Scientific Misconduct: Plagiarism and Intellectual Property

Plagiarism refers to the act of using another person’s ideas, words, processes and results without giving due credit. The following are considered acts of plagiarism:

Claiming authorship of a work or creation done by another person
Copying an entire written work or a portion of it- including words, sentences, and ideas- without acknowledging the author
Failing to put quotation marks to distinguish a quotation taken directly from a source
Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
Merely changing the words but retaining the sentence structure so that the selection or quotes still bears a resemblance to the original source
Using so many words and ideas from the original source that it makes up a large portion of your work, even if you acknowledged the original author.

Plagiarism should not be tolerated as the unauthorized use of original ideas and works constitutes a violation of intellectual property rights, which is defined as:

“Intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions; literary and artistic works; and symbols, names, and images used in commerce.” - (World Intellectual Property Organization, 2004)

In the Philippines, intellectual property is protected by Republic Act 8293 or the Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines. This is the basis of ownership of any published article or materials in the form of books, magazines, and the like as well as those that are in electronic form.
Using these materials without recognizing the author constitutes copyright infringement which has corresponding consequences such as years of imprisonment or fine.