I’m delighted if you are interested in my work.  If you wish to quote short passages,  please do it courteously and legally by acknowledging me.

The academic writing website Turnitin differentiates between plagiarism and accidental plagiarism, but at the end of the day, both are plagiarism.

The UK Intellectual Property Office released a document, Exceptions to Copyright: Guidance to Consumers,  in October 2014.

Page 3 notes a change to the rules about quotes. Basically, short quotes are OK so long as they are attributed.  So, if you wish to quote from my work, please acknowledge me and name the work you’ve quoted from:-

“Quotation
What has changed?

Previously, it was an infringement of copyright to take a quotation from one work and use it in another without permission from the copyright owner, unless it was done for the purposes of criticism, review or news reporting.

Copyright law allows quotations to be used more widely without infringing copyright, as long as the use is fair (in law, the use must be a “fair dealing”, see the box below) and there is a sufficient acknowledgement – which generally means the title and the author’s name should be indicated. It is ultimately for the courts to determine whether use of a quotation is fair dealing, which will depend on the facts of any specific case. However, the use of a title and short extract from a book in an academic article discussing the book is likely to be permitted, whereas the copying of a long extract from a book, without it being justified by the context, is unlikely to be permitted. You may benefit from this law if you are an author, academic, or even just a casual blogger.


Will this mean people can “quote” any amount of copyright material without permission?

No. The change only allows use of material where it is genuinely for the purpose
of quotation, and only where the use is fair and reasonable (e.g. it does not replace a commercial sale). So, for example, it could permit a short quotation that is necessary and relevant in an academic paper or a history book, but it would not permit a long extract.”

Intellectual Property Office, Exceptions to Copyright: Guidance to Consumers (October 2014), p.3

I have written a blog post, Thoughts about Experiencing Plagiarism (14 October 2025) which might be helpful to others who have experienced the same.