Plagiarism is substantially copying other people's works, giving them as one's own.

Although plagiarism can sometimes be unconsciously incurred, its practice undermines academic honesty.

Plagiarism is incurred

• when the source is not cited or not cited appropriately
• if quotation marks are not used in a literal quote
• if wrong information about the source is given by including sentences, paragraphs or ideas of other authors without citing their origin or authorship
• if the paraphrasing is abused even if the source is mentioned
• if someone else's work is presented as your own
• if you present a work of your own already used as new.

Citing the works properly prevents plagiarism. For instance using small fragments of works of others for research purposes is allowed by law.

However, and even if it is not plagiarism, these uses must be done ethically and this means that the authorship and source of the work used must be cited.

Plagiarism is prevented in two ways

1. Acknowledging the authorship of the ideas of other authors or the information you use
2. By properly identifying the sources of information you use. Standard citation styles allow you to identify and locate the documents you manage.