Plagiarism
Plagiarism, by far, is the most common type of academic integrity violation. Technically, plagiarism is an “intentional theft of intellectual property,” and is subject to sanctions. The frequency of its occurrence (about 70% of all reported cases of violations) may indicate lack of understanding of the nature of the offense, as well as, lack of the element of “intent.” Plagiarism can often occur due to reasons, some of which are presented below (also see Handbook on Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism).
- Believing that if the information is available in public domain (e.g., the Internet), there are no prohibitions regarding
its use without acknowledgment - Lacking knowledge about the need to credit the sources of information
- Lacking knowledge about proper methods of citation and referencing
- Thinking copying the work of others is not an act of plagiarism
- Wanting to get good grades (e.g., honor students or students with high GPAs are more likely to plagiarize than other students)
- Believing that the act is “socially acceptable,” since others are doing the same”
- Feeling that it will not be detected
The necessary condition to minimize plagiarism is accepting the truth about three fundamental facts of:
- Having the responsibility and moral obligation to tell the reader or the instructors that the work submitted is not original
- Concealing the sources of work is “lying” and in virtually all value systems “lying” is wrong and unacceptable
- Submitting work of others as one’s own is “stealing” – stealing of “intellectual property”
