Detecting and Deterring Plagiarism
From RSCWMWiki
What is plagiarism?
Plagiarism has many definitions but typically refers to ‘the unauthorized use or close imitation of the language and thoughts of another author and the representation of them as one's own original work.’ (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/plagiarism)
Collusion relates to ‘A secret activity undertaken by two or more people for the purpose of fraud’ (http://www.investorwords.com/942/collusion.html)
Why is detecting plagiarism important?
Coupled with the need to promote evaluation, analysis, and synthesis of research at HE level, we are now experiencing the new phenomenon of essays, coursework, and dissertations written to order by ghost writers. There are a number of essay banks and repositories available on the internet where students can buy and sell academic papers, making it easier than ever to plagiarise and collude. Most ghost writers offer their services locally and may never be detected, unless institutional text matching tools are utilised. Typical essay bank and ghost writer sites include www.academicdb.com and www.professays.com Another mode of ‘pay for plagiarism’ in growth is contract cheating where ‘students get others to complete their work by putting it out to tender’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_cheating)
Detection and deterrent – advice and guidance
Good practice in dealing with plagiarism is also good practice in terms of learning, teaching and assessment more generally. For the Higher Education sector, a new initiative by the Higher Education Academy and JISC helps organisations embed academic integrity into policies and practice. The service also aims to share good practice and help organisations to avoid duplication of effort.
You can find out more about the service by visiting http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/collaboration/academic_integrity The site includes the AmBeR research report which synthesises findings from HE across the UK and covers ‘The Recorded Incidence of Student Plagiarism and the Penalties Applied.’ The report also highlights the fact that there is very little equivalence across the UK in terms of practice and policy, with individual HEIs running their own internally agreed policies.
The Plagiarism Advice service also provides a wealth of resources, advice and guidance to the HE and FE sectors. Their website includes details of events, good practice examples, briefing papers, legal issue factsheets and more. To find out more visit www.plagiarismadvice.org
Text Matching tools
These help you to detect plagiarised text in essays and coursework etc. Here are some examples:
- Turnitin - the most popular UK text matching tool(http://turnitin.com/)
- Plagiarism Detect.com free Word plug-in - help for students or a sinister way of beating the system?
- Urkund – a web based system used by the majority of Universities in Sweden http://www.urkund.com/int/en/uoh.asp
- Dustball.com – a free checker based on Google (http://www.dustball.com/cs/plagiarism.checker/)
- Copy, shake and paste blog – a comparison of the most popular text matching tools (http://copy-shake-paste.blogspot.com/2007/09/test-of-plagiarism-detection-software.html)
Alternatively, you can do it yourself by simply using a search engine. However which search engine would produce the best results? Find out more by reading this article from Plagiarism Today http://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2009/06/03/plagiarism-showdown-bing-vs-yahoo-vs-google/
Student guides - referencing/teaching tools
- Information Literacy website (http://www.informationliteracy.org.uk/Resources_By_Theme/Citation.aspx) - plagiarism and referencing resources
- Writecheck by TII contains useful guides (http://writecheck.turnitin.com/static/citation_help/prevent_plagiarism.html)
- University of the West of England’s guide for students http://learntech.uwe.ac.uk/referencing/Default.aspx?pageid=1798
- The Fraud of Plagiarism interactive tutorial http://www.cte.usf.edu/plagiarism/plag.html
- University of Leicester’s interactive guide by subject area http://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/ssds/slc/resources/writing/plagiarism/plagiarism-tutorial
- Keele University’s guide to student writing and plagiarism
- Read, Write, Pass – University of Wolverhampton’s guide on academic misconduct http://asp.wlv.ac.uk/Level3.asp?UserType=11&Level3=2173
- Reference and citation report writing guides from Harper Adams University College http://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/libraryservices/guides.htm
More academic writing guides
- http://www.uefap.com/writing/writfram.htm
- http://www.brookes.ac.uk/library/skill/plagiarism.html
- http://www.elanguages.ac.uk/eap/acwrite_weblinks.htm
- http://www.mantex.co.uk/download.htm
- http://www.thinkingwriting.qmul.ac.uk/
- http://www.kent.ac.uk/uelt/ced/themes/plagiarism/resources.html
- http://www.mantex.co.uk/biblios/art-awtg.htm
Citation management tools
These will help you to record and manage citations. Examples include:
- The Citation Machine http://citationmachine.net/index.php
- Document it http://www.documentit.co.uk/download.php. This allows students to learn the rules of correct referencing. It is a passive application that runs within Microsoft® Word and helps students to record the correct information following conventional citation standards.
- The Harvard Vault – a free tool from Coventry University to help you construct a list of references http://home.ched.coventry.ac.uk/caw/harvard/index.htm
Effective assessment strategies
Another way to combat the rise of plagiarism is to re-think the assessment process.
- The JISC REAP project helps staff and students when adopting a holistic plagiarism strategy. http://www.reap.ac.uk/index.html
- Summative e-Assessment Quality (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/reaqfinalreport.aspx) – a JISC publication
- Scoping a Vision for Formative e-Assessment (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/feasstfinalreport.aspx) – a JISC publication
- e-assessment programme (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/assessment) – JISC project and developments
- effective e-assessment (http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/effective-use-of-VLEs/e-assessment) – a series of case studies
- e-futures guide (http://www.efutures.org/docs/guide.pdf) – a publication on effective practice
- Computer aided assessment (http://delicious.com/deliboy/CAA) and assessment tools and tips (http://delicious.com/deliboy/assessment) from RSC WM HE Co-ordinator, Kevin Brace
Useful links
Additional resources about plagiarism mainly based in HE cohorts:
- Plagiarism Today blog (plagiarism blog) with some useful updates and articles
- Turnitin case study podcast (http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.org.uk/mashe/?p=192) - Ms Carol Bailey, senior lecturer at the University of Wolverhampton discusses her use of the text matching tool Turnitin, and how the system helps her detect and deter plagiarism and collusion.
- Higher Education Academy’s subject centre for Information and Computer Sciences – plagiarism advice http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/resources/assessment/plagiarism/index.html
- Higher Education Academy HEinFE videos from a student perspective.
- The HEA’s Sociology, Anthropology and Politics subject centre’s overview on plagiarism http://www.c-sap.bham.ac.uk/resources/guides/plagiarism.htm
- Good practice guide http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/brookes.pdf
- JISC research carried out in 2005 http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/pub_plagiarism.aspx
- Teaching Students about Plagiarism http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=306
- Plagiarism: a guide for law lecturers http://www.ukcle.ac.uk/resources/trns/plagiarism/index.html
- Designing a Plagiarism Review http://www.english.heacademy.ac.uk/explore/resources/plagiarism/review.php
- Proceedings and papers from the 2008 UK Plagiarism conference
- ‘Plagiarism: A Cut and Paste Generation’, broadcast on Teachers TV http://www.teachers.tv/video/30749
- A short video by Professor Jude Carroll, Oxford Brookes University helps to explain the misalignment of student expectations, and how we can help to work smarter in designing out plagiarism.
- An introduction to plagiarism by the Physical Sciences Centre, Higher Education Academy http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/ps/documents/briefing_papers/ps0005_plagarism_feb_2005.pdf
See also
Links to other pages in the RSC MediaWiki
RSC contacts
Kevin Brace contributed this article. He can be contacted by email and telephone, Kevin Brace at k.brace@rsc-wm.ac.uk or 01902 518931 For more information about the RSC West Midlands, visit our website at http://www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/westmidlands
