AUB - ACC - Electronic Plagiarism

		Electronic Plagiarism > Faculty Resources > About Electronic Plagiarism Online Resources for Faculty About Electronic Plagiarism

		To combat plagiarism effectively in an academic environment faculty members need, first and foremost, to become familiar with plagiarism causes and sources, and to teach their students about ethics, intellectual property, plagiarism, and adequate ways of citing research sources. Learning about Electronic Plagiarism Teaching about Electronic Plagiarism Selected External Resources

		Learning about Electronic Plagiarism

		Why do students plagiarize?

		The reasons why students plagiarize are various and include: Failure to understand the role of academic assignments in preparing them for their future professional lives; Indifference to the specific course or the specific topic assigned; Ignorance of what plagiarism is and how to acknowledge and cite other people's work properly; Belief that if they commit plagiarism thinking they will not be caught and that if they are caught the consequences will not be serious. Back to top

		How do students use electronic research sources for plagiarism?

		Electronic research sources are more easily plagiarized than the traditional hard copied material. Instead of writing down the original source, students can simply copy-and-paste the original material into their own papers, or put their names on whole papers downloaded from the WWW. Students plagiarize from electronic sources in various ways, including: Putting together pieces of text from various works and presenting the result as their own work; Writing most or part of the paper but inserting pieces of other people's work without proper citation; Paraphrasing original sources in inappropriate ways--either acknowledging the source or not; Slightly modifying an existing paper or re-using it as is; Downloading ready-made papers from paper mills. Back to top

		What are the currently available sources of electronic plagiarism, and what do they offer?

		In addition to research material in CD-ROMs (e.g., encyclopedias) and other electronic formats, students can currently count on a variety of sources for research accessible through the Internet. There are billions of Web pages on any imaginable topic currently available on Web sites all over the world. A quick Internet search on a specific topic brings to students hundreds or thousands of material related to the topic. Thus, it is easy to understand why the Internet in general, and the Web in particular, is the students' favorite source of research as well as plagiarism. For more information on these sources go to Sources of Electronic Plagiarism, in this web site. Back to top
		How can instructors identify plagiarized work and what can they do to deter plagiarism cases among students?

		The page Identifying Plagiarism discusses tips to identify plagiarism in course assignments, and the page Preventing Plagiarism offers suggestions and strategies to discourage students from plagiarizing. Back to top
		Teaching about Electronic Plagiarism

		In addition to becoming familiar with current issues on plagiarism, instructors should discuss thoroughly with their students what constitutes plagiarism, intellectual property, common knowledge, and copyright law. Instructors should also teach students how to use and cite research sources and provide them with practical exercises and examples of correct and incorrect ways of citing resources. Educating students on plagiarism and proper citation is one of the strategies discussed in the page Preventing Plagiarism in this site. The page Resources for Students has tutorials and tests on how to cite resources properly. Back to top

		Selected External Resources

		Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA statement on Best Practices (2003). Excellent resource. This paper discusses causes of plagiarism and shared responsibilities of students, faculty, and administration in combating plagiarism and offers suggestions for effective college writing. http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf It was prepared by the Council of Writing Program Administrators (WPA), "a national association of college and university faculty with professional responsibilities for (or interest in) directing writing programs." http://www.wpacouncil.org Academic Integrity Council, Duke University. This site has Honor Codes and information on how Duke's faculty members should resolve cases of alleged academic dishonesty http://www.integrity.duke.edu/faculty/index.html Plagiarism and How to Avoid it, by David Gardner, University of Hong Kong. This site has techniques for avoiding plagiarism, examples on how to express your opinions, and a useful self-test for you to check what you learned. http://ec.hku.hk/plagiarism/introduction.htm Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers (2002), by Robert Harris. This thorough paper discusses why students cheat and how to educate yourself and your students about plagiarism (see Strategies of Awareness). Another great resource. http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm Plagiarism and the Challenge of Essay Writing: Learning from our Students (1995), by J. Newton, York University. "Rather than thinking of these students as simply dishonest and deserving of punishment, we need to try to understand what leads students to do this and how we can help transform them into competent and confident essay writers who do not need to resort to such ruses to succeed in University." http://www.elon.edu/sullivan/cheatpap.htm What is Plagiarism? From Georgetown University, with excellent information for instructors and students. Includes explanations and examples of various types of plagiarism as well as an Q&A on common student's questions (e.g., "What if my roommate helped me?" "They said it so much better. Shouldn't I use their words?") http://www.georgetown.edu/honor/plagiarism.html Academic Integrity at Princeton. Excellent site with information on plagiarism, common knowledge, citation of sources, and collaboration, among other topics. http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/index.html Back to top
		Identifying Plagiarism \| Preventing Plagiarism \| Sources of Plagiarism

		For suggestions on new material, corrections, or comments about this site click on Feedback in the navigation bar (right top and bottom of all pages).