Many scholars are aware of the laws governing the use of academic materials. They forbid them to use the sources without acknowledging their and publishers (Neville, 2010). The citations are supposed to be both in-text and on the bibliography page. However, many of them choose not to follow these laws for the love of shortcuts. The problem is even much bigger when it comes to electronic resources (Neville, 2010). These are the materials found online and in different forms.
It is easier to be tempted to use information from electronic sources without acknowledging the bearers of their rights. This is mainly because they are easily available and no one is aware that particular people are using them at particular times. In this century, the number of electronic sources has been increasing by the day due to the takeover of technology that has been experienced in all fields, including academics. The most notable electronic sources include journals, e books and websites among other sources. In fact, some people, companies and learning institutions run online libraries full of these reading materials.
The major consequence of inept electronic research is that one can be sued for plagiarism. This is because all those electronic materials have owners, who have the legal rights to the resources. Whenever an individual uses them but does not acknowledge the writers and publishers, he/she can be sued for illegally using the resources. Many people have been involved in this violation for knowingly or unknowingly committing it. It is a requirement that students and other individuals using electronic materials in their research use the various citation methods in acknowledging the owners of the legal rights of any electronic materials.
The other most common consequence of inept electronic research is the loss of marks in school or even sometimes being discontinued from studying in academic institutions. Many institutions of higher learning have developed programs that can detect plagiarism in their students’ work. Similarly, they have formulated laws that punish the offenders, and discontinuation and the loss of marks are among the consequences.
Traditional reference materials can be as current as electronic materials. This is possible because, though traditional, they can be updated every time to cover amendments in law and current legal issues. For example, the West Encyclopaedia has been revised to cover the rights of homosexuals, capital punishment, euthanasia and domestic violence among other issues.
Advantages of Traditional Sources
- They have first-hand information on legal matters and laws made in ancient times. When scholars of today read them, they are likely to believe them more than they would trust recent ones (Posner, 2007).
- Many of them have an authenticity and originality that is lacking in more recent ones. Recent ones contain ideas that are mainly borrowed from other researchers.
Disadvantages of Traditional Sources
- Despite the possibility of being revised to contain current issues, most of them are not revised. Therefore, they do not contain current issues.
- Many of these sources have little and scanty information on topics that are well covered in recent sources. The reason for this is the scarcity in the number of reference materials during the writing of most of the traditional resources.
- The sources are usually not easy to access. For example for a researcher to acquire it she/he has to go buy it in the shop or borrow from library and sometimes it is not even available in shops or even the libraries as one can find that they are all sold out or also all borrowed from the library (Watkins, 2008).
- The sources are time consuming compared to the current sources of information. Looking for them takes a lot of time especially if the research is a large one.
References
Neville, C. (2010). The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism. Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw Hill.
Posner, R. (2007). The little book of plagiarism. New York: Pantheon Books.
Watkins, H. (2008). Plagiarism. Detroit: Greenhaven Press.