A Resource on Self-Plagiarism

Greetings again. I hope that all is going well for you.

Graduate students can provide helpful information to professors, as well as the reverse. Recently a master’s student shared with me some resources that she collected during a communication internship. This blog post will feature one of these resources.

This resource is an article on self-plagiarism. At first, the idea of self-plagiarism might seem self-contradictory. Usually the term plagiarism refers to using others’ work without properly crediting the source. How then could one plagiarize oneself?

As the article notes, the reason is that plagiarism also has a broader definition: presenting as original an item from an existing source. Thus, for example, including in a current paper some material from one’s previous paper can be plagiarism if one does not cite the source. As the article discusses, self-plagiarism not only is considered unethical but also can violate copyright.

The article includes pointers for avoiding self-plagiarism. Probably the most important pointer is to treat your own previously published text as you would treat text from other authors. Thus, for example, you should cite the source, and you should either reword the text or present it as a quotation.

Also, as the article notes, if a manuscript that you submit to a journal includes content that you presented previously (for example, at a conference), you should inform the journal. Sometimes the published paper will then note the presentation.

Plagiarism detection software can help authors to find, and thus correct, instances where they inadvertently plagiarized their own or others’ work. The article that is featured in the current post comes from a company that provides such software. Some software for this purpose also is openly available.

Until the next post—

Barbara