As a member of an academic community, you are expected to adhere to their ethical practices. It is partly this tradition of acknowledging sources in the form of quotations or footnotes “in the text” that distinguishes academic writing from other forms of knowledge: it is part of the strength of academic research. Sometimes this leads to blatant copies of other people`s work, for the sole purpose of obtaining effective publications or completing a thesis (for example, Pal Schmidt, the former Hungarian president, even copied factual errors in his doctoral thesis). This pressure can lead to neglect if the relevant works are not always cited correctly or completely neglected. It also discusses the practice of progressive publication when results are reported in subsequent events and reviews. While this is not unethical per se, the tendency to (over)publish even the smallest results obviously leads to large overlaps between incremental articles that could fall into the category of self-plagiarism. Since these additional articles are usually submitted to lower-ranking journals and conferences where the peer review process is less rigorous, they are less likely to be taken and prevented from (re)publishing. Even famous songwriters and writers have been arrested and punished for plagiarism, much to their displeasure. George Harrison paid over half a million dollars to correct his mistake when he didn`t notice that “My Sweet Lord” sounded a lot like “He`s So Fine” from The Chiffons. New York author Jonah Hill lost his career by plagiarizing and falsifying a series of quotes from Bob Dylan himself, which Dylan himself refuted. Why is plagiarism an ethical violation? It is considered unethical because plagiarism means taking someone`s work without mentioning it.
There is no clear checklist for detecting plagiarism, but the right indicators are: lawyers may, for example, use similar wording in legal briefs – perhaps even the exact wording – but this may be more generally acceptable; it is, says Rettinger, a common language in his profession. But what about scientists or researchers who borrow wildly from another article based on a study originally researched? Or this example of journalism: a large news site, say, that repeats parts of a story reported and written by another website. If it is a 1,000-word article created by Site A and Site B uses 800 words word for word, is that acceptable, even if Site B mentions Site A? Is it plagiarism? Can we agree that it is at least quite lame? It is important to know what plagiarism is and what form it takes (some common types of plagiarism are listed here). It is also important to know how plagiarism occurs. The final step is to develop effective academic skills. Many students who plagiarize do so unintentionally, often because they lack the academic skills to avoid relying too much on the work of others, or because they are unsure of what plagiarism is. Therefore, it is important to take every opportunity to develop your academic skills. On the other hand, a use may be copyright infringement, but not plagiarism.
For example, unauthorized copying may constitute copyright infringement if it does not fall under a copyright exception, but if the source is indicated and the user does not claim the work as their own, it is unlikely that this is also plagiarism. Plagiarism can take many forms, including intentional fraud or accidentally copying a source without confirmation. Why is plagiarism an ethical violation, although in most cases it is not illegal? [5] IEEE Publications, Identifying Plagiarism(2012) [online]. Available: www.ieee.org/publications/rights/plagiarism/id-plagiarism.html However, even in the corridors of higher education, it is difficult to determine the extent of the problem. Schools often hire commercial companies like Turnitin to use their software to detect plagiarism. (Turnitin recognizes 10 types of plagiarism in its plagiarism spectrum.) Imagine if this student had been published. What if others cited his work? The work of everyone at all levels would have been ruined by the original plagiarism. From an ethical point of view, self-plagiarism is often encountered in the process of “evolutionary publishing”. This is an accepted (though sometimes controversial) publishing practice, where initial results are submitted to a workshop and then developed into a full conference paper that can become a journal article or book chapter. This approach of relying on previous publications is clearly a source of possible cases of unethical self-plagiarism.
The word plagiarism has its roots in the Latin plagiarius. According to the online dictionary of etymology, the word means “kidnapper, seducer, plunderer, one who kidnaps someone else`s child or slave… ” and was used by the Roman poet Martial to describe another poet who had plundered his works. The ethics of plagiarism is only the ethics of theft But even in an academic environment where you don`t break the law, ethical violations are still taken very seriously. They could be expelled from a particular department, lose a scholarship, pay fines, be expelled from the entire college or university, be forced to apologize publicly, and more. Since none of the consequences of plagiarism are pleasant, it makes sense to take extra steps to avoid being identified as a plagiarist. It is certainly better to avoid higher education sanctions, adhere to the policy of plagiarism, and completely avoid academic dishonesty and research misconduct. All these questions cannot only be evaluated as completely right or completely wrong, so our relationship with them is the only correct answer for us personally. We always use the word “ethical” when we want to describe something that is right, done or done according to rules and contains moral values.
Why, then, should we also apply plagiarism to ethical issues? Let`s clarify what plagiarism is. There are several activities related to the term: substantial copying and pasting, intentionally paraphrasing, using one`s own ideas by presenting them as one`s own, avoiding attribution, etc. All these actions are immoral and can be considered a violation of widely accepted ethical rules, hence plagiarism is one of the most important ethical issues today. At the same time, there are such cases that cannot be called unethical. Just think of self-plagiarism or accidental problems: these problems can hardly be called intentional, so plagiarism remains a rather controversial term. Many people think that plagiarism must be intentional, and that`s just not true. You can consider direct and deliberate plagiarism to be first-degree murder in the world of plagiarism. However, manslaughter is still punishable by considerable penalties. The equivalent in science or career will always be serious to you, even if it was involuntary. Plagiarism can ruin students` reputations.
Students can be suspended or expelled if they are accused of plagiarism. This may result in a ban on entering the college or institute, as well as the student`s academic records reflecting the moral offense. If Merriam-Webster is your definition of definitions, then plagiarism is in its verbal forms: in essence, plagiarism is both theft and fraud. This is considered theft because the author takes ideas from a source without mentioning the author. Defamation is considered because the author presents the ideas as his own. [2] R. A. Volz, “The Plagiarism Scoop,” Robot. Car. Mag., vol. 14, no. 3, pp.
4-5, 2007. Our study identified three serious ethical violations, including lack of informed consent, coercion, and lack of return. The peer review process is the first line of defense against plagiarism and therefore it is important to raise awareness among students and professionals in academia and industry. Reviewers may encounter cases of plagiarism when reading manuscripts, reports or suggestions, so it is important that they know how to recognize and deal with such cases. In the broadest sense of the definition, plagiarism is copying someone else`s work.
