The meaning of the word plagiarism

Plagiarism is the fraudulent representation of another person’s language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one’s own original work.^[1][2] Although precise definitions vary, depending on the institution,^[3] such representations are generally considered to violate academic integrity and journalistic ethics as well as social norms of learning, teaching, research, fairness, respect, and responsibility in many cultures.^[4] It is subject to sanctions such as penalties, suspension, expulsion from school^[5] or work,^[6] substantial fines,^[7][8] and even imprisonment.^[9][10]

Plagiarism is typically not in itself a crime, but like counterfeiting, fraud can be punished in a court^[11][12] for prejudices caused by copyright infringement,^[13][14] violation of moral rights,^[15] or torts. In academia and in industry, it is a serious ethical offense.^[16][17] Plagiarism and copyright infringement overlap to a considerable extent, but they are not equivalent concepts,^[18] and many types of plagiarism do not constitute copyright infringement, which is defined by copyright law and may be adjudicated on by courts.

Not all countries hold the same beliefs about personal ownership of language or ideas. In some countries the reiteration of another professional’s work can be a sign of respect or flattery.^[19] Students who move to the United States and other Western countries from countries where plagiarism is not frowned upon may find the transition difficult.^[20]

Etymology and ancient history[edit]

In the 1st century, the use of the Latin word «plagiarius» (literally «kidnapper») to denote stealing someone else’s creative work was pioneered by the Roman poet Martial, who complained that another poet had «kidnapped his verses». Plagiary, a derivative of plagiarus, was introduced into English in 1601 by dramatist Ben Jonson during the Jacobean Era to describe someone guilty for literary theft.^[16][21] The derived form plagiarism was introduced into English around 1620.^[22] The Latin plagiārius, «kidnapper», and plagium, «kidnapping», have the root plaga («snare», «net»), based on the Indo-European root *-plak, «to weave» (seen for instance in Greek plekein, Bulgarian «плета» pleta, and Latin plectere, all meaning «to weave»).

It is frequently claimed that people in antiquity had no concept of plagiarism, or at least did not condemn it, and it only came to be seen as immoral much later, anywhere from the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th century to the Romantic movement in the 18th century. Although people in antiquity found detecting plagiarism difficult due to the paucity of literate persons as well as long travel times, there are a considerable number of pre-Enlightenment authors, who accused others of plagiarism and considered it distasteful and scandalous, including the respected historians Polybius and Pliny the Elder.^[23] The 3rd century Greek work Lives of the Eminent Philosophers mentions that Heraclides Ponticus was accused of plagiarizing (κλέψαντα αὐτὸν) a treatise on Heliod and Homer.^[24][25] In Vitruvius’s 7th book, he acknowledged his debt to earlier writers and attributed them. He also passed a strong condemnation of plagiarism: «Earlier writers deserve our thanks, those, on the contrary, deserve our reproaches, who steal the writings of such men and publish them as their own. Those, who depend in their writings, not on their own ideas, but who enviously do wrong to the works of others and boast of it, deserve not merely to be blamed, but to be sentenced to actual punishment for their wicked course of life.»^[26] Vitruvius went on to claim that «such things did not pass without strict chastisement».^[26] He recounted a story where the well-read Aristophanes of Byzantium judged a poetry competition. Aristophanes caught most of the contestants plagiarizing others’ poems as their own. The king ordered the plagiarizers to confess that they were thieves, and they were condemned to disgrace. Although the story may be apocryphal, it shows that Vitruvius personally considered plagiarism reprehensible.^[27]

Legal aspects[edit]

Although plagiarism in some contexts is considered theft or stealing, the concept does not exist in a legal sense. The use of someone else’s work in order to gain academic credit may however meet some legal definitions of fraud.^[28] «Plagiarism» specifically is not mentioned in any current statute, either criminal or civil.^[29][17] Some cases may be treated as unfair competition or a violation of the doctrine of moral rights.^[17] In short, people are asked to use the guideline, «if you did not write it yourself; you must give credit».^[30]

Plagiarism is not the same as copyright infringement. Although both terms may apply to a particular act, they are different concepts, and false claims of authorship generally constitute plagiarism regardless of whether the material is protected by copyright. Copyright infringement is a violation of the rights of a copyright holder, when material whose use is restricted by copyright is used without consent. Plagiarism, in contrast, is concerned with the unearned increment to the plagiarizing author’s reputation, or the obtaining of academic credit, that is achieved through false claims of authorship. Thus, plagiarism is considered a moral offense against the plagiarist’s audience (for example, a reader, listener, or teacher).

Plagiarism is also considered a moral offense against anyone who has provided the plagiarist with a benefit in exchange for what is specifically supposed to be original content (for example, the plagiarist’s publisher, employer, or teacher). In such cases, acts of plagiarism may sometimes also form part of a claim for breach of the plagiarist’s contract, or, if done knowingly, for a civil wrong.

In academia[edit]

Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud, and offenders are subject to academic censure, up to and including expulsion for students and termination of contracts for professors and researchers. Some institutions use plagiarism detection software to uncover potential plagiarism and to deter students from plagiarizing. However, plagiarism detection software does not always yield accurate results and there are loopholes in these systems.^[31] Some universities address the issue of academic integrity by providing students with thorough orientation, including required writing courses and clearly articulated honor codes.^[32] Indeed, there is a virtually uniform understanding among college students that plagiarism is wrong.^[32] Nevertheless, each year students are brought before their institutions’ disciplinary boards on charges that they have misused sources in their schoolwork.^[32] However, the practice of plagiarizing by using sufficient word substitutions to elude detection software, known as rogeting, has rapidly evolved.^[33][34] «Rogeting» is an informal neologism created to describe the act of modifying a published source by substituting synonyms for sufficient words to fool plagiarism detection software, often resulting in the creation of new meaningless phrases through extensive synonym swapping. The term, a reference to Roget’s Thesaurus, has been attributed^{[by whom?]} to Chris Sadler, principal lecturer in business information systems at Middlesex University, who found the practice in papers submitted by his students,^[33][35][36] though there is no scholarly evidence of Rogeting more broadly, as little research into Rogeting has been conducted.

