What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarize:  “To take ideas or writings from another and pass them off as one’s own.” (Webster’s New World Dictionary, 2nd College Ed., Collins)

  • To plagiarize means to copy something that someone else wrote or said without telling where you found it.
  • Plagiarism is not good professional behavior. Don’t do it!
  • “You are plagiarizing if you copy from published source without adequate documentation.” Source: Duke University Library

What are the penalties for Plagiarism?

  • Failing grade for a paper or a course
  • Retraction of a journal paper
  • Retraction of the graduate degree
  • Expulsion from the University

How do you avoid Plagiarism?

You must give credit when

  • You use another person's idea, opinion, or theory.
  • You use any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings--any pieces of information--that are not common knowledge.
  • You use quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words.
  • You paraphrase another person's spoken or written words. (To paraphrase means to express another person's spoken or written words in your own words).

Source: Indiana University

How do you give credit?

Example 1: Suppose you want to use someone else's words

  • The proof of Theorem 1 does not require NP completeness. (these someone else’s words)
  • It has been shown that the proof of Theorem 1 does not require  NP completeness.13 
    13.  F. Chen, Proceedings of ….
  • Chen has shown that the proof of Theorem 1 does not require NP completeness.13
    13.  F. Chen, Proceedings of ….

Example 2: Suppose you want to use someone else's words

  • This system remains linear at all frequencies. (someone else’s words)
  • It has been shown that this system remains linear at all frequencies.7
    7.  P. Das,  IEEE Transactions on…
  • It was shown by Das7 that this system remains linear at all frequencies.
    7.  P. Das,  IEEE Transactions on…

Example 3: Suppose you want to use someone's equations

  • -------------
    ------------- (these are someone else’s equations)
  • The following system of equations, from Sugai and Samukawa,18 provides the basis for our model.
    -------------
    -------------
    S. Sugai and T. Samukawa, J. Appl. Phys. 21, …    

Example 4: Suppose you want to use someone’s exact words

If you use someone else’s exact words, you must use quotation marks and then reference.

  • Plasma etching is the only commercially viable procedure for removing material from surfaces. (taken from a book)
    • “Plasma etching is the only commercially viable procedure for removing material from surfaces.”10
      10. M. Lieberman, in Principles of Plasma Discharges…

Example 5: Use your own words (paraphrase)

  • It has been said that only plasma etching is commercially viable for the removal of material from surfaces.10
    10. M. Lieberman, in Principles of Plasma Discharges…

When don’t you have to give credit?

When something is general knowledge (i.e., given in every textbook), then it is not necessary to reference.

Examples

  • Silicon is a Group IV semiconductor.
  • Light has both a wave and a particle nature.
  • Every modern computer has an operating system.
  • World War II ended in 1945.
  • Paris is the capital of France.
  • F = m a
  • E = mc2

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