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Copyright and Plagiarism: What is Plagiarism?

Resources about copyright and intellectual property

What is it?

Plagiarism is the use of all or a portion of a previously produced work in a new work without acknowledging the source of the previous work.  In simple terms plagiarism is copying something produced by someone else and pretending that the copied work is your own work. 

Acts of plagiarism can include copying and pasting words, paragraphs, pictures, graphics, data, or videos without adding footnotes and citations to indicate the original source of the content.  Direct copying from another source is the most obvious form of plagiarism; however, paraphrasing or slightly changing a work before passing it off as one's own is also considered to be plagiarism.  Copying one's own work that has previously been submitted is a unique form of plagiarism called self-plagiarism.   Since plagiarism is a form of cheating, academics found guilty of this crime are often severely punished.  In a university setting, a plagiarist who is caught can fail a class, be expelled, be fired, be demoted, have an article withdrawn from being published in a journal, and in the most severe cases can have a previously-conferred degree withdrawn.  Because some forms of plagiarism are also copyright violations, plagiarists can be legally sued by the work's original author for monetary compensation under copyright law.

Until recently, only the most blatant plagiarists got caught and many established plagiarists are still under the delusion that they are not going to get caught.  However, recent technological advances have made it a lot easier to catch plagiarists and acts of plagiarism.  There are now reasonably priced commercial computer-based plagiarism detection systems, which can generate a match rate for any text, picture, or graphic.  These detection systems are used by many established publishers and universities on a routine basis.  Works which generate high match rate scores from these systems are often rejected by publishers, theses committees, and professors.

Because it is now easy to get caught plagiarizing and there are consequences for failing to have research integrity, it is best to ALWAYS CITE WORKS YOU USE, WHICH HAVE BEEN CREATED BY SOMEONE ELSE.

8 Most Common Types of Plagiarism:

  • Complete - Copying the entirety of a work and passing it off as your own.  (Example: Removing an author's name from the title page of a book and trying to pass off an entire book as your own work.)

  • Direct - Word-for-word verbatim copying of a portion of a work without citing or quoting the original work.  (Example: Copying a paragraph from an article into a term paper and not citing the article's author or failing to format the copied text as a direct quote.)

  • Improper Citations or Failing to Track Primary Sources - Failing to create a proper citation that effectively identifies the original work.  Or reusing a flawed citation from someone else's work which leads nowhere.  (Example: Professor Smith's article reuses a citation from Mr. Green's article for an article by Mr. Red.  When the article by Mr. Red is checked for the text cited, the text being cited is found to not be the work of Mr. Red, but is actually just a quote from an older textbook by Mrs. Blue.)

  • Self or Same Author - Recycling the text, data, or ideas from your previous work without citing your own previous work. (Example:  Reprinting a paragraph from a textbook you previously wrote in a new article without citing the textbook.) SEE ABOVE TAB

  • Mosaic or Patchwork - Interspersing bits and pieces of someone else's work between parts of the work you created yourself without citing the other original work from which the mosaic pieces were borrowed.  (Example:  Mash-up videos created by piecing together snippets of other videos.)

  • Paraphrasing - Just rewriting the ideas presented in the cited source without adding any new content.   Or not citing the original source of the paraphrase. (Example: rewriting a sentence and just changing the word order.)

  • Collusion - Working with another person to write, substantially edit, or cooperatively create a work without giving the other person credit for the work. (Example: Having your spouse help you rewrite an article without giving your spouse author credit.)

  • Ghostwritten or Purchased - Paying another person to create a work and them passing it off as your own work. (Example: The book entitled "The Art of the Deal" was written by Donald J. Trump with Tony Schwartz.  Mr. Schwartz later admitted that Mr. Trump paid him $250,000 to write the book.  Although, Mr. Trump was listed as the author, Mr. Schwartz claims that he alone wrote the book.​​​​​​)

Zuckerman, Alex; Farhi, (Arden 2019-05-24). "Trump's ghostwriter says writing "The Art of the Deal" is the greatest regret of his life". CBS News. Retrieved 2019-05-24.

 

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