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Plagiarism
The AUB Student
Handbook describes plagiarism as follows:
“Plagiarism exists when students claim as
their own the work of others. Students who fail to credit
properly ideas
or materials taken from another,
commit plagiarism. Putting your name on a piece of work –
any part of which is not yours – constitutes
plagiarism, unless that piece is clearly marked and the work
from which you have borrowed is fully identified.
Plagiarism is a violation of the University’s academic
regulations and is subject to disciplinary action.”
The WWW/Internet has added a new dimension to the topic of
plagiarism. By its nature of free, unlimited and unchecked access, it fosters
anonymity, which some experts feel may lead to a lack of responsibility. This is
particularly true on
college campuses when the issue of plagiarism pops up at the
time students are researching and writing term papers.
The WWW/Internet is used extensively either through the Copy-Paste process or through the purchase of
ready-made term papers on commercial sites.
Academic Computing Center
The Academic Computing Center (ACC) at AUB includes detailed
information on the subject of plagiarism for students and for faculty.
It has many resources that can be consulted for questions about the
subject. Most issues mentioned deal with Electronic Plagiarism. Site to
consult:
http://staff.aub.edu.lb/~eplagio/
Following is a description of Electronic Plagiarism
taken from the site of the ACC
To plagiarize,
according to Longman's Language Activator, is "to copy words,
ideas, etc. from a book, article etc. written by someone else, and use
them in your own work, pretending that you thought of them" (p. 272).
Plagiarism is very much older
than the Internet. However, the ease of accessing all types of material
over the Internet has revived in educational institutions the concern of
students presenting plagiarized work in their courses. Before
the Internet, students would plagiarize by manually copying from books
or scholarly journals in the library. Since the mid-1990s texts can be
transferred directly from Internet sources into a student's paper.
Clearly, the Internet has made it easier for students to plagiarize, but
it has also made it easier for instructors to identify plagiarism cases.
As a teacher from
Virginia pointed out,
"Teachers are seeing more plagiarism partly because there is more, but
partly because we can find it now" (Goot,
2002).
Online resources about
electronic plagiarism:
http://staff.aub.edu.lb/~eplagio/About_plag.htm
Suggestions on how to avoid
plagiarism:
- Require a writing sample at the beginning of the course
- Limit sources to a manageable number
- Limit references to those in the Libraries
- Require use of the Library Resources only
- Make students use class periods to write
- Require annotated bibliographies
- Require photocopies of the sources
- Request that students write a summary of the paper in a
final exam
- Request more personal writing instead of commonly used
topics
Turnitin at AUB:
http://staff.aub.edu.lb/~eplagio/Turnitin/turnitin_home.htm
 Turnitin
is an Internet-based service intended to help identify and prevent
plagiarism cases.
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Prepared by the Information Services Department/ University
Libraries e-mail:
libinfo@aub.edu.lb
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