1

Plagiarism
What is it? How to avoid it?
MAXIME FLORENT
maxime.florent@ufaz.az
 What is plagiarism 2

“Many people think of plagiarism as copying another's work or borrowing someone

else's original ideas. But terms like "copying" and "borrowing" can disguise the
seriousness of the offense”

“To steal and pass off (the ideas or words of others) as one’s own without
crediting the source. To provide as new and original an idea or product derived
from an existing source.

Merriam Webster’s
Collegiate Dictionary 10th
This does not only applied to text but also to music, video, picture
Everything that can be credited from someone else.

https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism
 What is plagiarism 3

There is two types of plagiarism

 Intentional  Unintentional
 Copying work  Not Paraphrasing in your own word, even

if cited
Copying Pasting blocks of text from
internet, without documenting them  Using a source from somewhere without

knowing that it is someone else work that
Buying borrowing reports or note
you are citing
 Failing to write properly your sources

“What is Plagiarism”. Montgomery County Intermediate Unit

 Famous example 4

“Lloyd Brown committed intellectual fraud intentionally on a constant basis. The analysis of
Blair’s editorial stories showed that he used counterfeit facts, photos and other things in support of
his views. The damage of his unqualified works for NYT is colossal, and the editorial board
acknowledges this problem as a part of poor coordination system among staff.” He get fired and it
was the end of his carrier

“Senator Joseph Biden was guilty in plagiarism and was forced to withdraw from the presidential
election campaign in 1988. Senator admitted that he misleadingly plagiarized the text in his first
work of introductory methodology class, and did not provide the correct citations. (…) Later in his
political career, Joe Biden was accused of plagiarism again. That time, the case contained the
plagiarism instances in his public speeches, where he did not give the proper credit to such authors
as Senator Kennedy and Neil Kinnock.
The consequences of plagiarism were the withdrawal from the Presidential Campaign.”

https://plagiarismsearch.com/blog/plagiarism-lawsuits-top-10-most-interesting-cases.html
 What can be the sanction for plagiarism 5

By using someone else work, you are putting your university integrity at risk.

• As a boss would you hire someone who was caught cheating during Bachelor or Master degree?

• How can you be sure that the students from this university have the knowledge if you know that the university let
them plagiarize?

Sanctions:

• Interview with the disciplinary committee of UFAZ / Unistra

• Your grade will end as a 0
• You can be banned from exam
• You can be expelled for few months to several years

Plagiarize is a crime and can be punished by jail time and penalties.

 Plagiarism is not a big deal ! 6

What if ….

• Your lawyer paid for a copy of the bar exam before the exam?
Will the defense she wrote for you stand up in court?

• The taxi who bring you to UFAZ everyday has a false driving license?
Will you feel safe in the car?

• Your teacher plagiarized all his work during University?

Will you still trust the knowledge that he should pass on you?

Plagiarism is theft of intellectual property

Plagiarism is cheating
 There is never a good reason… 7

• I was too busy

• The report was too hard
too long
too boring
• Teachers expect too much
• My parent expect amazing grades
• But all my friends did it
• Usually I don’t do it but…

If you think like that, when will it stop?

When will you finally going to work using your own ideas?

“What is Plagiarism”. Montgomery County Intermediate Unit

 How to avoid it ? 8

• The easiest way is simply to be honest:

• When you use something give credit where it is due.
• Acknowledge the work of the author.

• The difficult way is to work by yourself:

• As much as possible use your own brain.

You need to manage your time, and keep the references from
every website or book you are reading.
Distinguish your ideas from the ideas in other sources.
Think about the consequences…

“What is Plagiarism”. Montgomery County Intermediate Unit

How to avoid it ? 9

• If you need information from sources,

• First try to use these information with your own words.
• Then cite it as reference.
• Directly in the text using parenthesis ()
• At the end with a small reference in the text (footprint) 1

• You don’t have to cite everything. Example:

Facts that are widely known • Water is boiling at 100°C at 1atm
Information of “common knowledge” • Thomas Edison invented the light bulb
Your own experiences, observations • The molar mass of H2S is 34.1 g/mol
How to avoid it ? 10

There is three way for using the work of someone else:

1. Quoting

2. Paraphrasing

3. Summarizing

In any case, you need to make sure

your own voice is heard
Quoting 11

Quoting are the exact word from your source.

Use quotations when:

You want to show the important part the writer played in his field
You want to use the power of his name.

