Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else’s intellectual property (i.e., words and/or ideas) without full acknowledgment or as one’s own. According to P.org (2017), “[a]lmost all forms of expression fall under copyright protection as long as they are recorded in some way (such as a book or a computer file).”

Presenting another person’s ideas and research as one’s own without adequately referencing the original work is also plagiarism, even if the new text is written in one’s own words. Transparent note-taking and proper citation are key to avoiding plagiarism.

Turnitin (2016) outlines ten different types of plagiarism in which words and phrases are copied.

Turnitin’s (2016) Plagiarism Spectrum

1. Clone: Submitting another’s work, word-for-word as one’s own
2. CTRL+C: Contains significant portions of text from a single source without alterations
3. Find – Replace: Changing key words and phrases but retaining the essential content of the source
4. Remix: Paraphrasing from multiple sources, made to fit together
5. Recycle: Borrows generously from the writer’s previous work without citation
6. Hybrid: Combines perfectly cited sourses with copied passages without citation
7. Mashup: Mixes copied material from multiple sources
8. 404 Error: Includes citations to non-existent or inaccurate information about sources
9. Aggregator: Includes proper citation to sources but the paper contains almost no original work
10. Re-tweet: Includes proper citation, but relies too closely on the text’s original wording and/or structure

References:

P.org. (2017). What is Plagiarism? Turnitin. https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism
Turnitin. (2016). The Plagiarism Spectrum. https://www.turnitin.com/static/plagiarism-spectrum/