What is Plagiarism?

Let’s take a look at a common definition of plagiarism. This one comes from Loyalist College’s AOP 216:

Presenting and using another’s published or unpublished work, including theories, concepts, data, source material, methodologies or findings, including graphs or images, as one’s own, without appropriate referencing and, if required, without permission.

Plagiarism can be intentional (knowingly using someone else’s work and presenting it as your own) or unintentional (inaccurately or inadequately citing ideas and words from a source).

While academic integrity calls for work resulting from your own effort, scholarship requires that you learn from others. So in the world of “academic scholarship” you are actually expected to learn new things from others AND come to new insights on your own. There is an implicit understanding that as a student you will be both using other’s knowledge as well as your own insights to create new scholarship. To do this in a way that meets academic integrity standards you must acknowledge the part of your work that develops from others’ efforts. You do this by citing the work of others. You plagiarize when you fail to acknowledge the work of others and do not follow appropriate citation guidelines.

Before we talk about how to cite, let’s take a minute to think about the stakes. Unfortunately, citation is an area where the stakes are high during your college career. As a student, you’re expected to learn by making mistakes. However, citation mistakes can have heavy consequences for students who commit what are called academic integrity violations.

You must take full responsibility for your work, acknowledge your own efforts, and acknowledge the contributions of others’ efforts. Working/writing with integrity requires accurately representing what you contributed as well as acknowledging how others have influenced your work.

It’s worth noting that other cultures have different – equally valid – definitions of academic integrity. By making you aware of what we mean by academic integrity in this context, you can be aware of the expectations that are being placed on you as a student in Canada.