The Slippery
Business of Plagiarism
Plagiarism
is a widespread problem around the world. It can take various forms — copying
and pasting text without acknowledging its source, “recycling” or
self-plagiarism (presenting the same paper several times as original),
purchasing papers from an agency or a ghostwriter and submitting them as one’s
own. With the benefit of new technologies, cheating is booming, such that some
countries are describing a ‘plagiarism epidemic’.[1] In the United
Kingdom, for example, almost 50,000 university students were caught cheating
from 2012 to 2015. This is only the reported cases — how many more cases remain
undetected?
Students,
especially those who come from corrupt environments where plagiarism is
prevalent but ignored or seen as a trivial offense, need better guidance about
the consequences of violating the rules of academic integrity. For example,
during the academic year 2014-2015, the Department of Immigration in Australia
cancelled 9,250 international student visas — plagiarism was one of the reasons
cited in addition to other forms of academic misconduct[2]. Students need
to understand that plagiarism during the course of their university studies
could have significant repercussions – not only in the short-term, but also for
their future careers.
Some
famous politicians have been implicated in plagiarism scandals. Following the
public scandal revolving around plagiarism identified in their dissertations,
German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg resigned in 2011 and German
Education Minister Annette Schavan in 2013. Evidence of plagiarism was found in
the dissertation of Ursula von der Leyen, the current German Defense Minister.
Igor Danchenko and Clifford Gaddy, scholars at the Brookings Institute, found
extensive plagiarism in the dissertation of Russian President, Vladimir Putin,
“Strategic Planning of the Reproduction of the Mineral Resource Base of a
Region under Conditions of the Formation of Market Relations (St. Petersburg
and Leningrad Oblast),” which he’d successfully defended at the St. Petersburg
Mining Institute in 1997. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden was thwarted by a
plagiarism scandal that dated back to his law school years and that ended his
1988 presidential campaign.
Can
undetected plagiarism during a person’s studies embolden the inclination to
cheat in a future profession? High profile personalities including Timothy
Parker, the crossword
puzzle editor for USA Today, and Fareed Zakaria, CNN anchor, have been caught
in recent plagiarism scandals.
Are
more students cheating now than before? Not according to the recent study by
Curtis and Vardanega (2016)[3], who actually
observed a downward trend among students at Australian universities in
2004-2014. At least since some forms of plagiarism can now be detected.
Scholars have raised the alarm, however, indicating that about 70% of students
do not consider all types of plagiarism (see Table ) to be wrong. In another
study, Curtis et al. (2013)[4] found that
only 25% of first-year students at Murdoch University recognize all practices
considered to be plagiarism; this number increased to 50% after completing
courses on academic integrity. Curtis and Vardanega (2013) argue that
text-matching software and educational interventions help to protect standards
of academic integrity and are among the most successful mechanisms for
positively change. Denisova-Schmidt et al. (2016)[5] discovered
that the frequency of use of some forms of cheating might increase
significantly during university studies. Comparing first-year students with
more advanced students at selected Russian universities, the scholars found
that copying off during exams or tests increases by 25%; downloading term
papers (or other papers) from the internet by 15%; and purchasing term papers
(or other papers) from special agencies or from other students by 12.5%. The
scholars also voiced concern about the students’ lack of awareness of what
constitutes cheating. Copying and pasting from the Internet without any
acknowledgement of source seems to be business as usual for many students at Russian
universities.
Many
unprepared students are sent to universities all around the world. If secondary
school education is failing to address this problem, then higher education
institutions must acknowledge this issue by developing a better understanding
of why students resort to plagiarism and addressing these motivations
specifically. In addition to various anti-plagiarism policies and procedures,
incorporating the use of special software programs like Turnitin or Unplag, and
developing ratings of universities based on their tolerance of plagiarism,[6] the faculty
should present assignments and expectations more clearly to students. All of
these remedies might still be insufficient when plagiarism is the only way that
some students feel they can succeed or when plagiarism is a plea for help[7].
Table
: Types of Plagiarism
1.
SHAM PARAPHRASING
|
material
copied verbatim from text and source acknowledged in-line but represented as
paraphrased
|
2.
ILLICIT PARAPHRASING
|
material
paraphrased from text without in-line acknowledgement of source
|
3.
OTHER PLAGIARISM
|
material
copied from another student's assignment with the knowledge of the other
student
|
4.
VERBATIM COPYING
|
material
copied verbatim from text without in-line acknowledgement of the source
|
5.
RECYCLING
|
same
assignment submitted more than once for different courses
|
6.
GHOSTWRITING
|
assignment
written by third party and represented by student as own work
|
7.
PURLOINING
|
assignment
copied from another student's assignment or other person's paper without that
person's knowledge
|
Source:
Walker, J. (1998). Student plagiarism in universities: what are we doing about
it? Higher Education Research & Development, 17(1), 89-106, p. 103.
Elena Denisova-Schmidt
is a lecturer, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) and Research
Fellow, CIHE, Boston College (USA).
For
more information about corruption in higher education, follow @BC_HECM for news and trends. The Higher
Education Corruption Monitor collects news and research on various types of
corruption and anti-corruption policies and initiatives from all around the
world.
Notes:
[1] http://www.independent.co.uk/student/news/uk-universities-in-plagiarism-epidemic-as-almost-50000-students-caught-cheating-over-last-3-years-a6796021.html
[2] http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/overseas-student-loses-appeal-over-plagiarism-ruling/news-story/e254773faee87a45972af91082c767f9
[3] Gurtis, G. and Vardanega, L. 2016. Is
plagiarism changing over time? A 10-year time-lag study with three points of
measurement. Higher Education Research & Development, 2016. DOI: 10.1080/07294360.2016.1161602
[4] Curtis, G.J., Gouldthorp, B., Thomas,
E.F., O’Brien, G.M., & Correia, H.M. (2013). Online academic-integrity
mastery training may improve students’ awareness of, and attitudes toward,
plagiarism. Psychology:
Learning and Teaching, 12(3),
282–289.
[5] http://ejhe-online.com/2016/03/10/on-the-development-of-students-attitudes-towards-corruption-and-cheating-in-russian-universities-by-elena-denisova-schmidt-martin-huber-and-elvira-leontyeva/
[6] http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/dissernet-ranks-russian-universities-according-to-plagiarism/562638.html
Source | https://www.insidehighered.com/
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan
& Co
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