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the
universe. ” (Albert Einstein)

Albert Einstein said that “Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the
universe”.
“Two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,[…]”. (Albert Einstein)
Paraphrasing 12

Rephrasing the words, putting his/her thoughts in your own words.

it shows that you understand the source and are therefore a reliable voice on that source

Use paraphrase when:

You want to use the information on your note and wish to avoid plagiarizing
You don’t want to use too many quotations
You want to present it in your own way

“Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the
universe. ” (Albert Einstein)
I have a doubt about the universe but the human stupidity is infinite (Albert Einstein)

The idea of Albert Einstein is still here (comparing the universe and the human stupidity)
It is paraphrasing. I must give him the credit.
Summarizing 13

Summarizing is putting the main idea(s) of one or several sources into your own words, in a shorter way

Use summarizing when:

You want to create an overview of a topic
You want to describe all the knowledge you can find on one topic

Butterfly, (superfamily Papilionoidea), any of numerous species of insects belonging to multiple families. Butterflies,
along with the moths and the skippers, make up the insect order Lepidoptera. Butterflies are nearly worldwide in their
distribution. Encyclopedia Britannica 06/17/209

Among others the Butterfly is an insect from the Lepidoptera family that we can find almost everywhere.
Encyclopedia Britannica 06/17/209

The main idea is still there, even if other words was used and the length is shorter.
But you still need to cite your source.
 General tips 14

• Never copy more than 3 consecutive words from a source

• Read and read again the paragraph. Then, on a blank page write the important words
or expressions that you think you must use.
Then, explain (create a link between all the words) with your own words.

• Know what you are talking about, try to find of different sources, understand them.
If you know really well the topic, you won’t plagiarize by mistake.

“What is Plagiarism”. Montgomery County Intermediate Unit

 In Scientific Paper
In scientific paper a lot of sources are cited,
To avoid having a disconnected paragraph we use
incremented number instead.
Those numbers will refer to the articles from where the
knowledge is taken.
The complete references are found at the end of the article.
References
1. a) Y. Cui, Y. Yue, G. Qian and B. Chen, Chem. Rev., 2012, 112, 1126-1162; b) J. Heine and
K. Müller-Buschbaum, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2013, 42, 9232-9242; c) X. Zhang, W. Wang, Z.
Hu, G. Wang and K. Uvdal, Coord. Chem. Rev., 2015, 284, 206-235; d) R. Haldar, L.
Heinke and C. Wöll, Adv. Mater., 2019, DOI: 10.1002/adma.201905227, 1905227.
2. a) L. E. Kreno, K. Leong, O. K. Farha, M. Allendorf, R. P. Van Duyne and J. T. Hupp, Chem.
Rev., 2012, 112, 1105-1125; b) Z. Hu, B. J. Deibert and J. Li, Chem. Soc. Rev., 2014, 43,
5815-5840; c) Y. Zhang, S. Yuan, G. Day, X. Wang, X. Yang and H.-C. Zhou, Coord. Chem.
Rev., 2018, 354, 28-45; d) T. Rasheed and F. Nabeel, Coord. Chem. Rev., 2019, 401,
213065; e) A. Karmakar, P. Samanta, S. Dutta and S. K. Ghosh, Chem. Asian J., 2019, 14,
4506-4519.
Luminescent 1D heterometallic (Ir,Cd) coordination polymers based on bis-cyclometalated Ir(III) metallatectons and trinuclear Cd(II) dianionic nodes (draft under review)
15
Introduction
Luminescent1 coordination polymers (CP) and metal-organic
frameworks (MOF) have experienced a growing interest for the past
decades due to their range of potential applications including
sensing,2 photocatalysis,3 or applications in organic light emitting
displays.4 In general, dealing with luminescent sensors, they offer
significant advantages over other sensing devices. Indeed, the
output signal is a fast and easily detected colorimetric response to an
external stimulus with relatively high sensitivity. Also, emission
wavelength shifts may be detected and characteristic of the sensed
material when the analyte and the chromophore interact together. To
achieve a functional sensor, some prerequisites should be fulfilled: i)
capability of trapping/adsorbing analyte molecules to yield a local
concentration and improved sensitivity possibly by host-guest
interactions; ii) physical and chemical stability; iii) potentially
insensitivity towards quenching. Coordination polymers are therefore
well-suited for such application. Indeed, CPs are well-defined
crystalline structures constructed by self-assembly processes
through interactions between consecutive coordinating organic
entities, referred also as tectons,5 and metal ions, complexes or
clusters acting as metallic nodes. The resulting periodic extended
architectures may be of different dimensionalities (1D, 2D, 3D) and
may be porous. They are then referred as porous coordination
polymers (PCP) or metal-organic frameworks (MOFs).6
 Examples 16

Original Student

"Those complexes that contain unpaired
electrons are attracted into a magnetic field and
are said to be paramagnetic, while those with no
unpaired electrons are repelled by such a field
and are called diamagnetic"
"Complexes that contain unpaired electrons are
those that are attracted to a magnetic field.
These are called paramagnetic, while those with
PLAGIARISM
no unpaired electrons are repelled by a magnetic
field and are said to be diamagnetic."

