Plagiarism with a small ‘p’: Are we entering a dystopian future where everyone is guilty?

Synthesize vs. Mirror

Reviewing the current state of the research, aka the lit review, is a major component of drafting a journal paper. It serves to bookend your research by first establishing that your study is warranted and then by ending with a claim of your explicit contribution. Basically, you begin a paper by stating what we know about your topic, what we don’t know, and what you did to fill the gap. Then, you circle back in the discussion with a summary of what you found in the gap, how it relates to what we don’t know, and how it contradicts, confirms or extends our knowledge.  

In simple terms, writing an academic paper for publication in a peer reviewed journal is nothing more than a conversation you are having with every researcher before, during, and after you. In a sense it is a silent collaboration with the broader peer community.

But, if you are like me, collaboration can be challenging. I all too often find myself hesitating between mirroring (paraphrasing) past research and truly synthesizing the discourse. I constantly question if my literature review is verbatim or overreach. I fear stepping into the realm of editorializing.

Why do I overthink? What’s at stake?

Plagiarism.

And I don’t just mean capital “P” plagiarism…there are so many minor small “p” ways it can sneak into our writing. My bigger question is: If it’s so critical to ‘stand on the back of giants’ in research and publication, is it even possible to avoid it at all times? And does it really matter?

Here is a thought-provoking editorial on the future of plagiarism as AI increasingly integrates into the scientific world--check it out if you are interested...

Plagiarism: what is it?

How would you define it? Copying? Duplicating? Replicating? Mirroring? Imitating? Stealing?

According to Claude.ai, in academic journal writing, plagiarism means presenting someone else's ideas, words, data, or creative work as your own without proper attribution. (Did I attribute this properly? Did Clause.ai copy this verbatim or synthesize from multiple sources? Are we both plagiarizing? Ack!)

My brain tends to catastrophize. Therefore, I think of extreme cases of stealing other people’s words verbatim and claiming them as one’s own. But verbatim plagiarism—word-for-word copying someone else’s work without any attribution to the actual person who created it—is only one dimension. 

This form of plagiarizing should be avoided—and severe consequences could follow…more in a minute about that…

The real risks for most of us who truly don’t want to steal other’s words is in committing other kinds of plagiarism.

Have you ever repackaged someone else’s ideas in your own words and omitted the citation because it sounded like something you would say? This could fall under paraphrasing plagiarism…

Moreover, have you repackaged your own words from a previous publication but failed to cite yourself? This would fall under self-plagiarism.

What about mix and matching phrases from someone else (or from multiple sources) and omitting the citation because it seemed broad enough to stand alone? This could fall under mosaic plagiarism…

Or maybe you liked someone’s new or unique idea or concept or conclusions enough to adopt as your own, but didn’t quite give credit where it was due? This would fall under idea plagiarism.

Ok, now we are clear on the different flavors of small “p” plagiarism…

Poll 1: Confession Booth

No idea is original—even our own ideas come from somewhere else. The key is to cite generously. Being transparent about our sources lends intellectual credibility to ourselves and good will toward the original author or authors (and they get a citation! And they might cite us in the future!)

As the same time, over citing can make us look insecure. A journal paper probably doesn’t need 100 citations—typically shoot for 30-45. This can be challenging, however, when a paper is coming directly from a dissertation or thesis project, where we all know the drill: you have to prove you did your reading!

My approach? Make sure every idea and claim not your own is cited. And if there are many works to cite for the same idea or claim, pick one foundational, one most recent, and (optional) one or two more recent that are most robust and widely cited. Drop the rest.

If you want a quick recap of plagiarism, what it is, notes for taking notes for your literature review, self-checks and online checkers, go to my YouTube channel and watch.

Risks and Consequences

With AI and increased ease of checking for plagiarism, should we be scared? Should we second guess ourselves and whether our ideas are our own or a subconscious relic of reading, listening, and watching other’s works? Are all our previous publications now under scrutiny???

This is a dystopian reality I don’t want to enter.

What about a scenario where you overlooked a citation in one instance but cited the source later (or earlier)? Or an instance where you have a paper published from years ago when citations were not sprinkled so abundantly throughout a journal paper? Or you simply made a mistake and overlooked a reference?

The good news is that if there is not a pattern of “overlooking” then the consequences are unlikely to be severe. And it’s a good time to be more diligent and establish habits of attribution.

On the other hand, plagiarism becomes more serious when there is substantial “omission” of attribution for others’ ideas and words, when there is a pattern across multiple papers, and especially if a complaint has been filed.

Consequences in these cases can be severe and career-ending (or even career non-starting). They range from manuscript rejection (or in some cases retraction of published papers), damage to professional reputation, loss of position or tenure, and funding withdrawal to degree revocation, legal action, and institutional sanctions.

Poll 2: The Detection Drama

Taking Ownership

Trust and intellectual integrity are fundamental to the scientific community.

Reality check: We are human and we make mistakes. But we are scientist and we are trained to change our views and methods when we learn new information.

So how prevalent is plagiarism?

Unsurprisingly, most data come from monitoring students. Here are some statistics according to Claude.ai (drawing from a paper on plagiarism available on ResearchGate which I’ve included in the footnote below)1: About 25% of student papers exhibit some degree of plagiarism with it varying by country.

Two thoughts: First, students are still in-training. Second, different countries (and cultural and legal contexts) define and treat plagiarism differently.

Can there be a gold standard?

Maybe, but who decides?

As a social scientist, I can appreciate that we don’t live in a world of gradients. I also appreciate that even defining one end of the spectrum (what to run away from) versus the other (what to run toward) is not linear but perhaps more like a grid—or a sphere. Are we running in circles yet?

I don’t know how to absolutely avoid plagiarism always.

My approach is to have an attitude of abundance, where I assume my ideas are the result of something I heard or read somewhere else. It’s so easy to track down sources today. So I do that.

My other approach—when I need to “copy” something I’ve already published—is to take my previous text and paraphrase in bullet points, rearrange, and fill in the gaps to fit the story of the new paper.

Poll 3: The Self-Plagiarism Dilemma

I’ll end with one final thought: It’s crucial that we value unique ideas—others’ but also our own. Humans are endlessly creative. Perhaps that’s what draws us to research and a life of trying new things to see if they work. Let’s also have confidence in the new ideas we ourselves contribute to the conversation. Let’s move beyond imposter syndrome.

Stand on the backs of others until that last step, then take it on your own.

And own it.

1. Honig, Benson & Bedi, Akanksha. (2012). The Fox in the Hen House: A Critical Examination of Plagiarism Among Members of the Academy of Management. Academy of Management Learning and Education, The. 11. 101-123. 10.5465/amle.2010.0084.

Footnotes

Don’t forget to check out my new video this month on plagiarism: what it is, notes for taking notes for your literature review, self-checks and online checkers.

You can find it in the Publish It! Library.

Or go to my YouTube channel.

Find the full version included in Draft It! The Essential 10-Week Workshop – a self-paced course. Find it on the Publish It! website.

I’ve also moved all my free short videos to my YouTube channel, check them out here: again, the link is in the blog post

I upload new content monthly so subscribe if you are interested!

And while you are at it—join the Publish It! Community and share your experiences with other academic writers. It’s free!