A form of plagiarism known as «contract cheating» involves students paying someone else, such as an essay mill, to do their work for them.^[28] As on 2021, few parts of the world have legislation that prohibits the operation or the promotion of contract cheating services.^[37]

Predicated upon an expected level of learning and comprehension having been achieved, all associated academic accreditation becomes seriously undermined if plagiarism is allowed to become the norm within academic submissions.^[38]

For professors and researchers, plagiarism is punished by sanctions ranging from suspension to termination, along with the loss of credibility and perceived integrity.^[39][40] Charges of plagiarism against students and professors are typically heard by internal disciplinary committees, by which students and professors have agreed to be bound.^[41] Plagiarism is a common reason for academic research papers to be retracted.^[42] Library science is developing approaches to address the issue of plagiarism at institutional levels.^[43]

Scholars of plagiarism include Rebecca Moore Howard,^{[44][45][46][47]} Susan Blum,^[48][49] Tracey Bretag,^[50][51][52] and Sarah Elaine Eaton.^[3][53][54]

There is a moral implication to plagiarism in that it takes for granted other people’s time, work, and effort. This deontological scrutiny of plagiarism is important to the debate on the ethics of plagiarism.^[55] Doctor Amy Robillard poses the metaphor that “plagiarism is theft”, and believes that the ethics of that statement are important for schooling and academia. Plagiarism could be considered the intellectual property of some, and to plagiarize would constitute copyright or intellectual property infringement. However, some consider plagiarism to have a deeper context in which writings are to be considered property, and hence a work’s unlawful usage by plagiarists would constitute theft and has ethical implications in both academia and the real world.^[56]

No universally adopted definition of academic plagiarism exists.^[3] However, this section provides several definitions to exemplify the most common characteristics of academic plagiarism. It has been called, «The use of ideas, concepts, words, or structures without appropriately acknowledging the source to benefit in a setting where originality is expected.»^[57]

This is an abridged version of Teddi Fishman’s definition of plagiarism, which proposed five elements characteristic of plagiarism.^[58] According to Fishman, plagiarism occurs when someone:

• Uses words, ideas, or work products
• Attributable to another identifiable person or source
• Without attributing the work to the source from which it was obtained
• In a situation in which there is a legitimate expectation of original authorship
• In order to obtain some benefit, credit, or gain which need not be monetary^[58]

Furthermore, plagiarism is defined differently among institutions of higher learning and universities:

• At Stanford it is the «use, without giving reasonable and appropriate credit to or acknowledging the author or source, of another person’s original work, whether such work is made up of code, formulas, ideas, language, research, strategies, writing or other form».^[59]
• At Yale it is the «… use of another’s work, words, or ideas without attribution», which includes «… using a source’s language without quoting, using information from a source without attribution, and paraphrasing a source in a form that stays too close to the original».^[60]
• At Princeton it is the «deliberate» use of «someone else’s language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source».^[61]
• At Oxford College of Emory University it is the use of «a writer’s ideas or phraseology without giving due credit».^[62]
• At Brown it is «… appropriating another person’s ideas or words (spoken or written) without attributing those word or ideas to their true source».^[63]
• At The U.S. Naval Academy it is «the use of the words, information, insights, or ideas of another without crediting that person through proper citation».^[64]

Forms of academic plagiarism[edit]

Different classifications of academic plagiarism forms have been proposed. Many classifications follow a behavioral approach by seeking to classify the actions undertaken by plagiarists.

For example, a 2015 survey of teachers and professors by Turnitin^[65] identified 10 main forms of plagiarism that students commit:

• Submitting someone’s work as their own.
• Taking passages from their own previous work without adding citations (self-plagiarism).
• Re-writing someone’s work without properly citing sources.
• Using quotations but not citing the source.
• Interweaving various sources together in the work without citing.
• Citing some, but not all, passages that should be cited.
• Melding together cited and uncited sections of the piece.
• Providing proper citations, but failing to change the structure and wording of the borrowed ideas enough (close paraphrasing).
• Inaccurately citing a source.
• Relying too heavily on other people’s work, failing to bring original thought into the text.

The authors of a 2019 systematic literature review on academic plagiarism detection^[66] derived a four-leven typology of academic plagiarism, from the total words of a language (lexis), from its syntax, from its semantics, and from methods to capture plagiarism of ideas and structures. The typology categorizes plagiarism forms according to the layer of the model they affect:

• Characters-preserving plagiarism
  • Verbatim copying without proper citation
• Syntax-preserving plagiarism
  • Synonym substitution
  • Technical disguise (e.g., using identically looking glyphs from another alphabet)
• Semantics-preserving plagiarism
  • Translation
  • Paraphrase
• Idea-preserving plagiarism
  • Appropriation of ideas or concepts
  • Reusing text structure
• Ghostwriting
  • Collusion (typically among students)
  • Contract cheating

Factors influencing students’ decisions to plagiarize[edit]

Several studies investigated factors predicting the decision to plagiarize. For example, a panel study with students from German universities found that academic procrastination predicts the frequency plagiarism conducted within six months followed the measurement of academic procrastination.^[67] It has been argued that by plagiarizing, students cope with the negative consequences that result from academic procrastination such as poor grades. Another study found that plagiarism is more frequent if students perceive plagiarism as beneficial and if they have the opportunity to plagiarize.^[68] When students had expected higher sanctions and when they had internalized social norms that define plagiarism as very objectionable, plagiarism was less likely to occur. Another study found that students resorted to plagiarism in order to cope with heavy workloads imposed by teachers. On the other hand, in that study, some teachers also thought that plagiarism is a consequence of their own failure to propose creative tasks and activities.^[69]

Sanctions for student plagiarism[edit]

In the academic world, plagiarism by students is usually considered a very serious offense that can result in punishments such as a failing grade on the particular assignment, the entire course, or even being expelled from the institution.^[5] The seriousness with which academic institutions address student plagiarism may be tempered by a recognition that students may not fully understand what plagiarism is. A 2015 study showed that students who were new to university study did not have a good understanding of even the basic requirements of how to attribute sources in written academic work, yet students were very confident that they understood what referencing and plagiarism are.^[70] The same students also had a lenient view of how plagiarism should be penalised.

