Plagiarism

 

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the representation of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work. Plagiarism is considered a violation of academic integrity and a breach of journalistic ethics and is unethical.  It undermines the standards of institution and of the degrees it issues.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, “plagiarize" means to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own, to use (another's production) without crediting the source, to commit literary theft or to present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

In other words, plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else's work and lying about it afterwards.

All of the following are considered plagiarism:

·         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

Plagiarism can be avoided by citing sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed and providing the information necessary to find that source is enough to prevent plagiarism.

Plagiarism is similar other crimes like computer hacking, spamming, phishing, copyrights violation, etc.  Among   academic   community   plagiarism   is   considered   as academic   dishonesty   or   academic fraud, and serious consequences ranging from suspension to termination may result.

Different types or Forms of plagiarism

Unintentional plagiarism

Some cases of plagiarism are not due to deliberate intention to cheat, they happen due to ignorance or inability to note down citations.  But no such excuse are acceptable, it is plagiarism and is still chargeable.

Unintentional plagiarism is not giving proper credit for someone else's ideas, research, or words, even if it was not intentional to present them as your own.  Examples of unintentional plagiarism are Accidentally failing to cite your sources correctly, ​Not citing paraphrased information, Incorrect paraphrasing, unintentionally using a "source" from the web, which is actually someone else's research paper and posted by others for cheating, etc.

Intentional plagiarism

Intentional plagiarism is knowingly presenting someone else's ideas, research, or words as your own. Examples are copying or downloading or buying an entire paper or part of a paper written by someone else and presenting it as your own with your name on it or Intentionally not giving proper credit or appropriate citation for a source after incorporating someone else's concepts or words into your own paper.

Verbatim (word for word) quotation without clear acknowledgement

Quotations must always be identified by the use of either quotation marks or indentation, and referencing of the sources cited.

Cutting and pasting from the Internet without clear acknowledgement

Information derived from the Internet must be adequately referenced and included in the bibliography. It is important to evaluate carefully all material found on the Internet.

Paraphrasing

Paraphrasing the work of others by altering a few words and changing their order, or by closely following the structure of their argument, is plagiarism unless due acknowledgement to the author is given.

Collusion

This involve unauthorised collaboration between students, failure to attribute assistance received, or failure to follow regulations precisely on group work projects. It is our responsibility to ensure that we are entirely clear about the extent of collaboration permitted, and which parts of the work are owned or not.

Inaccurate citation

It is important to cite correctly. We should not include anything in references or bibliography that were not actually consulted.

Failure to acknowledge assistance

You must clearly acknowledge all assistance which has contributed to the production of your work, such as advice from fellow students, laboratory technicians, and other external sources.

Use of material written by professional agencies or other persons

You should neither make use of professional agencies in the production of your work nor submit material which has been written for you even with the consent of the person who wrote it. One should undertake the research process unaided.

Auto-plagiarism or Self plagiarism

You must not submit work for assessment that you have already submitted (partially or in full), either for your current course or for another qualification same or different university. Where earlier work by you are cited, it should be listed in reference.

Detection of Plagiarism

In   universities and other institutions, detection and prevention of plagiarism is a major educational challenge, especially due to the availability of resources through internet. Plagiarism is also a major issue in scientific publishing.  So nowadays, in academic fields and for academic publishing, plagiarism detection soft-wares are used to control and stop the act of plagiarism. 

A numbers of plagiarism software are available by which acts of plagiarism can be detected.  Even though it helps to check plagiarism, these software’s possess drawbacks and limitations.  It only shows the similarity and give hints to some other documents. Examples of plagiarism check software’s are Turnitin, Dupli Checker, Copyleaks, Plagiarism Checker, PlagAware, iThenticate, Urkund, etc.

 

References

https://www.ou.edu/webhelp/librarydemos/isi/

https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism

https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335319583_Plagiarism_Detection_Software_an_Overview