Plagiarism is the act of copying someone else’s work or idea, with or without their permission, and presenting it as one’s own. To know what constitutes plagiarism, it is important to understand some important plagiarism terms and concepts.
Important Plagiarism Terminology
The following is a list of some popular plagiarism-related words and phrases:
Attribution
Attribution is the practice of citing the original source and giving credit to the creator of the original content.
Bibliography
A bibliography is a detailed list of all the sources referred to by a person to create a piece of work. Irrespective of whether or not the information present in a source is eventually used to create the work, the writer is expected to include the source in the bibliography.
Citation
A citation is the acknowledgment of one or more sources used to create a piece of writing. It indicates to readers within the text the particular source(s) from which they can get further information or evidence on the topic or subject being discussed.
Citation Cartel
Citation cartel or citation mafia is a term used in academic publishing to describe the practice of authors or journal editors teaming up and citing each other’s works. In academic publishing, any piece of writing that has a good number of citations is often considered a valuable or high-impact piece of writing. Therefore, in order to increase the number of citations, some authors or journal editors often cite articles written by people they favor rather than relevant articles.
Copyright
Copyright is a set of rights that a creator has when they come up with an original piece of work/idea. It protects the work from being copied by people, unless they are authorized to do so. From literary pieces to academic papers, copyright laws protect a wide range of content.
Copyright Infringement
Copyright infringement is the violation of copyright laws, which protect someone’s intellectual property. Any original idea or work is protected by the U.S. Copyright Act of 1970. From movie piracy to plagiarism, copying someone else’s work intentionally or unintentionally is a breach of the copyright law and is a punishable offense.
Endnotes
Endnotes are references to one or more sources that are provided at the end of an essay or an academic research paper. Like footnotes, endnotes are formatted as per the guidelines mentioned in the style guide or manual that the author of the paper is expected to adhere to.
Footnotes
Footnotes are references to one or more sources that are provided at the bottom of a page. Some authors use footnotes and a combination of other referencing styles depending on the style guide and manual they are abiding by.
Intellectual Property
Intellectual property is a type of intangible property resulting from the intellect of a person or a group of people. Novel ideas, inventions, original creative work, trade secrets, etc. are all considered intellectual property. The right to intellectual property lies with the creator and is protected by laws that prevent others from stealing the original work or idea.
Intentional Plagiarism
Copying or using someone else’s work deliberately without their consent and not giving them any credit is known as intentional plagiarism. Buying essays from online essay mills, hiring professional writers to write one’s assignment, and providing false citations are some examples of intentional plagiarism.
Misattribution
Misattribution refers to intentionally or unintentionally providing wrong citations or not giving proper attribution to the source.
Paraphrasing
Paraphrasing is the act of replacing or tweaking a few words or phrases from the source being used as a reference. When a writer presents someone else’s work by making minor changes to it without providing proper citation or attribution, then such work is considered plagiarism.
Piracy
Piracy is a type of copyright infringement which is a punishable offence. It involves stealing someone’s intellectual property such as stories, movies, music, etc. and using or circulating it without the permission of the copyright owner.
Potluck Paper
A potluck paper is a piece of writing that includes content copied from various sources. The writer usually replicates content from different sources and makes minor changes by altering the text to make it look like an original piece of writing. Such a piece of writing is considered a type of plagiarism since it involves paraphrasing.
Reference
A reference is similar to a citation. It acknowledges all the sources a writer actually used while writing a paper, an article, or any other assignment. References are often provided as a list at the end of a piece of writing.
Retraction
Retraction is the act of withdrawing a published article or piece of academic writing from the internet or journal in which it was published due to plagiarism.
Self-Plagiarism
This form of plagiarism involves reusing one’s own previously written, presented, or submitted work. For example, when a student copies some parts of an old assignment or paraphrases previously written work and presents it as new or original, it is considered self-plagiarism.
Similarity Score
Similarity score is an indicator for content similarity between two different pieces of writing. Most online plagiarism checking tools use this score to show if there is any content overlap between two written pieces.
Unintentional Plagiarism
A piece of writing is considered unintentionally plagiarized if it fails to provide proper citation and/or attribution. Even if someone paraphrases text originally written by someone else, it is still considered plagiarism.
To avoid plagiarism, it is important to know plagiarism-related terms and concepts. Besides, knowing more about plagiarism, an increased awareness of what constitutes plagiarism can go a long way in helping students learn and implement the principles of good academic conduct.
