Plagiarism is the act of taking someone else’s work, ideas, concepts, or data and passing it off as one’s own – i.e., not giving proper credit.
When can plagiarism occur?
- In an Accident: Accidentally taking others’ ideas still counts as plagiarism. Plagiarism can be both intentional and unintentional.
- In a Rewrite: Even if you rewrite/paraphrase/summarize an idea, you still need to give credit to the source.
- When you consider the Source: No matter where you find material (e.g., the Internet, from a friend, a journal, or a book) or how the ideas are expressed (e.g., in text, images, or charts), you need to give credit to the source.
- When you consider the Originality: Using large portions of others' work without quoting or citing is plagiarism.
- In Self-Plagiarism: Reusing a paper you submitted in the past is self-plagiarism, unless you get permission from your instructor.
“Common knowledge” does not need to be cited.
