Plagiarism

Definition of plagiarism

In its meeting of 1 September 2011 the Department of Quality Education and Internationalisation has decided to lay down for the academic year 2011-2012 (and following) the definition of plagiarism. The Faculty Council has approved this definition in the meeting of 12 September 2011.
Article 79: Fraud or irregularities
§2 Committing plagiarism is a form of fraud. The Board of Examiners per study programme shall lay down a full-proof definition for the concept of “plagiarism” for said study programme. This information is to be communicated to the students taking the study programme in question. The evaluator in charge is free to test the originality of the papers and assignments submitted – which in all cases need to be submitted in electronic format – by running anti-plagiarism software. If a lecturer in charge has reason to suspect a student has committed plagiarism which is likely to affect the evaluation, he is to notify the chairman of the Board of Examiners per study programme thereof without delay.
The Board of Examiners of each study programme of the Faculty of Arts & Humanities have agreed to lay down a common definition of plagiarism for the entire faculty.
Plagiarism will be defined as follows:
“Copying, whether or not in translation, someone’s words or paraphrasing a line of thought without acknowledging the source, shall be interpreted as plagiarism. Every piece of text (sentences or phrases) that is being taken over from no matter what publication in no matter what language, even from websites or from a manuscript, has to be accompanied by a source citation and has to be signalled as quotation in the case of verbatim copy. A general source citation, for instance at the beginning of a chapter, does not mean that plagiarism can be condoned elsewhere in the text, and neither does the bibliography or any list of used sources.”

Example 1

Original text:

“When political parties defend collective interests one can rest assured that fundamental societal problems will be put on the political agenda. By defending collective interests they have a natural electorate (those supporting those interests), completed/supplemented by those voters who have been persuaded.”

The source of this text is: P. Saey, “De Opkomst van Extreem-Rechts als Geografisch probleem”, in D. Praet (red), “Us and Them”. Essays over filosofie, politiek, religie en cultuur van de Klassieke Oudheid tot Islam in Europa. Ter ere van Herman De Ley, Gent, Academia Press, 2008, p. 359-360.

If you wish to use the idea expressed above in your own paper, it may seem appropriate to you to copy the full text. In that case you need to signal that it is in fact a quotation: you need to surround the text with quotation marks and mention the source. If you do not do so, you are committing plagiarism.

No plagiarism
“When political parties defend collective interests one can rest assured that fundamental societal problems will be put on the political agenda. By defending collective interests they have a natural electorate (those supporting those interests), completed/supplemented by those voters who have been persuaded.” (P. Saey, 2008, p. 359-360)

Plagiarism
When political parties defend collective interests one can rest assured that fundamental societal problems will be put on the political agenda. By defending collective interests they have a natural electorate (those supporting those interests), completed/supplemented by those voters who have been persuaded. (P. Saey, 2008, p. 359-360)

Plagiarism
When political parties defend collective interests one can rest assured that fundamental societal problems will be put on the political agenda. By defending collective interests they have a natural electorate (those supporting those interests), supplemented with those voters who have been persuaded.

If you wish to reuse an idea in your own papers, even when it is paraphrased in your own words, you still need to acknowledge the source. If you do not do so, you are committing plagiarism.

No plagiarism
Fundamental societal problems will only be put on the political agenda when political parties defend collective interests, as they then have a natural electorate, i.e. the ones who support these interests. (P. Saey, 2008, p. 359-360)

Plagiarism
Fundamental societal problems will only be put on the political agenda when political parties defend collective interests, as they then have a natural electorate, i.e. the ones who support these interests.

Example 2

Original Text
"Dutch colonial rule proclaimed that different groups required different legislation; this resulted in the legal invention of second class citizenship. When at the turn of the century, Dutch women advocated citizenship for women, they could identify partially with the indigenous population of the colonies. This however, did not result in real solidarity between Dutch and Indonesian feminists.”

The source of this text is: B. Waaldijk, “Subjects and Citizens: Gender and Racial Discrimination in Dutch Colonialism at the End of the 19th Century”, in G. Hálfdanarson (ed.), Racial Discrimination and Ethnicity in European History, Pisa, Edizioni Plus – Università di Pisa, 2003, p. 111.

A word by word translation in Dutch from any other language equally qualifies as plagiarism. In the case of translations, the original source text must be acknowledged.

No plagiarism
Volgens Waaldijk vond het Nederlandse koloniale regime dat een verschillende wetgeving vereist is voor verschillende groepen, waardoor een zogenaamd tweede klasse burgerschap ontstond. Toen, bij de eeuwwisseling, de Nederlandse vrouwen pleitten voor burgerschap voor vrouwen, konden ze zich gedeeltelijk met de inheemse bevolking identificeren. Dit resulteerde nochtans niet in echte solidariteit tussen Nederlandse en Indonesische feministes. (B. Waaldijk, 2003, p. 111)

Plagiarism
Het Nederlandse koloniale regime bepaalde dat verschillende wetgeving vereist is voor verschillende groepen; dit resulteerde in de wettelijke uitvinding van tweede klassen burgerschap. Toen, bij de eeuwwisseling, de Nederlandse vrouwen pleitten voor burgerschap voor vrouwen, konden zij zich gedeeltelijk met de inheemse bevolking van de kolonies identificeren. Dit resulteerde nochtans niet in echte solidariteit tussen Nederlandse en Indonesische feministes.

Test your knowledge of plagiarism
If you want to test your knowledge of plagiarism, you can go to the Indiana University Bloomington website at : http://www.indiana.edu/~tedfrick/plagiarism/.