THE WORLD ASSOCIATION OF MEDICAL Editors (WAME) in its publication, Ethics Policies for Medical Journals, defines plagiarism as "the use of others' published and unpublished ideas or words (or other intellectual property) without attribution or permission, and presenting them as new and original rather than derived from an existing source. This applies whether the ideas or words are taken from abstracts, research grant applications, institutional review board applications, or unpublished or published manuscripts in any publication format (print or electronic)"1 The Office of Research Integrity (ORI) in the USA considers "plagiarism to include both the theft or misappropriation of intellectual property and the substantial unattributed textual copying of another's work". ORI goes on to explain, "The theft or misappropriation of intellectual property includes the unauthorized use of ideas or unique methods obtained by privileged communication, such as a grant or manuscript review."2 Plagiarism is the worst offence of all the various forms of publication misconduct. "In its worst form, it is as bad as any other scientific misconduct". The recent increase in the amount of plagiarism is partly due to the pressure that university faculty is under to "publish or perish". This mantra not only drives them to publish, but it also leads to an increased incidence of plagiarism and duplicate publications.