For cases of repeated plagiarism, or for cases in which a student commits severe plagiarism (e.g., purchasing an assignment), suspension or expulsion may occur. There has been historic concern about inconsistencies in penalties administered for university student plagiarism, and a plagiarism tariff was devised in 2008 for UK higher education institutions in an attempt to encourage some standardization of approaches.^[71]

Impact of technology[edit]

See also: Plagiarism § Impact of artificial intelligence

Expanding accessibility and usage of the internet has a positive correlation with plagiarism.^[72] However, a Croatian study found that students were not more likely to plagiarize when using an electronic-writing medium.^[73] Easy access to information has made it much simpler for students to copy and paste information from the internet without crediting the original author.^{[74][obsolete source]} In high school and colleges, students’ transmission^{[clarification needed]} of work also increases the frequency of plagiarism.^[75]

Plagiarism detection[edit]

Strategies faculty members use to detect plagiarism include carefully reading students work and making note of inconsistencies in student writing and of citation errors, and providing plagiarism prevention education to students.^[76] It has been found that a significant share of university instructors do not use detection methods such as using text-matching software.^[77] A few more try to detect plagiarism by reading term-papers specifically for plagiarism, although the latter method might be not very effective in detecting plagiarism – especially when plagiarism from unfamiliar sources needs to be detected.^[77] There are checklists of tactics to prevent student plagiarism.^[78]

Turnitin, an internet-based plagiarism detection service, emerged as a digital platform in 1995 and quickly dominated the market.^[79] Turnitin serves more than 30 million students worldwide across over 10,000 institutions in 135 countries, and has been utilized by over 1.6 million instructors.^[80]

When evaluating an article, Turnitin provides both formative and summative assessments. The formative assessment provides instructors with a basic evaluation of the student’s level of achievement while the summative assessment is the final evaluative judgment of the writing.^[80] Turnitin utilizes artificial intelligence to evaluate writing through the use of cutting-edge adaptive technology. The «Turnitin Scoring Engine» webpage outlines the rationale behind this technology, which mainly focuses on analyzing patterns in previously evaluated essays. By providing sample essays, the engine can accurately rate papers in just a few minutes.^[80] It assesses the readability of content and the writer’s familiarity with the genre based on a comprehensive evaluation of word usage, genre conventions, and sentence structure. The final report page highlights sentences of plagiarism so that instructors can easily identify the corresponding content.^[81]

Despite its technological advancements, Turnitin has some limitations. A Croatian study found that “small”-language (languages with less of a digital footprint) written material isn’t supported by the larger base of plagiarism-detection tools, and that languages with more of a digital footprint and more outreach tend to be better supported.^[73] The generation of reports by Turnitin, which involves comparing and scoring vast amounts of student work, can potentially infringe on copyright laws.^[80] Turnitin monitors students to ensure that their work is original and unique, with this validation process being carried out by a supervising machine.^[80] However, this practice can result in unrestricted access to student data for teachers, institutions, and governments and lead to severe copyright infringement issues.^[79]

Furthermore, plagiarism detection systems (PDS), especially when used for grading purposes, have certain drawbacks.^[80] While Turnitin can identify matching texts, it does not provide a clear definition of plagiarism, leaving potential disputes for individual interpretation.^[81] For example, different instructors may interpret the same report with varying explanations. The extent of plagiarism can vary significantly, ranging from a single paragraph to multiple instances within a five to six page paper.^[81] Without a rigorous standard that defines plagiarism, instructors defining plagiarism based on their own understanding can lead to confusion and conflicts.

Plagiarism education[edit]

Though widely employed in high schools and universities, plagiarism detection tools indeed create a delicate environment in the classroom, as they place instructors in the role of guardians of ethical principles, establishing an adversarial relationship between teachers and students.^[80] These tools presuppose that students are prone to plagiarizing and that instructors should use advanced techniques to uncover it.^[79] Such scrutiny can cause students to feel afraid and disempowered, as they may consider these tools as omnipotent monitors. The WriteCheck reviews demonstrate that students may be afraid of being caught, leading to writing with pressure and anxiety.^[79] These reviews highlight the power dynamics and the culture of fear around plagiarism in the classroom. Additionally, inherent power imbalances between instructors and students exist since students may feel obligated to submit their work to Turnitin for evaluation ^[79] Furthermore, Turnitin endeavors to promote Western writing values globally.^{[clarification needed][80]} It inherently promotes standardized writing around the world, advancing Western ideas of authorship and EAE, which reinforce harmful ideologies that impact writing instructors.

In general, plagiarism detection systems deter rather than detect plagiarism, but they do not reflect the ultimate educational objectives.^[81] Given the serious consequences that plagiarism has for students, there has been a call for a greater emphasis on learning in order to help students avoid committing plagiarism.^[82][83] This is especially important when students move to a new institution that may have a different view of the concept when compared with the view previously developed by the student. Indeed, given the seriousness of plagiarism accusations for a student’s future, the pedagogy of plagiarism education may need to be considered ahead of the pedagogy of the discipline being studied. The need for plagiarism education extends to academic staff, who may not completely understand what is expected of their students or the consequences of misconduct.^[84][76][85] Actions to reduce plagiarism include coordinating teaching activities to decrease student load, reducing memorization, increasing individual practical activities, and promoting positive reinforcement over punishment.^[69][86][87] A student may opt to plagiarize due to a lack of research methods, knowledge of citation practices, or an excessive workload.^[81] To eventually reduce plagiarism, students should be educated about the ethical and legal concerns surrounding these tools, and teachers should devise suitable and innovative assignments that require more independent thinking.

Many scholars and members of academia have taken a negative position on the use of plagiarism detection technologies arguing that its use promotes a culture of surveillance and conformity in higher education.^[88] Many have called for a reevaluation of higher learning away from a focus on grades and credentials towards a more holistic approach.^[89] One such recommendation outlined by scholars is to turn students towards revision as opposed to plagiarism detection.^[90] This updated focus has culminated in the creation of sites such as Eli Review which is intended to facilitate improved writing through peer review.^[90] Educators have recognized the need for careful consideration when implementing plagiarism detection software in order to balance the promotion of academic integrity with maintaining a positive learning environment.^[91] This balancing act has been at the center of the pushback against traditional plagiarism detection systems, as educators have become increasingly aware of the potential negative impact of such technology on trust and privacy.^[89] This emphasis on striking a balance between these competing interests highlights the importance of thoughtful and nuanced approaches to addressing plagiarism in the academic context.^[90]

A study showed that students warned about plagiarism and its penalties were less likely to plagiarize. ^[73]Also, in that study, students who were intentionally avoiding plagiarism wrote less on average, which was suspected to lead to reduced quality of work.

