DETERRING, DETECTING AND DEALING WITH PLAGIARISM

What is Plagiarism?

Plagiarism is a serious academic offence and as stated in the Undergraduate Regulations (Academic Dishonesty) "Any action knowingly taken by a student which involves misrepresentation of the truth is an offence which the University believes should merit the application of very severe penalties."

However, more often than not there might be no deliberate intention to cheat but offences results from misunderstanding of correct ways in which quoted text should be referenced - many students simply do not understand what plagiarism is. 

The Oxford Dictionary defines plagiarise as: "to take somebody else's ideas or words and use them as if they were one's own."

Encata definitions are:

To this we should also add the definition of Collusion as "the secret agreement or understanding between two or more people with the aim of deceiving or cheating others."

It should be noted that plagiarism also applies to scientific experiments, diagrams, maps, images, computer programs whose use might not be covered by copyright.

There are three forms of plagiarism:

The Problem

With the growth of the Internet as an information resource, giving access to a wide variety of online journal articles, books and other Web sites, it has made it easier for students to locate and use obscure references for their work. An even more worrying trend is the growth in Web sites that offer pre-written essays or essays written to order. A recent investigation by The Times Higher (19th November 2004) found dozens of undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations available for purchase through organisations such as eBay and other Web sites. (One vendor was offering to sell a first-class dissertation dealing with "the internet and cyber plagiarism"! )

Why do Students Plagiarise?

JISC have produced the following ten examples of reasons why students might plagiarise:

The Worry

Figures that are emerging from a recent study 'At least they're learning something': the hazy line between collaboration and collusion (Barrett and Cox, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, April 2005, vol. 30, no. 2, pp. 107-122(16) ) show that more than 50% of academics who suspected that a student, or students, had cheated ignored the fact. They report a contributing factor is that academic staff were not able to correctly indentify incidents of collusion.

The Solution

There are two parts to the solution of the plagiarism problem:

It is also important that a holistic institution wide approach to plagiarism is adopted and not to leave this work to one or two departments or individuals.

Student advice can be sought through the Student Learning Centre who have produced several guides on how to produce course work and avoid plagiarism. Further advice and guidance for academics on how to prevent and detect plagiarism can be found at the JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service (see below) and by following the link on the left navigation bar of this page.

Although the electronic detection of plagiarism cannot by itself solve the problem of plagiarism it can be used as a component to a more holistics approach to the prevention of plagiarism. JISC have funded such a service and more information can be found by clicking on the navigation link on the left of this page.

The commercial company behind the detection service, Turnitin, have produced seevral training videos to support their service. The can be found and viewed from their Web site.