Plagiarism is the representation of another person's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one's own original work.[1][2][3] Although precise definitions vary depending on the institution,[4] in many countries and cultures plagiarism is considered a violation of academic integrity and journalistic ethics, as well as social norms around learning, teaching, research, fairness, respect, and responsibility.[5] As such, a person or entity that is determined to have committed plagiarism is often subject to various punishments or sanctions, such as suspension, expulsion from school[6] or work,[7] fines,[8][9] imprisonment,[10][11] and other penalties.
Plagiarism is typically not in itself a crime, but like counterfeiting, fraud can be punished in a court[12][13] for prejudices caused by copyright infringement,[14][15] violation of moral rights,[16] or torts. In academia and in industry, it is a serious ethical offense.[17][18] Plagiarism and copyright infringement overlap to a considerable extent, but they are not equivalent concepts,[19] and although many types of plagiarism may not meet the legal requirements in copyright law as adjudicated by courts, they still constitute the passing-off of another's work as one's own, and thus plagiarism.
Not all cultures and countries hold the same beliefs about personal ownership of language or ideas. In some cultures, the reiteration of another professional's work can be a sign of respect or flattery towards the person whose work is reiterated.[20] Students who are from such countries and cultures and who move to the United States or other Western countries (where plagiarism is frowned upon) may find the transition difficult.[21]
In the 1st century, the use of the Latin word plagiarius (literally "kidnapper") to denote copying someone else's creative work was pioneered by the Roman poet Martial, who complained that another poet had "kidnapped his verses". Plagiary, a derivative of plagiarus, was introduced into English in 1601 by dramatist Ben Jonson during the Jacobean Era to describe someone guilty of literary theft.[17][22] The derived form plagiarism was introduced into English around 1620.[23] The Latin words plagiārius ("kidnapper") and plagium ("kidnapping") have the same root: plaga ("snare", "net"), which is based on the Indo-European root *-plak, "to weave".
It is frequently claimed that people in antiquity had no concept of plagiarism, or at least did not condemn it, and that it only came to be seen as immoral much later, anywhere from the Age of Enlightenment in the 17th century to the Romantic movement in the 18th century. Although people in antiquity found detecting plagiarism difficult due to long travel times and scarcity of literate persons, there are a considerable number of pre-Enlightenment authors who accused others of plagiarism and considered it distasteful and scandalous, including historians Polybius and Pliny the Elder.[24] The 3rd century Greek work Lives of the Eminent Philosophers mentions that Heraclides Ponticus was accused of plagiarizing (κλέψαντα αὐτὸν) a treatise on Hesiod and Homer.[25][26] In Vitruvius's 7th book, he acknowledged his debt to earlier writers and attributed them, and he also included a strong condemnation of plagiarism: "Earlier writers deserve our thanks, those, on the contrary, deserve our reproaches, who steal the writings of such men and publish them as their own. Those, who depend in their writings, not on their own ideas, but who enviously do wrong to the works of others and boast of it, deserve not merely to be blamed, but to be sentenced to actual punishment for their wicked course of life."[27] Vitruvius went on to claim that "such things did not pass without strict chastisement".[27] He recounted a story where the well-read Aristophanes of Byzantium judged a poetry competition and caught most of the contestants plagiarizing others' poems as their own. The king ordered the plagiarizers to confess that they were thieves, and they were condemned to disgrace. Although the story may be apocryphal, it shows that Vitruvius personally considered plagiarism reprehensible.[28]
Although plagiarism in some contexts is considered theft or stealing, the concept does not exist in a legal sense. The use of someone else's work in order to gain academic credit may however meet some legal definitions of fraud.[29] "Plagiarism" specifically is not mentioned in any current statute, either criminal or civil.[30][18] Some cases may be treated as unfair competition or a violation of the doctrine of moral rights.[18] In short, people are asked to use the guideline, "if you did not write it yourself; you must give credit".[31]
Plagiarism is not the same as copyright infringement. Although both terms may apply to a particular act, they are different concepts, and false claims of authorship generally constitute plagiarism regardless of whether the material is protected by copyright. Copyright infringement is a violation of the rights of a copyright holder, when material whose use is restricted by copyright is used without consent. Plagiarism, in contrast, is concerned with the unearned increment to the plagiarizing author's reputation, or the obtaining of academic credit, that is achieved through false claims of authorship. Thus, plagiarism is considered a moral offense against the plagiarist's audience (for example, a reader, listener, or teacher).