To minimize plagiarism in the digital era, it is crucial that students understand the definition of plagiarism and how important intellectual property rights are.^[92] Students should be aware that correct attribution is required to prevent the accusation of plagiarism and that the ethical and legal rules that apply to printed materials also apply to electronic information.^[92]

In journalism[edit]

In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination of employment.^[93] Some individuals caught plagiarizing in academic or journalistic contexts claim that they plagiarized unintentionally, by failing to include quotations or to give the appropriate citation. Although plagiarism in scholarship and journalism has a centuries-old history, the development of the Internet, where articles appear as electronic text, has made the physical act of copying the work of others much easier.^[94]

Because journalism relies on the public trust, a reporter’s failure to acknowledge sources honestly undercuts a newspaper or television news show’s integrity and undermines its credibility. Journalists accused of plagiarism are often suspended from their reporting tasks while the charges are being investigated by the news organization.^[95]

In the arts[edit]

The history of the arts[edit]

Through all of the history of literature and of the arts in general, works of art are to a large extent repetitions of the tradition; to the entire history of artistic creativity belong plagiarism, literary theft, appropriation, incorporation, retelling, rewriting, recapitulation, revision, reprise, thematic variation, ironic retake, parody, imitation, stylistic theft, pastiches, collages, and deliberate assemblages.^{[96][97][29][98][99][100]} There is no rigorous and precise distinction between practices like imitation, stylistic plagiarism, copy, replica and forgery.^{[96][101][102][103]} These appropriation procedures are the main axis of a literate culture, in which the tradition of the canonic past is being constantly rewritten.^[100]

Publishing another’s art as one’s own is sometimes called «art theft,» particularly online.^[104] This usage has little direct relationship to the theft of physical works of art.

Ruth Graham quotes T. S. Eliot—»Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal. Bad poets deface what they take.»—she notes that despite the «taboo» of plagiarism, the ill-will and embarrassment it causes in the modern context, readers seem to often forgive the past excesses of historic literary offenders.^[105]

Praisings of artistic plagiarism[edit]

A passage of Laurence Sterne’s 1767 Tristram Shandy condemns plagiarism by resorting to plagiarism.^[106] Oliver Goldsmith commented:

Sterne’s Writings, in which it is clearly shewn, that he, whose manner and style were so long thought original, was, in fact, the most unhesitating plagiarist who ever cribbed from his predecessors in order to garnish his own pages. It must be owned, at the same time, that Sterne selects the materials of his mosaic work with so much art, places them so well, and polishes them so highly, that in most cases we are disposed to pardon the want of originality, in consideration of the exquisite talent with which the borrowed materials are wrought up into the new form.^[107]

A common turn of phrase, variously attributed to William Faulkner, Pablo Picasso, T. S. Eliot, and Steve Jobs, among others, claims that «good artists copy, great artists steal.» Though this phrase appears to be praising artistic plagiarism, it is more commonly taken to refer to constructively iterating upon the work of others, and being transparent about one’s influences.^[108][109]

Self-plagiarism[edit]

The reuse of significant, identical, or nearly identical portions of one’s own work without acknowledging that one is doing so or citing the original work is sometimes described as «self-plagiarism»; the term «recycling fraud» has also been used to describe this practice.^[110] Articles of this nature are often referred to as duplicate or multiple publication. In addition there can be a copyright issue if copyright of the prior work has been transferred to another entity. Self-plagiarism is considered a serious ethical issue in settings where someone asserts that a publication consists of new material, such as in publishing or factual documentation.^[111] It does not apply to public-interest texts, such as social, professional, and cultural opinions usually published in newspapers and magazines.^[112]

In academic fields, self-plagiarism occurs when authors reuse portions of their own published and copyrighted work in subsequent publications, but without attributing the previous publication.^[113][114] Identifying self-plagiarism is often difficult because limited reuse of material is accepted both legally (as fair use) and ethically.^[115] Many people (mostly, but not limited to critics of copyright and «intellectual property») do not believe it is possible to plagiarize oneself.^[116] Critics of the concepts of plagiarism and copyright may use the idea of self-plagiarism as a reductio ad absurdum argument.

Contested definition[edit]

Miguel Roig has written at length about the topic of self-plagiarism^{[114][117][118][119]} and his definition of self-plagiarism as using previously disseminated work is widely accepted among scholars of the topic. However, the term «self-plagiarism» has been challenged as being self-contradictory, an oxymoron,^[120] and on other grounds.^[121]

For example, Stephanie J. Bird^[122] argues that self-plagiarism is a misnomer, since by definition plagiarism concerns the use of others’ material. Bird identifies the ethical issues of «self-plagiarism» as those of «dual or redundant publication». She also notes that in an educational context, «self-plagiarism» refers to the case of a student who resubmits «the same essay for credit in two different courses.» As David B. Resnik clarifies, «Self-plagiarism involves dishonesty but not intellectual theft.»^[123]

According to Patrick M. Scanlon,^[124]
«self-plagiarism» is a term with some specialized currency. Most prominently, it is used in discussions of research and publishing integrity in biomedicine, where heavy publish-or-perish demands have led to a rash of duplicate and «salami-slicing» publication, the reporting of a single study’s results in «least publishable units» within multiple articles (Blancett, Flanagin, & Young, 1995; Jefferson, 1998; Kassirer & Angell, 1995; Lowe, 2003; McCarthy, 1993; Schein & Paladugu, 2001; Wheeler, 1989).^{[full citation needed]} Roig (2002) has offered a useful classification system including four types of self-plagiarism: duplicate publication of an article in more than one journal; partitioning of one study into multiple publications, often called salami-slicing; text recycling; and copyright infringement.

