Plagiarism: Words and Ideas

Plagiarism is a crime against academy. It deceives readers, hurts plagiarized authors, and gets the plagiarist undeserved benefits. However, even though these arguments do show that copying other people’s intellectual contribution is wrong, they do not apply to the copying of words. Copying a few se...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science and engineering ethics 2008-09, Vol.14 (3), p.311-322
Main Author: Bouville, Mathieu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bioethics
Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering
Cheating
Copyright
Education
Engineering
Ethics
Intellectual Property
Medicine/Public Health
Original Paper
Philosophy
Philosophy of Science
Plagiarism
Professional ethics
Professional misconduct
Scientific Misconduct - classification
Scientific Misconduct - ethics
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Summary:Plagiarism is a crime against academy. It deceives readers, hurts plagiarized authors, and gets the plagiarist undeserved benefits. However, even though these arguments do show that copying other people’s intellectual contribution is wrong, they do not apply to the copying of words. Copying a few sentences that contain no original idea (e.g. in the introduction) is of marginal importance compared to stealing the ideas of others. The two must be clearly distinguished, and the ‘plagiarism’ label should not be used for deeds which are very different in nature and importance.
ISSN:1353-3452
1471-5546
DOI:10.1007/s11948-008-9057-6