How to Recognize and Avoid Plagiarism

Richard L. Saunders, Paul Meek Library

Univ. of Tennessee at Martin

Copyright and Permissions

People sometimes confuse plagiarism with copyright. Copyright covers only some works, while plagiarism covers everything. Plagiarism is a moral issue; copyright is a legal issue.

Copyright is a legally stated list of rights belonging to the author of a work. It is not the same as plagiarism. Copyright law provides users with some exceptions to an authors exclusive rights, a fair use, but fair use does not provide grounds or a defense for plagiarism. If you are challenged, the alleged infringer carries the legal burden of proof to show a source has been used fairly.

Some published material is not subject to copyright and is considered to be in the public domain. Work produced by government employees in their jobs, work for which copyright has expired (like Shakespeare's plays) are two examples of materials in public domain. Intentional collaborative works, like Wikipedia, are often protected under flexible Creative Commons agreements. Because public domain is a legal status and not a moral one, the standards about what constitutes plagiarism still apply if you use works in public domain.

It is assumed that writing and presentations you produce for class assignments will not be shown or available beyond class. Once a student portfolio, project, or entry in any sort of competition is accessible beyond campus in any form, that work is no longer educational. Any text you might have quoted extensively (including poetry), any graph, photo, or illustration would require permission to include, even if you have correctly cited it.

Permission simply means contacting a copyright owner with a request to use their material in your project or writing. If you do not receive written permission to use something, then it might still be used in your schoolwork (properly quoted and cited) but could not appear in something that would be circulated beyond campus (including a Web page). You might, however, paraphrase the text appropriately or produce a new graph or illustration based on the original, citing either one properly.

How much can you quote before seeking permission? There are no legal standards, but more than one or two sentences would probably be too much. Quotation, when lengthy, need permission. Better to paraphrase.

Citation is not a substitute for getting permission. Permission must be stated in a printed form (email counts, but texting would probably not). Keep a hard copy of any permission request and response, otherwise the courts consider that no permission has been granted.

Here is an example: say a student is constructing a Web page as a class project. If they copy graphics or visual information from other sites (but not layout or design elements), they must also provide information about the source in their own site or presentation. If that Web page is accessible only to class members and the professor, perhaps through course-management software like Blackboard, such use is not a problem. But, Web pages are generally public and are accessible beyond the course; it might be a good idea to get permission from the Websites owner before using graphics even in schoolwork.

The current edition of the Chicago Manual of Style includes a section that is a good help for structuring permission requests. Copies are available in the library.