Codes of ethics[edit]

Some academic journals have codes of ethics that specifically refer to self-plagiarism (e.g., the Journal of International Business Studies).^[125] Some professional organizations such as the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) have created policies that deal specifically with self-plagiarism.^[126] Other organizations do not make specific reference to self-plagiarism such as the American Political Science Association (APSA). The organization published a code of ethics that describes plagiarism as «…deliberate appropriation of the works of others represented as one’s own.» It does not make any reference to self-plagiarism. It does say that when a thesis or dissertation is published «in whole or in part», the author is «not ordinarily under an ethical obligation to acknowledge its origins.»^[127] The American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) also published a code of ethics that says its members are committed to: «Ensure[ing] that others receive credit for their work and contributions,» but it makes no reference to self-plagiarism.^[128]

Factors that justify reuse[edit]

Pamela Samuelson, in 1994, identified several factors she says excuse reuse of one’s previously published work, that make it not self-plagiarism.^[115] She relates each of these factors specifically to the ethical issue of self-plagiarism, as distinct from the legal issue of fair use of copyright, which she deals with separately. Among other factors that may excuse reuse of previously published material Samuelson lists the following:

• The previous work must be restated to lay the groundwork for a new contribution in the second work.
• Portions of the previous work must be repeated to deal with new evidence or arguments.
• The audience for each work is so different that publishing the same work in different places is necessary to get the message out.
• The author thinks they said it so well the first time that it makes no sense to say it differently a second time.

Samuelson states she has relied on the «different audience» rationale when attempting to bridge interdisciplinary communities. She refers to writing for different legal and technical communities, saying: «there are often paragraphs or sequences of paragraphs that can be bodily lifted from one article to the other. And, in truth, I lift them.» She refers to her own practice of converting «a technical article into a law review article with relatively few changes—adding footnotes and one substantive section» for a different audience.^[115]

Samuelson describes misrepresentation as the basis of self-plagiarism.^[115] She also states «Although it seems not to have been raised in any of the self-plagiarism cases, copyrights law’s fair use defense would likely provide a shield against many potential publisher claims of copyright infringement against authors who reused portions of their previous works.»^[115]

In other contexts[edit]

Organizational publications[edit]

Plagiarism is presumably not an issue when organizations issue collective unsigned works since they do not assign credit for originality to particular people. For example, the American Historical Association’s «Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct» (2005) regarding textbooks and reference books stated that, because textbooks and encyclopedias are summaries of other scholars’ work, they are not bound by the same exacting standards of attribution as original research and may be allowed a greater «extent of dependence» on other works.^[129] However, even such a book does not make use of words, phrases, or paragraphs from another text or follow too closely the other text’s arrangement and organization, and the authors of such texts are also expected to «acknowledge the sources of recent or distinctive findings and interpretations, those not yet a part of the common understanding of the profession.»^[129]

Reverse plagiarism[edit]

Reverse plagiarism, or attribution without copying,^[17] refers to falsely giving authorship credit over a work to a person who did not author it, or falsely claiming a source supports an assertion that the source does not make.^[130][131] Although both the term and activity are relatively rare, incidents of reverse plagiarism do occur typically in similar contexts as traditional plagiarism.^[116]

Impact of artificial intelligence[edit]

The increase in plagiarism can also be attributed to developments in artificial intelligence.^[132] The emergence of large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-3 and ChatGPT raised global discussion about the impact of artificial intelligence on writing and plagiarism. One such innovation is the GPT-2 model, which is capable of generating coherent paragraphs and achieving high scores on various language modeling assessments. It can also perform basic tasks such as reading comprehension, machine translation, question answering, and summarization.^[132] Currently, detectors of AI language such as GPT Zero have been introduced to cope with this problem.The emergence of large language models (LLMs) such as GPT-3 and ChatGPT raised global discussion about the impact of artificial intelligence on writing and plagiarism. Noam Chomsky called ChatGPT “nothing more than high-tech plagiarism”.^[133] In contrast, others have proposed that “the essay is dead”,^[134] declaring that artificial intelligence will transform academia and society. One scholar of plagiarism, Eaton, proposed the idea of a postplagiarism era,^[135] in which human and artificial-intelligence hybrid writing become normal. The impact of artificial intelligence on plagiarism has yet to be fully understood.

The widespread of artificial intelligence brings a lot of troubles to colleges.^[136] With ChatGPT’s strong database and convenience, students who see much of the work assigned by professors as just busy work will complete the work via artificial intelligence. However, instead of banning the use of ChatGPT in academic study, some have suggested that professors use tools like ChatGPT in their teaching to create outlines, individualized lesson plans, and ideas for classroom activities.^[136]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Works cited[edit]

• Arnau, Frank Translation from the German by Brownjohn, J. Maxwell (1961). The Art of the Faker. Little, Brown and Company.
• Derrida, Jacques, Roudinesco, Élisabeth [2001] (2004) De Quoi Demain, English translation 2004 by Jeff Fort as For what tomorrow—: a dialogue, ch.4 Unforeseeable Freedom
• Blum, Susan D. My Word!: Plagiarism and College Culture (2010)
• Eco, Umberto (1987) Fakes and Forgeries in Versus, Issues 46–48, republished in 1990 in The limits of interpretation pp. 174–202
• Eco, Umberto (1990) Interpreting Serials in The limits of interpretation, pp. 83–100, excerpt; link unavailable
• Gérard Genette (1982) Palimpsests: literature in the second degree
• Haywood, Ian (1987) Faking it
• Hutcheon, Linda (1985). «3. The Pragmatic Range of Parody». A Theory of Parody: The Teachings of Twentieth-Century Art Forms. New York: Methuen. ISBN 978-0-252-06938-3.
• Joachimides, Christos M. and Rosenthal, Norman and Anfam, David and Adams, Brooks (1993) American art in the 20th century: painting and sculpture 1913–1993
• Paull, Harry Major (1928) Literary ethics: a study in the growth of the literary conscience Part II, ch.X Parody and Burlesque pp. 133–40 (public domain work, author died in 1934)
• Royal Shakespeare Company (2007) The RSC Shakespeare – William Shakespeare Complete Works, Introduction to the Comedy of Errors
• Ruthven, K. K. (2001) Faking Literature
• Spearing, A. C. (1987) Introduction section to Chaucer’s The Franklin’s Prologue and Tale
• Spearing, A. C. (1989) Readings in medieval poetry
• Steiner, George (1998) After Babel, ch.6 Topologies of culture, 3rd revised edition

Further reading[edit]

• Lipson, Charles (2008). Doing Honest Work in College: How to Prepare Citations, Avoid Plagiarism, and Achieve Real Academic Success (2nd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 9780226484778. Retrieved April 5, 2017.
• Jude Carroll and Carl-Mikael Zetterling (2009). Guiding students away from plagiarism (in Swedish and English) (1st ed.). Stockholm, Sweden: KTH Royal Institute of Technology. pp. 86–167. ISBN 978-91-7415-403-0. Retrieved June 10, 2017.

