Not in their own words

David Swain

A professor on a student's paper wrote: "This is superior work. It was excellent when Sir Thomas Aquinas wrote it just as it is today. Sir Thomas gets an A. You get an F."

So reads the introduction to Plagiarism, Cheating and Academic Dishonesty - Have You Been There? by Matthew Fawkner and Greta Keremidchieva in the international journal, Information and Security.

Actually, they took the introductory quote from another paper and, naturally, given their subject matter, carefully referenced it.

It's a risky business "borrowing" the forms of expression of others who've gone before. Study existing works, selectively borrow and reference is ok: study, borrow and present as your own is plagiarism.

It's a distinction that trips up millions worldwide every year. Student researchers are obvious perpetrators but their professors can be just as guilty, journalists too, and the manager who takes credit for a subordinate's effort. Few are immune.

The internet and the handy copy-and-paste tool have raised the stakes on both sides of the offence. It is now easy for plagiarists to bulk download works or - with "paper mills" like cheater.com or essaysonfile.com - students can get pre-written essays with the swipe of a credit card. And clever search and identify computer software and websites like popular TurnItIn.com have delivered detection at the touch of a key.

But plagiarism is a tricky as well as risky business. Spotting the difference between bumbling ineptitude in the footnotes department and deliberate rip-off is a major concern for academic institutions. Some go to enormous lengths to educate all - and especially new - students in the pitfalls of sloppy referencing and its close cousin, intentional pilfering.

Academic calendars, student resource kits, tutorials and pop-ups on computer terminals seek to educate and explain that plagiarism is a two-edged, quality assurance sword.

If institutions are soft on plagiarism their degrees are just as soft, their reputation tattered. Any self-respecting student does not want a degree from a slipshod university.

And any fee-paying students worth their salt would not want their graduation certificate - and any career that it underpins - to be their personally orchestrated tissue of lies.

But caught between a desire for bums on lecture theatre seats and academic standing, some institutions play fast and loose with their reputations.

A prime example occurred at Australia's University of Newcastle last year. After a critical report on a year-long plagiarism scandal, the university's chancellor and vice-chancellor resigned.

The report by the independent St James Ethics Centre alleged 16 students at an associated institution copied material from the internet; a senior academic failed to credit one of his honours students when applying for a research grant; an honours student plagiarised two fellow students; and a professor plagiarised her own Masters degree and the work of others in a PhD.

The university acknowledged that it lacked an ethical foundation for its plagiarism policies, that the policies it did have had not been applied consistently and that around 35 new initiatives were needed for developing consistent guidelines across the university.

Against this background, Waikato University associate professor David Swain, who has played a lead disciplinary role for 13 years at his university, is pleased that reported incidents of alleged plagiarism are going up, not down, at Waikato.

In 2003, the university had 137 disciplinary complaints, most of them plagiarism. In 2004 there were more than 450.

The trend reflected better detection and a growing propensity for academic staff to deal with suspected plagiarism, not that more students were cheating, Swain reported to the university academic board.

When he hears that institutions here and overseas report plagiarism complaints in tens rather than hundreds Swain is confident Waikato is simply tackling the issue in a more comprehensive way and, he adds with pride, "without the prompt of a scandal or expose".

International literature suggesting that many universities have yet to tackle the problem supports the view. So does Swain's own report which shows that the two schools working hardest to tackle plagiarism - Waikato Management School (WMS) and the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS) - have the highest plagiarism counts. In 2003, WMS and FASS each had 29 complaints, compared to five in the law school, four in computing and mathematics, and one in science and technology.

There could be other factors for the low rates - like there being less scope for plagiarism in some schools - but experience makes Swain doubtful.

Whatever the reason for the dearth of cases in these schools, he doubts it could explain why in 2003 there was only one plagiarism case in the School of Education and none in the School of Maori and Pacific Development.

It is more likely that if you seek you shall find, he says.

International students, especially Chinese, figure highly in Waikato plagiarism statistics and Swain says it's possible their distribution across schools has affected the incidence of plagiarism.

Chinese and other Asians made up 75 per cent of all plagiarism complaints in 2003, Pakeha 24 per cent, Pacific Islanders 6.4 per cent and Maori 3.3 per cent.

Swain thinks many factors contribute to the high Chinese showing, including previous education standards at other tertiary and secondary schools, a lack of familiarity with English leading to heavy use of others' material, and the possibility international students are concentrated in schools more open to plagiarism.

He wonders, too, whether some international students who work in groups might opt for the best rendering in English of the group's work. Swain says such factors are not acceptable explanations for plagiarism but they do "illustrate the broad approach which may be necessary to understand the nature and patterns of [it]".

He's found that plagiarism peaks in students' first and third years, suggesting new students don't take referencing requirements seriously, and third year students deliberately cheat to maximise grades.

And though Swain agrees online resources are changing the nature of plagiarism for students, at the same time they make it easier for university staff to build evidence for disciplinary hearings.

The electronic revolution has brought other benefits. Referencing software such as EndNote and PowerResearcher is making it easier for students to give credit where it's due, he says.

Waikato's discipline policy hinges on the four Ds - detect, discipline, deter and deny - with consequences ranging from warnings to mark downgrades and denied degrees.

Swain finds it distressing that some institutions dispute plagiarism occurs.

"We're willing to stand by what we do," he says.

"It's my belief that we can turn around the plagiarism/academic dishonesty situation."

This year, Swain's commitment to dealing with plagiarism is set to move up a notch.

He intends using a study leave to establish links with researchers on the subject worldwide and contributing his own experience to the growing body of literature.

To avoid plagiarism, you must give credit whenever you use:

* Another person's idea, opinion or theory
* Any facts, statistics, graphs, drawings - any pieces of information - that are not common knowledge
* Quotations of another person's actual spoken or written words
* Paraphrase of another person's spoken or written words

Source: Information & Security