In: Economics
Do you think that someone who "plagiarised" by referencing an item wrong or forgetting a certain reference should be subject to a criminal record or just the people who plagiarise en entire assignment?
Plagiarism can be either missing a reference, or wrongly putting a reference or making a completely plagiarized assignment. Though, it is an offense, but it also requires the degree and nature of offense. Missing a reference or wrongly putting a reference, is a relatively smaller offense than the making a completely plagiarized offense.
Nature of plagiarism involves the plagiarism from a copyrighted content or non-copyrighted content. If the plagiarism takes place from the non-copyrighted content, then it is an academic offense and the university or college or any other body can take disciplinary action. If the plagiarism takes place from the copyrighted content, then it violates the copyright laws. A person doing this, can face the imprisonment also. So, it is illegal in nature and can go into the book of criminal records as it is the theft of originality and violation of copyright laws created by the government.