Plagiarism is the use of someone else's work as your own or the use of someone else's work without properly citing it. There are many ways a person can commit plagiarism. According to Penn State University, lying about references or using incorrect references, quoting lines from another work without putting in quotation marks, taking someone else's work and passing it off as your own, presenting another's ideas as your own without acknowledging credit to the original writer, or any other form of presenting someone else's work as you own is considered plagiarism. Plagiarism, essentially, is cheating; citing references correctly and giving your references credit avoids plagiarism.
References are a lot different than plagiarism in that plagiarism is the passing of someone else's work as your own, whether intentionally or unintentionally; a reference is merely a source used in the producing of a paper or other assignment. However, one commits plagiarism with the improper, incorrect use of a reference, or a forgotten reference. For example, if information is used from a reference but then forgets to cite that reference, plagiarism is committed.
On the other hand, the proper use of references takes plagiarism out of the picture. Proper citing on a paper or assignment of all of the references used acknowledges others' ideas, words and research you have used as well as gives yourself credibility. For example, if you are writing a paper on manic depression and reference several well-known experts in the field, then your thesis will have substantial backing and will avoid plagiarism, especially if you are merely siding with an established opinion rather than creating a brand new one. Thus, references play a crucial role in plagiarism; incorrect referencing or forgetting to reference a source creates a plagiarized piece of work; proper referencing helps your piece of work avoid plagiarism as it acknowledges its sources.
The relationship between plagiarism and reference are intertwined, but the two are completely different things. Plagiarism refers to a form of cheating in the production of a research paper or homework assignment; reference refers to an outside work that was used in the production of a research paper or homework assignment. Moreover, the use of a reference without citation is plagiarism. Hence, when you write a paper, always remember the evidence you used from other sources and do not make claims that lack the foundation of a scholarly reference. Otherwise it will be considered plagiarism. It is great to have a new, cutting-edge thesis, but even these must have some sort of reference bridge that allows you to successfully argue your thesis while also allowing your readers to see how you came up with it.