Issue Of Plagiarism
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th Ed.) defines plagiarism as "a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work."
The American Heritage Dictionary (2nd College Ed.) defines plagiarize as "to take and use as ones own the writings or ideas of another."
IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) defines plagiarism as the reuse of someone elses prior ideas, processes, results, or words without explicitly acknowledging the original author and source. It should also be noted that certain corrective actions might apply to the uncredited reuse of someone elses ideas.
What are the levels of misconduct described in the Guidelines?
(According IEEE)
1. Level One pertains to the uncredited verbatim copying of a full paper, or the verbatim copying of a major portion (> 50%), or verbatim copying within more than one paper by the same author(s).
2. Level Two pertains to the uncredited verbatim copying of large portion (between 20 and 50%) or verbatim copying within more than one paper by the same author(s).
3. Level Three pertains to the uncredited verbatim copying of individual elements (Paragraph(s), Sentence(s),Illustration(s), etc.) resulting in a significant portion (up to 20%) within a paper
4. Level Four pertains to uncredited improper paraphrasing of pages or paragraphs
5. Level Five pertains to the credited verbatim copying of a major portion of a paper without clear delineation (e.g., quotes or indents)
Source: ieee.org