Plagiarism means using other people’s ideas, theories, figures, texts, data, etc., without providing proper citations, thereby presenting the ideas as your own. Plagiarism is both a violation of good academic practice and a breach of copyright.
It’s also possible to self-plagiarize by reusing text or data from previous assignments and projects without clear attribution.
All forms of plagiarism are taken seriously, whether it’s intentional cheating during exams or due to carelessness. In the worst case, plagiarism can result in the cancellation of exam results and expulsion from the university.
To avoid plagiarism, always cite your sources and refer to the other guides on this page. Learn more about how to cite properly with our libguide by clicking this link
While most people remember to provide a citation and page numbers when doing a direct quote from someone else’s text, it is equally important to cite sources when doing paraphrases or summaries of others’ material.
A paraphrase involves restating an argument or idea from one or more sources. Paraphrasing is an essential tools for demonstrating your understanding of a source and presenting various researchers’ different viewpoints within a specific research area. Since paraphrases are written in your own words, a citation might seem unnecessary, but it’s crucial to always include one - and most citation formats recommend including page numbers as well.
A summary is similar to a paraphrase but often provides a more general overview of a document. For this reason, page numbers are rarely relevant in summaries, as you’re representing the entire content of the source. However, a citation is always necessary.
Sometimes you may be unsure about the citation rules.
Test yourself with a plagiarism quiz using this link, to make sure you have a handle on the rules.