Plagiarism

Plagiarism means representing someone else’s words or ideas as your own. To avoid accusations of plagiarism, when in doubt always explicitly identify your sources.

There are cases where citations aren’t necessary. This is the case when the information is widely known and considered common knowledge. Similarly, facts that are easily observable don’t require citation. One example would be a statement like "nearly every Australian university student has a mobile phone". But once you want to provide an estimate of the percentage like "98% of Australian university students have a mobile phone", you would need a citation.

Warning
 Fully understand your university’s rules around plagiarism and academic misconduct. New students frequently don’t realise that practices that were routine at high school, such as copying verbatim from a book or website without attribution, are unacceptable at university. Being accused of academic misconduct is stressful and the penalties can be serious.

Unintentional plagiarism

Sometimes students can unintentionally plagiarise a source. This can occur when they paraphrase a passage too closely. It can also occur due to sloppy note-taking which results in the inclusion of text in an essay that they thought was their own words but was actually a direct quote.

One of the easiest ways to prevent unintentional plagiarism is to have a proper note-taking system. This will allow tracking what is a quote and what is the student’s own words.

Intentional plagiarism

Intentional or deliberate plagiarism occurs when a student submits an assignment that was copied from a friend or downloaded from the internet. It can also occur when they produce their assignment by copying and pasting from several sources without proper attribution.

Self plagiarism

Self-plagiarism, also known as recycled content, occurs when the student resubmits their own work without acknowledgement. For example, maybe they are repeating a previously failed course and one of the essay topics matches one they chose previously. Instead of writing a new essay, they just resubmit the previous one.

Some might argue that by definition, self-plagiarism isn’t possible, but regardless of semantics, universities take it seriously and regard it as a form of academic misconduct.

How to protect yourself from plagiarism

Use the following steps to protect yourself from plagiarism:

  • Leave plenty of time to complete work so you aren’t tempted to take shortcuts.

  • Be very careful when making notes from sources. List the source and page number. Distinguish clearly between a quote, paraphrase, and summary.

  • Carefully cite any piece of information that is from a source.

  • Identify quotes using quotation marks or other appropriate techniques.

  • Retain all sources, notes, and drafts to defend against potential false accusations.

Advantages and disadvantages of plagiarism

Sometimes students are tempted by perceived short-term advantages of plagiarism, yet these are easily outweighed by long-term disadvantages.

Advantages of plagiarism

  • Can get work done quickly.

  • May potentially get a higher grade.

Disadvantages of plagiarism

  • Easily detected with modern tools.

  • Academic misconduct hearing could result in a failing grade or a more serious penalty for a repeat offense.

  • Limited learning takes place.

  • Damaged reputation potentially affecting future opportunities (universities keep a register of academic misconduct).

  • Unfair on more honest students.

  • Fear of being caught can lead to anxiety.

Famous cases of plagiarism

History is littered with careers or reputations that have been destroyed by plagiarism. Often these cases were uncovered when the individuals received scrutiny for political reasons. You can be sure that there are many graduates out there, including some academics, who have committed plagiarism that is currently undiscovered. Some notable examples of plagiarism include:

  • Claudine Gay - Harvard University president. Gay was eventually forced to resign after nearly 50 instances of plagiarised passages were identified in her works. In one case, she copied half a page of material without citation.

  • Annette Schavan - German Education Minister. Schavan had her PhD revoked after over 60 cases of plagiarism were uncovered.

  • Melania Trump - US First Lady. In 2016, Melania copied many passages from an earlier 2008 speech by Michelle Obama.

  • Martin Luther King Jr - US Civil Rights Activist. King was found to have copied around a third of his doctoral thesis. In addition, many of his academic papers were heavily plagiarised from various sources.