Transcript Plagiarism

Submitted by:
Donna Lee Ettel, Ph.D.
Introduction
 Serious Problem in US colleges;
 What it is
 An exact quotation
 A significant fraction of the entire work
 Removal of true authors name
 Re-formating the text (Borg & Gall, 2004)
Indicia of a quotation
 Provide a citation
 The intent is irrelevant
 No defense
 I forgot
 It was only a rough draft
 I didn’t know
Ideas too?
Copying of ideas without providing
a citation to the original source is
wrong
A close paraphrase of another
author’s work is plagiarism
Paraphrasing without a citation is
plagiarism
Fine points
Short quote format (43
words)
Long quote format (>43
words)
A few isolated words (APA, 2006)
Sources for plagiarized text
Copied paragraphs from
scholarly journals
Copied paragraphs from
scholarly books
Recycled term
papers/dissertations
Laws of Plagiarism
 College rules for student conduct sometimes say that
plagiarism is an academic offense, not a legal offense.
That statement is not completely correct.
 Colleges certainly have the authority to punish
plagiarists in various ways, including expulsion from
the college or revoking a degree earned in part by
plagiarism.
 Plagiarism is also a legal issue.
Laws of Plagiarism
 Copyright law
 The author could sue the plagiarist in federal court for
violation of the copyright.
 The addition of original material by the plagiarist in no way
excuses the act of plagiarism (Standler, 2007)
 Trademark and unfair competition law
 Researchers are often hired, promoted, receive tenure, and
salary increases on the basis of their scholarly publications
 Application of trademark and unfair competition law requires
that the "false designation of origin" be "in commerce.”
 Therefore, trademark and unfair competition law affects
plagiarists who write books or articles. (Standler, 2007)
Laws of Plagiarism
 Fraud
 Beyond intellectual property issues (e.g., copyright and
trademark), the plagiarist committed fraud.
 The plagiarist knows that he is not the true author of the
work.
 Using phrases like "academic misconduct" to describe
plagiarism is too sterile, too kind.
 Plagiarism is fraud. (Dedrick, 2007)
State Statutes:
The following states have enacted statutes to make unlawful sales
of a term paper, essay, report, thesis, or dissertation to students.
 California Education Code §§ 66400 – 66405
 Colorado § 23-4-101 – 106
 Connecticut § 53-392a – e
 Florida § 877.17
 Illinois ch. 110, § 5/0.01 – 5/1
 Maine 17-A § 705
 Massachusetts ch. 271, § 50
 Nevada 207.320
 New Jersey 18A:2-3
 New York Education Law § 213-b
 North Carolina § 14-118.2
 Pennsylvania title 18, § 7324 (Standler, 2008)
Cases Against Plagiarists
in Colleges
 Napolitano
In January 1982, Gabrielle Napolitano, plagiarized the
majority of her 12-page term paper in a Spanish from a
library book. While she did cite the book in five footnotes,
she did not include citations for some paraphrased
material and she did not include the indicia of quotations
for "numerous" verbatim quotations.
 Princeton University Committee on Discipline
unanimously found Napolitano had plagiarized and
recommended punishment of delaying her bachelor's
degree for one year.
Professors who plagiarized
 Jason Yu
Dr. Yu was a tenured professor of civil engineering at the
University of Utah. The Academic Freedom and Tenure
Committee at that University concluded that Yu had failed
to give credit to a co-author, which was one instance of
plagiarism. They also concluded that Yu had failed to give
authorship credit to two former students
 The University of Utah Committee recommended that Yu
be suspended for one year without pay, which he grieved.
 Academic Freedom and Tenure Committee, which on its
second hearing recommended that Yu be permanently
dismissed from the University.
 The District Court Upheld the decision. (Standler, 2007)
How to detect plagiarism
 "Writing style, language, vocabulary, tone, grammar," is
different from "what the student usually produces.
It doesn't sound like the student.”
 "Essays are printed out from the student's web browser.”
 "Web addresses left at the top or bottom of the page”.
Many free essays have a tag line at the end of the essay
that students often miss.”
 "References to graphs, charts, or accompanying material
that isn't there.”
 "References to professors, classes or class numbers that
are not taught at" the college. (Standler, 2007)
How to detect plagiarism
 "Citations are to materials not owned by" local
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libraries to which students have access.
Dead links, or inactive URLs, in student's page. This is
a symptom that the page was prepared many months
ago and is now stale.
"All citations are to materials that are older than five
years.”
Historical events are referred to in present tense.
"Students can not identify citations or provide copies
of the cited material." (APA, 2006)
Colleges may rescind degrees
The college has the legal
authority to revoke or
rescind an academic
degree.
Self-Plagiarization
 Students: is taking a term paper or essay that was
written for one class and submitting substantial parts
of that work for credit in a second class, without
informing the instructor
 Professionals: is using part of one publication in a
subsequent publication, without the indicia of a
quotation or citation to a paraphrase of an earlier
publication.
Why it is wrong
 The number of scholarly publications is an important credential for authors in
academia. Repeating the same publication inflates the number of publications,
giving the plagiarist an undeserved good reputation.
 Most scholarly journals only accept new material for publication. Repeating
previously published text is a fraudulent misrepresentation by the author to the
editor of the journal.
 Publication of the same material more than once wastes space on library
shelves, and wastes money in library budgets.
 Moreover, someone doing a diligent search of the literature could order copies
of two or three "different" scholarly papers, which, when read carefully, contain
essentially the same information, thus wasting photocopy expense, interlibrary
loan expense, (James, 2000).
APA: Journal Citation
 Journal Article: where the page numbering continues
from issue to issue
 Dubeck, L. (1990). Science fiction aids science
teaching. Physics Teacher, 28, 316-318.
APA: Book Citation
 Book
 Okuda, M., & Okuda, D. (1993). Star trek
chronology: The history of the future. New York:
Pocket Books.
APA: Encylopedia Citation
 Encyclopedia Article
 Sturgeon, T. (1995). Science fiction. In The
encyclopedia Americana
(Vol. 24, pp. 390-392). Danbury, CT: Grolier.
APA: Newspaper Citation
 Newspaper Article
 Di Rado, A. (1995, March 15). Trekking through
college: Classes explore modern society using the
world of Star trek. Los Angeles Times, p. A3.
APA: Eric Citation
 ERIC Document
 Fuss-Reineck, M. (1993). Sibling communication in
Star trek: The next generation: Conflicts between
brothers. Miami, FL: Annual Meeting of the Speech
Communication Association. (ERIC Document
Reproduction Service No. ED 364932)
APA: Web Citation
 Website
 Lynch, T. (1996). DS9 trials and tribble-ations
review. Retrieved October 8, 1997, from Psi Phi:
Bradley's Science Fiction Club Web site:
http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep
/503r.html