Oxford defines plagiarism as "Presenting work or ideas from another source as your own, with or without consent of the original author, by incorporating it into your work without full acknowledgement."
Simply put, plagiarism means using someone's work without crediting them, often to pass it off as your own. In academic writing and research, plagiarizing means using words, ideas, or figures from other authors without proper citation. You can see how similar plagiarism is to stealing, that is why it is called “academic theft.”
While you now have a basic idea, the concept is not as straightforward, where plagiarism is very complex (which explains why this module is large). While some say there is no absolute definition, James M Nugent notes, “Plagiarism, like shoplifting and smoking marijuana, is wrong, and it is a corruption of academic life, and we should do what we can to end it.”
A common misconception is that plagiarism only applies to "published" work in books or journals. However, it does apply to all forms of data, including unpublished work from lectures, theses, or essays. You must always attribute everything.
Now for the question everyone is asking: Is AI considered plagiarism?
From our ARPL policy: "The use of AI is unprohibited as long as the scholar uses these tools to support research and formative work ethically. Every scholar, at the start of the ARPL program course term, receives clear information about appropriate AI use.” Using AI-generated content that is presented as original work is considered plagiarism. This includes: both Unattributed AI-Generated Text and Manipulated AI Outputs. Note that at ARPL, we don’t allow citing AI.”
For more on allowed AI uses, check the Policy Guide.
While you already understand that plagiarism is a dreadful practice one must avoid, you need to understand systematically why it is so dangerous.
While there are different types of categorization of plagiarism, let's consider the different dangers and consequences of mild, moderate, and severe plagiarism.
For the first type, mild plagiarism: this type is usually unintentional, yet it is still penalized, though less severely. In an academic setting, a teacher may deduct points from your assignment. For instance, if a student included an in-text citation but forgot to include it in the references list, they may lose 20% of their grade. Another common example of mild plagiarism is omitting quotation marks around a direct quote. (At ARPL, we don't have such lenient practices. Any form of plagiarism, even the mildest, results in removal from the program, with rare exceptions when otherwise noted.)
For moderate plagiarism, the consequences are much more severe. While in mild plagiarism, a professor might consider the act unintentional, in moderate plagiarism, there is no room for such consideration. Usually, in this type, one might copy text from a source and change a few words, or paraphrase someone's ideas without citing the source. It is also common that one would use someone's work as a foundation for their paper without any citation. In such cases, if caught, students usually fail the entire assignment.
The final type is severe plagiarism, which occurs when one creates a paper almost entirely copied from other sources; this may include using a patchwork of different texts. Another major example of severe plagiarism is submitting work entirely written by someone else, essentially buying a paper or a written assignment. The consequences are the most serious and may lead to long-term academic/professional repercussions, including expulsion from the institution. This may even be added to your transcript in an academic environment, which may prevent admission to other institutions. (This has happened before with ALA, and it’s not impossible it could happen with ARPL—yet we have confidence in you.)
Sometimes consequences of plagiarism can be even more severe. In some cases, plagiarism may cross into "copyright infringement," which is a serious legal violation. By copying protected materials without permission, you risk serious and hefty financial penalties.
There are many different types of plagiarism; we will consider the 14 most common types that you must avoid at all costs. While you don't need to memorize them all as if studying a coursebook, you should understand them well enough to recognize and utterly avoid them.