Plagiarism is also considered a moral offense against anyone who has provided the plagiarist with a benefit in exchange for what is specifically supposed to be original content (for example, the plagiarist's publisher, employer, or teacher). In such cases, acts of plagiarism may sometimes also form part of a claim for breach of the plagiarist's contract, or, if done knowingly, for a civil wrong.
Within academia, plagiarism by students, professors, or researchers is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud, and offenders are subject to academic censure, up to and including expulsion for students and termination of contracts for professors and researchers.
Some institutions use plagiarism detection software to uncover potential plagiarism and to deter students from plagiarizing. However, plagiarism detection software does not always yield accurate results, and there are loopholes in these systems.[32] Some universities address the issue of academic integrity by providing students with thorough orientation, including required writing courses and clearly articulated honor codes.[33] Indeed, there is a virtually uniform understanding among college students that plagiarism is wrong.[33] Nevertheless, each year a number of students are brought before their institutions' disciplinary boards on charges that they have misused sources in their schoolwork.[33] However, the practice of plagiarizing by using sufficient word substitutions to elude detection software, known as rogeting, has rapidly evolved.[34][35] "Rogeting" is an informal neologism created to describe the act of modifying a published source by substituting synonyms for sufficient words to fool plagiarism detection software, often resulting in the creation of new meaningless phrases through extensive synonym swapping. The term, a reference to Roget's Thesaurus, coined by Chris Sadler, principal lecturer in business information systems at Middlesex University, who uncovered the practice in papers submitted by his students,[34][36][37] though there is no scholarly evidence of Rogeting more broadly, as little specific research has been conducted.
Another form of plagiarism known as "contract cheating" involves students paying someone else, such as an essay mill, to do their work for them.[29] As of 2021, few parts of the world have legislation that prohibits the operation or the promotion of contract cheating services.[38]
Because it is predicated upon an expected level of learning and comprehension having been achieved, all associated academic accreditation becomes seriously undermined if plagiarism is allowed to become the norm within academic submissions.[39]
For professors and researchers, plagiarism is punished by sanctions ranging from suspension to termination, along with the loss of credibility and perceived integrity.[40][41] Charges of plagiarism against students and professors are typically heard by internal disciplinary committees, by which students and professors have agreed to be bound.[42] Plagiarism is a common reason for academic research papers to be retracted.[43] Library science is developing approaches to address the issue of plagiarism at institutional levels.[44]
Scholars of plagiarism include Rebecca Moore Howard,[45][46][47][48] Susan Blum,[49][50] Tracey Bretag,[51][52][53] and Sarah Elaine Eaton.[4][54][55]
There is a moral implication to plagiarism in that it takes for granted other people's time, work, and effort. This deontological scrutiny of plagiarism is important to the debate on the ethics of plagiarism.[56] Doctor Amy Robillard poses the metaphor that "plagiarism is theft", and believes that the ethics of that statement are important for schooling and academia. Work that has been plagiarized could be considered intellectual property, and so to plagiarize would constitute copyright or intellectual property infringement. However, some consider plagiarism to have a deeper context in which writings are to be considered property, and hence a work's unlawful usage by plagiarists would constitute theft and has ethical implications in academia and elsewhere.[57]
No universally adopted definition of academic plagiarism exists.[4] However, this section provides several definitions to exemplify the most common characteristics of academic plagiarism. It has been called, "The use of ideas, concepts, words, or structures without appropriately acknowledging the source to benefit in a setting where originality is expected."[58]
This is an abridged version of Teddi Fishman's definition of plagiarism, which proposed five elements characteristic of plagiarism.[59] According to Fishman, plagiarism occurs when someone:
Furthermore, plagiarism is defined differently among institutions of higher learning and universities:
Different classifications of academic plagiarism forms have been proposed. Many classifications follow a behavioral approach by seeking to classify the actions undertaken by plagiarists.
