INFORM-e
Information skills for University

Law

Why and how to cite references

• Introduction
• Scenario
• Best solution
• Why cite?
• Plagiarism
• How to cite
• Top tips
• Topic map

Topic menu

3:1:1 What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is defined in the Concise Oxford Dictionary (Thompson,1995) as to:

take and use the thoughts, writings, inventions, etc. of another person as one’s own

Which of the following do you think would be considered as plagiarism? Pass your mouse over the questions below to check your answers:

Plagiarism may be intentional - where someone deliberately copies another person’s work and tries to pass it off as their own work

Plagiarism may be unintentional - through bad referencing practices, ignorance of the correct way to reference, omitting references by error or due to lack of time.

Reference
Thompson, D., ed. (1995). The concise Oxford dictionary of current English. 9th ed. Oxford: OUP

Citing legal authorities    SSU policy on plagiarism