The Modern Language Association (MLA), composed of scholars and teachers, defines plagiarism as "Using another person's ideas or expressions in your writing without acknowledging the source . . . . [T]o give the impression that you wrote or thought something that you in fact borrowed from someone."
According to the MLA, plagiarism violates ethical conduct in scholarship. Even if a doctoral dissertation has not been published or is in the writing process, it must adhere to this ethical standard.
Plagiarism in a doctoral dissertation is most often treated as an academic rather than a legal offense. Consequences can include academic censure, expulsion, termination of employment, and revocation of a degree.
More dissertation committees and advisors use Internet tools to detect instances of dissertation plagiarism. Instructors often search online abstracts, specialist discussion boards, listservs, and Turnitin.com; an anti-plagiarism website.
Whenever doctoral candidates borrow thoughts, ideas or words from another source, that source must be cited.