Plagiarism: Do not respect these rules and you have signed your professional death-sentence..

The most dangerous threat to your career and reputation is to be accused, or even suspected, of plagiarism. Once such a rumor is started, it is almost impossible to stop it and its effect on your career is devastating. People will always consider you suspiciously and will avoid you like as plague.

On the other hand, we all get inspired from other people's work. This is the reason why we read papers, attend conferences, discuss with colleagues, etc. Sometimes, we are not even able to trace the origins of our most 'creative' ideas or genuinely forget to acknowledge the source of inspiration. So, when does plagiarism starts and how not to commit this awful crime? I do not have the answer to either questions. However, here is my advice to you:

1. Work hard on being as honest as possible.


2. Faithfully cite your sources.


3. Acknowledge your error when in fault (don't worry, this will happen often).


4. Quote other people's work, never claim it as your own, and give more credit than, you think, is due.

How to legally borrow text from other authors:

1. When you are writing a paper with colleagues, you (as a group) may borrow sentences from documents by one or more of your co-authors. This is acceptable, provided you cite the references where those statements first appeared.


2. When you are writing thesis, you may not use any chunks from theses or papers of colleagues. You must clearly enclose the borrowed statements as quotations.


3. For a short statement, you can add it within double-quote and provide the reference. Any words you alter should between square brackets. Example: "The sky [in Nebraska] is always blue..." [Smith, 1999].


4. For a long statement, use the quotation environment of LaTex, while always using the square brackets to enclose any words not in the original text. Example:
   \begin{quote}
   At an event beginning at 10 this morning, [the University of Nebraska-Lincoln] and Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital will jointly announce and celebrate receipt of a significant grant from the National Institutes of Health. The event will be held in the Lau Conference Room at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital's Institute for Rehabilitation Science and Engineering, 5401 South Street.\\
   \mbox{ }\hfill{[UNL web page, November 36, 2004]}
   \end{quote}


5. If you are using a figure drawn by another person, it is imperative that you cite, in the caption of your figure, the document where the figure appeared. Otherwise, you are claiming it is yours, which is totally unacceptable.