Questions tagged [plagiarism]
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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Are you allowed to use sci-fi terms you get from the internet?
I’m working on a sci-fi project for a major franchise and it focuses heavily on sci-fi tech terms and science concepts and terms. Lots of the terms I invented but some I found on Internet forums like ...
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Can I use the first or last line of someone's novel in my own novel?
I am writing a novel and in it, the characters are using a book cipher based on a collection of classic novels. In this draft, the main characters are given the first, or last, line of the book in ...
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Writing a story based on parts of greek mythology
I'd like to write a story that uses bits and pieces from the myth about Ambrogio. Can I do that legally? I have my own version of this so-called myth and don't want to get myself in trouble if I use ...
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Can I use something from another series in my own?
I’ve been working on my series for two and a half years now, and this is just now coming to my attention. My series has to do with vampires and other supernatural entities, and I’ve been using the ...
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What is the point of creating original content when it's just stolen immediately? [closed]
I stopped writing articles long ago now because as soon as it was published, it was copied by bots and published on ad-filled webpages which instantly started showed up above my original page in ...
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Is copying a book title considered plagiarism? [duplicate]
I'd like to know if choosing an already existing book title is a type of plagiarism?
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Is magical factions story too similar to Harry Potter?
I have and idea for a story where everybody has magical potential and at a certain age they must choose a style of magic of where they will base their learning from. Is this too similar to Harry ...
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How can you prevent your work from getting stolen?
I have written a book recently, and I want to share it so it can be reviewed, but I am worried over that it might get stolen if I do so.
So is there a way, like a watermark or signature, to protect it,...
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Is it legal to write about a video game universe with just changed names? [duplicate]
Let's say I want to publish a novel that deals with a fictional character within a video game universe (for example TloZ Ocarine of Time). The background, the events and the races within the story are ...
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Is my book too much like Harry Potter? I feel like it's close to it and everyone will think I'm copying it [duplicate]
(I'm summarizing)
My book is about 2 girls who find a secret passageway and find a room that they have to figure out which "substance" will get them through the water wall (like when ...
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Is my story too similar to others?
I'm writing a story about these detectives that are mythical creatures and go on a journey to save the five (or is it six I can't remember) realms. Some of the things I'm concerned about are:
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My friend says that the story of my novel sounds too similar to Harry Potter
I always wanted to write a book and finally after so many years I started writing one. But when I told my friend about the Idea of my story...he said that it sounds too similar to Harry Potter. I don'...
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What resources can I use to be 100% assured that my story is not too similar/plagarising already existing works?
I've been worrying about this for quite a long time.
So, for the past year or so, I've been working hard on a story I'm very passionate about. My biggest concern of them all is copyright issues.
I'm ...
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Similar plot and similar character names-too similar? [duplicate]
I'm asking this question on the behalf of my friend.
So, recently, my friend's story seemed remarkably similar to a published story(FYI, my friend's story is still in the drafting stage, I'm just ...
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Same plot but different story, is it plagiarizing?
I'm writing a novel and is planning to publish it but then, I found out that someone else has already written a novel similar to mine. Both of our novel has similar plot but different story and ...
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Copyright infringement on spelling of invented names?
Years ago I invented a name for a kingdom/country in my YA fantasy novel, which I am on the verge of self-publishing. At random, I discovered a self-published author had the same invented name for her ...
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Is this MLA in-text citation correct?
I've been having major trouble trying to find if the following paragraph's MLA in-text citation is correct. My main issue is that the in-text cite is supposed to cite both Leviticus 16, and Leviticus ...
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What really is considered as plagiarism?
I am currently writing a novel which I noticed is based on ideas from many books that I have read. I noticed that what did I do is get an idea from a book, get another ideas from (many) other books, ...
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Is using the layout of anothers published work in danger of plagiarisim if nothing else is the same?
I started writing a book that uses the ‘layout’ or ‘style’ of another very popular book. I started it as a joke, but then fell in love with the characters and the idea. There is nothing the same in my ...
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How much can you reuse ideas from other stories?
So there was a novel that had some cool ideas and I really liked, but also there were many parts that made me annoyed mostly due to the genre, plot holes and inconsistencies and how they were done or ...
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Do publishers check manuscripts using anti-plagiarism softwares?
I am writing a non-fiction book. Although I am very keen on giving references where ever there is a need, there are small parts of my book, like a line here and a line there which I have paraphrased ...
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How can I know that I'm not plagiarizing?
New to the web. I just recently started to write again. I won a few highschool prizes writing short stories. Around the same time, I began to play Roleplaying games and to write different stories for ...
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Is this Plagiarism? [duplicate]
I wrote this blog post about an article I found online -> https://www.timesofisrael.com/researchers-develop-system-to-measure-solar-energy-potential-of-city-roofs/
This is my post:
The orientation ...
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Mention name in paraphrased text?
I'm a newbie writer and I would like to properly make references in my book (I'm thinking of using Chicago style, but am not married to it). Currently, I'm leaning toward using the notes-and-...
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How does one avoid inevitable influences being obvious when writing something like superheroes?
So I have been debating writing a story idea I have had swimming in my head for a long time. I love superhero comics, and I love the more character driven aspects of the stories.
I have been ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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
eSpoilers 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 ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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