Plagiarism is the act of copying someone else's words, ideas or research and passing them off as your own work. It is a serious offence in the academic world and can mean the end of your career: it is, in fact, fraud.
If you commit plagiarism during your studies, for example by not including sufficient references, this will often result in sanctions from your programme. You may be excluded from participating in the course or even be removed from your programme.
What is considered plagiarism?
Obvious examples of plagiarism are:
However, the following are also considered plagiarism:
If you use AI-generated output without indicating its origin, you may be accused of plagiarism. After all, GenAI output is based on existing texts or ideas. You may therefore unintentionally commit plagiarism if you pretend that the texts or ideas are your own. It is therefore important to indicate when you have used AI and how you have done so.
More information about how VU Amsterdam deals with plagiarism and fraud can be found here.
