What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the act of using other people’s opinions and making them look like they are your own ideas. In doing so, a person who plagiarizes not only has lied about the ownership of that idea but also he/she has stolen someone else’s idea.

Plagiarism or similarity?

Plagiarism is different from similarity. Not all similarity is considered plagiarism. For example, quotations are identified as similarity but they are not necessarily plagiarism (provided that the original source is properly cited). Also, references are often identified as similarity by plagiarism detection software, but references are not plagiarism.

How much plagiarism is acceptable?

None. Zero. Not even one word. However, as explained above, plagiarism is different from similarity. Also, sometimes, similarity/plagiarism can happen accidentally. Therefore, using plagiarism detection software can help authors prevent accidental plagiarism.

What plagiarism detection software is the best?

The one that is used the most by academic journals: iThenticate. It has a user-friendly interface, a powerful API, a very large database, and is the most popular plagiarism detection software among top journals.

Is the idea of plagiarism somehow a capitalist notion?

Somehow, yes. Capitalism brought about the notion of Copyright, which expanded its reach to the ownership of ideas and now even to words.

Source: The ideas presented in this short blog post have been translated from this website.