Plagiarism is the complete or partial copying of a published work without citing the source or the author(s). It does not matter whether the copying is intentional or unintentional. Published works are cited for purposes of reference, explanation or illustration (see Citing correctly)
There are different forms of plagiarism (see information sheet „Plagiate werden geahndet„, in German)
- Parts of text are taken from another person’s work without identifying the source with a citation. This also includes downloading and using parts of text from the Internet without citing the source (copy-paste plagiarism).
- Parts of text are taken from another person’s work, slightly adapted and rearranged without indicating the source (paraphrasing).
- Parts of text from another person’s work are taken directly or, if necessary, paraphrased. The corresponding source is cited, but not in the context of the adopted part(s) of the text (example: hiding the plagiarized source in a footnote at the end of the work).
- Texts in another language (or parts thereof) are translated and passed off as one’s own without citing the source (translation plagiarism).
- The same work (or parts thereof) is submitted for different assignments (auto-plagiarism).
- A third-party work is submitted under one’s own name (complete plagiarism).
The use of AI-based texts is not a form of plagiarism, as there is no authorship. Nevertheless, the use of AI may in certain cases violate good academic practice. cf. the position paper (in German) on dealing with generative AI from the Center for Learning, Teaching and Research at the HSLU.