One of the biggest questions most students have is whether plagiarism gets you into trouble. Unlike the commonly known plagiarism, which involves copying other people's work and passing it as your own, self-plagiarism is repeating your own work. While this may not seem like a problem, it can get you into real trouble in both school and professional settings. This is because the act is seen as unethical and portrays a lack of transparency. In other words, you are misleading your audience that you have taken time to do the work from scratch but, in the real sense, just reused previous work.
This article will explore why self-plagiarism can get you into trouble. So whether you are a student or professional, understanding what self-plagiarism is and how it can get you into trouble will help you avoid it.
Self-plagiarism, also known as self-duplication or redundant publications, is the reusing of the work, written papers, articles, or content you have used and submitted in the past. Self-plagiarism can take various forms, including:
To put it another way, plagiarizing yourself is submitting work that has been published before and passing it off as original.
If you must use your own work, follow it up with a proper reference to avoid misleading readers.
Self-plagiarism can occur in two ways: intentionally and unintentionally. Intentional plagiarism occurs when you use your own words or ideas used before and pass them off as your own. This occurs when:
Unintentional self-plagiarism occurs when you accidentally use work because of the failure to understand documentation conventions. It may be that you do not remember or do not know, which is not an excuse.
Publishing the same material more than once, even if you are solely responsible for the work, is viewed as academic behavior and could get you into serious trouble with your teachers or professional bodies. This is because it misleads readers, teachers, and editors into thinking the work is original when it is not.
Furthermore, it can distort citation indexes, especially in cases where you submit works to a journal.
A real-life example of people who have reused their own works is the case of Shelby Ingebrigtesen vs. Linfield College. Ingebrigtesen was accused of self-plagiarism, which resulted in her expulsion from Linfield Nursing.
There are instances where self-plagiarism is OK. Firstly, when you are publishing the same material in different languages to reach a much wider audience, in this case, the research material is for an important research that could benefit various people.
Secondly, when you are requested to write a book chapter, in this case, they will have to reuse the material appearing elsewhere, for instance, in a journal. However, you must cite the original source so that readers know that what they are reading is not original.
Thirdly, you can plagiarize yourself and avoid getting into trouble when you, as an author, continue initial research in subsequent publications. In this case, you can use some portions of your study, such as the methodology, background information, or the results of previously published works. However, you must clearly state that you are continuing a previous research.
Additionally, you can self-plagiarize after being granted permission from the journal in which you previously published your work. However, publications will only allow you to reuse your own work in cases where you wish to expound on a concept in your initial research. Make sure you get clear communication on this, preferably in writing, to avoid confusion and legal trouble.
Another instance where self-plagiarism is OK is when a material is necessary for pedagogical purposes instead of to lie or mislead readers. In this case, self-plagiarism promotes the reinforcement of key concepts and ideas that learners need in order to grasp complex subjects. Thus, both learners and teachers will focus on educational outcomes instead of starting from scratch.
Furthermore, when creating teaching materials such as lecture notes, teachers can reuse previous works to ensure consistency and coherence in learning. However, understand that self-plagiarism will depend on the institutional policies and academic context in an educational setting. Both teachers and learners must abide by the provided guidelines to maintain academic integrity.
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Much like traditional forms of plagiarism, self-plagiarism is problematic because it involves academic dishonesty. The consequences of self-plagiarism will vary depending on the context and institutional policies. Here are all the reasons why plagiarizing yourself can get you into trouble.
The main role of research papers is to share new information that advances our understanding of how things are in the world. Reusing work without properly citing your work gives a false impression to readers that what they are reading is new knowledge that has yet to be published somewhere else. This will deceive your teachers and editors, who will expect to read new information and assess its value to the world.
Furthermore, self-plagiarism creates a false impression of productivity and innovation. You are creating unfair advantages when you dont put in the same amount of effort as others do to produce original work. In other words, you are telling people that there is no value in taking time to do work from scratch. Thus, you are dismissing other researchers who have taken time and effort to work and have no value. This will erode the readers' trust both in the research process and research materials.
Reusing your own work is problematic because of what is known as publisher copyright. So, how does this occur? Well, when you publish research material or any content, that work ceases to be solely your own because you transfer the copyright to the publisher. In other words, the publisher owns the rights to "your work," so you don’t have the right to reuse it, and when you do, it will be in violation of the copyright law.
