research topics on plagiarism

Presentations made painless

• Get Premium

103 Plagiarism Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Plagiarism is a serious issue that affects students, writers, and researchers in all fields. It is important to understand what plagiarism is and how to avoid it in order to maintain academic integrity and credibility. To help you get started on your own essay on plagiarism, here are 103 topic ideas and examples to consider:

• Definition of plagiarism and its consequences
• Common types of plagiarism in academic writing
• The role of technology in detecting plagiarism
• How to properly cite sources to avoid plagiarism
• The impact of plagiarism on academic institutions
• Famous cases of plagiarism in literature
• The ethical implications of plagiarism
• How plagiarism is viewed in different cultures
• The importance of originality in academic writing
• Strategies for preventing plagiarism in research papers
• The relationship between plagiarism and intellectual property laws
• Plagiarism in the digital age
• The psychology behind why people plagiarize
• The effects of plagiarism on a person's reputation
• Plagiarism detection software and its effectiveness
• The consequences of self-plagiarism
• The role of academic integrity in preventing plagiarism
• How to properly paraphrase and summarize sources
• The impact of the internet on plagiarism
• Plagiarism in journalism and media
• The importance of citing sources in academic writing
• The consequences of plagiarism in the workplace
• Plagiarism in creative writing and art
• The role of education in preventing plagiarism
• How to teach students about plagiarism
• The impact of social media on plagiarism
• The relationship between plagiarism and academic dishonesty
• The consequences of plagiarism for students
• Plagiarism in online courses and distance learning
• The role of peer review in detecting plagiarism
• The impact of plagiarism on scientific research
• How to avoid accidental plagiarism
• The consequences of plagiarism for professional writers
• Plagiarism in music and film
• The ethics of ghostwriting and plagiarism
• The impact of plagiarism on the publishing industry
• The relationship between plagiarism and copyright infringement
• Plagiarism in political speeches and public speaking
• The consequences of plagiarism for journalists
• The role of editors in preventing plagiarism
• Plagiarism in academic conferences and presentations
• The impact of plagiarism on social media influencers
• The consequences of plagiarism for bloggers
• The role of plagiarism in academic dishonesty cases
• Plagiarism in medical research and journals
• The impact of plagiarism on academic rankings and reputation
• The consequences of plagiarism in graduate school
• Plagiarism in online forums and discussion boards
• The role of plagiarism in student plagiarism scandals
• How to report plagiarism in academic settings
• Plagiarism in college admissions essays
• The consequences of plagiarism for high school students
• Plagiarism in student publications and magazines
• The role of plagiarism in academic job applications
• How to address plagiarism in group projects
• Plagiarism in online journalism and news websites
• The consequences of plagiarism for freelance writers
• Plagiarism in technical writing and manuals
• The role of plagiarism in academic cheating cases
• How to handle plagiarism accusations
• Plagiarism in online courses and MOOCs
• The consequences of plagiarism for online influencers
• Plagiarism in academic book reviews
• The role of plagiarism in academic tenure decisions
• How to address plagiarism in dissertation writing
• Plagiarism in academic grant proposals
• The consequences of plagiarism for academic conferences
• Plagiarism in academic journal articles
• The role of plagiarism in academic publishing
• How to address plagiarism in online forums
• Plagiarism in online recipe websites
• The consequences of plagiarism for food bloggers
• Plagiarism in online travel guides
• The role of plagiarism in online shopping guides
• How to address plagiarism in online product reviews
• Plagiarism in online beauty tutorials
• Plagiarism in online fitness guides
• The role of plagiarism in online diet plans
• How to address plagiarism in online health articles
• Plagiarism in online parenting blogs
• The consequences of plagiarism for online parenting influencers
• Plagiarism in online home improvement guides
• The role of plagiarism in online fashion blogs
• How to address plagiarism in online fashion articles
• Plagiarism in online lifestyle websites
• The consequences of plagiarism for online lifestyle influencers
• Plagiarism in online travel blogs
• The role of plagiarism in online travel articles
• How to address plagiarism in online travel guides
• Plagiarism in online entertainment websites
• The consequences of plagiarism for online entertainment influencers
• Plagiarism in online gaming blogs
• The role of plagiarism in online gaming articles
• How to address plagiarism in online gaming guides
• Plagiarism in online tech websites
• The consequences of plagiarism for online tech influencers
• Plagiarism in online tech blogs
• The role of plagiarism in online tech articles
• How to address plagiarism in online tech guides
• Plagiarism in online social media influencers
• The consequences of plagiarism for online social media influencers
• The role of plagiarism in online social media articles

These topics provide a wide range of ideas to explore in your essay on plagiarism. By choosing a topic that interests you and conducting thorough research, you can create a compelling and informative essay on this important subject. Remember to always cite your sources properly to avoid plagiarism yourself.

Want to research companies faster?

Instantly access industry insights

Let PitchGrade do this for me

Leverage powerful AI research capabilities

We will create your text and designs for you. Sit back and relax while we do the work.

Explore More Content

• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Service

© 2024 Pitchgrade

90 Plagiarism Topics, Ideas & Examples

🏆 best research titles about plagiarism, 👍 good plagiarism essay titles, ❓ research questions about plagiarism.

