Cite prior art
Find existing designs and ideas, then give credit with an accurate citation instead of claiming them as your own.
- Telling your own ideas from someone else's: You can only credit a source if you can first notice which parts of your work came from outside, not from you.
- Parts of a basic citation: Knowing that a citation names the author, the title, and the date lets you build one that points a reader back to the original.
Prerequisites are inferred: pending teacher review.
Re-learn the skill with worked practice and clear examples.
Citing prior art means searching for designs and ideas that already exist, using them on purpose, and giving clear attribution so your own contribution is visible.
Your ER report reuses a 'fast-track' area for minor injuries that you read about in a published hospital-design article, and you present it without naming the article. What is the problem and the fix?
Reviewed- A.No problem; ideas you read are automatically yours
- B.It is plagiarism; fix it by citing the article you took the idea from
- C.The problem is the idea is too old; fix it by deleting it
- D.The problem is the report is too long; fix it by cutting the section
Show the worked solution ▾
Answer: B. It is plagiarism; fix it by citing the article you took the idea from
- Step 1: Identify the borrowed prior art: The fast-track idea came from a published article, so it is prior art, not your original idea.
- Step 2: Apply the rule: Using prior art without attribution is plagiarism. The fix is to cite the article: name its author, title, and date where you use the idea.
Why it's right: Presenting a borrowed idea as your own without crediting the source is plagiarism, and the correct fix is to add a citation that attributes the idea to the article.
- A: Reading an idea does not make it yours; it still belongs to the author who published it.
- C: The age of the idea is not the issue, and deleting useful prior art is not the fix.
- D: Length is not the issue; the missing credit is.
Aligned to Information literacy: attribution & prior art · reading level ~grade 9
- A design team's report has a 'Prior work' section that cites each existing layout it borrowed from, so reviewers can see what is reused and what is new.
Fill these in as you work through the lesson.
- Prior art (designs that already exist):
- Attribution (giving credit to the source):
- Citation (the labeled pointer to a source):
- Plagiarism (using work without credit):
When part of my design comes from work that already exists, called , I must give by writing a that names the author, title, and date: otherwise it is .
- What is one reason an engineer searches for prior art before starting a new design?
- Which parts of a source do you need to write even a basic citation?
- How is borrowing an idea and citing it different from plagiarism?
Your ER layout reuses a 'fast-track' minor-injury area you read about in a 2021 hospital design article by R. Lee. Write a sentence for your report that uses the idea AND credits the prior art, then explain what would make it plagiarism instead.