Plagiarism is theft; it is a violation of professional ethics; it is a violation of UNC at Chapel Hill's Honor Code; furthermore, the courts have recognized it as a violation of copyright. There are many ways to violate copyright, including failure to acknowledge direct quotes or the paraphrasing of another person's work, and the insufficient acknowledgment of such works.

For an in-depth discussion of plagiarism at UNC, please refer to the Writing Center's Plagiarism Handout.

The research process involves familiarizing yourself with the ideas of others in order to form your own perspectives or arguments, perform experiments, and create new work. In doing research you will often read books and articles that present different ideas and arguments from many authors. From these ideas you will create your own and incorporate them into your writing. As a responsible researcher, it is essential to give credit to the ideas and work of other researchers.

The UNC Honor Code defines plagiarism as "the intentional representation of another person's words, thoughts or ideas as one's own" (Instrument of Student Judicial Governance, Section II.B.1). This is a serious offense in the academic world and can take various forms. Here are some examples of plagiarism:

• Buying or using any sort of paper or project from another person or service and turning it in as the product of your own work
• Turning in someone else's work as your own with or without that person's knowledge
• Submitting or presenting work turned in for one class to fulfill an assignment in another class without the prior agreement of the instructor involved
• Copying statements from a source and using them without proper use of quotation marks and citations
• Paraphrasing information from a source without proper citations

This list is by no means exhaustive. The most important tools for avoiding plagiarism are common sense and due diligence. If you ever have to ask yourself whether an act might be considered plagiarism, err on the side of caution.