Writing Contract
Navigating Issues of Plagiarism as a Web Publisher
Learn about navigating plagiarism issues as a web publisher — discover common plagiarism issues, then find out if plagiarism and copyright infringement are the same.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. Don’t use it in place of legal advice. If you have concerns about plagiarism and copyright infringement it’s best to speak to a lawyer.
As a web publisher, navigating potential plagiarism is an important part of the job. With potential risks to brand reputations and the possibility of legal action, copying someone else’s work and presenting it as your own has consequences.
But knowing what is and isn’t plagiarism can be tricky.
Many people think that if they just avoid copying text word-for-word, they won’t have to worry about plagiarism. Sure, they’ll be avoiding direct plagiarism, which is one of the more obvious types of plagiarism. However, there are other examples of plagiarism that require a different approach.
Learn about navigating plagiarism issues as a web publisher, why it’s important to avoid plagiarism, common plagiarism issues, and how to prevent them.
It might just take a minute or two to plagiarize, but publishing plagiarized content can have serious consequences for both your website and brand.
Plagiarism is often considered more of an ethical issue than a legal one. However, it is related to copyright infringement, which is against the law. So, if you infringe on someone’s copyright by copying or reproducing their content (without prior permission and citations), it could result in a lawsuit.
They may not have a specific “duplicate content penalty,” but Google and other search engines can still penalize your website if you violate their policies. In Google’s case, for example, some types of plagiarism may go against their spam policies, especially when it comes to scraped content. Google could lower rankings impacting your site’s traffic.
It can take weeks, months, or even years to build up a loyal following for your brand, and plagiarism can tarnish it in no time, damaging trust, and reputation. Even one plagiarism incident can result in the loss of subscribers and customers.
To avoid potential legal consequences, search engine penalties, and reputational damage, identifying and navigating common plagiarism issues is key.
So, let’s review the different types of plagiarism and how to avoid them.
Direct or verbatim plagiarism is word-for-word copying someone else's work without credit. It doesn’t matter if it’s just a few sentences or a few pages — it’s plagiarism.
The best way to avoid direct plagiarism is to credit the original author and use quotation marks or italics (depending on the citation style guide) when including a direct quote. If you’re unsure if you’ve plagiarized or you’re reviewing other writers’ work, then a plagiarism checker is an asset.
Plagiarism detectors highlight any potentially plagiarized text and provide the matching URLs so you can check the content. Plus, a good plagiarism detector will be able to find more than just direct plagiarism — it can identify more subtle forms too.
Mosaic or patchwork plagiarism occurs when someone takes ideas or sentences from sources and changes them up a bit. You throw in a synonym here, change up the sentence structure there, and put it all together to make it look like an original work.
As you can imagine, mosaic plagiarism is a little harder to detect than the direct kind. Your best bet is to use a plagiarism checker that can detect patchwork plagiarism, but you may also be able to spot it with a keen eye. If you find that certain sections or sentences of a piece seem out of place, for example, then double-check their origin.
Yes, it’s possible to plagiarize yourself. While this may seem harmless initially, self-plagiarism can still lead to serious problems.
For example, let’s say you’re writing similar content for two different clients. If you use the same words and ideas to describe a concept in each article, then you’re not creating unique content for each client. If you are writing about past work you’ve published, it’s best practice to cite your previous work.
Preventing self-plagiarism can be tricky, but there are a few things that you can try. One of the best ways is to use a text compare tool on similar documents to figure out where they’re too similar. Then, you can paraphrase or switch up your language and sentence structure so it sounds more unique.
Finally, accidental plagiarism is just what it sounds like — when you copy someone else’s original work or style by mistake. This is becoming more common with the rising popularity of generative AI writing tools.
While these tools aren’t technically designed to plagiarize content, it’s possible that ChatGPT or other large language models (LLM) may generate content that sounds eerily similar to an author’s original work. So, it’s a good idea to use an AI checker if you use or suspect someone else is creating AI-generated content.
An AI checker highlights areas that are likely written by AI, so you can review them and confirm they haven’t been copied from other sources. Whether you choose to verify those sources with a plagiarism checker or manually is up to you, but it provides a great starting point.
With so many different types of plagiarism, especially subtle ones, you may be worried about the potential legal consequences of publishing plagiarized content. What if you don’t catch plagiarized text before publication? Does plagiarism automatically equal copyright infringement?
For context, as soon as someone creates an original work and fixes it in a blog post, article, eBook, etc., they automatically own the copyright in the United States.
Unlike other types of intellectual property, there is no formal registration process to obtain the copyright to your work (though registration has its benefits). So, since someone holds the copyright, you could be infringing on their rights by plagiarizing it.
However, plagiarism and copyright infringement aren’t the same thing. Only certain forms of plagiarism can lead to copyright infringement. For instance, if you copy an entire blog post and distribute it without permission, it could be considered copyright infringement.
If you have questions regarding plagiarism and copyright infringement speak to a lawyer for legal advice.
Navigating plagiarism issues as a web publisher can be challenging, but it’s key to protecting your reputation, ranking well on search engines, and, perhaps most importantly, avoiding legal issues. Fortunately, you don’t have to do it alone.
With Originality.ai’s suite of tools, including our AI content detector, text compare tool, and plagiarism checker, you can help identify potential AI and human-generated plagiarism to avoid plagiarism issues.