Using citations is an essential part of academic writing. A text should always include citations to the printed or electronic resources that have been used as sources such as books, magazines or another student's research plan. Citations must be used:
Using citations allows you to show what your own idea is and what you have cited form others. If your citations are marked unclearly, you are about to commit plagiarism. Plagiarism means the unauthorised copying of another person's text, thoughts or ideas in your own text. Plagiarism is often unintentional and can be avoided when you develop your writing and citing skills.
In the Turku University of Applied Sciences assignments and theses go through a plagiarism-detection software.
As a general rule, materials found on the web are protected by copyright. Copyright applies to text, photographs, videos, and any kind of other materials. Copyright means that the author has the sole right to decide how and where their work is used. Materials under copyright cannot be distributed, copied or altered without the author's permission. Even when you have permission from the author to use the work, you must give credit by stating the name of the original author. If you don't have permission, giving credit is not a way to evade the limitations set by copyright. Quoting a work is allowed without permission.
Copyright protects automatically all created works. The author can attach a copyright symbol © to the work, but copyright applies even if the symbol is not used. Copyright applies even when the author has made the work available for anyone, for example on social media. You cannot use for example the photos on Facebook or on blogs without permission.
There are some cases where copyright does not apply and these materials are free to use. These include:
NOTE: When online you may wander into different pirate sites that have obtained the articles entirely without permission and against copyright law. The library does not recommend using these types of materials, more information in the Guide to Open Access: How to publish open access? - The illegal open access of pirate sites.
With Creative Commons licenses, the creator can specify how other people can use their work. The creator will retain the copyright to the work, but with CC licensing they can grant more use rights to others than what basic copyright would allow.
There are different systems for doing this, but Creative Commons licensing system is the most widely used one. With Creative Commons it is possible to waive all rights or give limited permission to use the work. There are four different conditions (BY, NC, ND, SA) the creator can combine to grant access, which can form six different CC licenses. Apart from the CC0 license, each license includes Attribution (BY), which means credit must always be given to the creator. Based on the license conditions, anyone can use the work without the express permission from the creator.
 Attribution (BY) = Copying, distributing, displaying, performing, and modifying of the work is allowed. Credit must be given to the creator. |
 NonCommercial (NC) = Copying, distributing, displaying, performing and modifying the work is allowed. Commercial use of the work is forbidden. |
 NoDerivatives (ND) = Copying, distributing, displaying and performing of the original work is allowed. Modifying the work is forbidden. |
 ShareAlike (SA) = Copying, distributing, displaying, performing and modifying the work is allowed with the same license as the original work. |
 In addition to these licenses you can use the CC0 "Public Domain" license. Using this license the creator waives all copyright and anyone can use the work without any restrictions. |
The licenses are marked with CC + space + license abbreviation. If more than one license attribute is used, the abbreviations are separated with a hyphen. For example: CC BY-SA 4.0 means Attribution-ShareAlike. The number 4.0 is the license version.
The license is usually marked clearly with a symbol next to the work or at the bottom of the webpage as a symbol, a combination of letters or written out. By clicking on the license you can read the summary that tells you the terms and conditions that apply to the work. If you are interested in the legal code, the link to the code is in the summary page.
If you cannot find any indication of a CC license, the work is probably not shared with a CC license. CC licenses are not used in all resources, in which case, the work is protected by copyright. If you are unsure of the user rights, do not use the material or check the user rights directly from the creator.
If you use CC licensed material in your own work, please follow the terms and conditions defined in the license. You should always mention:
If the material is shared with a CC0 or Public Domain license, the creator has waived all rights to the work and released it to free common use. In principle this means that you do not need to state the name of the author or the license used.
NOTE: that if you use CC licensed materials in teaching or study materials, you need to always mention the author and license used, even if the material is shared using a CC0 license. This way the material can be distinguished from copyrighted material or for example from an image that you have created.
Examples:
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| Image: Kristina Alexanderson, (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) | Image: Marco Verch, (CC BY 2.0) |
Materials licensed under Creative Commons licenses can be found in different content providers and search engines on the web. On this page, you can find sites that include different copyright-free materials and materials with some restrictions. Always remember to check the user rights of the site or material you are using.
With Creative Commons licenses you can define how you want other people to use your work, whether they are photos, articles, or any other materials. Anyone can use Creative Commons licenses and using them does not require any registration or other permit. Read more at creativecommons.org.
Pick a suitable license from the Choosing a Creative Commons license infographic, or use the CC license chooser. Follow the steps and answer the questions as they apply to you and the chooser will suggest which CC license you should use.
If you already know which license you are going to use, you can download the icon from the Downloads page of the Creative Commons organisation.
Video: Max Noble, Creative Commons (CC) licensing, (CC BY 3.0).
This guide aims to support Turku UAS students and staff in searching information. It is a major part of the study material in the Information Skills Online Course.
This resource has been licensed with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. It does not apply to photos or videos unless otherwise stated.