Plagiarism

How it is used

A serious academic offense that can lead to failed assignments, retracted articles or revoked degrees. Universities and journals check submissions with similarity software such as Turnitin or iThenticate. You commit, detect or are accused of plagiarism; the verb is plagiarize.

Example sentences

1. Copying a paragraph and changing a few words is still plagiarism.

2. The journal retracted the article after plagiarism was detected in the introduction.

Common collocations

• commit plagiarism
• detect plagiarism
• accusation of plagiarism
• plagiarism checker
• avoid plagiarism

Related terms

• academic integrityThe commitment to honesty, fairness and responsibility in study and research, including citing sources, reporting data truthfully and doing your own work.
• paraphraseTo express an author's idea in your own words and sentence structure while keeping the original meaning; the source still needs a citation.
• citeTo mention a source, such as a book or article, in your writing to show where an idea, fact or quotation comes from.
• direct quotationThe exact words of a source copied into your text, marked with quotation marks or set as an indented block, and followed by a citation with a page number.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

• plagiarism · Journalism & Media

More terms: Research Ethics and Integrity

• informed consent
• ethics approval
• confidentiality
• anonymity
• conflict of interest
• fabrication
• self-plagiarism
• retraction