Paraphrasing means that you still used the writer idea so it is plagiarism

https://www.chemistry.utoronto.ca/undergraduate/current-students/plagiarism
 Examples 17

Original Student

Volumetric measurements of liquids are made Volumetric measurements are made with
with graduated cylinders, burets or transfer graduated cylinders, burets or transfer pipets.
pipets. The graduated cylinder is usually used to The graduated cylinder is usually used to
measure approximative volume of liquids. measureNOT PLAGIARISM
approximative volume. Aqueous
Aqueous solutions wet the glass walls, forming solutions wet the glass walls, forming a concave
a concave meniscus. meniscus.

This paragraph can be considerate as common knowledge


Examples
Original
“The self condensation of ethyl acetate, is the
most famous example of the Claisen ester
condensation and it works in good yield under
convenient conditions. The product (ethyl
acetoacetate is commercially available – and
cheap too – so you are unlikely to want to do
this particular example.”
Organic Chemistry. By J. P. Clayden, N. Greeves, S.
Warren, and P. D. Wothers; Oxford University Press,
2001, p 726
Student 1
“The self condensation of ethyl acetate, is the
most famous example of the Claisen ester
18
condensation and it works in good yield under
convenient conditions. The product (ethyl
acetoacetate PLAGIARISM
is commercially available – and
cheap too – so you are unlikely to want to do
this particular example.”
Organic chemistry Book
Student 2
The self condensation of ethyl acetate, it is an
example of the Claisen ester condensation and it
works in good yield. The product (ethyl
acetoacetate PLAGIARISM
is commercially available so we
don’t want to do this particular example.
Organic Chemistry. By J. P. Clayden, N. Greeves, S. Warren,
and P. D. Wothers; Oxford University Press, 2001, p 726
 Examples
Original
“The self condensation of ethyl acetate, is the
most famous example of the Claisen ester
condensation and it works in good yield under
convenient conditions. The product (ethyl
acetoacetate is commercially available – and
cheap too – so you are unlikely to want to do
this particular example.”
Organic Chemistry. By J. P. Clayden, N. Greeves, S.
Warren, and P. D. Wothers; Oxford University Press,
2001, p 726
Student 1
19
While talking about Claisen ester condensation
reaction the formation of acetoacetate, is the
simplest self condensation reaction that we can
imagine. The PLAGIARISM
product is maybe not useful to
produce (commercially available) but it is the
perfect example.
Student 2
While talking about Claisen ester condensation
reaction the formation of acetoacetate, is the
simplest self condensation reaction that we can
imagine.NOT PLAGIARISM
The product is maybe not useful to
produce (commercially available) but it is the
perfect example.
Organic Chemistry. By J. P. Clayden, N. Greeves, S. Warren,
and P. D. Wothers; Oxford University Press, 2001, p 726
 Tools at your disposition 20

Zotero is a wonderful and powerful

software for classing and inserting citation
in your reports.
There is also a chrome extension that will
save exactly and in the good format the
citation from a website.
Zoterobib is a free service that helps you
build a bibliography instantly from any
computer or device, without creating an
account or installing any software.

Zotero | Your personal research assistant. https://www.zotero.org/

ZoteroBib. https://zbib.org/
References 21

• https://www.plagiarism.org/article/what-is-plagiarism

• “What is Plagiarism”. Montgomery County Intermediate Unit

• https://plagiarismsearch.com/blog/plagiarism-lawsuits-top-10-most-interesting-cases.html

• Encyclopedia Britannica 06/17/209

• Luminescent 1D heterometallic (Ir,Cd) coordination polymers based on bis-cyclometalated Ir(III) metallatectons and trinuclear
Cd(II) dianionic nodes (draft under review)

• Organic Chemistry. By J. P. Clayden, N. Greeves, S. Warren, and P. D. Wothers; Oxford University Press, 2001

• https://www.chemistry.utoronto.ca/undergraduate/current-students/plagiarism

• Zotero | Your personal research assistant. https://www.zotero.org/

• ZoteroBib. https://zbib.org/