External links[edit]

Last Updated:
6 Apr 2023
— Updated example sentences

Plagiarism is derived from the Latin word “Plagiarius” meaning “kidnapper”. Plagiarism means stealing or copying another’s work and representing it as own work. On Internet, everything is available for free. We can share, upload, download, view, or search any text, audio, and video. Everything is there for free. The availability of anything and everything on the internet has made our lives easier but people make misuse of this advantage of the internet by representing other’s work as their own for fame, for academic benefits, for money, for personal interests, etc. 

Plagiarism is most commonly practiced in academics and researches. On the internet, we have all kinds of literary articles, educational content, research papers, etc available for free. This facilitates everyone and assists them in gaining knowledge and becoming literate. Earlier when there were no Internet people either had to visit libraries when they wanted to study or know anything or had to purchase expensive books. But now we just type the topic in our browser and we get thousands of search results. As a result, some people use these articles, research papers, educational content in an adverse manner.

Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. We should have the knowledge of what can be called plagiarized content and what not. Following are the key points to understand what can be called as plagiarism:

• If we use another person’s work under our name.
• If we copy other’s ideas and words and don’t give them the credit.
• If we download copyrighted images or music and present them as our own.
• If we copy maximum words and modify them so that we can cleverly use them under our own name.
• If we use someone else’s copyrighted music or video for our own music cover or video.
• If we recreate an image, video, music, article, etc in such a manner that it is quite similar to the original one.

Types of Plagiarism

There are several types of plagiarism. In this article, we will get to know the common ones:

• Complete Plagiarism: Complete Plagiarism is the most extreme form of plagiarism. In this plagiarism, a person completely copies someone else’s work such as a research paper, article, image, etc, and represents it as their own work. This form of plagiarism is similar to identity theft or stealing.
• Verbatim: Verbatim is also known as direct plagiarism. When we read a book we must have observed that if any statement that a famous person has made is always represented in double quotations and is highlighted so that we get to know that it is said by this particular person. Similarly consider a person writing an article and mentioning someone’s else work or words that too exactly the same. But this person doesn’t represent it in quotation marks. Then that person is said to be exhibiting direct plagiarism. Hence copying another person’s work word to word and not representing it in quotation marks is known as Verbatim or direct plagiarism.
• Self Plagiarism: This kind of plagiarism is the duplication of a person’s own work. It is also known as auto plagiarism. It occurs when a person copies some words of his own published work and uses the same for another work. This form of plagiarism is commonly observed in research journals. Researchers may make re-use of their research work for another research work, however, the percentage of re-usage must be according to those set by the publishing journals if they allow them to do so.
• Source-Based Plagiarism: This form of plagiarism is most commonly observed in research work. In the research paper one needs to provide references that have contributed to their work, If a person provides wrong references that do not exist, or that are not relating to the work then it is known as source-based plagiarism. The falsification of data or its fabrication is also source-based plagiarism. Falsification and fabrication of data are manipulating or representing false or non-existing data.
• Accidental Plagiarism: This kind of plagiarism mostly occurs due to a lack of knowledge. If we don’t know how to paraphrase, cite and quote a research work we leave the work as it is and it results in accidental plagiarism.

Why is plagiarism unethical?

• Plagiarism is unethical because we are representing someone’s other work as our own without giving them the right to. In the real world if someone else takes our things without our permission then we call that person a “thief” and doing so is considered as a punishable offense. Similarly if in the virtual world someone copies someone else’s work it is unethical and is a punishable offense.
• Plagiarism affects the integrity of academics. Researchers are given the degree of Ph.D. on basis of their research works, students are given grades according to their homework. If we will be practicing plagiarism we will not be gaining any knowledge. We may even succeed in getting our Ph.D. degree or good grades but that will put our career at risk and is a threat to our future. We will be a risk for society, organizations where we may work as we do not have the complete knowledge of the corresponding work.
• If we use the plagiarized content for our personal benefits such as monetary gains, fame, etc then it is unethical because we are being benefitted for what we actually have not done. We are being rewarded without actually performing well or giving our 100 percent to get that reward. It is immoral to do so.

How to avoid plagiarism?

There are certain steps we can follow in order to avoid plagiarism.

• Always give credit to the person whose work you are including in your own work. Make use of double quotations to prevent verbatim.
• Build your own ideas and thoughts and use them in your work. Do not copy another person’s ideas or work. Develop yourself and work on yourself so that you can enhance your thought process. Increase the domain of your knowledge.
• Make use of paraphrasing. Paraphrasing means the representation of an idea or thought in our own words in such a manner that the original essence of that idea remains the same. But we should also do paraphrasing in such a manner that it does not convert to plagiarism.
• Use online plagiarism checker tools. There are many sites that offer plagiarism checker tools. These sites check your work against thousands of other works available on the internet and give you a percentage of plagiarized or unique content. They can even tell from which site the content is copied. We should always use plagiarism checker tools in order to prevent plagiarism. Some of the plagiarism checking tools are – Grammarly, smallseotools, turnitin, quetext, etc.
• Always provide correct references in your research paper or article.
• Learn how to cite your articles, provide references, use double quotations, etc. You should know how to write a scholarly article or book or research paper before you begin writing.
• If you are using someone else’s videos, images, or audios in your own video, etc always ask them first, and even after that provide them the credit for the same.
• Keep your morals high. Be educated about plagiarism and be an ethical person. As in real life, you don’t do bad things as you know the differentiation between what is good and bad similarly teach your inner conscience that plagiarism is unethical and you should not make use of plagiarized content.

