If you cite someone else's ideas or work without properly acknowledging the source, you are committing plagiarism. This can have major consequences. It may result in a failing grade and, in serious cases, even suspension from your study programme. So it is important to prevent plagiarism! How do you know whether you have plagiarised and - more importantly - how do you make sure you do not unintentionally commit plagiarism?
What is plagiarism?
The official meaning of plagiarism is when you copy information or ideas from someone else's work without proper acknowledgement of the source. By doing so, you make it seem as if this is your own work or ideas.
Plagiarism is prohibited by law; it is a violation of the intellectual property of the author of the original text. In some cases, it is even considered fraud.
The exact meaning of plagiarism varies per educational institution. So, check carefully what the definition of plagiarism is at your educational institution so that you can take it into account when writing.
It is usually impossible for your text to have 0% overlap with other texts according to a plagiarism scanner. For example, if you quote a text (with correct source citation), the scanner will register it as overlap without it being plagiarism. This is why colleges and universities often allow a slightly higher percentage than zero as the maximum overlap. Your lecturer or the examination committee will also check carefully whether the overlap found is really plagiarism or just a cited quote.
What counts as plagiarism in your thesis?
When you think of plagiarism, you might quickly think of deliberately copying pieces from someone else's work. Cutting and pasting, in other words. But that is not the only form of plagiarism. Plagiarism can also mean, for instance, that you paraphrase parts of a text in your thesis, but rely too much on the original. More often than not, you are unintentionally committing plagiarism.
The worst form of plagiarism is putting literal texts from other work into your thesis and pretending they are your own insights or ideas. There are also milder forms of plagiarism, which are usually unintentional. Think of:
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paraphrasing a text but staying too close to the original text;
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accidentally forgetting a source reference;
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including a quote without citing a source (or forget the inverted commas);
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taking inspiration from another thesis or publication and forgetting to put that information into your own words or delete it;
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copying pieces from an earlier paper of yours into your thesis (without referring to that earlier text).
Note that if you have someone else write your thesis, it is also plagiarism. You are presenting that person's work as your own. Therefore, we advise you to always write your thesis yourself. Otherwise, you also run the risk that the writer of your thesis will plagiarize and you will suffer as a result.
Je presenteert het werk van diegene als jouw werk. Daarom raden we je aan om echt altijd zelf je scriptie te schrijven. Anders loop je bovendien kans dat de schrijver van je scriptie plagiaat pleegt en dat jij daar de dupe van bent.
What happens if you plagiarize?
Colleges and universities often use their own plagiarism checkers to detect possible plagiarism. This is done fully automatically by smart software as soon as you submit your thesis. Scanners like Turnitin (a tool we also use for our plagiarism check) compare the content of your thesis with billions of online and offline documents. The higher the percentage of overlap with other sources, the higher the likelihood of plagiarism.
The consequences of plagiarism can be dire. Universities and colleges consider it fraud. You violate copyright rules by pretending that someone else's ideas or information belong to you.
The exact consequences vary from one educational institution to another and depend on your specific situation. If you accidentally forgot to add a source for a short citation, you will not be charged as much as if you copied and pasted whole pieces of text. In mild cases, you will simply be asked to edit your thesis and revise the plagiarised sections.
Does your case involve serious forms of plagiarism? Then, you may receive a failing grade for your thesis and - in serious cases - you can even be suspended from your study programme altogether. You can then no longer graduate.
Note: you must also cite the source for your own work
Strange but true: you are also not allowed to quote from your own work without citing the source. Otherwise it counts as self-plagiarism. You should therefore also cite your previous publications or essays as sources when referring to them.
How can you prevent plagiarism?
Simple: by mentioning sources correctly if quoting or paraphrasing information from another source. This reference should be made both in the body of the text (where you cite information you have copied) and in the bibliography at the end.
Also, check out our tips to prevent plagiarism. It helps if you write down your sources directly while working on the text. Always save your sources and keep an overview of what you’ve used. This way, you avoid forgetting to mention your sources.
In many cases, you should follow APA style for your source citation. View several examples of APA style citations here. Are you studying law? Then, you should probably use the Guideline for legal authors instead.
Use our plagiarism checker
A fully automatic software to remove plagiarism does not exist, but you can extensively check your thesis for plagiarism yourself. Our plagiarism checker can help you do that. Read how our plagiarism checker works, or directly try it for yourself! Upload your thesis and have it checked for plagiarism. This way, you can quickly discover, for example, whether you forgot to mention sources or whether you need to make other adjustments with paraphrasing.
Correct paraphrasing and quoting is the way to go!
It is smart to keep track of which pieces of information you have taken from a particular source while you are writing instead of waiting until after. If necessary, use our APA generator to add your sources directly to your bibliography in the correct format.
For quotations, put the copied information in inverted commas to make it clear that you have copied part of the text verbatim. In this case, include not only the author and year, but also the page number from which the quote comes.
When paraphrasing, you quote someone else's ideas or findings, but in your own words. In this case you should still cite the source, but double inverted commas are not necessary. Make sure you don't only switch out a couple synonyms, but completely rewrite the original text in your own words.
Have your thesis checked for language errors
Besides plagiarism, there is another thing you want to avoid when submitting your thesis: language errors. These are also often taken into account in the assessment of your thesis.
Want to make sure you have no typos, poorly written sentences or verb errors in your thesis? Let the language experts at AthenaCheck check your thesis for language, structure and a common thread.