Rising from Plagiarising

Abstract

Amongst the various forms of scientific misconduct, plagiarism has become increasingly prevalent in today’s scientific process. Plagiarism is copying another author’s ideas or words and portraying them as your own. Inclusion of another source’s contents without giving credit to the source results in this unethical practice. Text derived directly from a source must always be put under quotation marks. Decreased awareness about plagiarism and what exactly constitutes it results in unintentional plagiarism. Plagiarism can be that of the ideas in which the author projects others’ ideas as his own. It can also be that of the text also known as word to word plagiarism. Mosaic plagiarism is another form. Various guidelines formulated by esteemed scientific bodies such as World Association of Medical Editors, Committee on publication Ethics have provided an insight to authors, editors, publishers and peer reviewers into the practice of ethical writing. By understanding the true essence of plagiarism and following strict guidelines, it is certainly possible to avoid plagiarism. Various softwares are available to detect plagiarism. These softwares have a wide database which is scanned to reveal any kind of malpractice. If detected, it can have grave consequences causing not only retraction of the article but also loss of dignity. Failure to detect plagiarism reflects negatively on a journal. Originality is the true essence of any research or scientific paper. Any violation of this fact is an unforgivable offence. Thus, this review article attempts to cover the meaning, types, risks and ways to avoid plagiarism.