• What Is Plagiarism and Why Is It Wrong? Now using the same paper but adding information to it and revising the content of the paper would not be considered self plagiarism because the paper will change in content in focus.
• Graphic Design and Plagiarism in Saudi Arabia The sites act as sources of inspiration for graphic designers; however, the challenge is the transitioning of the source of inspiration to the aid for plagiarism.
• Tips on Avoiding Plagiarism At the end of the quotation, credit to the source should be given either in the form of in-text citation or in a footnote.
• Paraphrasing and Plagiarism A majority of the students fails to realize that they need to give credit to the original author even when they have paraphrased their work.
• Plagiarism in the Real World: Jayson Blair and the New York Times One of the notorious cases of plagiarism is the Jason Blair scandal that happened in 2003. Another example of real-world plagiarism is Melania Trump’s speech at the Republican National Convention in 2016.
• Plagiarism: For and Against Therefore, the argument against plagiarism is based on the loss of the perpetrator in terms of the shame of the act and the loss of the original author.
• Plagiarism Effects and Strategies The failure to recognize the contributions of other scholars in one’s work is generally referred to as plagiarism. Also, the paper recommends strategies that may be adopted by educators and learners to address the problem […]
• Academic Integrity: Plagiarism and Academic Dishonesty Some of the most significant issues he highlights include the following: The quality of information on the web varies significantly While internet search may help to narrow down on a topic, it may erode the […]
• Plagiarism as a Form of Theft What is of importance in the realm of ideas is not the ownership of the rights to a certain piece of work but the originality[6].
• Importance of Plagiarism Strategies in Writing Regarding a number of writing requirements and the possibility to be blamed for plagiarism, it is hard for many students to start writing their papers without any fears and doubts about the quality and originality […]
• Avoiding Plagiarism With Paraphrasing There are several strategies for avoiding plagiarism, among them competent citation of sources with the mention of the author’s name and words in quotation marks and paraphrasing the source’s content are.
• Plagiarism and Originality in Personal Understanding However, the price is to be paid; original people differ from the rest and often experience loneliness and feel that they are misunderstood.
• Plagiarism in Professional Writing It is also called institutionalized plagiarism, and it is reasonable because the knowledge of such documents is common. The rules of it can and need to be respected to observe copyright.
• Plagiarism in Nurse Academic Papers Copyright infringement and plagiarism detection in the work of a future medical officer is a breach of trust and can significantly affect a nurse’s future work.
• Lawyer Plagiarism as Ethical Violation Plagiarism can be termed referred to as the act of directly copying an individual’s work and presenting it as one’s own.
• Plagiarism and Its Effects on Nursing Students Plagiarism is a widespread issue that affects the papers of nearly all students. This damage can further prevent students from publishing their academic papers in the future due to inadvertent plagiarism that might stem from […]
• Plagiarism in Nursing Education When dealing with the following problem in the context of nursing, there are various types of plagiarism the students are not even aware of, meaning they sometimes plagiarize the thoughts and ideas of other people […]
• The Problem of Plagiarism in the World The question that we should answer appropriately is that is it not the right time we re-think about the quality and the originality of our written works or are we less intelligent and lazier than […]
• Plagiarism: Recognizing and Avoiding This is because the student has only left out some words from the original passage and has used the same words that were in the source.
• Law and Policy Against Plagiarism Currently, the renowned form of corruption that degrades the efforts of man in the search and quest to discover novel things and innovatively new ideas is plagiarism.
• Maintaining Academic Integrity by Avoiding Plagiarism Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s work and failure to acknowledge the original author correctly. Paraphrasing and synthesizing support future nursing practice because they enable students to understand arguments in each source while matching […]
• How to Avoid Plagiarism Description The bottom line is that all materials used in a piece of writing that does not belong to your original production or creativity should be given credit accordingly.
• Analyzing Scholarly Writing: Plagiarism and Parahrasing This paper provides the general analysis of the provided articles and the detailed evaluation of the academic quality of the selected material.
• Causes and Effects of Plagiarism Writing is a daily activity that every person has to indulge in, and this is especially significant in the case of students who pursue academic degrees.
• Copyright Law and the University Policy on Plagiarism Comparison It also covers the act of using part of a literary plot, motion picture, poem, musical presentation, or other forms of art without the consent of the owner of the work.
• Plagiarism: Negative Aspects and Consequences There should be a checking done of the paraphrasing in one’s work to ensure that the same words and phrases from the text are not used in one’s work.
• Plagiarism: What It Is and How to Avoid It The focus is then shifted to the future of plagiarism in contemporary society and the effect of information technologies. The expropriation of the work of another person and presentation of it like your own is […]
• Plagiarism and Facebook Use in Students Despite the view that the current generation of students is somewhat neglecting the seriousness of plagiarism, it is still viewed that originality must be emphasized and not to allow digital technology to violate principles of […]
• Plagiarism From a Cross-Cultural Perspective Individualism presupposes respect for the authors whose ideas a person is going to borrow while direct communication as a cultural value implies open access to standards and codes of behavior, which is likely to minimize […]
• The Price of the Plagiarism Plagiarism is considered a global problem of contemporary science and education as well as in the spheres of literature and music. The violation of copyright legislation is considered a crime and can lead to a […]
• Plagiarism Detection, Penalties and Consequences The most common form of plagiarism is copying information and using it as part of one’s assignment or essay, without acknowledging the original source of information Sometimes, students are dumbfounded by the amount of work […]
• Academic Integrity and Plagiarism It is both Mike’s and Todd’s fault Mike’s is that he does not know the content and asks Todd to show the answers, Todd’s is that he agrees.
• Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism It is a requirement that students and other individuals using electronic materials in their research use the various citation methods in acknowledging the owners of the legal rights of any electronic materials.
• Plagiarism in Graduate Students’ Applied Research The problem addressed in this study is the methods of dealing with the issue of plagiarism in applied research papers amid graduate students, which threatens to weaken the quality of academic research.
• Cheating and Plagiarism in Academic Settings Their main task is to show that the main objective of learning is to gain knowledge and skills, and that education cannot be reduced only to good grades and recognition of other people. This is […]
• Helping Chinese Students Avoid Plagiarism As such, a lot of explanation is needed to convince Chinese students to accept and appreciate the requirement for referencing the sources used in order to avoid plagiarism.
• Plagiarism Definition and Explaining The aim of the report is to provide a working definition of plagiarism and explain the problem of plagiarism as faced by international students when studying in the U.S.
• Plagiarism Problem in Higher Education There is an immense devaluation of the learning encounter of the learners and the quality of the graduates. The consciousness of plagiarism is essential in deciphering if an imitative behavior is deliberate.
• Plagiarism Problem in Writing This is actually because the author of the original material is not able to enjoy the advantages of the good work that he or she has produced.
• Academic Honesty and Plagiarism While rather efficient and working in most cases, the approach in question, though, is not to be considered the silver bullet of detecting plagiarism in an academic setting either, for the individual psychological qualities of […]
• Plagiarism and Paraphrasing Sometimes the cheat notes might not be relevant to the test, and in such cases such students underperform. In conclusion, honest students are stress-free and have a smooth academic life and perform to the best […]
• Plagiarism Is Morally Reprehensible Thus, to discuss the ethical component of plagiarism, it is necessary to pay attention to the definition of the concept and its meaning in relation to the idea of academic integrity.
• Plagiarism and How to Avoid It Also, the source of the information is not reflected in the text. One should be relaxed and bending the body slightly forward to show interest in the person and the conversation.
• Peculiarities of Plagiarism Many students copy the sentences or the ideas of the researchers or other students without marking it as the citation. Simple paraphrasing and the use of quotation marks will help to solve the problem.
• Plagiarism Effects in Academic Institutions and Workplace In such cases, students work is found to have been plagiarized, years after the attainment of the degree/ certification, the institutions can revoke it.
• Why Chinese Culture Leads to High Plagiarism Rate in Chinese Universities The issue of plagiarism in China and other Asian countries has worried scholars from the west and the rest of the world for centuries. The research paper will be expected to expose the magnitude of […]
• Paper Analysis: Instructional Document about Plagiarism and the Internet By using these colors in the instructional document, the audience is reminded of the gravity of the matter and the danger that can arise from engaging in plagiarism.
• Cheating Plagiarism Issues Cheating in exams and assignments among college and university students is in the rise due to the access of the internet and poor culture where integrity is not a key aspect.
• Plagiarism Definition and Effects In addition to that, there is a vast amount of software that helps you to correctly cite your sources and check for plagiarism.
• Spotlight on Plagiarism Phenomenon A plagiarism policy in the University of Sydney states that “Where an Examiner detects or is made aware of alleged Plagiarism or Academic Dishonesty by a student; the Examiner must report the alleged Plagiarism or […]
• How Much of a Concern Is Online Plagiarism in Online Education?
• Who Is a Famous Person Who Plagiarized?
• What Are the Consequences of Plagiarism in High School?
• What Is the Best Software for Plagiarism?
• What Constitutes Plagiarism or Cheating?
• How Plagiarism Will Affect the Quality of the Research Paper?
• What Are the Consequences or Punishments if a Student Is Caught Plagiarizing?
• Can You Be Criminally Charged for Plagiarism?
• How Will You Avoid Plagiarism Commerce?
• How Does Plagiarism Affect a Person’s Reputation?
• What Is the Relationship Between Intellectual Property Rights and Plagiarism?
• Is It Plagiarism if You Copy and Paste but Cite the Source?
• What Is the Difference Between Plagiarism and Citation?
• Why Are Laws on Plagiarism and Copyrights Important?
• Why Is It Necessary to Check the Plagiarism in Any Research Report?
• Why Is Plagiarism a Violation?
• How Can Plagiarism Damage Ethical Standards?
• How Can College Essay Plagiarism Checker Help You in Your Studying?
• What Are the Consequences and Penalties for Plagiarism?
• What Are the Differences Between Plagiarism Copyright Infringement and Piracy?
• Who Was the First Person to Plagiarize?
• How Does the University of Phoenix Work to Combat Plagiarism?
• How Could Plagiarism Harm Your Academics or Career?
• Can PDF Be Checked for Plagiarism?
• How Does Moral Law Relate to Plagiarism?
• How Can Teachers Prevent Plagiarism?
• How Important Are Copyright Fair Use and Plagiarism in Intellectual Property?
• Does Plagiarism Violate Copyright?
• How Do Technology and the Internet Make Plagiarism Easier?
• What Plagiarism Software Do Universities Use?
• Teamwork Research Ideas
• Consciousness Ideas
• Google Paper Topics
• Music Topics
• College Students Research Ideas
• Freakonomics Topics
• Problem Solving Essay Ideas
• Morality Research Ideas
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, February 29). 90 Plagiarism Topics, Ideas & Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/plagiarism-essay-topics/

