Key Resource Oct 2003 Plagiarism

PlagiarismKey Resource, October 2003

Plagiarism has always been a concern for academic institutions, but new technology has widened the scope of the problem. Universities and colleges are increasingly turning to anti-plagiarism software, publicly advertised institutional policies to deter and educate students, and there are also some relevant national initiatives. Has the proliferation of the internet actually increased the level of plagiarism? Can anti-plagiarism software deliver? Whose rights are at stake? These are a few of the questions the resources cited in this introduction to plagiarism address.

Software Companies

Featured Software: "TurnItIn"

TurnItIn is a software product originally developed by University of California, Berkeley researchers and alumni. It offers a fee-based service that tests the originality of a piece of writing against three databases: the publicly accessible internet of over 2 billion websites, millions of published online articles and e-books, and finally, any student paper ever submitted for verification to TurnItIn. Originality reports are reportedly returned within 24-48 hours featuring highlighted and underlined portions that indicate sources used and potential overlap with previous written work. By checking the submitted writing against these three databases the written work is then entered into the last database, thereby including it for future searches of originality. The TurnItIn website claims to serve a subscriber base spanning 51 countries, 2,500 institutions, and at peak usage times analyses 20,000 submitted papers per day. This would appear to be the most popular service of its kind in the world.

Other plagiarism software companies:

Stand alone desktop software:

Online search services:

Plagiarism

Software (Computer Programming) Plagiarism:

Moss (Measure of Software Similarity)

Paper mills (student cheat sites)

These are sites that provide pre-written essays at all levels of study. Some paper mill sites charge per page or per essay, some charge a yearly or bi-yearly subscription fee, while others offer papers for free. Some of the paper mills will also produce custom written papers for US$20 per page on average. The quality of the accessed papers is not guaranteed. These sites are a major concern for anti-plagiarism software advocates.

Academic Study

This article reports on a study conducted by Donald McCabe, head and founder of the Center for Academic Integrity, a subscriber based U.S. centre that conducts and disseminates research on plagiarism and other academic issues. It describes the prevalence of plagiarism in higher education as revealed through the study of 18,000 students, 2,600 faculty and 650 teaching assistants across 23 U.S. university campuses.

Institutional Approach

This University of Melbourne, Australia website is an example of a university policy on plagiarism. It lays out clearly the various types of plagiarism, ramifications for students if they are caught plagiarising materials, and methods of combating plagiarism for faculty. Of particular note universities like University of Melbourne are now publicly identifying paper mills and detection software on their plagiarism websites in order to deter students from pursuing these routes of cheating. This site is only one of many examples of university policies and links to information on plagiarism.

Following media claims that it did not handle two alleged cases of plagiarism effectively, in 2003, the University of Newcastle, also in Australia, engaged the St James Ethics Centre (an non-profit organisation established to offer independent advice to corporations and other organisations on ethical matters) to conduct an inquiry into policies and procedures at the university relating to plagiarism.

The Virtual Academic Integrity Laboratory (VAIL) is a University of Maryland University College initiative providing information to both students and professors concerning academic integrity. The academic policies portion links to 27 different university plagiarism policies across Canada and the U.S.

National Initiatives

JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) is a UK publicly-funded organisation that provides ongoing strategic and infrastructure support for IT in higher education. JISC's Plagiarism Advisory Service website began in September 2002. This service aims to raise awareness of plagiarism in the academic community by providing background and copyright advice, educational tools, and a portal to further resources. JISC has licensed TurnItIn for use in every college and university in the UK from Sept 2002 to August 2004. JISC is interesting as an example of a national initiative attempting to deal with issues of academic integrity in higher education.

Media Opinion

An interesting article about conflict of interest in paper mill and plagiarism detector companies run and designed by the same programmers.

Good links for further exploration of plagiarism issues

A University of Sydney, Australia document exploring the providers, the consumers, and the capabilities of plagiarism software. Includes a comprehensive bibliography.

The UK-based Forensic Linguistics Institute provides (mostly free) advice to foreign students in the UK that have to handle plagiarism allegations, that sometimes arise because of a lack of ability with English and failure to understand UK customs and practices.