Plagiarism by university students: the problem and various suggestions

The situation: Plagiarism, using other people’s words or ideas whilst not giving proper recognition, is just one part of the general problem of cheating. Anecdotal proof as well as a few studies propose that student cheating is significantly more common than usually accepted. Despite the fact that examinations are believed to restrict cheating more than assignments, the level of cheating on assessments may be higher for any other evaluation mode.)
Most cheating is undetected. For each pupil caught plagiarising, it is almost assured that many more plagiarisers escape detection.
Elimination of plagiarism by discovery and penalties requires a large workforce and subsequently close to impossible. One article recommends that, to find plagiarism, each essay has to be reviewed four times. But this only picks up copying from published sources. Copying from other assignments, or dishonest authorship of essays, is seldom detectable or provable.
More importantly, the regulating approach to plagiarism is educationally counterproductive. Pupils should really be inspired to model themselves on the best thinkers and, in addition, to think critically and be original. This is not really feasible if they're perpetually being scrutinised for intentional or accidental plagiarism.
Lowering plagiarism
The proposals here are targeted not to ‘eliminate’ plagiarism but alternatively to create the kind of academic environment where it is rare because both students and lecturers require the ultimate standards in one another. The goal should be to develop a lifestyle of regard for quality work.
Discussion
There needs to be much more specific debate of precisely what is meant by plagiarism and what is suitable acknowledgement in specific situations. This can include detailed illustrations in subject notes, discussion in lectures and articles in student newspapers.
Most students do address plagiarism very seriously. According to one investigation, the key issues as far as pupils are concerned are "fairness to writers and other pupils, the responsibility of students to do independent work, and regard for ownership rights."
What is perceived as appropriate recognition depends upon the subject matter and situation. Incorporating footnotes to a music score isn't a common practice! Departments and, in some instances, even individual professors may prefer to evolve their own guidelines.
Teachers and pupils must accept that the academic culture, with its acknowledgement of authorship, is at difference with many other areas of society. Undeclared duplicating is accepted by some school teachers. Misrepresentation of authorship is common practice among politicians, business executives and public sector administrators, who seldom give proper recognition to their speechwriters and junior staff.
Prevention: In many subjects, plagiarism can be moderated by effective layout of assignment questions, or pupil evaluation generally. For example, essay questions can be posed which request the student to relate to recently available newspaper or magazine articles, relate to personal experiences, or make connections between theory and example not found in the readings. This encourages students to do their own work without the specific concern about plagiarism. By contrast, providing long lists of possible assignment subjects, little updated from year to year, is a prescription for copying from published sources along with past assignments.
Acceptance of partnership
In some subjects, pupils commonly work together on papers, and this may be a valuable part of the educational process. If this is the case, it is far better to encourage students to recognise their collaboration, for instance by providing for group submissions as well as signed declarations allocating recognition for work done.
Acknowledgment by lecturers
Academics can provide a good example for pupils by providing appropriate recognition for suggestions in their lectures and subject notes. When academics are more explicit about the source for example, problems or approaches, this also helps pupils gain a better understanding of the position of their tutors in the development and communication of knowledge.
Learning by resubmission: Most pupils who plagiarise from printed sources do not grasp that it is improper. In contrast, most students realise that having another pupil write the assignment is wrong. When tutors take away marks or fail an essay due to plagiarism, the pupil is penalised but may not determine how to do it correctly.
An optional strategy is to allow, in some scenarios, resubmission with no penalty. Under this system, assignments with plagiarism can be resubmitted with the only alterations being applicable citation marks, footnotes, etc. The amended submission would then be graded by the original criterion. Consequently, the pupil gains understanding in giving correct acknowledgements. Needless to say, an assignment that is completely plagiarised would, on resubmission, be completely made up of quotes, and would get little credit!
A sense of proportion

Plagiarism is occasionally treated like a mortal sin. Thought to occur only rarely and warranting the most drastic punishment when discovered. The truth is different: plagiarism in minor forms is very common. Plagiarism needs to be fully understood as a straightforward issue of learning how to apply acknowledgements in the method required in an academic environment. The main goal should be on education, not penalties for transgressors.

