“Plagiarism, its forms and academic dishonesty”

Department of English (MKBU)

Topic :- “Plagiarism, its forms and academic dishonesty”
Name :- Milankumar Parmar
Course :- Research and Methodology
Email_id :- parmarmilan1994@gmail.com

Course : M.Phil
Guide:- Dr. M B Gaijan
HOD:- Pro. Dilip Barad
Department of English (MKBU)

Introduction

Any creative, critical and research work is created only after continuous burning of blood and mind. It is the result of one’s endless efforts. And thus the work whether creative or critical is his property achieved only after intellectual toil. MLA handbook of literary research considers it property of an individual who has created and thus has possession over it. Thus if any one likes to use this property for the creation or add to the stock of knowledge, then at least attribution should be made. “Responsible writers compose their work with great care. They specify when they refer to another author’s ideas, fats, and words, whether they want to agree with, reject to, or analyze the source.”   

University of Oxford defines plagiarism as an act of “presenting someone else’s work or ideas as your own, with or without their consent” by incorporating in one’s work without full acknowledgement. It includes all types of material, published and unpublished, whether in manuscript, printed or electronic form is covered under this definition. (Oxford) 

MLA Handbook of Literary Research defines plagiarism as “intellectual theft”, the word plagiarism derived from the Latin word plagiaries which means ‘kidnapper.’ In computer language it can be termed as hackers who hacks the people’s ideas, thoughts and work.(MLA) 

Yale Center for Teaching and Learning defined plagiarism as a discrete offence, a specific failure to give credit to a particular source. Plagiarism is the use of another’s work, words, or ideas without attribution. It is a form of theft, a breach of honesty in academic community. (Yale)  

    Further Oxford mentions, acknowledgement to another’s works or ideas should not remain only to the texts, but also to other media such as computer codes, illustrations, graphs, published books and journals(print or online), from lectures, theses, student’s essay and text and data from websites. This list can be expanded with modern social media, including, Facebook, tweeter, email, YouTube, websites, music etc. (Oxford)   

  

Oxford categorizes plagiarism into two kinds intentional or reckless, or unintentional. MLA also divide plagiarism in the two categories as mentioned above (Oxford). 

Plagiarism involves two kinds of wrongs. When one uses another person’s ideas, information or expressions without acknowledging that person’s work creates intellectual theft. It also constitute fraud when another person’s ideas, information, or expression for personal gain. But plagiarism is sometimes moral, ethical and intellectual problems(MLA). 

Consequences of plagiarism

 Plagiarism creates moral, ethical and legal problems. Plagiarism undermines important public values.

 The charge of plagiarism is very serious for writers. In society plagiarists are seen as incompetent-incapable of developing and expressing their own thoughts, and willing to deceive others for personal gain

 When professional writers such as journalists are exposed as plagiarists they are out of job, and with that lose their social status and prestige.

 Students who are exposed as plagiarists may suffer severe penalty. Plagiarism harms more to those who commits, as it destroys their relationship with other academics. Plagiarist student lose an important opportunity to learn how to write research paper.

 The more serious question it raises is “where is my voice in this project?” the student miss an opportunity to learn the skill of collecting data and information , an d presenting it in one’s own way

 Plagiarism betrays the personal element in writing. It is all about how well you develop yourself as a writer. The writer is the owner of what he writes. 

Here are some examples of high profile personalities who found of plagiarism and lose their high position. Their degrees were suspended or revoked for plagiarism by universities in US. (Wecker)

1. “Gaming Olympics studies: In April 2012, Pál Schmitt resigned as president of Hungary a week after his doctorate was withdrawn by Semmelweis University in Budapest. According to a BBC report, Semmelweis accused Schmitt, a two-time Olympic fencing gold medalist, of plagiarizing entire passages of his doctoral thesis.”

2. Defenseless minister: Although Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, the former German defense minister(.…)he resigned on March 1, 2011 after admitting to plagiarizing parts of his legal doctorate. Universität Bayreuth revoked his degree, citing "serious errors" in his paper.