For example, a 2015 survey of teachers and professors by Turnitin[66] identified 10 main forms of plagiarism that students commit:
The authors of a 2019 systematic literature review on academic plagiarism detection[67] derived a four-leven typology of academic plagiarism, from the total words of a language (lexis), from its syntax, from its semantics, and from methods to capture plagiarism of ideas and structures. The typology categorizes plagiarism forms according to the layer of the model they affect:
Several studies investigated factors predicting the decision to plagiarize. For example, a panel study with students from German universities found that academic procrastination predicts the frequency plagiarism conducted within six months followed the measurement of academic procrastination.[68] It has been argued that by plagiarizing, students cope with the negative consequences that result from academic procrastination such as poor grades. Another study found that plagiarism is more frequent if students perceive plagiarism as beneficial and if they have the opportunity to plagiarize.[69] When students had expected higher sanctions and when they had internalized social norms that define plagiarism as very objectionable, plagiarism was less likely to occur. Another study found that students resorted to plagiarism in order to cope with heavy workloads imposed by teachers. On the other hand, in that study, some teachers also thought that plagiarism is a consequence of their own failure to propose creative tasks and activities.[70]
In the academic world, plagiarism by students is usually considered a very serious offense that can result in punishments such as a failing grade on the particular assignment, the entire course, or even being expelled from the institution.[6] The seriousness with which academic institutions address student plagiarism may be tempered by a recognition that students may not fully understand what plagiarism is. A 2015 study showed that students who were new to university study did not have a good understanding of even the basic requirements of how to attribute sources in written academic work, yet students were very confident that they understood what referencing and plagiarism are.[71] The same students also had a lenient view of how plagiarism should be penalised.
For cases of repeated plagiarism, or for cases in which a student commits severe plagiarism (e.g., purchasing an assignment), suspension or expulsion may occur. There has been historic concern about inconsistencies in penalties administered for university student plagiarism, and a plagiarism tariff was devised in 2008 for UK higher education institutions in an attempt to encourage some standardization of approaches.[72]
Expanding accessibility and usage of the internet has a positive correlation with plagiarism.[73] However, a Croatian study found that students were not more likely to plagiarize when using an electronic-writing medium.[74] Easy access to information has made it much simpler for students to copy and paste information from the internet without crediting the original author.[75][obsolete source] Educational institutions often emphasize the importance of originality, proper citation, and academic integrity to combat plagiarism. They implement policies, educational programs, and tools like plagiarism detection software to discourage and detect instances of plagiarism.[76] A 2012 survey of U.S. high schools found 32% of students admitted to copying an assignment from the Internet.[77]
Strategies faculty members use to detect plagiarism include carefully reading students work and making note of inconsistencies in student writing and of citation errors, and providing plagiarism prevention education to students.[78] It has been found that a significant share of university instructors do not use detection methods such as using text-matching software.[79] A few more try to detect plagiarism by reading term-papers specifically for plagiarism, although the latter method might be not very effective in detecting plagiarism – especially when plagiarism from unfamiliar sources needs to be detected.[79] There are checklists of tactics to prevent student plagiarism.[80]
Turnitin, an internet-based plagiarism detection service, emerged as a digital platform in 1995 and quickly dominated the market.[81] Turnitin serves more than 30 million students worldwide across over 10,000 institutions in 135 countries, and has been utilized by over 1.6 million instructors.[82]
When evaluating an article, Turnitin provides both formative and summative assessments. The formative assessment provides instructors with a basic evaluation of the student's level of achievement while the summative assessment is the final evaluative judgment of the writing.[82] Turnitin utilizes artificial intelligence to evaluate writing through the use of cutting-edge adaptive technology. The "Turnitin Scoring Engine" webpage outlines the rationale behind this technology, which mainly focuses on analyzing patterns in previously evaluated essays. By providing sample essays, the engine can accurately rate papers in just a few minutes.[82] It assesses the readability of content and the writer's familiarity with the genre based on a comprehensive evaluation of word usage, genre conventions, and sentence structure. The final report page highlights sentences of plagiarism so that instructors can easily identify the corresponding content.[83]
Despite its technological advancements, Turnitin has some limitations. A Croatian study found that "small"-language (languages with less of a digital footprint) written material is not supported by the larger base of plagiarism-detection tools, and that languages with more of a digital footprint and more outreach tend to be better supported.[74] The generation of reports by Turnitin, which involves comparing and scoring vast amounts of student work, can potentially infringe on copyright laws.[82] Turnitin monitors students to ensure that their work is original and unique, with this validation process being carried out by a supervising machine.[82] However, this practice can result in unrestricted access to student data for teachers, institutions, and governments and lead to severe copyright infringement issues.[81]
Furthermore, plagiarism detection systems (PDS), especially when used for grading purposes, have certain drawbacks.[82] While Turnitin can identify matching texts, it does not provide a clear definition of plagiarism, leaving potential disputes for individual interpretation.[83] For example, different instructors may interpret the same report with varying explanations. The extent of plagiarism can vary significantly, ranging from a single paragraph to multiple instances within a five to six page paper.[83] Without a rigorous standard that defines plagiarism, instructors defining plagiarism based on their own understanding can lead to confusion and conflicts.
