What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism is one of the "deadly sins" in academe where
independent, original and critical thought and high-quality, timeless
and universal scientific argument is of the highest value.
Plagiarism is usually listed alongside other serious offenses such as, for instance
- Falsifying (e.g. "cooking") data obtained form a genuine
experiment
- Fabricating experiments to obtain data
- Giving undue credit or failing to give due credit to someone
regarding authorship or research work
List attributed to R.E.McGinn, author of Science, Technology and
Society in the book by Reis, "Tomorrow's professor", p. 310, IEEE
Press, 1997
plagiarize: to steal (the language, ideas, or thoughts) from
(another), representing them as one's own original work.
(The Random House Dictionary)
plagiarize: to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of
another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting
the source; to commit literary theft: present as new and original an
idea or product derived from an existing source.
(Merriam-Webster online dictionary)
Plagiarised "word" includes ideas, sections of text,
quotations, graphics, diagrams, charts, tables, figures, or programs
written in a computer language.
Plagiarisms is thus akin to theft or fraud. The detection of
plagiarism implies, at the least, embarrasment. More often it is dealt
with in misconduct committees. Plagiarism recycling own original work
submitted in other courses can be collusion. Students plagiarising the
work of others, intentionally or not, are cheating. Clearly
plagiarism is unethical and must not be tolerated. The Faculty policy
on cheating requires educating students about plagiarism and
investigating it. Disciplinary actions in response to plagiarism
include one or more of the following
- losing all marks for the given assignment;
- losing a mark of 20/100, ie., lowering the final grade;
- failing the subject;
- failing all subjects in the current semester;
- suspension from University for a semester;
- expulsion from University studies;
For concrete guide lines on how to avoid plagiarism or protect
yourself against it follow our 