Laws against plagiarism

There are many laws against plagiarism. Some of them are mentioned below-

• In section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act 1957, authors have “the right to claim authorship of their works among other things. It grants the authors the special right to be attributed for their work. The statute recognizes the right to attribution analogous to the rights not to be plagiarized.”
• In section 63 of the ICA 1957, “a convicted infringer is liable to be imprisoned between six months to three years, and to be fined between fifty thousand and two lakh rupees”.
• University Grants Commission or UGC has provided a certain set of guidelines that need to be followed by universities in order to prevent plagiarism in academic activities.

Sample Questions

Question 1. What is plagiarism?

Solution:

Plagiarism is stealing or copying another’s work and representing it as our own work without giving them the credit.

Question 2. Why is plagiarism unethical?

Solution:

Plagiarism is unethical because we are representing someone else works as our own without giving them the right to. It also affects academic integrity adversely.

Question 3. What is verbatim?

Solution:

Copying another person’s work word to word and not representing it in quotation marks is known as Verbatim. Verbatim is also known as direct plagiarism.

Question 4. What is paraphrasing?

Solution:

Paraphrasing means the representation of an idea or thought in our own words in such a manner that the original essence of that idea remains the same

Question 5. Mention any law against plagiarism.

Solution:

In section 57 of the Indian Copyright Act 1957, authors have “the right to claim authorship of their works among other things. It grants the authors the special right to be attributed for their work. The statute recognizes the right to attribution analogous to the rights not to be plagiarized.”

1.1 Root of the Word ‘Plagiarism’

There are multiple interpretations available on the origin of the word ‘plagiarism’. The word ‘plagiarism’ derived from the Latin word plagiarius, which means abducting, kidnapping, seducing or plundering, It also means, a kidnapper who ensnares children or slaves in a plaga (net). In the words of Fleming, “The Roman poet Martial (40-102 AD), fiercely protective of his literary creations, was the first to apply the word plagiarius to someone who stole his words with false claims of authorship.’, This enhanced the literature with the term plagiary and then, subsequently, the word plagiarism, became popular. The theft of words in literature became a widespread problem amidst the culture of books. The modern concept of plagiarism exposed and contributed to the development of copyright law and the status attached to authorship and originality. In the words of More and Shelar, “The English word ‘plagiary’ first surfaced in 1601 in Ben Jonson’s ‘The Poetaster’, means a literary thief who wrongfully takes another’s words or ideas.” In the words of Vinod, “Although Sir William Shakespeare first used the word plagiarism verbatim, Oxford Dictionary gives the credit to Ben Jonson who used the word in print.”

1.2 Meaning & Definitions of Plagiarism:

Different views and definitions of plagiarism given by different people from time to time are mentioned below:
In Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, ‘to plagiarize’ means

• “to use the words or ideas of another person as if they were your own words or ideas”

• “to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source”

• “to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source”

In Dictionary.com, plagiarism means, “literary theft. Plagiarism occurs when a writer duplicates another writer’s language or ideas and then calls the work his or her own.”

In the words of Rampola, “plagiarism is the act of taking the words, ideas, or research of another person and putting them forward without citation as if they were your own. It is intellectual theft and a clear violation of the code of ethics and behavior that most academic institutions have established to regulate the scholastic conduct of their members.”

According to “American Association of University Professors”, plagiarism means, “taking over the ideas, methods, or written words of another, without acknowledgment and with the intention that they be taken as the work of the deceiver.”

According to Joy & Luck, plagiarism means “unacknowledged copying of documents or programs.”

Colwin & Lancaster define plagiarism as “the presentation of another person’s ideas or materials as if it were one’s own.”

In the words of Park, “plagiarism is a type of cheating where students present the work of others as their own for the purpose of academic credit.”

`Random House Webster’s College Dictionary’ defines it as “the unauthorized use of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one’s own.”

Irving defines plagiarism as ” the submission of the part or all of another person’s work as if it were one’s own, without the knowledge of the author, and with intention to deceive.”

According to ‘Office of Research Integrity’ (ORI) plagiarism includes “both the theft or misappropriation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another’s worlein.”

According to ‘The University of Queensland, Australia’, “the act of misrepresenting as one’s own original work the ideas, interpretations, words or creative works of another. These include published and unpublished documents, designs, music, sounds, images, photographs, computer codes and ideas gained through working in a group. These ideas, interpretations, words or works may be found in print and/or electronic media”

According to English Literary Society, plagiarism can be described as:

• “turning in someone else’s work as your own”;

• “copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit”;

• “failing to put a quotation in quotation marks”;

• “giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation”;

• “changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit”;

• “copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not.”

1.3 Types of Plagiarism:

It is not easy to define the types of plagiarism. Different organizations and persons have given different types, which are mentioned below:

1. Types of Plagiarism Identified by Lucas:

Lucas identified three different forms of plagiarism in his textbook, “The Art of Public Speaking”, which have been mentioned in Table 1.

S.N.	Type	Description
1.	Global plagiarism	Global plagiarism occurs when an author steals an entire paper word-for-word from another source and passes it off as his or her own.
2.	Patchwork plagiarism	Patchwork plagiarism occurs when an author copies sections of a paper word-for-word from several sources and then fits them together so that they make sense, more or less.
3.	Incremental plagiarism	Incremental plagiarism occurs when the author fails to give credit for specific parts or `increments’ of the paper that were borrowed from other sources.

Table 1: Types of plagiarism identified by Lucas

2. Types of Plagiarism Identified by Turnitin.com

Turnitin.com provides ten types of unoriginal work in the white paper “The Plagiarism Spectrum: Tagging 10 Types of Unoriginal Work”. The types of plagiarism have been mentioned in Table 2.

