FAQ Master: Plagiarism

Last change: February 2025

1. How plagiarism is handled at our institute and how to avoid it?

1. How plagiarism is handled at our institute and how to avoid it?

   Definition of plagiarism: (intentionally or unintentionally) taking someone else's work and passing it off as one's own without proper attribution (i.e. without mentioning the original author and sources).

   To plagiarize seminar papers or final theses is not only scientific misconduct, but also an offense according to the copyright act. Since 1st March 2009, the "Zweite Gesetz zur Umsetzung der Föderalismusreform im Hochschulbereich" (ZHFRUG) is in force. The change of this law states that scientific misconduct (as plagiarism) may lead to exmatriculation (§3, section 5, LHG and §62, section 3, ZHFRUG).
   Therefore, we especially point out once more, that you have to draw up seminar papers and final theses on your own. In particular, that means that you always have to mark the use of someone else's works and cite the corresponding sources.

   Similarly, the submission of self-plagiarism is prohibited: Any reuse of texts or other materials that have already been part of a previous assessment must be clearly communicated with the instructors before submission and may not be re-evaluated. Submitting entire works multiple times for different assessments is therefore not permitted. See also III.8 of the Guidelines for Good Scientific Practice.

   Every seminar paper has to include a signed Declaration of Independent Work(EN).

   The ICL regularly offers courses on scientific writing. Moreover, various guides to this subject are available, such as (last access July 4 2019):

   • How to Avoid Plagiarism (Northwestern University, 2018; pdf-Version)
   • Avoiding plagiarism, self-plagiarism, and other questionable writing practices: A guide to ethical writing (Miguel Roig, 2006)
   Please contact our representative for final thesis if you have questions how to write BA or Masters thesis.