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Questions tagged [plagiarism]

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Plagiarism is the use of the ideas and words of another passed off as one's own. Issues here include similarity of work, theme, and characters. Plagiarism is not always a crime, but in academia and industry it is seen as a serious ethical offence. Cases of plagiarism can also constitute copyright infringement.

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Writing a supernatural book with characters who have supernatural powers that have already been explored in other works?

I am in the process of writing a book with many of the characters discovering that they have supernatural powers. I am trying very hard to find 'original' powers that have not yet been created and ...
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I may have unintentionally copied a TV series

As some of you might know from my other question, I'm writing a middle-grade book (hopefully the first in a series). In the setting of the series, a very small percentage of the population are born ...
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Is a novel based on the facts of a person's written journal considered plagiarism?

According to Plagiarism.org, copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not is considered plagiarism. Now let's say that ...
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177 views

Questionable behavior by editor

Last year, I worked for an organization that published a weekly blog on its website. The blog was also published as a newspaper column and was included in a weekly e-newsletter. One day, the owner/...
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Can I use Stephen Hawking's name in my Science fiction book? [duplicate]

I wrote a science fiction book in which, Alien species comes on earth and they meet with Dr. Stephen Hawking. Is it legal to use his name for the book?
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Do I need to change the title of my book because it is similar to the Transformers Universe?

I used the name Primus and Primes for my book and these are from the transformers universe. My concept is totally different. Is this a copyright infringement? I introduced a secret society named "...
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141 views

Is it poor form to paraphrase well known authors in dialogue?

Sometimes a situation will suit a well known author's quote and I do like expressions. Someone joked that I had no shame in paraphrasing. Is this poor form and if so why?
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260 views

How can I Include a verbatim passage in my fiction without plagiarizing it?

In my novel, the MC goes to a resort and at the resort, they offer two types of Buddhist meditations. Those meditations are from another book and I cannot fiddle with the meditation steps without ...
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2answers
84 views

Citing secondary sources in Chicago style?

I am a little bit paranoid about plagiarizing, and I am confused since I have found two seemingly contradictory answers for this. Suppose source X says "source Y says blah blah blah." One Answer ...
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1answer
58 views

How does re-posting someone else's article/column/blog work

I'm not sure if this is the correct exchange group to ask this, but I came across this article, Alternet_Paul_Krugman_Article, in which it basically just quotes Paul Krugman's NY Times column word for ...
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What do I do if my story is too similar to another? [duplicate]

Hello my story is about a kingdom that got conquered by an empire with an anti-wizardry anti-paganism regime, where wizards get burnt at the stake and pagans get forcibly converted to a religion ...
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84 views

Is it considered plagiarism if i take an item from another story and use it in my own? [duplicate]

I am writing an essay for school about "The Neighborhood of the Future" And I want to include the babel fish from a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Could this be considered plagiarism?
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How do we distinguish plagiarism from homage in literature?

In film-making, some people consider a copy of an action scene scene-by-scene to be a homage. Is it any different in literature; how do you distinguish the two of them? If, for example, we take the ...
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Borrowing Characters

Would it be a violation of copyright and/or plagiarism to “borrow” a character from another novel? For example, I have a short story and want to include as a side character Ender (of Ender’s Game). I ...
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When does inspiration across artforms become plagiarism

Spoilers for Green Book in the E.g. section I listen to a lot of music and when I come up with stories I often use songs as a source of inspiration. However what I was wondering is are songs and ...
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Can I write a book of my D&D game?

I am a long time Dungeon Master of Dungeons and Dragons and Pathfinder. My games run in a custom world of my own making. However, I utilise a lot of the traditional lore and races of D&D. I'm ...
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2k views

Is it plagiarism to use Google Translate?

This may be a very very stupid question but I need to ask it. I have written my dissertation in my mother tongue first, then began to translate it as I will submit it in English. While doing so I used ...
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136 views

Ensuring that a line or a passage doesn't get mistakenly identified as plagiarism

Is there a website that checks whether a character's line or descriptive passage is exactly the same as in another novel? There was this author who got accused of plagiarism recently. One of her ...
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Is my book to similar to Matched by Allie Condie [duplicate]

I'm currently writing a book about a government that designs its citizens' DNA and assigns them each to a job or purpose in life best suited to improve the society as a whole. My main character does ...
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3answers
2k views

I noticed that several already-existing poems used the same highly specific puns and phrases that I used. Is this unintentional plagiarism on my part?

A bit of context: Exhibit A) I wrote a poem that had the line "crystalline crystal lines." I googled this phrase, just to see if it was out there, and I saw that it was. I had never read the poem ...
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Is it plagiarism to use an item from another story in my own story?

What if I use an item from another story in my story? For example, in my story there is a metal called adamantium which obviously came from the story of Wolverine. Can it be considered plagiarism?
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271 views

I feel like my book is too similar to famous existing novels? [duplicate]

I won't get into all the details, but my book is about four characters that realise that the universe isn't what it seems. They fight for power against someone who has held a long-standing ...
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1answer
170 views

Can the outline of a short story be reason for plagiarism?

3 years ago a friend of mine shared the outline of a short story ( 1 page) inspired by Wild Swans the fairytale by Hans Christian Andersen. Last year I began to write a screenplay inspired by the same ...
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417 views

In literary fiction, when does allusion, pastiche or intertextuality cross over into plagiarism?

I want to write a novella that to some degree translates Conrad's Heart of Darkness to a modern urban setting, and I want the astute reader to be able to make multiple connections between the two ...
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1answer
191 views

How can I make the plagiarism detector “Ithenticate” identify “θ-continuous” as a single word?