"90 Plagiarism Topics, Ideas & Examples." IvyPanda , 29 Feb. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/plagiarism-essay-topics/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '90 Plagiarism Topics, Ideas & Examples'. 29 February.

IvyPanda . 2024. "90 Plagiarism Topics, Ideas & Examples." February 29, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/plagiarism-essay-topics/.

1. IvyPanda . "90 Plagiarism Topics, Ideas & Examples." February 29, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/plagiarism-essay-topics/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "90 Plagiarism Topics, Ideas & Examples." February 29, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/plagiarism-essay-topics/.

IvyPanda uses cookies and similar technologies to enhance your experience, enabling functionalities such as:

• Basic site functions
• Ensuring secure, safe transactions
• Secure account login
• Remembering account, browser, and regional preferences
• Remembering privacy and security settings
• Analyzing site traffic and usage
• Personalized search, content, and recommendations
• Displaying relevant, targeted ads on and off IvyPanda

Please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy for detailed information.

Certain technologies we use are essential for critical functions such as security and site integrity, account authentication, security and privacy preferences, internal site usage and maintenance data, and ensuring the site operates correctly for browsing and transactions.

Cookies and similar technologies are used to enhance your experience by:

• Remembering general and regional preferences
• Personalizing content, search, recommendations, and offers

Some functions, such as personalized recommendations, account preferences, or localization, may not work correctly without these technologies. For more details, please refer to IvyPanda's Cookies Policy .

To enable personalized advertising (such as interest-based ads), we may share your data with our marketing and advertising partners using cookies and other technologies. These partners may have their own information collected about you. Turning off the personalized advertising setting won't stop you from seeing IvyPanda ads, but it may make the ads you see less relevant or more repetitive.

Personalized advertising may be considered a "sale" or "sharing" of the information under California and other state privacy laws, and you may have the right to opt out. Turning off personalized advertising allows you to exercise your right to opt out. Learn more in IvyPanda's Cookies Policy and Privacy Policy .

• Utility Menu

fa3d988da6f218669ec27d6b6019a0cd

A publication of the harvard college writing program.

Harvard Guide to Using Sources 

• The Honor Code
• What Constitutes Plagiarism?

In academic writing, it is considered plagiarism to draw any idea or any language from someone else without adequately crediting that source in your paper. It doesn't matter whether the source is a published author, another student, a website without clear authorship, a website that sells academic papers, or any other person: Taking credit for anyone else's work is stealing, and it is unacceptable in all academic situations, whether you do it intentionally or by accident.

The ease with which you can find information of all kinds online means that you need to be extra vigilant about keeping track of where you are getting information and ideas and about giving proper credit to the authors of the sources you use. If you cut and paste from an electronic document into your notes and forget to clearly label the document in your notes, or if you draw information from a series of websites without taking careful notes, you may end up taking credit for ideas that aren't yours, whether you mean to or not.

It's important to remember that every website is a document with an author, and therefore every website must be cited properly in your paper. For example, while it may seem obvious to you that an idea drawn from Professor Steven Pinker's book The Language Instinct should only appear in your paper if you include a clear citation, it might be less clear that information you glean about language acquisition from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy website warrants a similar citation. Even though the authorship of this encyclopedia entry is less obvious than it might be if it were a print article (you need to scroll down the page to see the author's name, and if you don't do so you might mistakenly think an author isn't listed), you are still responsible for citing this material correctly. Similarly, if you consult a website that has no clear authorship, you are still responsible for citing the website as a source for your paper. The kind of source you use, or the absence of an author linked to that source, does not change the fact that you always need to cite your sources (see Evaluating Web Sources ).

Verbatim Plagiarism

If you copy language word for word from another source and use that language in your paper, you are plagiarizing verbatim . Even if you write down your own ideas in your own words and place them around text that you've drawn directly from a source, you must give credit to the author of the source material, either by placing the source material in quotation marks and providing a clear citation, or by paraphrasing the source material and providing a clear citation.

The passage below comes from Ellora Derenoncourt’s article, “Can You Move to Opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration.”

