Plagiarism is copying text, figures, or tables from other work without attribution. Duplication without citing the original source of the text, even if it includes changed verb tense, different numerical values, and the use of synonyms, etc., is plagiarism. However, material quoted by quotation marks or indented as block quotes and cited to the original source is not plagiarism. In addition, duplication of technical words and phrases from other source material amounting to less than a sentence is not plagiarism, in general, because science requires clear and precise descriptions involving technical words and phrases that must be used to describe scientific endeavors.

Self- or auto-plagiarism is defined as copying from previous work published by the author in a peer-reviewed journal, as it may involve copyright infringement. Such auto-plagiarism can be avoided by appropriately citing the original source just like any other published material which also provides the priority date of the material published in the original source and indicate that the text largely follows directly from that source. However, duplication of text from one’s own (or at least one of the authors is common) nonpeer-reviewed sources such as conference preprints, project progress reports, personal or project websites, dissertations, etc., is not plagiarism, in general.