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I am a first year college student and this is my first time making a review paper. I am working in a group and I was assigned to do the introduction. I noticed that our title is copied from another review paper and it was just published last year. I tried telling them that We should change the title but they claim that we are 'just' reviewing the paper and so there is no need to change.

I still believe that we should change it as the content and references are very much alike. In addition, it will be in our references as well.

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    Is this for a class assignment?
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Dec 8, 2022 at 16:44
  • It is a requirement to passing the semester.
    – Glydel
    Dec 8, 2022 at 16:49
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    That's not what I asked?
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Dec 8, 2022 at 16:49
  • Yes, a group project.
    – Glydel
    Dec 8, 2022 at 16:51

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I think you should choose a different title, but you write:

I still believe that we should change it as the content and references are very much alike.

...this is probably a bigger problem than the title. A review paper, even as a course assignment, should not merely recapitulate a previous review and have content and references that are "very much alike".

In particular, if you use many of the same references and just "reword" the content, you are likely plagiarizing the paper, even if you reference it. Under the forms of plagiarism listed on Wikipedia, this would likely constitute "Idea-preserving plagiarism" which includes "Appropriation of ideas or concepts" and "Reusing text structure" (see also the concept of "too-close paraphrasing".

I would seek further advice and expectations from your course instructor.

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  • Thank you, I will convince my group to change our topic.
    – Glydel
    Dec 8, 2022 at 16:58
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    @Glydel You don't need to change your topic, you (as a group) just need to write your own paper. For a "review" paper that means reading lots of different sources and summarizing them together, rather than using another review paper to summarize the different sources for you and then pretending that you did it.
    – Bryan Krause ♦
    Dec 8, 2022 at 17:06

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