Laws and university policies

What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism refers to the use of other authors` thoughts, ideas, descriptions, definitions and deductions without any proper citation, reference indicated by the writer.

Why to avoid it?

Plagiarism is the misuse of documents, works of others. Of course, one may and must be familiar with works in the given field and may use thoughts and ideas of others, but never without proper indication of reference and citation. When one fails to give proper citation and reference he/she suggests and states that all the thoughts, descriptions, analysis and deductions in the work originate from him/her, the writer. In countries with advanced scientific life, plagiarism is judged to be equivalent with shoplifting.

The following must be indicated in any written works:

thoughts and opinion of other authors, may it be word by word or summarised, restructured;
theories, definitions worked out by others, may it be word by word or summarised, restructured;;
the source of any data used.

What stages plagiarism may have?

Katalin Szabó in her work "Communication in higher forms" defines what stages plagiarism may have:

Naturally, practice developed its way to prevent plagiarism. The reviewer or lector of the given work is mostly a specialist in the field, familiar with the technical literature of the related works. To judge upon the proper use of technical literature is also part of the lector's task when reviewing. Usually reviewing starts with the evaluation of the technical literature processed. Of course, plagiarism might stay undiscovered, however, when it comes into light-nowadays easier and easier-it ends up with ethical and legal conviction of the writer, rightly so.

"copying the complete work of other authors without giving any reference
partly copying the work of other authors without giving any reference, using important train of thoughts, chapters without indicating proper citation
publicising scientific achievements, research accomplishments of others with reference, but failing to clearly indicate that the original book, chapters, results are simply reviewed;
copying the achievements, thoughts, models and deductions of other authors without giving any reference to the original work; or with reference to the original work but failing to clearly indicate the role of the writer of the original work".

What do regulations say?

Regarding the indication of the name the positive law ( 1999./LXXVI.on intellectual property rights) regulates as follows:

12. § (1) (1) The author shall have the right to have an indication on his work or in the communication on his work - subject to the scope and nature of the communication - referring to him as the author; reference shall be made to the author in the event of including part of his work in another work, and citing or reviewing his work. The author may exercise the right to have his name indicated subject to the nature of the use and in a manner complying with it.
(2) (2) The name of the author of a work shall be indicated on the alteration, adaptation or translation which is based on the author's work.
(3) (3) The author shall be entitled to have his work divulgated without the indication of his name or under a pseudonym. The author may require that his work having been divulgated to the public with the indication of his name shall, in the case of a new authorized use, be further on used without the indication of his name.
(4) (4) The author may demand that his author's capacity shall not be called in doubt.

How to use thoughts of other people?

In Hungary the following policies serve as basis:

Word by word citation is put between quotation marks and the author, the title, the date of publication and the exact page(s) of the quotation are provided then, eg.[Szabó Katalin: Kommunikáció felsőfokon, Kossuth Kiadó, Budapest, 1997, 102. o.], or [Szabó 1997, 102. o.], if the detailed description of the source is given in the Bibliography.
With content citations the author and the source are to be provided:[Szabó 1997].

Source: http://www.magyarfelsooktatas.hu/20.8/15.html Magyar Felsőoktatás - Az Oktatási Minisztérium folyóirata Barakonyi Károly (Barakonyi Károly egyetemi tanár, PTE, Pécs;) Egyetemi csapdák: a plágium veszélyei Szabó Katalin: Kommunikáció felsőfokon Kossuth Kiadó, 1997.

Laws and university regulations

Information plays a great role in everyday life. The number of Internet users are getting higher and higher all over the world, and the development of the Internet made it possible for almost anyone to reach any information. As a result more and more theses, essays and different publications are available, may be even downloaded. However, this fact rises an important question, namely the question of intellectual property rights.

Laws, regulations on intellectual property rights of electronic publications can be found in the following sites.

KOPI - The best choice for searching translated plagiarism

Laws and university policies

What is plagiarism?

Why to avoid it?

What stages plagiarism may have?

What do regulations say?

How to use thoughts of other people?

Laws and university regulations

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Regulations