Plagiarism

Introduction

A scientific paper should be an original work. It is not allowed to just copy other people's papers and present them as your own. If you do this, there is even a risk that you will be accused of cheating and be punished for this.

How to avoid being accused of plagiarism

The main principle to avoid being accused of plagiarism is to always indicate your sources. Never use someone else's text without clearly saying so in your own paper.

Exact quotes, using quotation marks

If you make an exact quote of someone else's text, this can be done in two ways. For shorter texts, include them in quotation marks.

Example: “To be or not to be” is a famous statement in Shakespeare's play “Hamlet” [Shakespeare 1601].

Exact quotes, using indented paragraph

If you are quoting longer pieces of text, like whole paragraphs, this is commonly indicated by indentation, often combined with a smaller font and a smaller distance between lines.

Example: Theodore Roosevelt said in his inaugural address:

Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us. We have duties to others and duties to ourselves; and we can shirk neither. We have become a great nation, forced by the fact of its greatness into relations with the other nations of the earth, and we must behave as beseems a people with such responsibilities. Toward all other nations, large and small, our attitude must be one of cordial and sincere friendship. We must show not only in our words, but in our deeds, that we are earnestly desirous of securing their good will by acting toward them in a spirit of just and generous recognition of all their rights. [Roosevelt 1905].

Inexact quotes

If you are summarizing or otherwise are not quoting the exact words of your source, you must still indicate the source, but do not use quotation characters or indentation.

Example:

The way in which the psyche learns to organize hunger and consciousness of other bodily needs is a result of an interplay between the child and the parents, writes Hilde Bruch in her book “Eating Disorders” [Bruch 1974].

Show your own thinking

My father, who was a professor of history, once told me: “Quoting one source is plagiarism, quoting three sources is science”. But to make it science and not plagiarism, you must show that you contribute something of your own thinking, by combining and extending on the ideas of the sources you quote.

A paper should normally not entirely consist of quotes from what other people have written. The only exception from this is a paper which states explicitly that its intention is to do only a review of what other people have written.

Never hope you will get away with it

Never use other people's text hoping you will get away with it. The risks for you are not worth it. Especially since it is so simple to avoid plagiarism by using the methods described above.

Links to more Information

Instructions for Writing Master's theses, by Jacob Palme, http://dsv.su.se/jpalme/Instructions-thesis.html. This document contains further links to more information.

Detailed information about how to quote what someone else has written.

An animated course about plagiarism from Rutgher's university.