About Plagiarism

About Plagiarism

What is Plagiarism and how can we avoid it in Academic Insititutions?

The Oxford English Dictionary defines plagiarism as ‘The practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own’; interestingly, it also gives the origin of the word as ‘Early 17th century: from Latin plagiarius,‘kidnapper’ (from plagium, ‘a kidnapping’, from Greek plagion.

What is considered as Plagiarism in Academic Writing?

Plagiarism is an act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else’s work and lying about it afterward.

  • 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.

How can we avoid Plagiarism in Academic Writing?

  • Cite often and properly
  • Cite any ideas that are not your own,
  • Be sure to include in-text parenthetical citation after quotes and paraphrases
  • Include all sources on the Works Cited or References page
  • Use quotation marks around:
  • Specific words or phrases from an
  • Author (direct quotes)
  • Ideas, theories, and any information
  • That is not your own
  • three or more Consecutive words from a source

Useful web sites

re3data.org – A registry of research data repositories

Open Access Directory’s list of disciplinary repositories – A list

How to Cite Datasets and Link to Publications