product of another person's mind, and presenting it as one's ownâ (3). .... Common knowledge i.e. facts and figures which are found in various places and known.
Plagiarism: A Curse for Career in Research The Oxford English Dictionary defines Plagiarism as “ to take and use as one’s own the thoughts, writings, or inventions of another” (1). The word plagiarism comes from Latin word “ Plagiarius”, means an abductor, and “ Plagiare” means to steal (2). Alexander Lindey defines it as “ the false assumption of authorship: the wrongful act of taking the product of another person’s mind, and presenting it as one’s own” (3). Various Institutions have defined plagiarism in their own ways in different forms. The UNC Honor Court defines plagiarism as “ the deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words, thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work, whether graded or otherwise” (4) for the purpose of literature. For simplicity, it is academic dishonesty, uses others’ ideas, opinion, thoughts, theory and words without acknowledging the source of it. Different languages have different word for plagiarism. It is called “YASREQ” in Arabic. Plagiarism has long history in academia and is commonly experienced by educators in the United States (5,6,7). Similar trend have been found in other western countries also (8). Ease of availability and accessibility of text on internet and webs and shortest route to get through a course have lured students to cut and paste the electronic work of others (9), which happens to get high grade degree to improve career prospects (10). Plagiarism is on rise in the field of research too. It prevail distrust and mistrust of environment to researchers as well as affects the reputation of the researchers’ organizations. Ren Yuing, a member of Councillors’ Office of the State Council described in Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference that out of 180 PhD degree holders paid academic journals to publish their work and same number of PhD holders copied others’ work in their theses. Plagiarism affects the growth of the student, violates sense of integrity, and creates mistrust in the eyes of teachers and ultimately destructs reputation of the institution. Regarding punishment for the act of plagiarism, students get disciplinary actions in the form of “Fail” grade in the course or debarred from the institutions. Lots of students are expelled from their institutions and lots of researchers have lost their jobs from this endemic disease- plagiarism, fake research plague academia (11). It has destroyed researchers’ career all over the world. It is a curse to the academic world and offence against the literary rights. Most seriously, it inculcates the habit of bad research in students. It may happen to inexperienced researchers who suffer from second language to express with inadequate writing ability, strive for quick rise in career, having no knowledge to put research in proper format, and not knowing the side affects of plagiarism. Plagiarism sneaks into manuscript in the form of paraphrasing, summarizing, and quoting when not properly acknowledged by the source. Paraphrasing stands for rewording the paragraph with more or less same length without using original words used for clarifying
the meaning of the paragraph and summarizing stands for shortening the text portion in summary form to clear the main ideas of the text whereas quoting stands for copying exact sentences and words of a author’s text. Bulletin of Information & Regulation of Duke University described plagiarism in more details that can occur in the following forms: 1- Copy, quote, paraphrase or summarize any source without citing; 2- Purchasing a pre-written paper by mail or electronically; 3Getting written paper from someone; 4- Paying someone else to write a paper; and 5Submitting someone’s else unpublished work as own with or without permission (12). How to Prepare a Text into Paraphrasing, Summary and Quote to avoid Plagiarism? Here is example of text from page 1 of Singh et al.’s article published in Statistics in Transition – New Series in April, 2007, titled “Prediction of Child Survival in India using developed Cox PH model: A utility for Health Policy Programmers” (13) to know, how to put in manuscript so that one can avoid plagiarism. Original Text: “The validation index Shrinkage coefficient was 97 percent, indicating only 3 percent lack of fit in the model, and Somer’s D rank correlation (Dxy) was –0.65, indicating good correlation between the log hazard and the observed survival time. Best improvement in child survival was found by 7% in first month, 9% in three months and 11% in twelve months when the variables such as breastfeeding, immunization and the mothers received antenatal care during pregnancy used altogether. The above findings may be useful for those who are involved in health policy programs for improving child survival and for better health management”. Paraphrasing of Above-mentioned Text: Shrinkage coefficient indicated only 3% lack of fit and Somer’s D rank correlation (r=-0.65) indicated good correlation between log hazard and the observed survival time. While adjusting variables like breast-feeding, immunization and antenatal care during pregnancy in the model, improvement in child survival was found 7%, 9% and 11% in first month, three months and twelve months respectively. The model was found suitable for policy planners and for improving child survival in India (Singh et al., 2007).
