What is known as Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is recognized as a process wherein fallacious and duplicitous practices are adopted by unethical authors in any form to menace the arenas of research which in clear sense stands for infraction of copyright law. Plagiarism can be accidental, intentional or may be considered as crime depends upon the contents an author has used in his paper.

Intentional plagiarism

Intentional plagiarism is known by the people as imitating or copying wherein an author imitates the work or idea of another author or source material and published with his own name purposely considering one or more of the followings- 

• Leaving the work to the last minute and taking the easy option
• Needing to succeed
• Sheer panic
• Thinking that it is easy to get away with it
• Having problems with the workload
• Copying others is easier than original work
• Sensing that the teacher will not mind

Unintentional plagiarism 

Unintentional plagiarism occurs when an author is unaware or lacks the knowledge of references or source material which he has used in his work. Unintentional plagiarism can be a result of one or more of the followings:- 

• Misunderstanding about citation
• Over-reliance on the original source material
• Following practices encouraged or accepted in previous educational experience or culture
• Not fully understanding when group work ceases and individual work begins
• Compensating for poor English language skills
• Poor note-taking practice

Every kind of published and unpublished material, whether in manuscript, academic papers, printed or electronic form, is covered under the context of Plagiarism. 

Plagiarism can be demonstrated as:- 

(i) Verbatim Copying:- If word for word language or contents are copied from another source and used in his own paper by an author without giving the credit to the content creator or without acknowledging or citing the name of source material expressly whose contents has copied then it comes under the definition of Verbatim copying. 

(ii) Mosaic Plagiarism:- If an author copies in part or in pieces from another source and cites the same in his paper by placing words here and there without citing the source material expressly is defined as Mosaic plagiarism. If an author realizes his responsibility and differentiates his idea from the idea of others by clearly acknowledging and citing then this type of plagiarism could be avoided by author. 

(iii) Inadequate Paraphrase: - When an author paraphrases or rephrases the contents of the original source by using the language same to the original source then it is defined as inadequate paraphrase. Inadequate paraphrase could be avoided by citing express acknowledgement of the original work.. 

(iv) The Embedded Plagiarism: - The most deceiving thing is when some authors simply copy the essence of the original paper but take care of the reference to the original author. As a result the plagiarized paper would also be a look alike the original paper but may appear in a different journal or publication. 

(v) The Self Absorbed Plagiarism: - When a single author publishes many papers on the same subject matter in the shortest possible period, it is an indication pointing towards self abasement on the intellectual aspirations. 

(vi) Uncited Paraphrase/ Quotation: - When an author uses his own words to express the idea of others that still belongs to the original source material (original creator) is known as plagiarism. 

(vii) Collusion: - Collusion exists where a candidate submits any work which was worked upon by him/her in collaboration of other co-authors as his/her own without expressly acknowledging the works of other co-authors. 

(viii) Copying from the Cyberspace (Internet): - Information derived from the Internet and not adequately referenced and included in the bibliography is also a case of plagiarism. 

(ix) Inaccurate Citation: - It is important to cite correctly, authors should not include anything in a footnote or bibliography that they have not actually consulted. If access to the primary source is not possible then a proper citation should depict a reference to the secondary source. 

(x) Failure to acknowledge the original contributions of the first creator (s) is always seen as a sign of plagiarism.

Why plagiarism matter?

Plagiarism is unfair and violation of copyright law and one cannot take the benefit of other's efforts and work without giving credit to original source material because citation of original source material in your paper will give the reader of your paper a roadmap of your ideas and literature and what contributed you to arrive on conclusions. If you plagiarize instead of investigating on own ideas or problems, it would result in only poor eruditeness and failure in learning process. Plagiarism degrades research domain, academic standards, degrees and institutions by affecting the intellectual spirits and aspirations.

Here are some guidelines for authors to avoid or at least minimize the risk of plagiarism:-

• Plan for your research and look for correct context.
• Manage electronic source material carefully.
• Avoid copy paste- always save files under a folder with proper label.
• Keep track of your own sources and sources of others.
• Acknowledge the original source material especially while paraphrasing.
• Do not save the citations which are to be given for later use.
• Examine the sources and prepare a rough draft before finalizing the manuscript.
• Refer, acknowledge and cite properly.

Scholedge on Plagiarism

At, Scholedge we have a specially designated Content Verification Body looking after all issues pertaining to the plagiarism in particular. The Content Verification Body on its own carefully takes moves to ensure the un-plagiarism.

Further, if anybody comes across any detection of plagiarism then he can directly write his/her accusations of plagiarism to the Content Verification Body at [email protected]

All complaints will be dealt with after taking care of privacy and secrecy.

After a detailed and unbiased investigation on the issue (s) by Content Verification Body, it will take such actions as necessary to remove and punish the plagiarism. The papers/ manuscripts found to be plagiarized will be rejected on the very moment. The decision of the Content Verification Body will in all cases be the final one.