Fairness, integrity, recognition

As a college-level researcher, the projects, reports, and presentations you create will build on the work of those who came before you. Others who come after you may build upon your contributions.

Giving credit where credit is due is an essential part of this process. You've likely received dire warnings about what will happen to you if you don't give others the credit they are due or don't properly cite your sources in your projects.

While avoiding punishments and negative consequences is important to your future success, focusing on that aspect misses the real point of giving someone credit for their work:

Because it's fair. Because it's the right thing to do.

And because you want the credit for your accomplishments, don't you?

Take a walk in someone else's shoes with three stories of real people who did something amazing, and ask yourself:

Wouldn't you want the credit?

Play the game!

Jocelyn Bell: Pulsars

Lizzie Magie: Monopoly Game

Henry Boyd: Boyd Bedstead

Image of Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell. Susan is a white woman wearing black cat eye glasses.

Dr. Jocelyn Bell in 1967. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jocelyn_Bell_Burnell#/media/File:Susan_Jocelyn_Bell_(Burnell),_1967.jpg. Photo by Roger W Haworth, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Black and white photo of Lizzie Magie. Magie is a white woman with short curly hair.

Author Lizzie Magie. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lizzie_Magie_-_My_Betrothed,_and_Other_Poems.jpg)

Portrait of Henry Boyd. Henry Boyd is a Black man with a beard.

Henry Boyd. (n.d.). Collection of the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County. https://www.searchablemuseum.com/static/1f55499f0224a5bf95478244199f221f/39018/MW04.02.GP01_G00194.webp

Key takeaways

As scholars, our work builds upon the previous contributions of others in our field. Giving proper credit is a scholarly practice that enables academic conversations to continue; not just to avoid negative consequences, but because it's the fair and right thing to do.