What is Plagiarism?
Plagiarism is the representation of another author’s language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions as one’s own original work. Plagiarism is considered a violation of academic integrity and a breach of journalistic ethics. It is subject to sanctions such as penalties, suspension, expulsion from institution or work, substantial fines and even imprisonment. Generally, plagiarism is not in itself a crime, but like counterfeiting fraud can be punished in a court for prejudices caused by copyright infringement, violation of moral rights, or torts. In academia and industry, it is a serious ethical offense.
cite quotes or ideas written by another author;
enclose direct text in quotes; or
put summaries and/or paraphrases in the his or her own words.
Plagiarism may be done deliberately or accidentally; either way, plagiarism is a serious offense. Committing plagiarism could be grounds for expelling a student from a university, terminating a professor's teaching contract, or suing an artist for monetary compensation.
Web sites today often provide complete essays on nearly any topic, making it easy for students to copy another person's work and pass it off as their own. Sometimes called "paper mills," some of these Web sites offer completed papers, while others allow students to trade their completed papers among one another.
Yet, plagiarism does occur and may likely continue to occur. Many famous icons have been proven to have plagiarized, either intentionally or accidentally. Helen Keller was accused of plagiarism during her school years, as was Martin Luther King, Jr., when a Boston University investigation revealed he had in fact plagiarized approximately one third of a chapter of his doctoral thesis.
How it works?

iThenticate is the most trusted plagiarism checker by the world’s top researchers, publishers, and scholars.
Get comprehensive results
The reliable and easy to use Similarity Report highlights text sections to review and helps ensure the originality of your work.
View matches and sources
Highlighted matches and an intuitive panel for viewing source content makes it easy for researchers to review each match.
Identify critical issues
A variety of exclusion options help researchers quickly narrow in on the most important text matches to review.
82 million
135 million
90+ billion
Frequently Asked Questions
- Never copy from the source more than two words in a row.
- To decrease plagiarism, using citation will prevent you from getting copied text reports.
- Switch active voice to passive voice and vice versa.
- Use a plagiarism checker or paraphrasing service.
- Green: One word to 24% matching text
- Yellow: 25-49% matching text
- Orange: 50-74% matching text
- Red: 75-100% matching text
If you’re a student, then you might fail the course, be suspended or expelled, or be obligated to attend a workshop on plagiarism. It depends on whether it’s your first offense or whether you’ve done it before.
As an academic or professional, the consequences are more serious. Aside from the fact that plagiarizing seriously damages your reputation, you might also lose your research funding and/ or your job.
Plagiarizing is a serious offense, and knowing how to avoid plagiarism is therefore important. Read more about the consequences of plagiarism and use a plagiarism checker to detect plagiarism yourself.
Paraphrasing means rephrasing the original text in your own words.
However, if you do credit the original author correctly using an in-text citation or footnote citation and include the full source in the reference list, then you do not commit plagiarism.
In order to avoid plagiarism, you must always cite the source in the correct citation format; otherwise, you are presenting something as your own work, even though it’s not.
You can plagiarize yourself by, for instance:
- Submitting a document you previously submitted for a different course
- Using a section of a previous paper without correctly citing yourself as the source
Although self-plagiarism is often unintentional, it can have serious consequences. Be sure to cite your previous work or discuss the decision to use your old paper with your professor.
Plagiarism checker software can be used to check your text for plagiarism. This software compares your text with billions of webpages, books and articles.