Here is the article citation in APA style:

Derenoncourt, E. (2022). Can you move to opportunity? Evidence from the Great Migration. The American Economic Review , 112(2), 369–408. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20200002

Source material

Why did urban Black populations in the North increase so dramatically between 1940 and 1970? After a period of reduced mobility during the Great Depression, Black out-migration from the South resumed at an accelerated pace after 1940. Wartime jobs in the defense industry and in naval shipyards led to substantial Black migration to California and other Pacific states for the first time since the Migration began. Migration continued apace to midwestern cities in the 1950s and1960s, as the booming automobile industry attracted millions more Black southerners to the North, particularly to cities like Detroit or Cleveland. Of the six million Black migrants who left the South during the Great Migration, four million of them migrated between 1940 and 1970 alone.

Plagiarized version

While this student has written her own sentence introducing the topic, she has copied the italicized sentences directly from the source material. She has left out two sentences from Derenoncourt’s paragraph, but has reproduced the rest verbatim:

But things changed mid-century. After a period of reduced mobility during the Great Depression, Black out-migration from the South resumed at an accelerated pace after 1940. Wartime jobs in the defense industry and in naval shipyards led to substantial Black migration to California and other Pacific states for the first time since the Migration began. Migration continued apace to midwestern cities in the 1950s and1960s, as the booming automobile industry attracted millions more Black southerners to the North, particularly to cities like Detroit or Cleveland.

Acceptable version #1: Paraphrase with citation

In this version the student has paraphrased Derenoncourt’s passage, making it clear that these ideas come from a source by introducing the section with a clear signal phrase ("as Derenoncourt explains…") and citing the publication date, as APA style requires.

But things changed mid-century. In fact, as Derenoncourt (2022) explains, the wartime increase in jobs in both defense and naval shipyards marked the first time during the Great Migration that Black southerners went to California and other west coast states. After the war, the increase in jobs in the car industry led to Black southerners choosing cities in the midwest, including Detroit and Cleveland.

Acceptable version #2 : Direct quotation with citation or direct quotation and paraphrase with citation

If you quote directly from an author and cite the quoted material, you are giving credit to the author. But you should keep in mind that quoting long passages of text is only the best option if the particular language used by the author is important to your paper. Social scientists and STEM scholars rarely quote in their writing, paraphrasing their sources instead. If you are writing in the humanities, you should make sure that you only quote directly when you think it is important for your readers to see the original language.

In the example below, the student quotes part of the passage and paraphrases the rest.

But things changed mid-century. In fact, as Derenoncourt (2022) explains, “after a period of reduced mobility during the Great Depression, Black out-migration from the South resumed at an accelerated pace after 1940” (p. 379). Derenoncourt notes that after the war, the increase in jobs in the car industry led to Black southerners choosing cities in the midwest, including Detroit and Cleveland.

Mosaic Plagiarism

If you copy bits and pieces from a source (or several sources), changing a few words here and there without either adequately paraphrasing or quoting directly, the result is mosaic plagiarism . Even if you don't intend to copy the source, you may end up with this type of plagiarism as a result of careless note-taking and confusion over where your source's ideas end and your own ideas begin. You may think that you've paraphrased sufficiently or quoted relevant passages, but if you haven't taken careful notes along the way, or if you've cut and pasted from your sources, you can lose track of the boundaries between your own ideas and those of your sources. It's not enough to have good intentions and to cite some of the material you use. You are responsible for making clear distinctions between your ideas and the ideas of the scholars who have informed your work. If you keep track of the ideas that come from your sources and have a clear understanding of how your own ideas differ from those ideas, and you follow the correct citation style, you will avoid mosaic plagiarism.

Indeed, of the more than 3500 hours of instruction during medical school, an average of less than 60 hours are devoted to all of bioethics, health law and health economics combined . Most of the instruction is during the preclinical courses, leaving very little instructional time when students are experiencing bioethical or legal challenges during their hands-on, clinical training. More than 60 percent of the instructors in bioethics, health law, and health economics have not published since 1990 on the topic they are teaching.

--Persad, G.C., Elder, L., Sedig,L., Flores, L., & Emanuel, E. (2008). The current state of medical school education in bioethics, health law, and health economics. Journal of Law, Medicine, and Ethics 36 , 89-94.

Students can absorb the educational messages in medical dramas when they view them for entertainment. In fact, even though they were not created specifically for education, these programs can be seen as an entertainment-education tool [43, 44]. In entertainment-education shows, viewers are exposed to educational content in entertainment contexts, using visual language that is easy to understand and triggers emotional engagement [45]. The enhanced emotional engagement and cognitive development [5] and moral imagination make students more sensitive to training [22].

--Cambra-Badii, I., Moyano, E., Ortega, I., Josep-E Baños, & Sentí, M. (2021). TV medical dramas: Health sciences students’ viewing habits and potential for teaching issues related to bioethics and professionalism. BMC Medical Education, 21 , 1-11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-02947-7

Paragraph #1.

All of the ideas in this paragraph after the first sentence are drawn directly from Persad. But because the student has placed the citation mid-paragraph, the final two sentences wrongly appear to be the student’s own idea:

In order to advocate for the use of medical television shows in the medical education system, it is also important to look at the current bioethical curriculum. In the more than 3500 hours of training that students undergo in medical school, only about 60 hours are focused on bioethics, health law, and health economics (Persad et al, 2008). It is also problematic that students receive this training before they actually have spent time treating patients in the clinical setting. Most of these hours are taught by instructors without current publications in the field.

Paragraph #2.

All of the italicized ideas in this paragraph are either paraphrased or taken verbatim from Cambra-Badii, et al., but the student does not cite the source at all. As a result, readers will assume that the student has come up with these ideas himself:

Students can absorb the educational messages in medical dramas when they view them for entertainment. It doesn’t matter if the shows were designed for medical students; they can still be a tool for education. In these hybrid entertainment-education shows, viewers are exposed to educational content that triggers an emotional reaction. By allowing for this emotional, cognitive, and moral engagement, the shows make students more sensitive to training . There may be further applications to this type of education: the role of entertainment as a way of encouraging students to consider ethical situations could be extended to other professions, including law or even education.

The student has come up with the final idea in the paragraph (that this type of ethical training could apply to other professions), but because nothing in the paragraph is cited, it reads as if it is part of a whole paragraph of his own ideas, rather than the point that he is building to after using the ideas from the article without crediting the authors.

Acceptable version

In the first paragraph, the student uses signal phrases in nearly every sentence to reference the authors (“According to Persad et al.,” “As the researchers argue,” “They also note”), which makes it clear throughout the paragraph that all of the paragraph’s information has been drawn from Persad et al. The student also uses a clear APA in-text citation to point the reader to the original article. In the second paragraph, the student paraphrases and cites the source’s ideas and creates a clear boundary behind those ideas and his own, which appear in the final paragraph.

