Plagiarism

Plagiarism refers to the use of another's information, language, or writing, when done without proper acknowledgment of the original source. Essential to an act of plagiarism is an element of dishonesty in attempting to pass off the plagiarised work as original. Plagiarism is not necessarily the same as copyright infringement, which occurs when one violates copyright law. Like most terms from the area of intellectual property, plagiarism is a concept of the modern age and not really applicable to medieval or ancient works. An example of plagiarism would be copying this definition and pasting straight into a report.

Old maxim

It is sometimes humorously said that "copying from one source is plagiarism, copying from several sources is research". Of course, this is not literally true, because all good researchers do cite their sources. Regardless, the old maxim/joke is part of this self-defining example of this topic, having been cribbed from Tom Lehrer's 1953 song Lobachevsky:

Related Topics:
Humor - Research - Tom Lehrer - 1953

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:Plagiarize!

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:Let no one else's work evade your eyes!

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:Remember why the good Lord made your eyes!

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:So don't shade your eyes

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:But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize!

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:Only be sure always to call it, please, "research"!

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