Plagiarism: Recognizing and Avoiding Intellectual Dishonesty

Plagiarism: Recognizing and Avoiding Intellectual Dishonesty

Dr. Muttukrishna Sarvananthan Education, Society

What is plagiarism?

It is commonly believed or understood that plagiarism means word-for-word copying of texts from one source by another. Or, from one person by another WITH or WITHOUT attribution to the original source or author. However, we admit that plagiarism is a complex phenomenon and therefore very difficult to unambiguously define.^[1]

For example, a newspaper, or brochure may copy word-for-word (also known as (aka) 'verbatim') from another newspaper, or brochure and pass on the content as if it is their own with or without attribution to the original source. Similarly, an author may copy word-for-word (verbatim) from another author and pass on the content as if it is her/his own with or without attribution to the original author. The author could be a journalist, editor, novelist, academic, researcher, or other writers.

Copying word-for-word/verbatim without attribution to the original source or author is the most extreme form of plagiarism. Copying word-for-word/verbatim with attribution also constitutes plagiarism unless the copied text is written within single (for example, ‘abcd….’) or double (for example, “abcd…”) inverted commas. The single inverted commas and double inverted commas are also referred to as single quotation marks (for example, ‘abcd….’) or double quotation marks (for example, “abcd…”) respectively.

Plagiarism is not only word-for-word copying but also includes copying or stealing of ideas, facts, or figures from another source/s or author/s and rewritten or re-presented in one’s own words/figures. etc., having the same meaning/s but without attributing credit to the original source/author.

The distinction between plagiarism and paraphrasing

However, if a particular idea/fact/figure is rewritten with different words/terms, phrasing, and vocabulary, but has the same meaning/s and the original source or author is cited (attributed/referred) then it is called paraphrasing rather than plagiarism.

However, it has to be noted here that the distinction between plagiarism and paraphrasing is blurred. In academic writing (that is, at the tertiary educational level and beyond) it is better to minimize paraphrasing as much as practically possible.

Self-plagiarism

If a particular person copies word-for-word from her/his own previous writing or publication and re-writes and/or republishes in another without attribution to her/his own original publication, this would constitute self-plagiarism.[2] In other words, even if the author/s is the same person, a text/idea/fact/figure from one source cannot be copied verbatim without attribution to the original publication.

Types of plagiarism

Plagiarism is applicable not only to written and/or published material, but also applies to music (cords, beat, instrumentation, etc.), lyrics (the words of a song and vocal melody), drama/theatre, and artwork as well, inter alia.

What is a patent?

A patent is an exclusive legal right granted to the inventor of an invention of a new product or invention of a new process (a new technical solution to a problem, etc.) for a set period of time (usually running into several years) if such a patented item is registered with the national or international patent registration office/authority. ^[3]

The most common or popularly known patented goods are pharmaceutical drugs/medicines or new machinery. Every single pharmaceutical drug would have different combination/s and proportion/s of chemicals mixed to make them, which are protected by patent rights conferred to the inventor and/or the producer of each pharmaceutical drug.

What is a trademark?

A trademark is an exclusive legal right granted for a set period of time to a company or legal entity for a particular visual design, sign, symbol, and/or word/s.^[4] A company or organizational logo could become a trademark if such a logo is registered with the national and/or international trademark protection authorities.

Is plagiarism illegal?

Plagiarising unpublished written material is not illegal but it is unethical and a violation of academic or literary norms. However, plagiarising copyrighted written and/or published texts (from a copyrighted journal article, book, lyrics, or digital source) is illegal, and therefore a criminal offense.

Copyright means the assigning of exclusive legal rights to a particular text, or visual or vocal artistic work to the author of that text, or visual or vocal artistic work and/or the publisher of that text, or visual or vocal artistic work.^[5]

All copyrighted materials are governed by the Intellectual Property Rights law/s of each country and international treaties across countries. In Sri Lanka, the Intellectual Property Rights Act No.36 of 2003 governs copyrights, patents, and trademarks. ^[6]

Is plagiarism unethical?

Aside from the fact that certain plagiarisms (copyright violations), and ALL patent and trademark infringements/violations are illegal (as noted above), ALL plagiarisms (of copyrighted material or not) are unethical and immoral. Plagiarism is equivalent to stealing goods from another person (author/singer/artist, et al) or a shop (publisher/recording company/art gallery, etc.).

How to prevent plagiarism?

The efforts to prevent plagiarism should begin from early childhood at home and school. Children should be taught to read a passage and then summarise and rewrite it in their own words along with citation/referencing of the passage which they have summarised and rewritten. This ethical practice should be inculcated from early childhood. The ethical and moral behaviors of human beings are nurtured from early childhood.

In the same way that the mother tongue or any other language is grasped/learned better at an early stage of one’s life which endures long into adulthood and old age, the ethical and moral behaviors of human beings should be molded at the early stage of one’s life.