Meaning of the original text should not be changed while paraphrasing. It is acceptable paraphrasing because: Accurately information are conveyed from the original text. Source of information is cited in paraphrase i.e. (Singh et al, 2007 or 13). Summary of Original Text:
Model developed on child survival in India was found suitable for policy planners as well as for improvement in child survival (13). It is a proper form of Summary, as it gives gist of the text and also cited. Below, again the same text has been used for quotation and paraphrasing for better understanding: “The validation index Shrinkage coefficient was 97 percent, indicating only 3 percent lack of fit in the model, and Somer’s D rank correlation (Dxy) was –0.65, indicating good correlation between the log hazard and the observed survival time”. While adjusting variables, breast-feeding, immunization and antenatal care during pregnancy in the model, improvement in child survival was found 7%, 9% and 11% in first month, three months and twelve months respectively (13). This is also acceptable form of quotation and paraphrase as it gives information in the original text accurately, gives credit to the text in the form of citation and indicates which part of the text taken directly from the text. If manuscript is not followed accordingly for paraphrasing, summary and quotations, author plagiarizes the manuscript. It should be noted that copy and paste of any text even if cited comes under the umbrella of plagiarism. In nutshell, if you are still confused about plagiarism in your written text, find out: Have you taken data from any source? Have you taken any sentence or word (not common), paraphrase, summary from any source? Have you copied concepts, charts, drawings, and graphs from any source? Have you copied laboratory and Instruments procedures? If answer comes “Yes” for any above-mentioned question or any sentence, word, paraphrase etc tend to response “ By Whom”, cite it and be safe. Lastly, it would be better to say that any work related to text, paraphrase, summary etc. that is not yours own, is applicable for citation. Available Methods to Diagnose Plagiarism: Various software and web sites like Turnitin, MOSS, GPSP, KOPI, TeAchnology; etc. and webs like www.preventplagiarism, www.nlearning.co.uk, http://breo.beds.ac.uk/ etc. are available to detect, advice and teach academic world about plagiarism but it is difficult to be 100% sure to rule out plagiarism through available means. Summary: Common knowledge i.e. facts and figures which are found in various places and known to lots of people are not need to cite. For example: Panadol, a GlaxoSmithKline brand name of the pharmaceutical paracetamol is very common and known to reduce pain and fever; however, information, facts, theory, and knowledge, which are generally not known, in the form of paraphrase, summary or quoting from any source should be referenced in the text to avoid plagiarism. According to Writing Tutorial Services of Indiana University, one should acknowledge whenever finds another person’s ideas,
opinion or theory, facts, statistics, graphs, drawings or any pieces of information that are not of common knowledge (14). Joseph Gibaldi and Walter S. also suggested always cite your sources if you are not sure about the plagiarism to avoid consequences of it (15). Conclusion: Self-test is best to identify and avoid plagiarism in research, whereas awareness and education is remedy to prevent such heinous disease, as prevention is better than cure for any endemic disease. References: 1. 2.
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www.oed.com Oxford English Dictionary, 1987. http://books.guardian.co.uk/comments/story/0,16488,1648818,00.html. Stephen Moss. A history of plagiarism, The Guardian, News Paper, UK, , 23rd November, 2005. Alexander Lindey. Handbook for Plagiarism and Originality, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1952. http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/plagiarism.html. The UNC Honor Court. Instrument of Student judicial Governance, Section II.B.1, The Writer Center, University of North arolina at Chapel Hill. Walker J. Student plagiarism in universities: What are we doing about it? Higher Education Research and Development. 1998; 17(1): 89-106. Cizek, C.J. Cheating on tests: How to do it, detect it and prevent it. Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999. Lathrop, A and Foss, K. Student cheating and plagiarism in the internet era: a wake –up call. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 1999. Sandy Darab. A Preventive approach to Plagiarism: An empirical study of first – year unit for under graduates. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 2006, Vol. (2): 3-15. Morgan, C., Dunn, L., Parry, S., & O’Reilly, M. The student Assessment Handbook. London: Routledge Falmer. 2004. Lindberg M. Is it worth being ‘traditional’ in an era of mass individualization? Higher Education in Europe. 2005; 30(3-4): 385-398. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-03/15/content_536719.htm. Zhu Zhe. Plagiarism, fake research plague academia, CHINA DAILY, 2006 dated 0315-2006. http://library.duke.edu/research/plagiarism.Citing Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism. Duke University, Bulletin of Information & Regulations 2005-2006. Rajvir Singh, Shahina Begum, R.K. Ahuja, et al. Prediction of Child Survival in India using developed Cox PH model: A utility for Health Policy Programmers. Statistics in transition – New series, 2007; Vol. (8), No.1: 97-110. http://www.omdoama.edu/~istd/example.html. Indiana University, Writing Tutorial Services, Ballantine Hall 206, 1020 E. Kirkwood Ave. Bloomington, IN 47405. 2004.
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Joseph Gibaldi and Walter S. Achtert. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 3rd ed. New York: The Modern Language Association of America, 1988: 21-25.
