You have probably heard of the word “plagiarism” which has emerged as a major challenge not only in academic writing but also in workspaces. Plagiarism has different forms and one of the most severe forms of plagiarism is “global plagiarism”.  

Defining Global Plagiarism

Global plagiarism is also known as complete plagiarism as it involves the copying of the entire work of someone else and presenting it as your original work without giving credit to the author. This type is intentional and also includes hiring someone else to write your paper so you can submit it as your own. 

Global plagiarism is the most common form of plagiarism and is quite easy to spot. This comes with severe consequences as it is a complete violation of intellectual and academic integrity. 

Key Features of Global Plagiarism

What makes the content a global plagiarized text? The most common features to spot global plagiarism are: 

• When there is no citation or credit given to the content written by the original author. 
• When your text lacks any creativity and only includes the word-by-word material taken from the original source. 
• When you have paid someone else to write on your behalf, you can submit it as your own work. 
• When you have simply copied the entire work of the original content creator and have published/submitted it as your own work. 

Examples of Global Plagiarism

• When person A submits the assignment written by writer X as his work without giving credit to X, then this comes under the example of global plagiarism. 
• When student B submits the work by hiring writer Y to write a paper for him, then it is also an example of global plagiarism. 

Famous Case of Global Plagiarism

In addition to academic settings, plagiarism is also found in workspace and professional fields. However, plagiarism found in the work of students can be addressed through penalties but when plagiarism happens in the professional context where it becomes public knowledge, then it has drastic impacts on the person who committed the theft.  

Such an incident happened in 2012 when Fareed Zakaria – a renowned journalist- was found guilty of plagiarizing the content of another author without adding citations to his work for TIME magazine. Ultimately, he had to undergo severe consequences by losing his reputation which led to his suspension from Time and CNN where he worked as a host.   

Later on, to continue his career growth, he had to apologize publicly and accept his mistake of overlooking the proper attribution to the original author. 

Therefore, it is necessary to avoid global plagiarism to maintain originality and integrity in your work. 

Consequences of Global Plagiarism

Unlike other forms of plagiarism, global plagiarism does not involve paraphrasing or partial copying, rather it includes complete copying of someone else’s work without acknowledging the original writer. Therefore, due to the extremity of this misconduct, global plagiarism has severe consequences. 

• Loss of credibility and trust in your field 
• Immediate firing or termination of employment 
• Limitation to the opportunities to grow 
• Retraction of published work 
• Financial penalties or fines 
• Legal actions in case of copyright infringement 
• Public humiliation 

Many other consequences are depending on the nature of the offence. However, if you want to prevent yourself from these consequences, check out our plagiarism detection tool to detect not only traditional plagiarism in your work but also to spot AI-generated content in your work. 

Statistics Related to Plagiarism

The recent survey conducted by the University of Donald McCabe; states the results: 

• 58% of students committed plagiarism in their work. 
• 7% of undergraduates admitted that they copied the source word by word without giving the proper attribution and have gotten their work done by someone else. 
• 38% of undergraduates said that they have paraphrased the work of others without citing the source. 

This shows that plagiarism is an ongoing threat to academic integrity and has impacted the creative skills of people. 

Ways to Avoid Global Plagiarism

No matter what form of plagiarism one is found guilty of, it is crucial to prevent plagiarism to maintain ethical and intellectual integrity. There are many ways to avoid plagiarism: 

• Do proper research and make notes of the sources 
• Paraphrase and summarize but don’t forget to add attributions 
• Stick to the basic guidelines and value honesty 
• Avoid hiring others for your work 
• Cite your work to credit others 
• Seek permission from the person whose content you are going to use 
• Use a plagiarism detection tool 

Conclusion

Global plagiarism is highly disregarded, and it is essential to avoid it to maintain the integrity and foster a culture of originality in academic and professional endeavours. Together we can create an environment to combat plagiarism by crediting the original authors and respecting the intellectual property of the other content creators.