Plagiarism: Trespassing the grey zone between searching and researching

One of the most heated debates doing rounds in the world of literature today is about plagiarism. Walter Bagehot, physics and politics (1872) once said “The propensity of man to imitate what is before him is one of the strongest parts of his nature.” The following joke definition attributed to Wilson Mizner circulates around the Internet: To copy from one book is plagiarism; from two an essay; from three a compilation; from four a dissertation.