I have a problem with the similarity index of one of my works since the plagiarism detector "Ithenticate" identifies θ-continuous as continuous. In my university, all that matters is the similarity ...
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151 views

I have a retracted article for ethical misconduct, this means my career is over? [closed]

When I was in my first year of M.SC. A professor told me to work on a project that the main data were belong to him. He had sent me a early draft and told me to translate it to english so I did along ...
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1answer
172 views

What is legal and illegal in writing? [closed]

I am planning to write a book in my mother tongue (so excuse my bad grammar). It's in "Business and Management" So, while I was reading books for my references, I found a well organized book. I took ...
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How do I know which elements I can use from the work which orginally inspired me?

I recently read the Blood on the Stars series by Jay Allan and really enjoyed the idea of a post-Golden Age human civilization that has splintered into factions and is now at war with itself. I ...
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311 views

On copyright infringement and plagiarism

So, I'm writing a novella about this guy named Peter, who is an actor living in LA. In the fall, he comes back to his hometown, a small town in New Jersey, after a gap of three years. He has a large ...
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68 views

What are the copyright laws and permission requirements for a teacher using a student's work as an example?

If a teacher makes a writing assignment for students (some would be minors), can the teacher use those writings as examples in the future? The teacher would examine the writings and provide analysis ...
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5answers
364 views

I feel like I'm plagiarizing my story? [duplicate]

So my fears are kind of taking over my enjoyment of writing my book because I feel I'm doing something wrong. In my story I stole ideas from other stories. I took the idea of Bioshock's infinite ...
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1answer
111 views

Can a story be considered plagarism even though its in a different world

If there are two works with the same character name and family type can it be considered a plagiarized work even though the plot is different? One work is about two brothers raised by their father to ...
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257 views

Questioning Plagiarism Rules

Who we are, where we came from and how we came to be what we are This sentence was flagged as plagiarized by Grammarly. So I looked up the cite that Grammarly says I am plagiarizing, and the ...
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490 views

Can I copy images from published books and use them in my paper?

When it comes to citing text from someone else's work, the rule is to provide a proper citation and source. Once you do that, you're off the hook. But when it comes to copying images it seems to be ...
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336 views

If I unnofficially create a theory and use it in my story, will it have any validity that I'm the author of such theory?

I have some theories that I've contrived, some are philosophical, others are logical or physical, and some are just jokes about life told in a theory format. But I'd like to use some of these theories ...
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3answers
223 views

If I write a scene almost exactly like in someone's photograph, would it be plagiarism?

I have a story which has a scene inspired by a photograph. When I saw that picture, I liked the fact that the person in it matches perfectly a character from my story, and I liked the idea of putting ...
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1answer
404 views

What is the correct way to cite a paraphrase of another source?

I am trying to cite a paper that paraphrases a quote from another paper by the same authors. However, 1) it is unclear where the paraphrase starts, and 2) they have not yet published the second paper. ...
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1answer
69 views

Are About pages copyright?

I am creating a website that serves as a directory of companies within a niche industry. In my site I would like to provide info on each of the companies and was wondering if it was ok for me to use ...
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1answer
333 views

Which citation format do I use when multiple style options apply to the same source?

I want to cite the following pdf in Turabian style, but I have no idea how to cite it because it is technically multiple things at once. It looks like a paper, but its extension is a pdf, and its ...
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1answer
172 views

Can I reference an excerpt someone else created of a particular book?

I'm trying to reference data from this particular book. However, it's an old book, so there isn't an e-book version available for me to purchase, and the price is quite high. I only need to cite one ...
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1answer
67 views

How to use a quote with frequent changes

I am editing a manuscript in which the author frequently wants to change words within a fairly long quote (two sentences or more), and believes that if he does so he no longer needs to put the rest of ...
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1answer
86 views

copyright infringement

I have an idea that follows the story line of another story. The plot device is similar, but the setting, context, majority of characters (with the exception of maybe two or three), and outcomes are ...
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1answer
136 views

Rewriting a blog post, passing a plagiarism checker as 100% unique, do I still need to cite my source if I want to post it on my own blog?

After rewriting someone else's blog post and passing a plagiarism checker as 100% unique, do I still need to cite my source if I want to post it on my own blog?
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60 views

Copying Certain Information From A Official Website

Hey Guys I was researching on a assignment I have to submit to my university. When i was about to copy certain information i went under the "Terms of Use" seeing if i could copy the said information ...
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174 views

How similar can I make fictional and real cultures?

If I use certain elements of a culture or language, how different should they be compared to the original? How different should the language used to reference those elements be? Examples: Can I use ...
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4answers
134 views

Publishing old school assignments - self-plagarism?

I wrote a short story as an English major work whilst at high school, one that was part of my final testing for graduating so it was submitted to the Government of Education. If I wanted to rework ...
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1answer
85 views

What's the best way to cite non-fiction in fiction?

I'm reading a (proposed) novel for a friend, and they've used large chunks (as in, full paragraphs verbatim) from online sources within their text, usually sourcing from encyclopedias. The way they've ...
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1answer
68 views

How to navigate potential self-plagiarism when using different online and professional personas?

I have a decently big online following (~40,000). This includes a blog, YouTube channel, Etsy, and other social media. My biggest thing is writing articles and blog posts, among some other content ...
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8answers
516 views

Would employing the use of philosophical ideas in fiction without citing the sources be considered plagiarism?

I am working on a fictional book which would be similar to that of Winnie-the-Pooh in terms of its format and ability to be read, but I want there to be philosophical meaning to what goes on in the ...
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4answers
1k views

How do we draw the line between plagiarism and allusion?

It’s no secret that in literature we see characters that remind us of other characters. Furthermore, it’s no secret we see plots that remind us of other plots. For example, an author reads Book A and ...

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