In order to advocate for the use of medical television shows in the medical education system, it is also important to look at the current bioethical curriculum. According to Persad et al. (2008), only about one percent of teaching time throughout the four years of medical school is spent on ethics. As the researchers argue, this presents a problem because the students are being taught about ethical issues before they have a chance to experience those issues themselves. They also note that more than sixty percent of instructors teaching bioethics to medical students have no recent publications in the subject.

The research suggests that medical dramas may be a promising source for discussions of medical ethics. Cambra-Badii et al. (2021) explain that even when watched for entertainment, medical shows can help viewers engage emotionally with the characters and may prime them to be more receptive to training in medical ethics. There may be further applications to this type of education: the role of entertainment as a way of encouraging students to consider ethical situations could be extended to other professions, including law or even education.

Inadequate Paraphrase

When you paraphrase, your task is to distill the source's ideas in your own words. It's not enough to change a few words here and there and leave the rest; instead, you must completely restate the ideas in the passage in your own words. If your own language is too close to the original, then you are plagiarizing, even if you do provide a citation.

In order to make sure that you are using your own words, it's a good idea to put away the source material while you write your paraphrase of it. This way, you will force yourself to distill the point you think the author is making and articulate it in a new way. Once you have done this, you should look back at the original and make sure that you have represented the source’s ideas accurately and that you have not used the same words or sentence structure. If you do want to use some of the author's words for emphasis or clarity, you must put those words in quotation marks and provide a citation.

The passage below comes from Michael Sandel’s article, “The Case Against Perfection.” Here’s the article citation in MLA style:

Sandel, Michael. “The Case Against Perfection.” The Atlantic , April 2004, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/04/the-case-against-pe... .

Though there is much to be said for this argument, I do not think the main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is that they undermine effort and erode human agency. The deeper danger is that they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean aspiration to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires. The problem is not the drift to mechanism but the drive to mastery. And what the drive to mastery misses and may even destroy is an appreciation of the gifted character of human powers and achievements.

The version below is an inadequate paraphrase because the student has only cut or replaced a few words: “I do not think the main problem” became “the main problem is not”; “deeper danger” became “bigger problem”; “aspiration” became “desire”; “the gifted character of human powers and achievements” became “the gifts that make our achievements possible.”

The main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is not that they undermine effort and erode human agency. The bigger problem is that they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean desire to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires. The problem is not the drift to mechanism but the drive to mastery. And what the drive to mastery misses and may even destroy is an appreciation of the gifts that make our achievements possible (Sandel).

Acceptable version #1: Adequate paraphrase with citation

In this version, the student communicates Sandel’s ideas but does not borrow language from Sandel. Because the student uses Sandel’s name in the first sentence and has consulted an online version of the article without page numbers, there is no need for a parenthetical citation.

Michael Sandel disagrees with the argument that genetic engineering is a problem because it replaces the need for humans to work hard and make their own choices. Instead, he argues that we should be more concerned that the decision to use genetic enhancement is motivated by a desire to take control of nature and bend it to our will instead of appreciating its gifts.

Acceptable version #2: Direct quotation with citation

In this version, the student uses Sandel’s words in quotation marks and provides a clear MLA in-text citation. In cases where you are going to talk about the exact language that an author uses, it is acceptable to quote longer passages of text. If you are not going to discuss the exact language, you should paraphrase rather than quoting extensively.

The author argues that “the main problem with enhancement and genetic engineering is not that they undermine effort and erode human agency,” but, rather that “they represent a kind of hyperagency—a Promethean desire to remake nature, including human nature, to serve our purposes and satisfy our desires. The problem is not the drift to mechanism but the drive to mastery. And what the drive to mastery misses and may even destroy is an appreciation of the gifts that make our achievements possible” (Sandel).

Uncited Paraphrase

When you use your own language to describe someone else's idea, that idea still belongs to the author of the original material. Therefore, it's not enough to paraphrase the source material responsibly; you also need to cite the source, even if you have changed the wording significantly. As with quoting, when you paraphrase you are offering your reader a glimpse of someone else's work on your chosen topic, and you should also provide enough information for your reader to trace that work back to its original form. The rule of thumb here is simple: Whenever you use ideas that you did not think up yourself, you need to give credit to the source in which you found them, whether you quote directly from that material or provide a responsible paraphrase.

The passage below comes from C. Thi Nguyen’s article, “Echo Chambers and Epistemic Bubbles.”

Here’s the citation for the article, in APA style:

Nguyen, C. (2020). Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles. Episteme, 17 (2), 141-161. doi:10.1017/epi.2018.32

Epistemic bubbles can easily form accidentally. But the most plausible explanation for the particular features of echo chambers is something more malicious. Echo chambers are excellent tools to maintain, reinforce, and expand power through epistemic control. Thus, it is likely (though not necessary) that echo chambers are set up intentionally, or at least maintained, for this functionality (Nguyen, 2020).

The student who wrote the paraphrase below has drawn these ideas directly from Nguyen’s article but has not credited the author. Although she paraphrased adequately, she is still responsible for citing Nguyen as the source of this information.

Echo chambers and epistemic bubbles have different origins. While epistemic bubbles can be created organically, it’s more likely that echo chambers will be formed by those who wish to keep or even grow their control over the information that people hear and understand.

In this version, the student eliminates any possible ambiguity about the source of the ideas in the paragraph. By using a signal phrase to name the author whenever the source of the ideas could be unclear, the student clearly attributes these ideas to Nguyen.

According to Nguyen (2020), echo chambers and epistemic bubbles have different origins. Nguyen argues that while epistemic bubbles can be created organically, it’s more likely that echo chambers will be formed by those who wish to keep or even grow their control over the information that people hear and understand.

Uncited Quotation

When you put source material in quotation marks in your essay, you are telling your reader that you have drawn that material from somewhere else. But it's not enough to indicate that the material in quotation marks is not the product of your own thinking or experimentation: You must also credit the author of that material and provide a trail for your reader to follow back to the original document. This way, your reader will know who did the original work and will also be able to go back and consult that work if they are interested in learning more about the topic. Citations should always go directly after quotations.

The passage below comes from Deirdre Mask’s nonfiction book, The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power.

Here is the MLA citation for the book:

Mask, Deirdre. The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power. St. Martin’s Griffin, 2021.

In New York, even addresses are for sale. The city allows a developer, for the bargain price of $11,000 (as of 2019), to apply to change the street address to something more attractive.

It’s not enough for the student to indicate that these words come from a source; the source must be cited:

After all, “in New York, even addresses are for sale. The city allows a developer, for the bargain price of $11,000 (as of 2019), to apply to change the street address to something more attractive.”

