Plagiarism in research
Plagiarism in research
The ALLEA Code defines plagiarism as: using other people’s work or ideas without giving proper credit to the original source.
While the definition is quite simple, the practical implications are more complicated. The following are examples of actions that can be considered to be plagiarism (plagiarism.org, examples retrieved February 17, 2024):
- turning in someone else’s work as your own
- copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
- failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
- giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
- changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
- copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not.
Cartoon by Patrick Hochstenbach under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 license
Please note that the term ‘plagiarism’ is also used outside academia to refer to violations of ethics in fields such as journalism and the arts. The standards used in such fields may be different from those in academia.
Finally, plagiarism has a rather complex relationship to intellectual property rights. While plagiarism itself is not a crime, some forms of plagiarism may involve infringement of copyright, moral rights, or other legal infringements that could lead to prosecution. There are some (rare) cases in which academics have been prosecuted for plagiarism (f.e. India, Poland). See the discussion on PlagiarismToday for more information.
Impact
As with other forms of integrity violations, plagiarism undermines the credibility of academic research, and causes loss of valuable resources. It can also undermine trust and collegiality between researchers.
Who is involved?
Senior Researcher
Senior researchers may be implicated in plagiarism by copying others’ work themselves, or by failing to ensure that their students and colleagues do not plagiarise.
Junior Researcher - Phd student
It is important for junior researchers to understand and apply the relevant rules relating to plagiarism, and to understand the difference between legitimate and illegal uses of others’ work.
Journals - Publishers
Journal editors and peer reviewers are on the front line in identifying plagiarism.
Other Researchers
Other researchers have a moral responsibility to report plagiarism if they identify it.
Self-plagiarism
Is it acceptable to reuse one’s own work? This is referred to as ‘self-plagiarism’ and is a contentious area.
Researchers in some fields argue that some degree of self-plagiarism is unavoidable because they are developing nuanced variations of their own ideas. How could you plagiarize work of which you yourself are the original author?
The ALLEA Code defines plagiarism as using ‘other people’s work or ideas without giving proper credit to the original source’. In addition, it defines ‘self-plagiarism’ as ‘re-publishing substantive parts of one’s own earlier publications, including translations, without duly acknowledging or citing the original’ as an unacceptable practice.
Whether you use other people’s work or your own, it is necessary to give credit and include the proper references to the original publication.
There may, however, be situations where reuse of your own text without crediting the previous work can be accepted. For example, small scale reuse of short passages of your own text in the introduction. theory development and/or descriptions of the method applied may not be problematic.
On the other hand, extensive self-referencing may be seen as a negative practice as it artificially inflates the number of citations to your own work (KNAW Committee on Citation Practice, 2014).
It may seem like a challenge but balance is key. Given the different angles, every case is different, so take the above considerations into account when writing a text. When in doubt, check the guidelines to authors of the journal you want to publish in.
Local collaborations
Accusations of plagiarism often occur in local collaborations where the researchers involved already have shared ideas. Keeping accurate records such as emails, notes, lab notebooks, etc. can help, as can organising regular seminars so that ideas can be shared and attributed clearly.
Interdisciplinary collaborations
Interdisciplinary research raises risks of accusations of plagiarism because of different practices for citation. More difficult cases arise when different disciplines have different practices for what is considered to be original work and if that work has to be published across different journals: original ideas may be presented in one publication for a journal in one of the disciplines involved, and the same ideas may need to be republished in a journal in the other discipline.
International collaborations
Cultural differences around plagiarism and higher education practices in general are quite well documented (Liu et al, 2010). International collaborations may therefore pose a problem for plagiarism: clear expectations and definitions need to be identified. In general, the practices of peer-reviewed journals will take precedence as the source of guidance to prevent plagiarism, since the research will not be publishable if such practices are not respected.
Some guidelines:
- 5 simple rules to avoid plagiarism. Ober, Simon, Elson (2012, Springer)
- Check your personal referencing style: what type of citer are you? (.pdf, University of Konstanz)
- Acceptable/Unacceptable:
Do you know what’s acceptable and what’s unacceptable? Video produced by the Office of Student Judicial Affairs, University of Alberta (Canada), and Townend Films.