Helpful links:

• JISC – plagiarism resources and advice from the Joint Information Systems Committee.
• http://www.plagiarismchecker.net/ – free plagiarism checking software and articles, resources and lesson plans on avoiding plagiarism.
• PlagiarismAdvice.org – JISC’s specific plagiarism advice website.

Fresh tactics in plagiarism

Find out the emerging challenges in the world of plagiarism for Teachers.
Tutors fight a nonstop battle with plagiarism, worsened by the escalating volume of information freely available on the Web at the push of a button.  This constant struggle is felt by producers of plagiarism checkers like plagiarismchecker.net, which are permanently being designed to deal with new threats and strategies being used to cheat. It appears that those few students who can’t or do not want to carry out their papers honestly have always got a new trick up their sleeve to get around university plagiarism detection software. So what’s the latest trick to deceive plagiarism checkers such as plagiarismchecker.net and Turnitin?
Sneaky pupils have been acquiring assignments written in another language, running them through a free translator like Google Translate, and passing off the work as their own. This works especially well for foreign language pupils'’ coursework but could be utilized in any subject as long as the pupil is sensible enough to translate their search into their target language to begin with. Even though the free translators produce some fairly unusual translations, it is easy enough for them to tidy up the outcome. Is this a problem plagiarism checkers can handle?
Languages do not translate word for word to other languages – the word order is usually rearranged from language-to-language. The scanner would also have to break-down the paper, translate it into however many languages are to be checked, and then put those scans against the internet, as well as scanning for plagiarism in the document’s language. The procedure would be complicated and lengthy. The answer for this definitely won’t be easy.
So what can be achieved to overcome this new kind of cheating? Rather than attempting to detect plagiarism, maybe tutors should be looking at the underlying cause. Many pupils turn to cheating simply because they are not able to complete their papers themselves. This might be for several different reasons. A common reason is that they are an international pupil who has been accepted onto a course for a higher course fee, and as a consequence the entry requirements for that course have been relaxed or waived completely. It is attractive for both the University and the Government to accept these students, given that they pay more and introduce more funds into the country. But there is hardly any additional help once they arrive – with universities typically stretched already in their resources and not able to provide further teaching to support those students get past the language barrier.
Other students simply do not have an understanding of their course and struggle, not knowing who to talk to. Lecturers are hard pressed for time and spread too thinly, and unable to give them the time they need to get by. Larger than predicted classes typically leave pupils hesitant to speak up when they are falling behind.

Where there’s no additional tutelage presented, there’s a further cost in time, resources and consideration to set up learning support in the first place. So the bottom line is that some pupils won't be supported as much as they need to be and it is usually those pupils who turn to cheating. Should we focus on trying to discover these students? Or should we center on preventing the problem by addressing it before they cheat? You decide.

Helpful links:

• JISC – plagiarism resources and advice from the Joint Information Systems Committee.
• http://www.plagiarismchecker.net/ – free plagiarism checking software and articles, resources and lesson plans on avoiding plagiarism.
• PlagiarismAdvice.org – JISC’s specific plagiarism advice website.

How can you define self plagiarism?

While plagiarism is the act of implementing the research or words of other individuals without attribution, self-plagiarism involves re-using one’s own work. In some communities, self plagiarism is a controversial concept. Some could argue that one cannot steal from oneself. However, there are certain instances in which reusing one’s own work is as improper as regular plagiarism. Although self-plagiarism does not involve theft of intellectual property in the same manner that typical plagiarism does, the act of self-plagiarism does promote a lot of ethical issues in certain contexts. Largely, self-plagiarism becomes an issue when work is presented that should be original. This indicates, for instance, that the majority of work published in magazines or newspapers is probably not going to be viewed as self-plagiarized even when writers recreate some of their own work. Self-plagiarism is largely an issue in academic environments.
Many schools have written procedures against pupils’ reuse of their work in different lessons, and turning in the same paper for two different classes is generally not permitted. The pressures of academia and the importance of publications for academics can result in another kind of self-plagiarism in which studies are recycled for a number of different reports. In response to this, some journals and organizations have designed rules or ethical codes that condemn self-plagiarism.
Self-plagiarism is also a problem when the author no longer retains copyright to the content. In this situation, an author is breaking not just ethical but legal codes. Once a copyright is owned by another person or company, writers are no longer allowed to use work as though it is their own.
However, there are numerous scenarios in which reusing one’s work is acceptable or even necessary. Academics constantly build on previous work, and reference to that work is in many cases inevitable and even required. Academics may also quote themselves. Complaints of self-plagiarism can be best deflected by acknowledging that the work is recycled although some have argued that even this is unnecessary when one is writing for an entirely different audience of readers.