Though widely employed in high schools and universities, plagiarism detection tools create a delicate environment in the classroom, as they place instructors in the role of guardians of ethical principles, establishing an adversarial relationship between teachers and students.[82] These tools presuppose that students are prone to plagiarizing and that instructors should use advanced techniques to uncover it.[81] Such scrutiny can cause students to feel afraid and disempowered, as they may consider these tools as omnipotent monitors. The WriteCheck reviews demonstrate that students may be afraid of being caught, leading to writing with pressure and anxiety.[81] These reviews highlight the power dynamics and the culture of fear around plagiarism in the classroom. Additionally, inherent power imbalances between instructors and students exist since students may feel obligated to submit their work to Turnitin for evaluation [81] Furthermore, Turnitin endeavors to promote Western writing values globally.[clarification needed][82] It inherently promotes standardized writing around the world, advancing Western ideas of authorship and EAE, which reinforce harmful ideologies that impact writing instructors.
In general, plagiarism detection systems deter rather than detect plagiarism, but they do not reflect the ultimate educational objectives.[83] Given the serious consequences that plagiarism has for students, there has been a call for a greater emphasis on learning in order to help students avoid committing plagiarism.[84] This is especially important when students move to a new institution that may have a different view of the concept when compared with the view previously developed by the student. Indeed, given the seriousness of plagiarism accusations for a student's future, the pedagogy of plagiarism education may need to be considered ahead of the pedagogy of the discipline being studied. The need for plagiarism education extends to academic staff, who may not completely understand what is expected of their students or the consequences of misconduct.[85][78][86] Actions to reduce plagiarism include coordinating teaching activities to decrease student load, reducing memorization, increasing individual practical activities, and promoting positive reinforcement over punishment.[70][87][88] A student may opt to plagiarize due to a lack of research methods, knowledge of citation practices, or an excessive workload.[83] To eventually reduce plagiarism, students should be educated about the ethical and legal concerns surrounding these tools, and teachers should devise suitable and innovative assignments that require more independent thinking.
Many scholars and members of academia have taken a negative position on the use of plagiarism detection technologies arguing that its use promotes a culture of surveillance and conformity in higher education.[89] Many have called for a reevaluation of higher learning away from a focus on grades and credentials towards a more holistic approach.[90] One such recommendation outlined by scholars is to turn students towards revision as opposed to plagiarism detection.[91] This updated focus has culminated in the creation of sites such as Eli Review which is intended to facilitate improved writing through peer review.[91] Educators have recognized the need for careful consideration when implementing plagiarism detection software in order to balance the promotion of academic integrity with maintaining a positive learning environment.[92] This balancing act has been at the center of the pushback against traditional plagiarism detection systems, as educators have become increasingly aware of the potential negative impact of such technology on trust and privacy.[90] This emphasis on striking a balance between these competing interests highlights the importance of thoughtful and nuanced approaches to addressing plagiarism in the academic context.[91]
A study showed that students warned about plagiarism and its penalties were less likely to plagiarize.[74] Also, in that study, students who were intentionally avoiding plagiarism wrote less on average, which was suspected to lead to reduced quality of work.
To minimize plagiarism in the digital era, it is crucial that students understand the definition of plagiarism and how important intellectual property rights are.[93] Students should be aware that correct attribution is required to prevent the accusation of plagiarism and that the ethical and legal rules that apply to printed materials also apply to electronic information.[93]
In journalism, plagiarism is considered a breach of journalistic ethics, and reporters caught plagiarizing typically face disciplinary measures ranging from suspension to termination of employment.[94] Some individuals caught plagiarizing in academic or journalistic contexts claim that they plagiarized unintentionally, by failing to include quotations or to give the appropriate citation. Although plagiarism in scholarship and journalism has a centuries-old history, the development of the Internet, where articles appear as electronic text, has made the physical act of copying the work of others much easier.[95]
Because journalism relies on the public trust, a reporter's failure to acknowledge sources honestly undercuts a newspaper or television news show's integrity and undermines its credibility. Journalists accused of plagiarism are often suspended from their reporting tasks while the charges are being investigated by the news organization.[96]
