Plagiarism is the stealing and publication of another author's

thoughts, ideas and expressions, and the representation of

them as one's own original work. Plagiarism is considered a
breach of journalistic ethics. Plagiarism is not a crime in
itself, but can constitute copyright infringement. It is
considered a serious ethical offense. Plagiarism is not
punished by law, but rather by institutions. Some cases may
be considered as unfair competition or a violation of the
doctrine of moral rights. To avoid plagiarism people are
asked to use the following approach, "if you did not write it
yourself, you must give credit". In the Internet there are free
online tools to help identify plagiarism.

There are also cases of reverse plagiarism when authorship

over a work is falsely given to a person who did not author
it.

In general, if we use plagiarism in our work it shows the low

level of our scientific work.