Plagiarism

Plagiarism is to present someone else’s work (or part of) without recognizing the authorship. It can be viewed from a legal as well as an ethical perspective. As a consequence, the definition of plagiarism depends on the chosen perspective:

Plagiarism, regarded as copyright infringement

From the copyright point of view, plagiarism is to present someone else’s copyrighted work (or part of) as one’s own. The act covers both verbatim lifting of text and paraphrasing without providing a proper reference.

To be protected by copyright, a work not only has to be original, but also to be in a tangible form. Ideas and theories are not protected by copyright. In addition, literature references are not protected, nor facts or common phrases, as none of these are viewed as the result of an original, creative effort.

Plagiarism, ethically regarded

However, from an ethical point of view, also use of ideas and theories without reference may constitute plagiarism. The focal point is to give credit where credit is due and not claim to present original work where one is not.

From the legal perspective, the wrongdoing of plagiarism is concerned with the loss of the other; the holder of the copyright, as plagiarism undermines his or her financial possibilities. From the ethical perspective, the wrongdoing focuses more on the misrepresentation of the self.

Plagiarism may be intended or non-intended. Non-intended or unconscious plagiarism is also known as cryptomnesia.

Academic Plagiarism

Academic Plagiarism is plagiarism conducted by scientists or academics. 

Aside from the legal and ethical aspects already mentioned, academic plagiarism also may constitutes formal research misconduct. Academic plagiarism may also violate author rules or publication guidelines presented by organizations, institutions and scholarly journals.

Self-plagiarism

Self-plagiarism is the reuse of one’s own earlier publications (or part of), without referencing the earlier published work. From a legal viewpoint, self-plagiarism may constitute violation of copyright, insofar as one is reusing text where the rights to the work has been handed over, which is often the case of work published in scientific journals. Self-plagiarism may also violate author rules or publication guidelines presented by organizations, institutions and journals.

From an ethical point of view self-plagiarism can be viewed as an attempt to present already published work as new and original knowledge.

However, it is disputed to what extent self-plagiarism should be regarded as a formal research misconduct. Currently, there are only a few known cases involving self-plagiarism in academia that have led to formal verdicts of research misconduct.

References

Broome, M.E. (2004) Self-plagiarism: Oxymoron, fair use, or scientific misconduct?. Nurse Outlook, 52, 273-274.

Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) (2003) Guidelines on good publication Practice.  Identified May, 9th, 2008: http://www.publicationethics.org.uk/guidelines/reports/2003/2003pdf15.pdf

Dahlberg, J. (2007) ORI Retains Its Working Definition of Plagiarism under New Regulation. Office of research Integrity Newsletter. 15(4),4

Roig, M. (2005) Re-using text from ones own previously published papers: An exploratory study of potential self-plagiarism. Psychological Reports, 97, 43-49.

Rosenmeier, M. (2007) Ophavsret for begyndere – en bog til ikke-jurister. København: Jurist- og Økonomforbundets Forlag.