Professional Development
CSCE
488
Unintentional Plagiarism
(And How to Avoid It)
(Overheads by Roger Kieckhafer, used with permission)
Rod96, Rod98
Lecture Overview

Scope of Plagiarism

Types of Ownership

How Plagiarism Happens

Common Causes of Unintentional Plagiarism

Editing Tips

NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, material herein:

Is based on work by John Rodgers [Rod96, Rod98]

But, it includes interpretations and extensions by
Kieckhafer, Seth, and me

So, check the refs for Rodgers’s real opinions
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Scope of Plagiarism

DEF: The appropriation or use of someone else’s
“intellectual property” without acknowledgement


Examples:

Whole papers

Actual text or figures (quotations)

Ideas, concepts, observations, approaches

“scholarship” (the effort of actually doing the research)
Gets into the problem of who “owns” an idea and
what constitutes theft
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Two Types of Ownership

Legal ownership

Reflects the right to profit from the idea

Protected by copyright (literally, the “right to copy”)
 for


a limited time
Can be bought and sold as a commodity
Original ownership

Reflects the identity of the originator

Independent of who holds the copyright
 MetCalfe
& Boggs will always be credited for writing the
first paper on Ethernet
 Pythagorean
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Thrm. will always belong to Pythagoras
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Motivations for Plagiarism


Intentional theft of Intellectual Property

Tends to be rare

Professionals cannot afford the risk

Students sometimes try (e.g. purchased term papers)

We will not discuss it further in this presentation
Inadvertent Plagiarism

Ignorance of the concept (a cultural phenomenon)

Ignorance of requirements for proper citation

Confusing legal with original ownership

Subtleties in scope of plagiarism
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Common Causes of Plagiarism

Quotations

Paraphrasing

Common Knowledge

Cryptomnesia

Autoplagiarism

Referencing without Sweating
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Quotations

Seems a rather obvious and easy case:



Use quotation marks & cite the source
But how many words constitute a quotation?

Rodgers’s rule of thumb: 3 or more words is a quote

“Fair Use” rule  typically up to 300 words may be
quoted without copyright permission (check the pub)
Exceptions:

New terms, labels, names, or acronyms

In such a case, a single word may need to be cited

If you didn’t invent the term, tell who did
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Paraphrasing

OK if done sparingly and without changing the
meaning:

Do not confuse the reader about the originator’s ideas
with your interpretation

State in the text that it is a paraphrase

Cite the source

Remember, it must be clear whose idea it is
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Common Knowledge

Common Knowledge does not need to be cited

BUT: what constitutes “common” knowledge?


The sky is blue

Computers contain processors, memories, and I/O

Programs and data are both stored in memory

Superscalar processors are now quite popular
Suggestions:

Given the audience, will they consider it “common”

Is the origin lost in antiquity somewhere?

If you have a reference available, consider using it,
especially if it’s a classic one (it rarely hurts to cite)
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Cryptomnesia

Common failing, especially as one gets old!

You researched that topic a long time ago

You can’t remember where it came from


You may actually think the idea, figure, wording, etc. were
originally yours

Result: you inadvertently present someone else’s idea as
your own
Recommendations

Develop a simple scheme for labeling your sources

Photocopy all papers you use and file them together

Use copious source labels in your research notes
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Autoplagiarism


DEF: re-using your own material from a previous pub.

Very common practice, especially in introductions

Very easy to do with “cut and paste”

So what’s wrong with that?
1: Single Autoplagiarism

The publisher owns the copyright on the previous text

You are “original” owner, they are “legal” owner

Some publishers do return some rights to the authors

IEEE is pretty liberal, in general

Read the publisher’s “copyright agreement” to be sure
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Autoplagiarism

2: Group Autoplagiarism:

Scenario:
 A group
 Then
publishes a paper
someone leaves the group
 Remaining
members push on and publish more

Question: if you re-use text, should the person who left
be listed as an author?

Recommendations:
 Try
to keep track of who wrote what (may be hard)
 Upon
 If
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breakup, copy all files to a read-only directory
in doubt, list former member as final author
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Autoplagiarism

3: Corporate Autoplagiarism:

Scenario:
 An
employee publishes a paper
 Another
 1st

employee gets upset
Original ownership may vest in the firm, not the author
 Check
 This

your company’s policy
policy would allow sharing of material
BUT: Copyright ownership vests in the publisher
 1st
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employee “borrows” the text for 2nd paper
publisher could sue if 2nd paper is published
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Autoplagiarism

4: Cultural Autoplagiarism:

Question: Who gets to be an author, and in what order?

Criteria:
 A had
the original idea
B
did much of the development
C
did most of the writing

These issues need to be discussed before you write!

Different disciplines (cultures) have different practices
 List
authors alphabetically (done in theoretical CS, not
typically done in other CS or Eng.)
 Lab
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director is always an author (even if ignorant)
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Referencing without Sweating



Scenario:

The deadline is breathing down your neck

You can’t find the original reference (A)

But you know B cited A

So you lift the reference to A from B’s reference list
Why is this a problem?

You are stealing B’s “Scholarship”, (i.e. time & effort)

B may have a typo, error, or a bad reference

Textbooks are notoriously bad for detailed data
Solution: Read everything that you cite
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Referencing without Sweating



Variation on the theme:

you want to cite a long list of references on one topic

B has already cited and listed them
Additional Problems:

B has cited them in his/her context

Some or all may be inappropriate in your context
Solution:

Don’t use a long list of references

Use a few prominent papers as examples (e.g. [1,4,9])

Exception: may need list to convince hostile reviewer
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General Editing Tips

Use copious citations in your notes

Try not to use the primary source while typing (Ben
Franklin’s exercise – see van Leunen handout)


Read what you have written, and ask:

Is it clear whose idea (words, figure) this is?

How close is this to the original source?
If you can’t remember the source at that moment

leave a marker in the text (e.g. “@ref” or “\cite{???}”)

later search for and resolve all of your markers
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References

[Rod96] John Rodgers, Plagiary and the Art of Skillful
Citation, http://condor.bcm.tmc.edu
/Micro-Immuno/courses/igr/homeric.html,
Modified: unknown.

[Rod98] John Rodgers, How to Cite Skillfully and
Avoid Plagiarizing, © John Rodgers 1998,
Unpub, Available: http://condor.bcm.tmc.edu
/Micro-Immuno/courses/igr/homeric.html.
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