In the academic world, you are free to use the ideas of other people as long as you cite your sources. Your research paper is a collaboration between you and your sources.
To be fair and ethical, you must acknowledge your debt to the writers of those sources. If you don’t, you commit plagiarism, a serious academic offense.
These acts are considered plagiarism:
Turning in a paper that someone else wrote
Failing to cite quotations and borrowed ideas
Failing to enclose borrowed language in quotation marks and to cite the source of the quotation
Failing to put summaries and paraphrases in your own words and to cite the source of the ideas
Failing to cite sources of data, images, or artwork
Images on the Web must be cited like any other source; you may not simply cut and paste an online image into your work. If you use an image for academic purposes, you must give a complete citation, and in some cases you must secure permission for use of the image.
The only information that you do not have to cite is common knowledge, which varies by discipline and by subject within a discipline.
Exercise: Avoiding plagiarism in Chicago (CMS) papers 1
Exercise: Avoiding plagiarism in Chicago (CMS) papers 2
Exercise: Avoiding plagiarism in Chicago (CMS) papers 3
Exercise: Avoiding plagiarism in Chicago (CMS) papers 4
Exercise: Recognizing common knowledge in Chicago (CMS) papers
Related topic:
Avoiding plagiarism