Table 2
Types of plagiarism identified by Turnitin.com

S.N.	Type	Description
1.	Clone	Submitting another’s work, word-for-word as one’s own.
2.	CRTL-C	Contains significant portions of text from a single source without alterations.
3.	Find-Replace	Changing key words and phrases, but retaining the essential content of the source.
4.	Remix	Paraphrases from multiple sources, made to fit together.
5.	Recycle	Borrows generously from the writer’s previous work without citation.
6.	Hybrid	Combines perfectly cited sources and copied passages without citation.
7.	Mash-Up	Mixes copied material from multiple sources.
8.	404 Error	Includes citations to non-existent or inaccurate information about sources.
9.	Aggregator	Includes proper citation to sources, but the paper contains almost no original work.
10.	Re-tweet	Includes proper citation, but relies too closely on the text’s original wording and/or source.
11.	Find-Replace	Changing key words and phrases, but retaining the essential content of the source.

Source: The above information has been taken from http://pages.turnitin. com/plagiarism_spectrum.html

3. Types of Plagiarism, Identified by University of New South Wales (UNSW)

“University of New South Wales” mentions different types of plagiarism that have been presented in Table 3.

Table 3
Types of plagiarism identified by University of New South Wales

S.N.	Type	Description
1.	Copying	Using the same words as the original text without acknowledging the source or without using quotation marks is plagiarism. Putting someone else’s ideas into own words and not acknowledging the source of the ideas. Copying materials, ideas or concepts from a book, article, report or other written document, presentation, composition, artwork, design, drawing, circuitry, computer program or software, website, internet, other electronic resources, or another person’s assignment, without appropriate acknowledgment.
2.	Inappropriate paraphrasing	Using the exact words of someone else, with proper acknowledgment, but without quotation marks. Changing a few words and phrases while mostly retaining the original structure and/or progression of ideas of the original, and information without acknowledgment. This also applies in oral presentations where someone paraphrases another’s ideas or words without credit.
3.	Collusion	Collusion is acting with another person (or other persons) with the intention to deceive.
4.	Relying too much on other people’s material	Repeated use of long quotations (even with quotation  marks and with proper acknowledgment). Using your own ideas, but with heavy reliance on phrases and sentences from someone else without acknowledgment. Piecing together quotes and paraphrases into a new whole, without appropriate referencing.
5.	Inappropriate citation	Citing sources which have not been read, without acknowledging the ‘secondary’ source from which knowledge of them has been obtained. ‘Padding’ reference lists with sources that have not been read or cited within assignments.
6.	Self- plagiarism	‘Self-plagiarism’ occurs where an author republishes, his/her own previously written work and presents it as new without referencing the earlier work, either in its entirety or partially. Self-plagiarism is also referred to as ‘recycling’, ‘duplication’, or ‘multiple submissions of research findings’ without disclosure.

Source: Above information has been taken from https://student.unsw.edu.au/common-forms-plagiarism.

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1.4 Circumstances of Plagiarism:

Plagiarism occurs under two circumstances one is intentional another is unintentional. In the words of Palmquist, “plagiarism, a form of intellectual dishonesty, involves unintentionally using someone else’s work without properly acknowledging where the idea(s) came from (the most common form of plagiarism) or intentionally copying someone else’s work and passing it off as your own (the most serious form of plagiarism).”

1.4.1 Intentional Plagiarism: Intentional plagiarism occurs if a person intentionally copying other material and not citing the source deliberately. It includes copying other’s work, copying and pasting from an online source, purchasing papers from paper mills, etc.

1.4.2 Unintentional Plagiarism: Unintentional plagiarism occurs when even if a person does not have any intention to plagiarized, but he/she has not given the references in a proper manner, then they indulged in plagiarism. “Unintentional plagiarism includes careless paraphrasing, paraphrasing a source without citing, forget footnote, etc.’,

1.5 Intellectual Property:

According to World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), “Intellectual Property (IP) refers to creations of the mind, such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; and symbols, names, and images used in commerce. It is protected in law by, for example, patents, copyright, and trademarks, which enable people to earn recognition or financial benefit from what they invent or create.,.

1.6 Copyright:

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), “Copyright (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music, paintings, sculpture, and films, to computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps, and technical drawings.,,

Copyright is protected by Copyright Law. Copyright laws protect the financial interests of the creators, producers, and distributors of original works. When most people create something – a book, music – whatever. They hope to make money and support themselves. But, if people use those materials and not pay for them, they are robbing the artists, authors, and others of their livelihood! Not only that, they are breaking copyright laws. Breaking copyright laws is called Copyright Infringement.

1.7 Copyright Infringement:

“Copyright infringement is using someone else’s work without getting that person’s permission. The author of any original work, including books, essays, web pages, songs, pictures, and videos, automatically gets the copyright to that work, even if he/she doesn’t label it with a copyright symbol and his/her name.” The work must be fixed in a tangible form, which means it must be stored on something physical, such as paper, canvas, a CD or a hard disk. The owner of a copyright gets to decide who can legally make copies of that work. It is illegal to copy large sections of someone else’s copyrighted work without permission, even if you give the original author credit.

3.8 Fair Use:

A fair use exemption allows to legally copying small amounts of someone else’s work. The author must be given due credit. In the words of Pressman, “the fair use doctrine allows the use of copyrighted works without the permission of the copyright owner. Fair use is a legal concept, and the test for determining if a use is fair is contained in the Copyright Act of 1976. But fair use is also an ethical concept because it involves a determination of when it is fair to use someone’s property.”

1.9 Difference between Plagiarism and Copyright Infringement:

Plagiarism is using someone else’s work without giving proper credit. Plagiarism doesn’t have to include copyright infringement. Dames discussed the difference between plagiarisms from copyright infringement. In the words of Dames, “copyright is a set of laws that governs the creation, reproduction, and distribution of original works that can be perceived. Plagiarism, in comparison, is the act of stealing and passing off someone else’s ideas or words as one’s own without crediting the source. While a recorded idea can be subject to plagiarism and copyright infringement, a person could use a recorded idea if that use falls under one or more copyright exceptions.”

“The main difference between plagiarism and copyright is one of permission and attribution. Plagiarism focuses on attributing credit to (providing a citation for) ideas borrowed, while copyright centers on gaining permission to copy the author’s work.” This has been presented in Table 4.

Table: 4
“Plagiarism and Copyright Explanatory Table

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For citing this article use:

• Richa, T. (2016). Awareness about plagiarism among research scholars in selected universities in Chennai an investigative study. Retrieved from: http://hdl.handle.net/10603/151904