Plagiarism
======= Date Modified 22 Jun 2011 15:53:18 =======
Quote From beajay:
Plagiarism is rife. I taught MAs for two years and out of 16 students had two cases of plagiarism. The first was in a paper where I was second marker. The first marker had missed it completely, despite a clear change of tone. So I Googled the section that I suspected was plagiarism,and it was. The second was more serious, as it was the student whose dissertation I was supervising. She'd moved back to her home country, so I had to supervise by email. I'd already given her a plagiarism warning over the first bit of text she sent me. When she sent in her dissertation, every word was plagiarised from EIGHT different sources. I found the sources through Google, told the HOD, and we put it though Turnitin. She had to be failed, and I felt a bit sorry for her, but what can you do? I think that being able to spot plagiarism is a talent not many academics have. Moreover, I've just been proof-reading a PhD, and I'm certain he didn't write it. It has Made In India stamped all over it, if you like! So buying material is also endemic, even at PhD level (we've all seen young Gadaffi's PhD!).
I really do hate it. I checked out another piece on a charity website, knew it was plagiarised, checked it back to the original source, and saw that it had been stolen EIGHT times, and in one case a student had been awarded an MSc for it!
Plagiarism is rife. I taught MAs for two years and out of 16 students had two cases of plagiarism. The first was in a paper where I was second marker. The first marker had missed it completely, despite a clear change of tone. So I Googled the section that I suspected was plagiarism,and it was. The second was more serious, as it was the student whose dissertation I was supervising. She'd moved back to her home country, so I had to supervise by email. I'd already given her a plagiarism warning over the first bit of text she sent me. When she sent in her dissertation, every word was plagiarised from EIGHT different sources. I found the sources through Google, told the HOD, and we put it though Turnitin. She had to be failed, and I felt a bit sorry for her, but what can you do? I think that being able to spot plagiarism is a talent not many academics have. Moreover, I've just been proof-reading a PhD, and I'm certain he didn't write it. It has Made In India stamped all over it, if you like! So buying material is also endemic, even at PhD level (we've all seen young Gadaffi's PhD!).
I really do hate it. I checked out another piece on a charity website, knew it was plagiarised, checked it back to the original source, and saw that it had been stolen EIGHT times, and in one case a student had been awarded an MSc for it!
I note young Gadaffi's thesis is not listed in Ethos. :p
His older brother is there though (circa 1990).
Here's a problem with the plagerism debate. What if you have a number of sequential projects in an area where literature is limited?
The resulting theses would have very similar literature reviews and may even fail the software test despite the best efforts of the authors to be 'different'.
I had that problem due to myself being the third and last person in a 10 year project. I made every effort to expand upon the work of the previous two lads (one of whom is a very good friend of mine) and to write my own literature review. Despite that, a number of the same figures from literature have had to be used and similar discussions of that literature. I managed to pull away from my predecessors as I spotted some big gaps in theirs' and also, a few good pieces of new literature came along. I also suggested a different presentation for a piece of literature from the lady who eventually became my external examiner. Even so, to ensure sufficient original input, my literature review ended up being the same in length as theirs' combined.
That said, the software mentioned would probably flag a problem. I'm actually curious to see if it would. :-)
======= Date Modified 22 Jun 2011 23:04:11 =======
Quote From beajay:
No, I don't think so! Nothing wrong in paraphrasing, and you have to do it to some extent in a Lit Review. I adapted to graphics in my own LR. But I'm talking about word for word theft.:-s
No, I don't think so! Nothing wrong in paraphrasing, and you have to do it to some extent in a Lit Review. I adapted to graphics in my own LR. But I'm talking about word for word theft.:-s
That is outright theft and should lead to serious porridge being served (jailtime to those outside the UK).
I'm simply pointing out that unintentional simarality can occur.
Some former colleagues and I had problems with M.Sc. students we were expected to supervise during post-doc blatently copying sections of their dissertations off the Internet. A colleague found a reference to the author relaxing by the shores of Lake Placid in the text. I doubt the Indian lad concerned had ever been to the USA.
A number of regulars in amongst those students (again Indians) were those most likely to cause problems (they thought it was a great idea also to work fulltime in the local call centres whilst trying to do a fulltime M.Sc.). In contrast, two Nigerian lads showed everyone exactly how to do an M.Sc project. Two star pupils who did everything correctly and were clear PhD quality.
Who applied to do the PhDs? The Indians with the appauling English and propensity to copy. Some of the problem ones suceeded in their applications too. :-s:-s:-s
EDIT: Looking at the recent PhD / MPhil pass list to my old place (they should be through by now), none of them are listed so perhaps they were politely persuaded to move on.
