Illegal Or Intentional Plagiarism?

Introduction Plagiarism and proper citation are two concepts which are constantly linked to one another. This connection comes from the fact that the failure to do the latter, whether it happens accidentally or by intention, can lead to the occurence of the former.
This essay will be split into two separate parts, each one describing and discussing the concept attributed to it, followed by a conclusion summarizing the two ideas and linking them.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism (term derived from the Latin word “plagiare” which means “to kidnap”) (Das & Panjabi, 2011) is described as the “stealing and publication” of work belonging to another author and publishing it without providing appropriate credit or attributing it as one’s own, original,

Depending on intention, it can be either accidental or done on purpose. In the case of accidental plagiarism, this is more commonly seen among students and young researchers and is generally caused by the lack of knowledge regarding how to properly reference and acknowledge the work of others, or how limited taking ideas, data and information from other sources should be. (Das & Panjabi, 2011) Intentional plagiarism has other causes and usually aims to deliberately deceive the reader. Although one could argue that the two types of plagiarism should be punished in different manners, legally, there is little to no distinction between how these cases are treated. In both circumstances, individuals held responsible are penalized legally and even financially in some cases, while their reputation and credibility can be severely damaged. (Freckleton,

Plagiarism can range from a small dishonesty such as a minor “copy and paste” of a piece of information, to a much more serious problem such as the duplication of another author’s entire work. Given that plagiarism is regarded as a case of “academic misconduct” and therefore a compromise of reliability, honesty and/or integrity, its consequences are commonly serious, from various sanctions to expulsion. (Vessal & Habibzadeh,