User:Xion4ever/Plagiarism Policy

Plagiarism is the use- such as the taking and/or publishing- of another editor's work and claiming it as their own. Plagiarism, as defined on this page, is a violation of the KHWiki's policy- no matter the number of infractions or severity. This is a very serious offense! Such violations not only tarnish the KHWiki's reputation and, but may also invoke copyright infringement.

Definition
In general, plagiarism is the use- such as taking and publishing- another editor's work and claiming it as their own. The most obvious form of plagiarism is directly copying/pasting information from another source. Even if some words are changed in this exchange, unless there is a significant difference in writing, the content still qualifies as plagiarism.

Consequences

 * First Time Offenders: Will be issued a warning and must immediately revert their edit(s), unless a staff member or other user has already done so. This warning will be about the user's actions and will be issued on said user's talk page. Additionally, infringing users will be directed to this policy page.


 * Second Time Offenders: Are users who have already been issued a warning (per first time offender consequence), thereby requiring the second level of action. These users will be immediately banned for an extended time and will have their edit(s) reverted. The amount of time for this ban will be at the discretion of the staff, but will be no shorter than one month. Depending on the severity, staff may choose to bypass this second offense and move to the third level of action. Infringing users will be issued an additional warning about their actions and will be redirected to this policy page.


 * Third Time Offenders: Are the most severe offenders and will be met with the highest level of recourse by an administrator. These users will be immediately blocked from the KHWiki and will have their edit(s) reverted. This type of repeat offender will be blocked from editing or being a user on the KHWiki indefinitely, with no possibility or discussion of overturning this infinite block.

How to Avoid Plagiarism

 * Avoid specific wordings: aka "copying and pasting." You can use the same resources/sites other people are using. However, your interpretation of the information must be just that, your interpretation, and must be significantly different in writing style and wording than the original source.


 * Add references: References are handy to put in articles not only as a means of fact-checking the information, but also as a source of verification. Think of it as a formality to the original source you are using.


 * Peer Review: Not sure if your edit meets this policy? Ask a staff member to review the edit! A general rule-of-thumb is to not avoid using the same sources as other Kingdom Hearts sites, but rather a much different presentation/explanation of the material.