Meriam-Wester online dictionary define PLAGIARISM as
Self-plagiarism: is the act of copying your own work after it has been published or unpublished to be resubmitted for another evaluation without permission?
What is a Plagiarism checker?
Plagiarism checkers are widely used by educational institutions to ensure academic integrity and by businesses to safeguard intellectual property. It is critical to use these tools to avoid any legal or ethical issues that may arise as a result of plagiarism.
How does plagiarism detector work?
Plagiarism checkers use keyword analysis to identify exact matches and non-exact matches.
Paraphrasing and summarizing techniques
Quoting effectively and correctly
Quoting effectively and correctly is an essential skill in academic writing. When quoting, you are using someone else's exact words within your own work. Here are some guidelines to help you quote effectively and ensure proper citation:
Avoiding accidental plagiarism is crucial for maintaining academic integrity.
This policy aims to serve the vision of the University of South Africa (UNISA): Towards the African University shaping futures in the service of humanity.
The UNISA Policy on Research Ethics aims to ensure that: ethical and scientific intellectual culture prevails among the university’s employees and students and is followed in research practice.
The Students’ Disciplinary Code is aimed at: ensuring the integrity of the academic processes of the University.
Like affidavits, declarations are commonly used by litigants to submit factual evidence, such as witness statements or documentary evidence.
The aim of this policy is to empower Unisa employees and students to uphold ethical standards and to give the University of South Africa the power to act in cases where contraventions of ethical academic standards occur.
Unisa rules for students relating to plagiaristic actions.
Direct Plagiarism: Direct plagiarism occurs when someone copies word-for-word from a source without providing proper attribution or quotation marks. It involves presenting someone else's work as your own, without any acknowledgment.
Self-Plagiarism: Self-plagiarism, also known as recycling or duplication, happens when a person submits their own previous work, or a substantial portion of it, as new or original without proper citation or disclosure. While it is acceptable to reuse ideas, it is important to cite previous work to avoid misleading others.
Paraphrasing Plagiarism: Paraphrasing plagiarism occurs when someone rewrites or rephrases someone else's work without giving appropriate credit. Even if the words are changed, if the sentence structure and ideas remain the same, proper citation is necessary.
Mosaic Plagiarism: Mosaic plagiarism, also known as patchwriting, involves taking small sections of text from various sources and combining them without proper attribution. This type of plagiarism attempts to disguise copied material by rearranging words or sentence structures while maintaining the original meaning.
Accidental Plagiarism: Accidental plagiarism happens when a person unintentionally fails to provide proper citation or attribution. It can occur due to poor note-taking, lack of understanding of citation rules, or improper paraphrasing.
Verbatim Plagiarism: Verbatim plagiarism involves directly copying a significant portion of text from a source without attribution. It can include copying sentences, paragraphs, or entire sections without any original contribution or acknowledgment.
Collusion: Collusion occurs when individuals collaborate or work together on an assignment or project but submit it as their individual work. It violates academic integrity policies, as each person is expected to contribute independently and receive individual grades.
Citation Plagiarism: Citation plagiarism, also known as citation manipulation or fake referencing, involves providing incorrect or inaccurate citations to give the appearance of research and credibility. This can include citing non-existent sources, misrepresenting sources, or fabricating references.
Anti-plagiarism tools and software are designed to help detect and prevent plagiarism in academic and professional settings. These tools utilize various methods, algorithms, and databases to compare submitted content against a vast collection of existing texts to identify potential instances of plagiarism. Here are some common types of anti-plagiarism tools and software:
Turnitin is a widely used plagiarism detection software that is utilized by educational institutions, instructors, and students to check for instances of plagiarism in written work.
Like Turnitin, iThenticate generates an Originality Report that highlights matching or similar text found in its database. It is designed to be used by researchers and writers to ensure the originality of written work before publication. link to Open Science LibGuide
Plagiarism Detection Software: Turnitin, Grammarly, Copyscape, and Plagscan.
Citation Management Tools: Citation management tools like EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley, and RefWorks
Purchase or Obtain EndNote: You can purchase EndNote directly from the official EndNote website or through authorized resellers. Alternatively, check if your institution provides access to EndNote as part of its subscription or library resources. Some institutions may offer EndNote as a free download or provide access to it through their library website.
ask your librarian
Access via Unisa library E-Resources A_Z list
Text Comparison Tools: include Diff Checker, Plagium, and Urkund.
Authorship Identification Tools: Examples of authorship identification tools include JGAAP (Java Graphical Authorship Attribution Program) and Anonymouth.
Stylo is an R package for stylometric analysis, which is the study of linguistic and stylistic features to identify authorship. It provides tools for authorship attribution, profiling, and verification based on various textual features, such as word frequencies, character n-grams, function words, etc. Stylo allows researchers to analyze and compare writing styles to determine the likely author of a text.
Internet Search Engines: like Google can be used to identify potential instances of plagiarism by searching for specific phrases or sentences from a document. By copying and pasting suspicious text into a search engine, you can see if it matches existing online content.
Select Suspicious Text: Copy a specific phrase, sentence, or paragraph from the document you suspect may be plagiarized.
Paste and Search: Go to a search engine like Google and paste the selected text into the search bar. Enclose the text within quotation marks to search for an exact match.
Review Search Results: Examine the search results to see if the text appears elsewhere on the internet. If you find exact matches, it could indicate that the text has been plagiarized.
Explore Similar Content: Additionally, you can browse the search results for similar content or paraphrased versions of the text. While not necessarily plagiarism, finding similar content could prompt further investigation to ensure proper citation and attribution.
Check Multiple Search Engines