Plagiarism: IALS Library Guides

Plagiarism is the act of taking the ideas, concepts, phrases or artistic output of another, and falsely presenting it as your own work. The roots of the word come to us from Latin - plagiarius ‘kidnapper’, and is described in the OED as ‘taking the words or ideas from someone else and passing them off as your own’.

Essentially, this is a fraudulent action which amounts to the theft of intellectual property, and is perhaps the worst crime that can be committed in terms of academic misconduct.

Academic integrity policies aim to ensure that no student has an unfair advantage over another, by requiring honesty and openness in academic practice. A key principle behind academic integrity is that any work you produce must be your own, and you must acknowledge and reference any ideas in your work that are not your own.

Academic misconduct is taken seriously by institutions and can lead to disciplinary procedures and penalties, including failure of modules and even entire degree programmes. These consequences can have a lasting impact on your potential future career – the Solicitors Regulation Authority specifically refer to plagiarism and assessment offences as something which is taken into account when assessing the character and suitability of those applying to the roll of solicitors. (The cautionary tale of former German Defence Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg should stand as a suitable warning).

Academic work should be original scholarship. Compiling the views of other people and passing them off as one's own research is not scholarship. 

Originality in scholarship demands original thought and critical reflection on the views of others not mere repetition preceded or followed by comments. You should only be citing and referring to the work of other scholars to support your own argument, or to advance/rebut theirs. Even then the norms of scholarship demand that all paraphrased passages be clearly identified as paraphrases.

The role of the potential plagiarist has become inestimably more difficult thanks to Turnitin - a tool which detects potential plagiarism by comparing a student's submitted work against a vast database of online content, including academic articles, websites, books, and previously submitted student papers. Turnitin works by highlighting sections of text that significantly match other sources, generating a "Similarity Report" that indicates where plagiarism might be present, allowing instructors to review and assess the originality of the work submitted. Virtually all academic work in the UK will have to be submitted via Turnitin. Therefore, if your submitted work contains thoughts, ideas, or words and phrases originating in someone else’s work – either as direct quotation or through paraphrase – it is vital that you correctly reference this.

For further information on footnoting and referencing, refer to our OSCOLA: Referencing and Citations LibGuide.

In 2015, Turnitin conducted a survey of teachers and academics, which identified the 10 most common forms of plagiarism in academic institutions:

• Submitting someone's work as their own.

• Taking passages from their own previous work without adding citations (self-plagiarism).

• Re-writing someone's work without properly citing sources.

• Using quotations but not citing the source.

• Interweaving various sources together in the work without citing.

• Citing some, but not all, passages that should be cited.

• Melding together cited and uncited sections of the piece.

• Providing proper citations, but failing to change the structure and wording of the borrowed ideas enough (close paraphrasing).

• Inaccurately citing a source.

• Relying too heavily on other people's work, failing to bring original thought into the text.

A further study in 2019 identified distinct typologies within academic plagiarism.

• Character-preserving plagiarism – verbatim copying without proper citation.

• Syntax-preserving plagiarism – words and synonyms are substituted.

• Semantics-preserving plagiarism – use of e.g. heavy paraphrasing, translation

• Idea-preserving plagiarism – appropriating ideas or concepts

• Ghostwriting – including collusion amongst students and contract cheating.

A further complication in recent times is the introduction of products using generative AI to the student market. Although not plagiarism in the traditional sense, using generative AI to produce content for you and using it as if it was your own is also unacceptable. For more information on how to use AI responsibly in your work, see our Using AI for academic work LibGuide.

1. Be honest – Turnitin will pick up every instance where you use other people words/phrases even when you are trying to disguise them. You will gain credit for being aware of, and correctly deploying existing sources on the body if your work as you build your argument, but you will not get away with passing it off as your own.

2. Cite everything – If in doubt as to whether you need to cite something or not, cite it! If you simply make an acknowledgement and reference your source material each time you mention someone else’s work – be it directly or indirectly, in detail or in passing – you are in the clear. Your School or Department will let you know about their preferred referencing system and should provide support.

3. Keep track of your sources – Keep a list containing bibliographic details of all sources consulted as part of your research, noting pages and chapters of interest and ideally a brief summary. This will help you keep on top of where you developed your argument and will help you avoid accidental plagiarism.

4. Proofread your work before submitting – Always double check your work before submitting it for assessment, making sure all your sources are correctly referenced. Many institutions will allow you to run your work through Turnitin prior to officially submitting to help you catch any missed sources.

5. Aim for an original argument and conclusion – The easiest (and hardest) way to avoid plagiarism is to write something completely new, or provide a fresh take on existing source material!