Here, the student has cited the source of the quotation using an MLA in-text citation:

After all, “in New York, even addresses are for sale. The city allows a developer, for the bargain price of $11,000 (as of 2019), to apply to change the street address to something more attractive” (Mask 229).

Using Material from Another Student's Work

In some courses you will be allowed or encouraged to form study groups, to work together in class generating ideas, or to collaborate on your thinking in other ways. Even in those cases, it's imperative that you understand whether all of your writing must be done independently, or whether group authorship is permitted. Most often, even in courses that allow some collaborative discussion, the writing or calculations that you do must be your own. This doesn't mean that you shouldn't collect feedback on your writing from a classmate or a writing tutor; rather, it means that the argument you make (and the ideas you rely on to make it) should either be your own or you should give credit to the source of those ideas.

So what does this mean for the ideas that emerge from class discussion or peer review exercises? Unlike the ideas that your professor offers in lecture (you should always cite these), ideas that come up in the course of class discussion or peer review are collaborative, and often not just the product of one individual's thinking. If, however, you see a clear moment in discussion when a particular student comes up with an idea, you should cite that student. In any case, when your work is informed by class discussions, it's courteous and collegial to include a discursive footnote in your paper that lets your readers know about that discussion. So, for example, if you were writing a paper about the narrator in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried and you came up with your idea during a discussion in class, you might place a footnote in your paper that states the following: "I am indebted to the members of my Expos 20 section for sparking my thoughts about the role of the narrator as Greek Chorus in Tim O'Brien's The Things They Carried ."

It is important to note that collaboration policies can vary by course, even within the same department, and you are responsible for familiarizing yourself with each course's expectation about collaboration. Collaboration policies are often stated in the syllabus, but if you are not sure whether it is appropriate to collaborate on work for any course, you should always consult your instructor.

• The Exception: Common Knowledge
• Other Scenarios to Avoid
• Why Does it Matter if You Plagiarize?
• How to Avoid Plagiarism
• Harvard University Plagiarism Policy

PDFs for This Section

• Avoiding Plagiarism
• Online Library and Citation Tools

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS A lock ( Lock Locked padlock icon ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

• Publications
• Account settings
• Advanced Search
• Journal List

What is plagiarism and how to avoid it?

Ish kumar dhammi, rehan ul haq.

• Author information
• Copyright and License information

Address for correspondence: Dr. Ish Kumar Dhammi, Department of Orthopaedics, UCMS and Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital, Dilshad Garden, New Delhi - 110 095, India. E-mail: [email protected]

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Writing a manuscript is an art. Any clinician or an academician, has a hidden desire to publish his/her work in an indexed journal. Writing has been made mandatory for promotions in certain departments, so the clinicians are more inclined to publish. Often, we note that we (Indian Journal of Orthopaedics) receive more articles from China, Turkey, and South Korea (abroad) instead of from our own country though the journal is an official publication of Indian Orthopaedic Association. Therefore, we have decided to encourage more and more publications, especially from our own country. For that reason, we have decided to educate our members by publishing an editorial on “How to write a paper?,” which is likely to be published soon. In one of our last editorials, we discussed indexing. In this issue, we will be discussing the plagiarism. In forthcoming issues, we are planning to discuss “Ethics in publication,” How to write Introduction, Materials and Methods, Results, Discussion, Referencing, Title, Abstract, and Keywords, and then how to write case report which is acceptable. The editorial team tries to help out our readers, so that their hidden instinct of writing their own work could be made true.

D EFINITION OF P LAGIARISM

Plagiarism is derived from Latin word “ plagiarius ” which means “kidnapper,” who abducts the child. 1 The word plagiarism entered the Oxford English dictionary in 1621. Plagiarism has been defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as “the act of taking the writings of another person and passing them off as ones own.” 2 It is an act of forgery, piracy, and fraud and is stated to be a serious crime of academia. 3 It is also a violation of copyright laws. Honesty in scientific practice and in publication is necessary. The World Association of Medical Editors 4 (WAME) defines plagiarism as “… the use of others’ published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source.”

In 1999, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) 5 , 6 defined plagiarism as “Plagiarism ranges from the unreferenced use of others’ published and unpublished ideas including research grant applications to submission under new authorship of a complex paper, sometimes in a different language. It may occur at any stage of planning, research, writing or publication; it applies to print and electronic versions.”

F ORMS OF P LAGIARISM

Verbatim plagiarism: When one submits someone else's words verbatim in his/her own name without even acknowledging him publically. Copy and paste from a published article without referencing is a common form of verbatim plagiarism. Most commonly, it is seen in introduction and discussion part of manuscript 2 , 7

Mosaic plagiarism: In this type of plagiarism each word is not copied but it involves mixing ones own words in someone else's ideas and opinions. This is copying and pasting in patchy manner 2

Paraphrasing: If one rewrites any part/paragraph of manuscript in his/her own words it is called paraphrasing. Paraphrasing is a restatement in your own words, of someone else's ideas. Changing a few words of the original sentences does not make it your writing. Just changing words cannot make it the property of borrower; hence, this should be properly referenced. If it is not referenced, it will amount to plagiarism

Self plagiarism: “Publication of one's own data that have already been published is not acceptable since it distorts scientific record.” 1 Self-plagiarized publications do not contribute to scientific work; they just increase the number of papers published without justification in scientific research. 8 The authors get benefit in the form of increased number of published papers. 8 Self plagiarism involves dishonesty but not intellectual theft. 9 Roig 10 gave classification of self plagiarism and divided it into four types: (i) Duplicate (redundant) publication, (ii) augmented publication, (iii) segmented publication, and (iv) text recycling.

• Duplicate publication: When an author submits identical or almost identical manuscript (same data, results, and discussion) to two different journals, it is considered as duplicate (redundant) publication. 9 As per COPE guidelines, this is an offense and editor can take an action as per the COPE flowchart
• Augmented publication: If the author adds additional data to his/her previously published work and changes title, modifies aim of the study, and recalculates results, it amounts to augmented publication. Plagiarism detection software usually do not pick it because it is not same by verbatim. This self plagiarism is as such technical plagiarism and is not considered with same strictness as plagiarism. The editor may consider it for publication in the following three situations: If author refers to his/her previous work; if ’methods’ cannot be written in any other form; and if author clearly states that new manuscript contains data from previous publication 10
• Segmented publication: Also called “Salami-Sliced” publication. In this case, two or more papers are derived from the same experimental/research/original work. Salami-sliced papers are difficult to detect and usually are pointed out by reviewers or readers. The decision regarding such manuscript is again on editor's shoulder. The author must be asked to refer to his/her previously published work and explain reasonably the connection of the segmented paper to his/her previously published work
• Text recycling: If the author uses large portions of his/her own already published text in his/her new manuscript, it is called text recycling. It can be detected by plagiarism software. It can be handled as per the COPE guidelines.