Avoiding self-plagiarism is most effectively achieved by stating the context in which the writing arises, the expectations of the audience and the guidelines encompassing the piece.

Helpful links:

• JISC – plagiarism resources and advice from the Joint Information Systems Committee.
• http://www.plagiarismchecker.net/ – free plagiarism checking software and articles, resources and lesson plans on avoiding plagiarism.
• PlagiarismAdvice.org – JISC’s specific plagiarism advice website.

What do we mean by copyright?

When people create poems, stories, reviews, novels, biographies or other writings seen as intellectual property, it belongs to them and them only. The problem is how to protect such intellectual pursuits from those who might take advantage of such creative ventures for their own use without compensation to the original writer. That’s exactly where copyright laws come in.
This set of laws shields the authors from plagiarism and so from those who would appropriate some or all of the original work of an author as if it were their own. Copyright laws give the creator the right to use his/her works as they want to and this applies to cinema, applications and architecture as well as written material. This means the author can throw out, sell the content or allow certain publishing rights to others. Copyright laws give the author unique rights to income from his creative works. This protection permits authors to have the freedom to continuously create, aware that their projects are safeguarded under national and international copyright laws.
Not all issues come under copyright protection. You are unable to copyright a fact. Concepts, methods and systems also cannot be copyright protected. While facts and ideas can not, in and of themselves, be copyright, how they are presented can be copyrighted, if the presentation is original to the author.
As soon as an author writes a story or essay or anything else, that piece of writing is immediately under copyright. Absolutely no one has any legal right to use it without the approval of the author. Although, without registering the copyright, the author will have a more troublesome time validating ownership should plagiarism take place. Not registering a copyright also effects any financial compensation, which will be much less with an unregistered copyright.
While a registered copyright does not endure forever, it does protect the author’s interests. If the work was written after the laws changed in February 1, 1978, the protection lasts for the life of the writer plus 70 years. This grants his children or beneficiaries an opportunity to also profit from the copyrighted work. This copyright may not be renewed. Copyrights for works before 1978 varied depending on a number of elements. These copyrights can be renewed for 25 years with protections and are regulated under the 1909 copyright laws.
Once a copyright runs out, there is no more recourse for the author or heirs. At this point, the work comes into public domain. This means that the work can be printed, published or otherwise used for derivative works.

This article is based on US law.

Helpful links:

• JISC – plagiarism resources and advice from the Joint Information Systems Committee.
• http://www.plagiarismchecker.net/ – free plagiarism checking software and articles, resources and lesson plans on avoiding plagiarism.
• PlagiarismAdvice.org – JISC’s specific plagiarism advice website.

Plagiarism from a teacher’s position

There is currently a lot of information in existence on the Web and in handouts from schools/colleges/universities, even on this site, in relation to plagiarism. You understand what it is: duplicating someone else’s work to boost your own results without paraphrasing (re-writing in your own words so you can show your comprehension of the material).  Also, you have been told about self-plagiarism: taking a previous piece of work and re-submitting it to your own professor/lecturer, where you do not learn anything, period!
Yes, you have been launched into a world of advanced Information Technology and spectacular consoles from some big-named manufacturers/companies, but do bear in mind that the Internet has only really been commercially available for the past 15 years or thereabouts.  This means that a lot of people who are older than you are in fact well versed in the ways the Internet and indeed IT work.
Granted, not all people know how to use IT or the Internet effectively, but a lot of people do.  Mainly because we as educationalists have to make sure we’re up to date with the current technology, otherwise we would be dismissing an integral part of the learning and development using a very valuable resource.
This subsequently means that plagiarism is something you are not able to get away with when it comes to the vast majority of IT-literate teachers/lecturers.  I have had so many students, this year alone, hand in work that evidently is partially and in some instances entirely, plagiarised.
Here’s why: your writing is personal to you.  You write in a distinct way and yes, you sometimes word sentences using incorrect grammar.  So when the next passage is read and it’s grammatically sound, reads like an extract from a 21-year-olds college or university assignment and in small cases, has a different font, it’s not difficult to spot the distinction.
When this happens it is easy to initially pop that sentence into Google and let it do all the hard work.  If it comes back with positive hits on the exact phraseology which leads to a website, which in turn leads to a passage sneakily similar to yours, then you’ve been sussed.
Taking it a step further, your paper can then be put through plagiarismchecker.net and checked for any more inconsistencies.