3. Pharmaceutical power: In 2008, the College of Business and Economics at West Virginia University announced that it was revoking the E.M.B.A. it had awarded Heather Bresch, the daughter of Joe Manchin III, then West Virginia's governor. 

4. Evolution of a doctorate: Self-declared "scientist working in paleobiology, astronomy, and various other areas; designer for projects including rockets and nuclear devices ... [and] writer," Charles Pellegrino claimed on his website to hold a doctorate from Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. New York Times reporter revealed "Pellegrino was never awarded a Ph.D. from Victoria and therefore could not have had it stripped from him or reinstated at a later date.”

5. Mechanical failure: The former head of acquisitions for the Armaments Corporation of South Africa, Shamim "Chippy" Shaik, was stripped of his Ph.D. from then-University of Natal—now University of KwaZulu-Natal—in 2008 following reports he'd plagiarized "more than two-thirds" of his mechanical engineering doctorate.

6. Athletics antics: Westark Community College, now a part of the University of Arkansas—Fort Smith, revoked former basketball player Jerome Lambert's associate degree when officials learned that an assistant coach at Baylor University gave Lambert a term paper for a Westark course while recruiting him to come to Baylor. As the Houston Chronicle reported in 1994, Lambert also accused the coach of offering him a discounted car and apartment, both "potential violations of NCAA rules."

7. Disservices to education: In July 2007, the University of Edinburgh revoked the honorary doctorate it had bestowed on Robert Mugabe, then prime minister and now president of Zimbabwe, in 1984. The degree recognized Mugabe's "services to education in Africa," according to the Guardian. "He has since been blamed for Zimbabwe's failing economy and accused of running an oppressive regime," the article added.

8. I spy a falsified degree: In July 2010, Harvard University stripped Russian spy Andrey Bezrukov—who had attended Harvard under the name Donald H. Heathfield—of his graduate degree in public administration. "The Kennedy School usually severs its relationship with a student when it is discovered that the individual's application contains inaccuracies," the Harvard Crimson reported.

9. Résumé racketeer: Serkan Anilir, a Turkish national, saw his doctorate from University of Tokyo revoked for plagiarism and lying on his résumé, the Daily Yomiuri reported in 2010. "This is the first time in the history of the University of Tokyo, this country's most prestigious university, that a doctorate has been rescinded," according to the report, which referred to Anilir as "a distinguished researcher ... extensively covered in the mass media."(Wecker)

Unintentional plagiarism

A researcher at initial level commits plagiarism unintentionally. Habit of students to use encyclopedia at initial level of research is later on constitute unintentional plagiarism.

 “plagiarism sometimes happens because of researchers do not keep precise records of their reading, and by the time they return to their notes they have forgotten whether their summaries and phrases contains quoted materials that is poorly marked or unmarked.

 “Presenting author’s exact wording without marking it quotation is considered plagiarism, even if you cite the source.” 

 Writing a research paper in second language, students often commits plagiarism, in efforts to avoid grammatical errors.

 When reflecting grammatical patterns they sometimes inadvertently plagiarize the author’s ideas, information, words and expression.”  

Forms of Plagiarism 

Any text, phrase, sentence, in formation etc. without proper documentation, is considered as plagiarism. The most obvious form of plagiarism is to present and submit your own paper written by someone else.

Writing a research paper a researcher has to be aware of different forms of plagiarism in order to avoid the plagiarism. There are many types of plagiarism, some of the most common identified by MLA are, repeating or paraphrasing wording, taking a particularly apt phrase, paraphrasing an argument or presenting a line of thinking,

CTL Yale categories plagiarism in three, major forms as, they are 

1. Using a source’s language without quoting

2. Using information from a source without attribution 

3. Paraphrasing a source in a form that stays too close to the original. 

Plagiarism spectrum, a study conducted by Turnit found ten types of plagiarism in their survey of secondary and higher secondary education institutions. Each type is given name of digital monikers. Ten types of plagiarism are (Turnitin)

1. Clone :- Submitting another’s work, word –for-word as one’s own. It is also considered by MLA as most blatant form of plagiarism. 