Violating copyright law will land you in legal trouble. Many publishers take their copyright extremely seriously and will do anything to guard it, even if it means suing someone who has violated the copyright agreement.
Conscious self-plagiarism harms the credibility and self-protection of the institution. People are not so forgiving of any form of plagiarism, and the media will likely expose the intuition, particularly if it is a well-known school.
If the public gets wind of this, they will not trust the school. Students and parents will also be reluctant to apply to the school for higher education.
Plagiarizing your own work raises ethical issues both in academic and professional settings. It undermines the key principles of intellectual and academic honesty that are the foundation of scholarly endeavors.
However, many people argue that reusing your work is not a problem and should be classified in a different category than traditional plagiarism. However, others believe that since you are passing old information on as new, then it is a problem.
The ethical standpoint here is honesty. When you are deliberately reusing previously published or submitted works without proper citation, you are deliberately lying to readers.
You are depriving readers of unique content and are failing to contribute meaningfully to the advancement of knowledge.
So what happens if you self-plagiarize at university? Self-plagiarism, or any plagiarism for that matter, is taken very seriously in universities and all academic institutions. If you are proven to have plagiarized your work, you are likely to face the following consequences:
If you published your work in a journal and then are suspected to have reused it, the journal will likely retract it. Retraction is essentially a formal declaration that the article or material should not be considered part of the academic record.
The journal will review and compare your work with the previously published works. If you are found to have reused or lifted text from a published journal, the article will be retracted.
If you are proven to have plagiarised your work against the institution's regulations, the university could bar you from the school and possibly another school, ending your dreams of pursuing higher education.
Plagiarizing your work can also lead to reputational damage. When you are suspended or expelled from school because of plagiarising your own work, you will lose credibility and respect among your peers and the overall academic community.
When you use content from a previous grant proposal without permission to apply for a new one, the funding agency will withdraw the grant and bar you from applying for any future grants and funding.
While it might seem legitimate to reuse your own work, it is best to avoid doing it, as it could land you in trouble. That said, use the following effective ways to avoid self-plagiarism
Before you begin writing, ensure you create a plan of how you will work on the assignment from start to finish. This is true, especially if you are writing different papers on similar topics. In this case, you are planning what to include in your paper, paying close attention so as not to repeat what you have written before.
Besides having a plan, it is also best to have separate notes about the materials. This way, you dont unintentionally plagiarize yourself.
As mentioned, if your work was published in a journal, it no longer belongs to you. This means that if you must use it, first seek permission from the copyright holder to avoid accusations of self-plagiarism.
If you are publishing a manuscript containing data that has already been published elsewhere, indicate to the readers and editors the nature of the previous dissemination.
If you must borrow content, whether text, images, graphs, or any material from works of previously published work, cite it correctly. Even if you are summarizing or paraphrasing instead of copying word for word, you need to cite your sources for readers to know that the work is unoriginal.
There are two main ways of citing your sources: in-text citations within the body, at the end of the papers, and in the reference list. This will provide evidence for your sources and ensure you avoid self-plagiarizing.
If tasked to write about a topic you have worked on before, instead of copying and pasting the content, consider reframing your thoughts to suit the new audience. This is where effective note-taking comes in. You need to take good notes when conducting thorough research. Doing this will help you gather new and more information that you can use to write an effective and original article.
Additionally, consider reframing ideas from the original publication and expanding on them to write a new article. Expanding your ideas is actually one of the best ways to beat university plagiarism detectors like Turnitin, ensuring your paper is 100% original.
Furthermore, when writing, ensure you clearly differentiate new contributions from the previous ones to help readers understand the novel aspects of your paper. One of the best ways to do this is by stating how your research advances the previous research. For instance, while the previous study focused on X, this paper extends those findings by exploring the relationship between Y and Z and how they influence X.
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Whether you are a student or professional, plagiarizing yourself can get you into serious trouble in so many ways. You could fail your exams and get suspended or expelled if you are in school. As a professional, you could be sued for copyright infringements or damage your reputation. Overall, it is unethical and unprofessional. So, while some may not see it as a big deal, you need to avoid self-plagiarizing by ensuring that all your content is original.
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