If plagiarism occurs in the context of research, including proposing, performing, or reviewing research, it is considered a form of Research Misconduct and will be assessed and handled in accordance with Brown’s Policy on Handling Allegations of Research Misconduct. If the alleged plagiarism has not occurred within the context of research (e.g., plagiarism related to a term paper or an academic presentation), it may be referred to another office (e.g., the Graduate School or the Dean of the College) for further investigation. 

Reporting Plagiarism

Allegations should be reported directly to Brown’s Research Integrity Officer (RIO) as soon as plagiarism is suspected by emailing: ori-admin@brown.edu or by calling 401-863-3295.

To enable a more thorough assessment of your concerns, when submitting your allegation, please include as much of the following information as possible:

• A description of your concern, including what research you believe has been plagiarized and how.
• A description of the research records, process, presentations or publications you believe are affected, including any relevant details, such as dates, times, locations, and citations.
• The names of the individuals you believe may have committed the alleged plagiarism, any witnesses, and, if known, their affiliations and contact information.
• Any other information or supporting documents you believe are relevant.

If you are unsure whether suspected plagiarism falls within the definition of Research Misconduct, you can still discuss it with someone. Brown’s primary contact for confidentially discussing potential Research Misconduct and other Research Integrity concerns is the Research Integrity team at ori-admin@brown.edu or 401-863-3295. 

For confidential guidance on the topic, you may also consult Brown’s Office of the Ombuds at 401-863-6145 or email ombuds@brown.edu 

To report potential plagiarism (or other research integrity matters) anonymously, call Brown’s Anonymous Reporting Hotline at 877-318-9184 or report online via EthicsPoint.

Self-plagiarism (often referred to as “text recycling”) is not included in the definition of Plagiarism. In some contexts, self-plagiarism/text recycling is professionally appropriate, and even desirable for the communication of ideas. In other situations, self-plagiarism/text recycling may be unethical, professionally inappropriate, infringe copyright or violate a publishing contract, or inhibit communication. 

Authors should be careful to make sure that any use of recycled material is appropriate in its specific context, following any applicable guidelines for text recycling. A great resource to consult on the issue of text recycling is the Text Recycling Research Project, a multi-institution, NSF-funded initiative investigating text recycling in STEM research. 

Their current working definition of text recycling is:

Researchers often have reason to reuse material from their previously written documents in new documents. Examples of these instances include:

• Passages from one’s IRB protocol in a grant proposal
• Literature review material from a grant proposal in a research report
• The description of an experimental apparatus from a research report in a new report that used the same apparatus
• Text from methods sections when the methodology used in a given study is similar or identical to the methods used in previous work from the same author or authors
• Material from one’s published paper in one’s dissertation

For more information, please visit: https://textrecycling.org/what-is-text-recycling/ 

Sometimes, concerns related to plagiarism are, in fact, disputes around authorship and research contribution. In general, authorship disputes do not fall under the definition of Research Misconduct. However, if it is unclear whether something is plagiarism or an authorship dispute, we advise to contact the Research Integrity Officer (RIO) with Research Integrity at ori-admin@brown.edu.

For a concern about authorship, please review Brown’s Authorship guidelines and contact the school or department directly.

Brown has chosen iThenticate as a tool for researchers to check their original work during the publication process. iThenticate can serve as a preventative measure to help ensure research manuscripts, grant applications, and scholarly documents have the appropriate citations and references of previously published work before submission to journals, funding agencies, and academic repositories. Most Brown faculty will have access to iThenticate to check their manuscripts. 

Please note that iThenticate is only to be used to check your own work. 

Additional iThenticate information   

It is important to note that iThenticate itself cannot identify plagiarism specifically. It will provide a “similarity report” that will highlight text that may be potentially copied or plagiarized. 

Please use Brown University Library’s iThenticate support request form for questions or requests for support.

• UNDERSTANDING TEXT RECYCLING A Guide for Researchers
• When it is and isn’t OK to recycle text in scientific papers
• Tips for Avoiding Plagiarism
• Write Ethically From Start to Finish
• ORI Policy on Plagiarism
• 28 Guidelines at a Glance on Avoiding Plagiarism
• Avoiding Plagiarism, Self-plagiarism, and Other Questionable Writing Practices: A Guide to Ethical Writing
• Brown University Library Guide to Plagiarism
• How does iThenticate work? Tools for advancing research integrity