What is plagiarism and how to avoid it? - PMC - National Library of MedicinePlagiarism is derived from Latin word “plagiarius” which means “kidnapper,” who abducts the child.1 The word plagiarism entered the Oxford English dictionary in 1621. Plagiarism has been defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica as “the act of taking the writings of another person and passing them off as ones own.”2 It is an act of forgery, piracy, and fraud and is stated to be a serious crime of academia.3 It is also a violation of copyright laws. Honesty in scientific practice and in publication is necessary. The World Association of Medical Editors4 (WAME) defines plagiarism as “… the use of others’ published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source.”
In 1999, the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)5,6 defined plagiarism as “Plagiarism ranges from the unreferenced use of others’ published and unpublished ideas including research grant applications to submission under new authorship of a complex paper, sometimes in a different language. It may occur at any stage of planning, research, writing or publication; it applies to print and electronic versions.”