Cyber plagiarism: “Copying or downloading in part or in their entirety articles or research papers and ideas from the internet and not giving proper attribution is unethical and falls in the range of cyber plagiarism” 2

Image plagiarism: Using an image or video without receiving proper permission or providing appropriate citation is plagiarism. 7 “Images can be tampered on support findings, promote a specific technique over another to strengthen the correctness of poorly visualized findings, remove the defects of an image and to misrepresent an image from what it really is”? 11

H OW TO D ETECT P LAGIARISM ?

It is generally difficult to detect plagiarism, but information technology has made available few websites which can detect/catch plagiarism. Few of them are www.ithentical.com , www.turnitin.com , www.plagiarism.org , etc. 12

Besides this, learned and watchful reviewers and readers can detect it due to his/her familiarity with published material in his/her area of interest.

H OW TO A VOID P LAGIARISM ?

Practice the ethical writing honestly. Keep honesty in all scientific writings. Crediting all the original sources. When you fail to cite your sources or when you cite them inadequately, you commit plagiarism, an offense that is taken extremely seriously in academic world and is a misconduct. Some simple dos and don’ts 5 are outlined in Table 1 .

Dos and don’ts of plagiarism

In the following situation, permission is required to use published work from publisher to avoid plagiarism. 8

Directly quoting significant portion of a published work. How much text may be used without approaching publisher for permission is not specified. The best approach is whenever in doubt, ask for permission

Reproducing a table

Reproducing a figure/image.

H OW TO D EAL W ITH P LAGIARISM

Plagiarism is considered academic dishonesty and breach of ethics. Plagiarism is not in itself a crime but can constitute copyright infringement. 7 In academia, it is a serious ethical offense. Plagiarism is not punished by law but rather by institutions. Professional associations, educational institutions, and publishing companies can pose penalties, suspensions, and even expulsions of authors. 7

As per the COPE guidelines, “If editors suspect misconduct by authors, reviewer's editorial staff or other editors then they have a duty to take action. This duty extends to both published and unpublished papers. Editors first see a response from those accused. If the editors are not satisfied with the response, they should ask the employers of the authors, reviewers, or editors or some other appropriate body to investigate and take appropriate action.” 6

If the editor is satisfied that the act of plagiarism has taken place, minimum he should do is “reject” the manuscript if it is in different stage of editorial process and “retract” if it is already published.

To conclude, we must increase awareness about plagiarism and ethical issues among our scientists and authors. We must be honest in our work and should not violate copyright law. There should be serious steps against authors, which should bring disrespect to author and even loss of his academic position.

We will end it by quote of Albert Einstein “Many people say that it is the intellect which makes a great scientist, they are wrong, it is the character.”

R EFERENCES

• 1. Aronson JK. Plagiarism – Please don’t copy. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2007;64:403–5. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2125.2007.03042.x. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 2. Jawad F. Plagiarism and integrity in research. J Pak Med Assoc. 2013;63:1446–7. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 3. Pechnick JA. A Short Guide to Writing about Biology. 4th ed. New York: Addison Wesley Longman; 2001. [ Google Scholar ]
• 4. World Association of Medical Editors. Publication Ethics Policies for Medical Journals. [Last accessed on 2016 Oct 14]. Available from: “http://wwwwameorg/resources/publication-ethics-policies-for-medical-journals.” http://www.wameorg/resources/publication-ethics-policies-for-medical-journals .
• 5. Handa S. Plagiarism and publication ethics: Dos and don’ts. Indian J Dermatol Venereol Leprol. 2008;74:301–3. doi: 10.4103/0378-6323.42882. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 6. Committee on Publication Ethics. Guidelines on Good Publication and the Code of Conduct. [Last accessed on 2016 Oct 14]. Available from: http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines .
• 7. [Last accessed on 2016 Oct 14]. Available from: http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/
• 8. Merriman J. Plagiarism – What is it. How to avoid it? Am Fam Physician. 2010;82:1428. [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 9. Supak-Smocic V, Bilic-Zulle L. How do we handle self-plagiarism in submitted manuscripts? Biochem Med (Zagreb) 2013;23:150–3. doi: 10.11613/BM.2013.019. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 10. Roig M. Plagiarism and self-plagiarism: What every author should know. Biochem Med. 2010;20:295–300. [ Google Scholar ]
• 11. Parrish D, Noonan B. Image manipulation as research misconduct. Sci Eng Ethics. 2009;15:161–7. doi: 10.1007/s11948-008-9108-z. [ DOI ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• 12. Mehic B. Plagiarism and self-plagiarism. Bosn J Basic Med Sci. 2013;13:139. doi: 10.17305/bjbms.2013.2344. [ DOI ] [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ Google Scholar ]
• View on publisher site
• PDF (402.1 KB)
• Collections

Similar articles

Cited by other articles, links to ncbi databases.

• Download .nbib .nbib
• Format: AMA APA MLA NLM

Add to Collections

Prevent plagiarism, run a free plagiarism check.

• Knowledge Base
• Examples of Plagiarism & Tips for Avoiding It

Examples of Plagiarism & Tips for Avoiding It

Published on November 1, 2021 by Tegan George . Revised on July 15, 2022.

Plagiarism means using someone else’s words or ideas without properly crediting the original author.

Some common examples of plagiarism include:

• Paraphrasing a source too closely
• Including a direct quote without quotation marks
• Copying elements of different sources and pasting them into a new document
• Leaving out an in-text citation
• Submitting a full text that is not your own

Table of contents

Paraphrasing plagiarism, verbatim plagiarism, patchwork plagiarism: combining multiple sources, common knowledge: when do i need a citation, real-life examples of plagiarism, frequently asked questions about plagiarism.

Paraphrasing means putting someone else’s ideas into your own words. In order to do so correctly, you must entirely rewrite the passage you are referencing without changing the meaning of the original text.

Every time you paraphrase, it’s important to cite the original source and avoid wording that is too similar to the original. Otherwise, you could be at risk of committing paraphrasing plagiarism .

Remember that paraphrasing doesn’t just mean switching out a few words for synonyms while retaining the original sentence structure. The author’s idea must be reformulated in a way that fits smoothly into your text.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Quoting means copying a brief passage from another text, enclosing it in quotation marks .

If you fail to include quotation marks or a citation, you’re committing verbatim plagiarism : copying someone’s exact words without acknowledgement. Even if you change a few of the words, it’s still plagiarism.

To quote correctly, introduce the quotation in your own words, make sure it’s enclosed in quotation marks, and include a citation showing where it comes from.