2. CLTR-C :- It contains significant portion of text from a single source without alterations. It is second mostly used by people.

3. Find –Replace :- changing key words and phrases but retaining the essential content of the source.

4. Remix :- In this type a researcher/student paraphrases from multiple sources, made to fit together. 

5. Recycle :- A student/researcher borrows generously from the writer’s previously work without citation. 

6. Hybrid :- combines perfectly cited sources with copied passages without citation.

7. Mashup :- Mixes copied material from multiple sources. 

8. 404Error :- includes citations to non-existent or inaccurate information about sources.

9. Aggregator :- it includes proper citation to sources but the proper contains almost no original work.

10. Re-tweet :- includes proper citation, but relies too closely on the text’s original wording and/or structure.   (Turnitin)

How to avoid Plagiarism 

Plagiarism is very serious issue of academia. It severely harms the academic integrity. Thus students and researcher are made aware about proper documentation. It can be only avoided by proper citation. Most of the universities use plagiarism detection software to uncover potential plagiarism and to deter students from plagiarizing. Academic integrity can be maintained by providing students with thorough orientations, required writing courses, and clearly articulated honor codes. By generating a uniform understanding among students and researchers that plagiarism is wrong.(Wikipedia)

Always Cite 

 When you quote two or more words verbatim or even one word if it is used in a way that is unique to the source. 

 When you introduce facts that you have found in source

 When you paraphrase or summaries ideas, interpretations or conclusions that you find in source. 

 When you introduce information that is common knowledge or that may be considered as common knowledge in your field, but the reader may not know it. 

 When you borrow plan or structures of larger section of a sources’ argument

 When you collaborate with others in producing knowledge. (Yale)

Academic issues 

Plagiarism is considered academic dishonesty or academic fraud, and offenders are subjected to academic censure, up to and including expulsion.(Wikipedia)

Issues related to plagiarism and academic integrity includes reusing research paper, collaborative work, research on human subject and copyright. 

Reusing a Research 

When it comes to earn grades, some researchers present a paper twice in two different courses, this practice is deceitful. As a result of this practice a researcher lose an opportunity to improve knowledge and skills. 

Collaborative work

Collaborative work is a group project/work joint participation in research and writing is common, and in fact encouraged in many course and in many profession. It does not constitute plagiarism provided that credit is given for all contributors. But many times it is not clearly mentioned that which part is written by whom. Thus everyone gets equal points.  

Research on Human subject

Many academic institutions have policies governing research on human subjects. Examples of research involving human subject includes clinical trials of drug or personal interviews for psychological study. Institutions usually require that researchers obtain the informed consent of human subjects for such projects. Although research for a paper in high school or college are rely involves human subjects.

Copyright infringement

Whereas summaries, paraphrases, and brief quotations in research papers are normally permissible with appropriate acknowledgement, reproducing and disturbing an entire copyrighted work or significant portion of it without obtaining the permission to do so from the copyright holder is an infringement of copyright law and a legal offense, even if the violator acknowledges the sources.(MLA)

Conclusion

Thus the plagiarism an academic dishonesty, an intellectual theft can be avoided by making students and researcher aware of the fact. Sometimes students do not know what they are doing. It is the duty of mentor, a teacher, of a instructor to make aware his student, a fellow researcher about the wrong they can commit by an error. The more people will be aware about the problem the less problematic plagiarism will become. 

Works Cited

Oxford. Plagiarism. University of Oxford. 26 1 201 <www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidence/skills/plagiarism>.

Turnitin. "The Plagiarism spectrum." Tunitin.com. 5 1 2015 <www.turnitin.com/assets/en_us/media/plagiarism_spectrum.php>.

Wecker, Menachem. 10 High People Whose degrees were Revoked. 2 May 2012. US News & World Report. 20 01 2017 <www.usnews.com/education/best-global-universities/artical/2012/05/02/10-high-people-whose-degrees-were-revoked>.

Yale. what is Plagiarism? 20 1 2017 <www.ctl.yale.edu/writing/using-sources/understandung-and-avoiding-plagiarism/what-plagiarism>.