Plagiarism refers to the act of presenting another person’s ideas, words, data, arguments, images, or creative work as one’s own without giving proper acknowledgement to the original source. It is considered a serious form of academic misconduct because academic writing is based on honesty, originality, and respect for intellectual property. Plagiarism may be intentional or unintentional. Intentional plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately copies material from books, journals, websites, research papers, or other sources and presents it as original work. Unintentional plagiarism may occur because of inadequate knowledge of citation rules, poor note-taking, or failure to distinguish one’s own ideas from borrowed information. Plagiarism can take several forms. Direct plagiarism involves copying sentences or paragraphs word-for-word without quotation marks and citation. Paraphrasing plagiarism occurs when someone changes a few words or the sentence structure of another author’s work but does not acknowledge the source. Mosaic or patchwork plagiarism occurs when phrases or ideas from several sources are combined without proper attribution. Self-plagiarism refers to reusing one’s own previously submitted or published work without disclosure. Plagiarism may also involve copying data, tables, figures, photographs, or research findings without appropriate acknowledgement. In academic research, plagiarism can undermine the credibility of the researcher and weaken the reliability and integrity of scholarly communication. Plagiarism can be avoided by developing