Plagiarism is an important concept in writing and concerns all authors who publish any kind of document. So, what is plagiarism? Presenting other people’s work as your own without formally giving due credit through citations or acknowledgements is called plagiarism. One of the biggest mistakes that authors may make is to include sentences verbatim from other sources or even pass off someone else’s writing as their own without appropriate citation. While most authors may know how to avoid plagiarism, some may not be completely aware of this concept. This article aims to answer your questions about how and why authors should avoid plagiarism.
The following activities can be considered plagiarism1:
Plagiarism is the act of “stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as one’s own,” or “using another’s production without crediting the source.”2 According to the University of Oxford,3 all published and unpublished work, whether electronic or printed, as well as text generated wholly or in part by artificial intelligence can be plagiarized. Re-using your own work without proper citation is also considered plagiarism.
In addition to text, plagiarism can also involve other media such as software program codes, illustrations, graphics, and artwork. The only source that can be used freely without citation is information in the public domain or common knowledge such as well-known facts.
Some different forms of plagiarism are listed below.3
Readers should be able to distinguish between the author’s own words and that from another source. To ensure this, direct quotations should be cited and enclosed within quotation marks, indented as block text, or italicized.
To avoid plagiarism, information found on the Internet should be verified from other reliable sources and only trustworthy websites, such as government websites, should be referred to and used with clear citation.
Paraphrasing means rewriting text using different words although the meaning remains the same. Even if the words are different, the meaning or idea, if sourced from another work, should be duly cited. Close paraphrasing occurs when only very few words are revised from the original. Here’s an example:4
Original
Wild cattle are probably the longest-running example in Europe of the conservation in semi-captivity of an otherwise extinct subspecies. They owe their survival to being a medieval status symbol; how they came to be such is unknown.
Plagiarized version
There are a number of herds of so-called ‘wild cattle’ in Britain. Their survival is due to their being a medieval status symbol, although it is unknown how they came to be such, and is one of the longest running examples of the conservation in semi-captivity in Europe of an otherwise extinct subspecies.
Acceptable revision
There are a number of herds of so-called ‘wild cattle’ in country parks in Britain. In his ‘History of the Countryside’, Oliver Rackham suggests that these herds are ‘probably the longest-running example in Europe of the conservation in semi-captivity of an otherwise extinct subspecies’ and attributes the cattle’s survival to the fact that they were ‘a medieval status symbol’.1
1Oliver Rackham, The History of the Countryside (London: Phoenix, 2000), p. 39.
This includes unauthorized collaborations among students and failure to acknowledge assistance received while working in groups. You should be clear about the extent of collaboration allowed.
Citations must be accurate, and only those sources that have actually been referred to should be mentioned.
Many universities prohibit concurrent submission of identical documents, that is, submitting work that has already been submitted for a different course, subject, university, etc.
Plagiarism in research could take many forms like copying another author’s work, strategy, methods, hypotheses, formulae, in addition to basic text. A plagiarism charge can have adverse effects on authors’ careers and also the reputation of universities and institutions with which they are affiliated. If plagiarism is discovered after an article is published in a journal, then that paper would need to be retracted and this can significantly affect any future publishing prospects of authors. Retractions negate the credibility or validity of any research, affecting not just the authors and institutions but also other researchers who may have referred to this source for their own research.
Universities have clear definitions and strict policies on how to avoid plagiarism; two examples are given below.
Stanford University
“For purposes of the Stanford University Honor Code, plagiarism is defined as 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(s). Moreover, verbatim text from another source must always be put in (or within) quotation marks.”5
Carnegie Mellon University
“Plagiarism is defined as the use of work or concepts contributed by other individuals without proper attribution or citation. Unique ideas or materials taken from another source for either written or oral use must be fully acknowledged in academic work to be graded. Examples of sources expected to be referenced include but are not limited to:
You should avoid plagiarism for the following reasons7:
An important way to avoid plagiarism is to cite sources appropriately. Proper citations are similar to roadmaps for future researchers who will refer to your work for their own research. These roadmaps help researchers in following your research trail on the same subject so that they don’t waste time and effort by repeating work that has already been done.
Listed below are a few ways to avoid plagiarism.7
Here are some detailed tips to help you avoid plagiarism.8,9
Here’s a short checklist you can use after finalizing your document to help you prevent plagiarism. Make sure you have:
Several online plagiarism checkers are available to check for text duplication, such as the Paperpal plagiarism checker or iThenticate by Turnitin. Such tools are usually used by universities, journals, and other publishers to ensure that all submissions are original and to prevent any copyright issues later.10
Plagiarism checkers are important because they quickly accomplish what would otherwise take several hours to complete manually. These plagiarism checkers use algorithms to compare text with an extensive database including journal articles, websites, etc.
The scale at which these checkers function is also quite high because they scan billions of sources of text and data to identify a match between what you’ve written and the sources they’re trained to parse. However, the accuracy of these checkers may not be 100% because of false positives (flagging original content as plagiarized) and false negatives (failing to detect plagiarized content).
The accuracy of plagiarism checkers depends on factors such as database size, algorithm quality, text comparison methodology, etc. Users should manually check flagged content to ensure accuracy.
Here are a few best practices and ways to avoid plagiarism for students:10
Take sufficient time to complete your work and don’t procrastinate.
Avoid simply copy pasting text from sources. Understand the whole concept and write in your own words. Learn how to paraphrase and how to cite accurately.
Use reliable and credible sources and acknowledge them.
Organize your notes; create a separate list of citations you’re using as you work.
Avoid simultaneously submitting the same article for different courses, universities, journals, etc.
Use a trusted plagiarism checker to detect any accidental or self-plagiarism.
Mosaic or patchwork plagiarism refers to combining text from various sources into your own work without proper acknowledgement or citation. While paraphrasing involves rewriting text from a single source, mosaic plagiarism involves copying text from multiple sources.
Here’s an example of mosaic plagiarism:12
Source 1 (Johnson, 2018):
“Adolescents today are facing a unique challenge that previous generations did not experience. The increasing usage of social media platforms has raised concerns about its impact on their mental well-being. Recent studies have indicated a correlation between the time spent on social media and the overall well-being of adolescents.”
Source 2 (Miller, 2019):
“The relationship between screen time and mental health among young people has been investigated extensively. It has been found that excessive screen time, especially on social media platforms, can contribute to feelings of anxiety and depression.”
Plagiarized text
Teenagers today face unique challenges unknown to previous generations. The increasing use of social media platforms has prompted concerns about their impact on youth wellbeing, leading to extensive investigation of the impact of screen time on mental health. Studies have shown a link between excessive screen time and mental health, with youth affected by feelings of anxiety and depression.
To conclude, to avoid plagiarism authors should use information from sources carefully and always cite or acknowledge accurately. We hope this article has given you an insight into what constitutes plagiarism and that the suggested tips will help you avoid plagiarism in research.
References
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