Journalists beware
Here are some quick facts about plagiarism from Plagiarism.org
• Simply put, plagiarism is “the use of another’s original words or ideas as though they were your own.”
• All of the following are considered plagiarism:
• turning in someone else’s work as your own
• copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
• failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
• giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
• changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit
• copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not
• “Changing the words of an original source is not sufficient to prevent plagiarism. If you have retained the essential idea of an original source, and have not cited it, then no matter how drastically you may have altered its context or presentation, you have still plagiarized.”
• “Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed, and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source, is usually enough to prevent plagiarism.”
From University of the Philippines journalism professor Danilo Arao:
• “There’s no difference between somebody who copied and pasted an entire work from that of somebody who just copied one sentence.”
• Journalists can also be guilty of committing auto-plagiarism. Auto-plagiarism happens “when the author passes off as original something he or she has written in the past.”
• Submitting a press release in its entirety and passing it off as one’s own story is considered plagiarism. A press release should be viewed as a mere secondary source. If publishing a full version of a press release, it should be attributed to the source of the release—not to a reporter.
