stuck with redundant information.

Try searching for new texts. It will not only help you have a fresh look at your previous research but also expand the list of your sources. Are you using online libraries, such as Google Scholar and Index Copernicus?

Why not visit an ordinary library? Some of the books in them are quite rare and not digitized yet. However, it does not necessarily mean that they are less informative. Keep expanding the list of information sources to unleash the full potential of all available text repositories.

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