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CHAPTER 3: Ethical Issues in the Conduct of Psychological Research 83Key Conceptstudents undeserved author credit may falsely represent the student’s expertise,give the student an unfair advantage over peers, and, perhaps, lead othersto create impossible expectations for the student. These authors recommendthat faculty and students collaborate in the process of determining authorshipcredit and discuss early in the project what level of participation warrantsauthor credit. Due to differences in faculty–student power and position, thefaculty member should initiate discussions regarding authorship credit forstudent contributors (see Behnke, 2003).A rather troublesome area of concern in the reporting of research, not only forsome professionals but frequently for students, is plagiarism. Again, the ethicalstandard seems clear enough: Don’t present substantial portions or elements ofanother’s work as your own. But what constitutes “substantial portions or elements,”and how does one avoid giving the impression that another’s work isone’s own? Making these decisions can be like walking a tightrope. On one side isthe personal goal of being recognized for making a scholarly contribution; on theother side is the ethical obligation to recognize the previous contributions othershave made. The fact that both professionals and students commit acts of plagiarismsuggests that many people too often veer from the tightrope by seeking theirown recognition instead of giving due credit to the work of others.Sometimes acts of plagiarism result from sloppiness (failing to double-checka source to verify that an idea did not originate with someone else, for example).Errors of this kind are still plagiarism; ignorance is not a legitimate excuse.Mistakes can be made all too easily. For example, researchers (and students)occasionally ask “how much” of a passage can be used without putting it inquotation marks or otherwise identifying its source. A substantial element canbe a single word or short phrase if that element serves to identify a key ideaor concept that is the result of another’s thinking. Because there is no clearguideline for how much material constitutes a substantial element of a work,students must be particularly careful when referring to the work of others. Attimes, especially among students, plagiarism can result from failure to use quotationmarks around passages taken directly from a source. Whenever materialis taken directly from a source, it must be placed in quotation marks and the sourcemust be properly identified. It is also important to cite the source of material youinclude in your paper when you paraphrase (i.e., reword) the material. Theethical principle is that you must cite the sources of your ideas when you use the exactwords and when you paraphrase. See Table 3.1 for examples of correct and incorrectcitations.Plagiarism also occurs when individuals fail to acknowledge secondarysources. A secondary source is one that discusses other (original) work. Secondarysources include textbooks and published reviews of research such asthose that appear in scientific journals like the Psychological Bulletin. Whenyour only source for an idea or findings comes from a secondary source, it isalways unethical to report that information in a way that suggests you consultedthe original work. It is far better to try to locate and read the original sourcerather than citing a secondary source. If that is not possible, you must informthe reader that you did not read the original source by using a phrase like“as cited in . . .” when referring to the original work. By citing the secondary