究竟什么是剽窃?不同的机构给出的定义形式上略有差异,实质大体相同。举例耶鲁大学的定义("What is Plagiarism". YaleCollege. 2012):“... use of another's work, words, or ideas withoutattribution," which includes "... using a source's language withoutquoting, using information from a source without attribution, and paraphrasinga source in a form that stays too close to the original.”不仅在不引用的情况下拷贝了“信息”是抄袭,使用别人的words,language同样是抄袭。因为同样的信息,别人用语言呈现出来的方式,也同样是作者的劳动成果。