This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Smsarmad (talk | contribs) at 16:57, 7 September 2012 (Welcome). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 16:57, 7 September 2012 by Smsarmad (talk | contribs) (Welcome)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Avoiding copyright problems
Hello, and welcome. While we appreciate your contributing to Misplaced Pages, there are certain things you must keep in mind about using information from your sources to avoid copyright or plagiarism issues here.
- You can only copy/translate a small amount of a source, and you must mark what you take as a direct quotation with double quotation marks (") and a cited source. You can read about this at Misplaced Pages:Non-free content in the sections on "text". See also Misplaced Pages:Referencing for beginners, for how to cite sources here.
- Aside from limited quotation, you must put all information in your own words and structure, in proper paraphrase. Following the source's words too closely can create copyright problems, so it is not permitted here; see Misplaced Pages:Close paraphrasing. (There is a college level introduction to paraphrase, with examples, hosted by the Online Writing Lab of Purdue.) Even when using your own words, you are still, however, asked to cite your sources to verify information and to demonstrate that the content is not original research.
- Our primary policy on using copyrighted content is Misplaced Pages:Copyrights. You may also want to review Misplaced Pages:Copy-paste.
- In very rare cases (that is, for sources that are public domain or compatibly licensed), it may be possible to include greater portions of a source text. However, please seek help at the help desk before adding such content to the article. 99.9% of sources may not be added in this way, so it is necessary to seek confirmation first. If you do confirm that a source is public domain or compatibly licensed, you will still need to provide full attribution; see Misplaced Pages:Plagiarism for the steps you need to follow.
- Also note that Misplaced Pages articles may not be copied without attribution. If you want to copy from another Misplaced Pages project or article, you can, but please follow the steps in Misplaced Pages:Copying within Misplaced Pages.
It's very important that contributors understand and follow these practices, as policy requires that people who persistently do not must be blocked from editing. If you have any questions about this, you are welcome to visit me at my talk page. Thank you. --SMS 16:57, 7 September 2012 (UTC)