How to detect plagiarism?

There is now digital software to detect plagiarism in the English language such as the Turnitin Originality Check.^[7] Unfortunately, to the best of our knowledge, there is no software yet to detect plagiarism in vernacular languages such as Sinhala or Tamil languages. Therefore, plagiarism in Sinhala and Tamil could be detected only manually by comparing different written or published texts from different sources or by different authors, which is very difficult if not impossible.

The digital detection^[8] of plagiarism has become complicated very recently with the release of ChatGPT, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) tool, on November 30, 2022.^[9] For example, students might use ChatGPT, which is available free of charge, to write their assignments/essays. Early results reveal the remarkable accuracy of ChatGPT-generated assignments/essays.^[10]However, detecting AI-generated text has also become possible due to rapid technological advancements.^[11]

Penalty for plagiarism

The penalty for plagiarism varies according to the extent of the plagiarised text in a particular essay, written assignment, or book as well as tolerance/intolerance for such moral and ethical transgressions.

A hypothetical illustration of the core issues covered in this brief note in a nutshell

Consider the following passage/text (just 3 sentences) copied and pasted from the following online source; Clarivate Plc, (2023, February 09), Clarivate adds Preprint Citation Index to the Web of Science, Cision PR Newswire (Retrieved from https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/clarivate-adds-preprint-citation-index-to-the-web-of-science-301741758.html on February 23, 2023). Also, assume that the following passage is copyrighted material.

In academic publishing, a preprint is a version of a research paper or outcome publicly available in online repositories prior to peer review. Access to preprints in the Web of Science (database) makes it quicker and easier for researchers to include them in their existing research workflows. It enables immediate access to up-to-date, aggregated and searchable preprints from selected repositories linked to author profiles.

No	Examples of the reproduction of the above passage/text by someone else	Category of Plagiarism	Explanation
1	In academic publishing, a preprint is a version of a research paper or outcome publicly available in online repositories prior to peer review. Access to preprints in the Web of Science (database) makes it quicker and easier for researchers to include them in their existing research workflows. It enables immediate access to up-to-date, aggregated, and searchable preprints from selected repositories linked to author profiles.	This is verbatim word-for-word, or 100%) plagiarism. This is illegal because it is 100% copied from a copyrighted text. The penalty for this offence should be severest because it is an extreme case of plagiarism.	This text has been copied word-for-word from the above passage/text and has not been attributed to the source noted above. Since all three sentences are copied and unattributed it constitutes 100% plagiarism.
2	In academic publishing, a preprint is a version of a research paper or outcome publicly available in online repositories prior to peer review. The inclusion of preprints in the Web of Science database facilitates researchers to cite preprints easily and quickly. It also enables the linking of preprints from selected repositories to author profiles in the Web of Science database.	This is also plagiarism. But the degree of plagiarism is just 33%. This passage may not be illegal because only one out of three copyrighted sentences has been copied word-for-word. However, it is still plagiarism and unethical. The penalty for this offence could be modest.	Only one out of three sentences is copied word-for-word; hence the degree of plagiarism is just 33%. However, it is still plagiarism because the source has not been cited.
3	A preprint is a research paper that has not undergone peer review. The inclusion of preprints in the Web of Science database facilitates researchers to cite preprints easily and quickly. It also enables linking preprints from selected repositories to author profiles in the Web of Science database thereby boosting authors’ profiles.	This is again plagiarism. Although this may not be construed as an infringement of the copyright law (therefore, it may not be illegal), it is still unethical.	Although all three sentences noted above are rewritten with different phrases and vocabulary, the meaning of the above passage remains the same here and the original source has not been attributed.
4	A preprint is a research paper that has not undergone peer review. The inclusion of preprints in the Web of Science database facilitates researchers to cite preprints easily and quickly. It also enables linking preprints from selected repositories to author profiles in the Web of Science database thereby boosting the authors’ profiles. (Clarivate Plc, 2023)	This is NOT plagiarism. It is called paraphrasing.	Here, the phrasing and the vocabulary of all three sentences in the above passage have been changed, and credit is given to the original source of the text. Therefore, it is NOT plagiarism.
5	“In academic publishing, a preprint is a version of a research paper or outcome publicly available in online repositories prior to peer review. Access to preprints in the Web of Science (database) makes it quicker and easier for researchers to include them in their existing research workflows. It enables immediate access to up-to-date, aggregated and searchable preprints from selected repositories linked to author profiles.” (Clarivate Plc, 2023)	This is unambiguously NOT plagiarism. It is also NOT paraphrasing.	Although the text of the above passage has been copied word-for-word, since it has been reproduced within inverted commas (or quotation marks) and the original source has been attributed, it does not constitute plagiarism or even paraphrasing.