"Self-plagiarism—sometimes known as “duplicate plagiarism”—is a term for when a writer recycles work for a different assignment or publication and represents it as new."
Source: TurnItIn et al Self-Plagiarism https://www.turnitin.com/blog/what-is-self-plagiarism-and-what-does-it-have-to-do-with-academic-integrity
Is Recycling Your Own Work Plagiarism?
From Turnitin.com, a detailed summary of self-plagiarism and how it differs from plagiarism itself.
Here are some common examples:
1. A student submits their own paper in more than one course without permission of the instructors.
How is this plagiarism? An important part of academic honesty is that your writing should reflect what you learned in a specific class. The point of college is to acquire knowledge, and your education is an investment in you. Don't cheat yourself.
2. Someone uses their own work (either a section or the whole thing) that was previously published in a different publication without properly citing it.
How is this plagiarism? If you don't properly cite your own previous work, you will give off the misleading impression that your recycled work is actually new.
Source: Davenport University Library
It can be legitimate to reuse pieces of your previous work, but you need to ensure you have explicit permission from your instructor before doing so, and you must cite yourself.
You can cite yourself just like you would cite any other source.
Source: George, T. & Caulfield, J. (2022, September 14). What Is Self-Plagiarism? | Definition & How to Avoid It. Scribbr. Retrieved February 28, 2025, from https://www.scribbr.com/plagiarism/self-plagiarism/
If you are citing your own writing from a paper submitted for a previous course, then you would generally cite it as an unpublished manuscript. Here are specific examples of how it works in the two major citation styles:
APA Style
Please check with your instructor to verify if you can use a previous work as it may violate academic integrity, honor codes, etc. If you are permitted to quote or paraphrase from earlier work, students should cite the work, following the unpublished work template (Section 10.8, p. 336). You can change “Unpublished manuscript” to “Unpublished paper” or another phrase.
Author, A. A. (Year). Title of the work [Unpublished paper]. Department Name, University Name.
Fisher, J. D. (2021). This is the title of my paper [Unpublished paper]. English Department, Southern New Hampshire University.
(Fisher, 2021)
According to the MLA Style site, authors should cite their work the same way they would cite any other source (book, article, etc.). In the text you can refer to yourself (e.g. "In my work...").
Author Last name, Author First Name. "Title of Your Paper: Subtitle of Your Paper." Date. Name of the Course, Institution, Type of Work.
Lee, Cody. "My Student Paper: Why I Like This Subject a Lot." 9 Sept. 2021. New Media: Writing and Publishing, Southern New Hampshire University, student paper.
(Lee 12)
See the MLA Style pages Citing Your Own Work This link opens in a new window and How do I cite an unpublished student paper? This link opens in a new window for more information.