Patchwork plagiarism , also called mosaic plagiarism, involves copying elements of different sources and combining them to create a new text. It can include both directly copying and paraphrasing content without citation.

It can be challenging to incorporate several sources into your work at once, so be sure to double-check that you are citing each one correctly.

If you quote or paraphrase multiple sources in one sentence, it’s often best to cite each one separately, so that it’s clear what material comes from which source.

“Americans have always remembered the battle. What we often forget are the difficult decisions tribal leaders made afterward to ensure the safety of their people” (Van Heuvelen, 2020).

“Under skies darkened by smoke, gunfire and flying arrows, 210 men of the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry Unit led by Lt. Colonel George Custer confronted thousands of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors on June 25, 1876, near the Little Big Horn River in present-day Montana. The engagement was one in a series of battles and negotiations between Plains Indians and U.S. forces over control of Western territory, collectively known as the Sioux Wars” (McDermott, 2021). Example: Patchwork plagiarism For many Americans, the headdress is a well-known symbol of indigenous America indistinguishable from the narrative of the “wild west and cowboys and Indians.” One of the most famous examples of the cowboys versus Indians narrative is the Battle of Little Bighorn.

On June 25, 1876, 210 men of the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry Unit led by Lt. Colonel George Custer confronted thousands of Lakota Sioux and Northern Cheyenne warriors . Custer and his men were handily defeated, and Americans have always remembered the battle as “Custer’s Last Stand.” What is often forgotten is the difficult decisions tribal leaders made afterward to ensure the safety of their people . Example: Correctly citing multiple sources The headdress is a well-known symbol of indigenous America, forming part of “the narrative of the wild west and cowboys and Indians” (Van Heuvelen, 2020). One of the most famous examples of this narrative is the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Common knowledge refers to information you can reasonably expect the average reader to accept without proof.

For this kind of information, you don’t need a citation. For example, you won’t be accused of plagiarism for failing to cite your sources when you mention Paris is the capital city of France.

In order to be considered common knowledge, your statement must be widely known, undisputed, and easily verified. It also generally cannot be attributed to a specific person or paper. When in doubt, add a citation.

Plagiarism is most commonly discussed in the context of academia, but it’s a relevant concern across all sorts of different industries, from pop music to politics.

• Plagiarism in academia
• Plagiarism in art
• Plagiarism in politics
• Plagiarism in music

In 2006, the Brookings Institute accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of having plagiarized 80% of his economics dissertation from a paper published by the University of Pittsburgh a few decades earlier.

Dissertation plagiarism committed by other famous politicians, such as former Senator John Walsh, former German Defense Secretary Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, and former Hungarian President Pal Schmitt, led to their resignations and their degrees being revoked.

Source: CNN Reusing or copying existing materials has been a big part of many types of art. However, it is still possible to plagiarize art.

In 1966, famous Pop Art artist Andy Warhol was sued by photographer Patricia Caulfield, who claimed unauthorized use of one of her photographs. Warhol had seen her photo of hibiscus flowers in the 1964 issue of Modern Photography  and used it for his silkscreen work Flowers .

While Warhol’s team argued that this was “fair use,” a judge determined that Warhol had, in fact, plagiarized the photo. This led to enduring reputation costs and a large financial settlement.

Source: Garden Collage Many political speeches revolve around similar themes, but while it is natural to draw inspiration from previous speeches, paraphrasing them too closely is considered plagiarism.

In 2016, a speech Melania Trump gave at the Republican National Convention was found to have copied several paragraphs almost verbatim from a speech Michelle Obama gave at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

While her staff claimed that she had incorporated “fragments of others’ speeches that reflected her own thinking,” she was widely considered to have plagiarized.

Joe Biden was found to have committed similar plagiarism in a speech he gave during the 1988 presidential campaign, paraphrasing a speech by Welsh politician Neil Kinnock too closely.

Source: CNN While technically no one owns a chord progression or particular combination of sounds, plagiarism in the music industry is a common accusation.

In 2018, the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the 2013 hit song “Blurred Lines,” by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams, infringed on the copyright of the song “Got to Give it Up,” by the late Marvin Gaye. The Gaye family was awarded over $5 million in damages as well as 50% of the royalties moving forward.

This sets a precedent that new music must be different in both style and substance from previously copyrighted songs. Other hit artists, such as Sam Smith, George Harrison, and Olivia Rodrigo, have faced similar consequences.

Plagiarism means presenting someone else’s work as your own without giving proper credit to the original author. In academic writing, plagiarism involves using words, ideas, or information from a source without including a citation .

Plagiarism can have serious consequences , even when it’s done accidentally. To avoid plagiarism, it’s important to keep track of your sources and cite them correctly.

Some examples of plagiarism include:

• Copying and pasting a Wikipedia article into the body of an assignment
• Quoting a source without including a citation
• Not paraphrasing a source properly, such as maintaining wording too close to the original
• Forgetting to cite the source of an idea

The most surefire way to avoid plagiarism is to always cite your sources . When in doubt, cite!

If you’re concerned about plagiarism, consider running your work through a plagiarism checker tool prior to submission. Scribbr’s Plagiarism Checker takes less than 10 minutes and can help you turn in your paper with confidence.

Common knowledge does not need to be cited. However, you should be extra careful when deciding what counts as common knowledge.

Common knowledge encompasses information that the average educated reader would accept as true without needing the extra validation of a source or citation.

Common knowledge should be widely known, undisputed and easily verified. When in doubt, always cite your sources.

Paraphrasing without crediting the original author is a form of plagiarism , because you’re presenting someone else’s ideas as if they were your own.

However, paraphrasing is not plagiarism if you correctly cite the source . This means including an in-text citation and a full reference, formatted according to your required citation style .

As well as citing, make sure that any paraphrased text is completely rewritten in your own words.

Yes, reusing your own work without acknowledgment is considered self-plagiarism . This can range from re-submitting an entire assignment to reusing passages or data from something you’ve turned in previously without citing them.

Self-plagiarism often has the same consequences as other types of plagiarism . If you want to reuse content you wrote in the past, make sure to check your university’s policy or consult your professor.

Cite this Scribbr article

If you want to cite this source, you can copy and paste the citation or click the “Cite this Scribbr article” button to automatically add the citation to our free Citation Generator.

George, T. (2022, July 15). Examples of Plagiarism & Tips for Avoiding It. Scribbr. Retrieved October 15, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/plagiarism/examples-of-plagiarism/

Is this article helpful?

Tegan George

Other students also liked, how to avoid plagiarism | tips on citing sources, what is common knowledge | definition & examples, what is self-plagiarism | definition & how to avoid it, what is your plagiarism score.