Skyline University Nigeria’s Library has organized its 3rd webinar series on Tuesday 13th October 2020. The webinar with the theme, ‘Writing without Plagiarism and Proper Citations using Mendeley’ was moderated by the Head Librarian of Skyline University Nigeria, Mr. Kabiru Danladi Garba and presented by Mr. Khalid Shalan, an Elsevier Consultant for Africa.
The webinar aimed to give a general overview on Elsevier Content and Solutions by an introduction to Mendeley, building a personal library in Mendeley, explain in-text citations, integrating sources in writing, use of most recommended reference styles, discuss collaboration using Mendeley, academic Integrity and plagiarism as well as additional resources.
The Vice-Chancellor of Skyline University Nigeria, Professor Sudhakar Kota while delivering the opening remark appreciated the participants for their excellent reception towards the third webinar series and urged the participants to pay keen interest as the event unfolds. “I welcome you to this 3rd webinar, happening at a time when the university has launched its official International Journal of Business Review and Entrepreneurship (IJBRE) volume one”.
The guest speaker, Mr. Khalid Shalan, who defined plagiarism as the unethical practice of using words or ideas (either planned or accidental) of another author/researcher or of your previous works without proper acknowledgement, stated that plagiarism is a serious academic and intellectual offence, and can result in highly negative consequences such as paper retractions and loss of author credibility and reputation.
Some of the highlights made by Mr. Shalan were that researchers must increase their understanding of plagiarism, Do not copy-paste the text verbatim from the reference paper. Instead, restate the idea in their own words, Use quotes to indicate that the text has been taken from another paper, The quotes should be exactly the way they appear in the paper they are taken from, cite own material—if you are using content from your previous paper, you must cite yourself using the material you have published before without citation is called self-plagiarism and finally, use citation software like EndNote or Reference Manager to manage the citations used for the paper.
The Head of Students Service Department, Mr. Nazim Islam, in his closing remarks, expressed appreciation to Mr. Kabiru Danladi Garba for organizing such an informative webinar, to the host presenter, Mr. Khalid Shalam and the participants for their contribution towards the success of the webinar. The webinar featured over 150 participants from diverse academic and professional backgrounds.