In today’s IT-orientated world you are not the only (young) people that know how to browse the Internet to find something that will fit in your paper, us tutors/lecturers here are just as well equipped.  So be mindful the next time you are trawling through the Web.

Helpful links:

• JISC – plagiarism resources and advice from the Joint Information Systems Committee.
• http://www.plagiarismchecker.net/ – free plagiarism checking software and articles, resources and lesson plans on avoiding plagiarism.
• PlagiarismAdvice.org – JISC’s specific plagiarism advice website.

Plagiarism - how can it be defined, what does it actually mean for students and how to steer clear of it

The definition of plagiarism in accordance with the Oxford Dictionary Online is “the practice of taking someone else’s work or ideas and passing them off as one’s own”. Therefore, it is a version of fraud and must be avoided as it is harshly addressed by academic institutions. This is the basic meaning of plagiarism but there are a wide selection of behaviors within creative work, literature and educational work which count as copied content. It is popular for students to plagiarise without realizing it, but ignorance is not an excuse, therefore it is crucial for all pupils along with those who work within the educational and research spheres to familiarise themselves with the practices that establish plagiarism so that they may prevent it.
Pupils are asked to carry out investigation into the area they are writing, which includes reading extensively then crafting assignments which are specified by their tutors to display the students’ understanding of the subject at hand. This will incorporate citing authors they have studied, paraphrasing those authors’ content and from time to time quoting authors to make points in the student’s assignment. Therefore, it is important for students to discover how to properly reference other authors as they could be accused of plagiarism simply because they have not successfully credited authors for the work they quote. For example, some students reproduce another author’s work without understanding that they are supposed to paraphrase and quote and give the authors credit, and feel that what they have done is within normal academic application.
Plagiarism can subsequently result from poor working practices by students or researchers who don’t check their referencing style correctly and cite other authors without giving recognition to their content. It can also happen when a student has replicated work from another source, such as another student, a textbook or an internet source, and put it into their own work as if it was penned by themselves. This is very likely to be a deliberate fraud rather than a mistake. Sometimes pupils will reword passages from these sources before planning to submit them as their own work, but this is still thought of as plagiarism if the rewording is not satisfactory and if the initial author is not mentioned as a source.
It is looked upon as a form of cheating to plagiarise, as the pupil is trying to gain credit for something that is not their own work. This is why it is taken very seriously by schools, universities and also other educational institutions. Many schools use computer programs which check through assignments that are posted electronically and compare them to previous assignments from other students, textbooks and internet sources. The reports from these anti-plagiarism applications return a percentage match with sentences and paragraphs underlined so that tutors can see where the pupil may have copied work. It is expected that a certain amount of projects will find matches with others if they are written on the same topic, but a teacher will become suspicious if there are significant portions of content that are nearly indistinguishable to other sources and with no citation marks or citations given to credit the original writer. Sometimes the teacher grading an assignment is not the same person as the teacher who gave a lecture on which the essay may be based. Subsequently it may be the case that pupils feel they can rely considerably on class notes without being caught out, however when most of the presented assignments are virtually the same, this becomes quite noticeable to the marker.

Perhaps the most difficult forms of plagiarism for universities to identify is when a pupil submits an assignment that has been written by someone else. This counts as plagiarism under the classification of passing someone else’s work off as one’s own. Tutors might assume that the assignment has not been created by the pupil who submitted it if they have seen previous work by this pupil and the style is extremely different, or if the assignment is very well-written and the student has not reflected that level of academic knowledge in the past. This is problematic to identify though, if the paper has not been submitted elsewhere.
Helpful links:

• JISC – plagiarism resources and advice from the Joint Information Systems Committee.
• http://www.plagiarismchecker.net/ – free plagiarism checking software and articles, resources and lesson plans on avoiding plagiarism.
• PlagiarismAdvice.org – JISC’s specific plagiarism advice website.