Saybrook University's Policy on Academic Honesty (Plagiarism) and Authorship, available at https://catalog.saybrook.edu/content.php?catoid=116&navoid=10878&hl=%22plagiarism#student-services-personnel (scroll down to subsection on "Academic Honesty (Plagiarism) and Authorship") defines plagiarism as the following:
"Plagiarism is intentionally or unintentionally representing words, ideas, or data from any source as one’s own original work. The use or reproduction of another’s work without appropriate attribution in the form of complete, accurate, and properly formatted citations constitutes plagiarism."
Why are we quoting the from the Student Handbook on Academic Integrity? How is plagiarism different from copyright violation?
The difference is cultural ethical practice versus law. In U.S. copyright law, it does not matter if you cite the original author/creator. Plagiarism involves, not just copying other people's work, but not giving them appropriate credit.
In short, it is not Western academic practice to copy other people's work without giving them credit. You can use other people's work, but you should quote and cite appropriately in order to be behaving, not just within accordance with the Saybrook Code of Conduct regarding Academic Integrity, but the ethical practices of the Western world.
On the flip side, if someone, for example, prints 30 copies of the current bestseller and sell them for $1 each because they're a huge fan of the author?? Well, that's not plagiarism, because the author is clear. That's copyright violation!
Need more concrete examples on how to determine whether you are plagiarizing or not? Harvard has some great examples under "
What Constitutes Plagiarism?"
