PLAGIARISM

Dr. Abubakir Majeed

Lecturer of Community Medicine

Hawler Medical University

abubakir.majeed@hmu.edu.iq

Lecture outline

• What is plagiarism?• Types of plagiarism• Why does plagiarism occur?• Why does plagiarism matter?• How to detect plagiarism?• What are the consequences of plagiarism?• How to avoid plagiarism?

What is plagiarism

(Thesis, papers, photographs,

songs, even ideas!)

plagiare : to kidnap

plagiarius: abductor (kidnapper)

• Plagiarism is the act of stealing someone else's work and attempting to pass it off as your own.

Stealing ideas

What is Plagiarism?

Academic Definition:

the appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results, or words without giving

appropriate credit

The Definition“The appropriation of another person’s ideas, processes, results,

or words without giving appropriate credit”

• Appropriation:

Using or taking something that is not yours

• Ideas (concept), processes (methods), results, or words

(phrases):

Another person’s intellectual property

• Giving appropriate credit:

Providing reference (the name of the original author, sufficient

publication data, using quotation symbols to indicate direct quotes

1. Complete Plagiarism

2. Verbatim Plagiarism

3. Summarizing or Paraphrasing

4. Self-plagiarism

5. Invalid Source

6. Misleading Attribution

Types of plagiarism

1. Complete Plagiarism

(Intellectual theft, Stealing)

• A researcher takes a study, a manuscript or other work

from another researcher and simply resubmits it under

his/her own name

E.g.

• Copying the work of another researcher, with or without his

consent.

• Buying or commissioning a thesis or other piece of work

and presenting it as your own.

Types of plagiarism

Types of plagiarism

2. Verbatim Plagiarism (Copy-and-paste)

• Quoting another’s work ‘word for word’ without

placing the phrases in quotation marks (“…”) and

providing a clear citation and reference.

• E.g. A researcher copies and pastes a block of text

from someone else’s work into a paper without

providing proper citation, including quotation marks.

3. Summarizing or Paraphrasing • Is putting the source’s ideas in your own words;

restating the ideas in your own way.

• Summarizing or paraphrasing the work or ideas of

another without citing and referencing the original

source is a type of plagiarism.

• E.g. A researcher incorporates ideas or data from

another researcher’s study, but rewrites the information

in his/her words without providing proper citation.

Types of plagiarism

Types of plagiarism

4. Self-plagiarism

• Submitting, in whole or in part, your own work

which has previously been submitted elsewhere,

without citing and referencing the earlier work.

• E.g. A researcher inserts sections of text from an

earlier published manuscript (e.g. Methods section)

in a new manuscript, without citing the earlier work.

Types of plagiarism

5. Invalid Source• When researchers reference either an

incorrect or nonexistent source.

Types of plagiarism

6. Misleading Attribution

(Inaccurate authorship)• An inaccurate or insufficient list of authors who contributed to a

manuscript.

E.g. • When authors are denied credit for partial or significant

contributions made to a study• When authors are cited in a paper although no contributions were

made. • Collaborating with another researcher and then presenting the

resulting work as one’s own

Why does plagiarism occur?

Intentional (Fraud)• Borrowing, purchasing, or obtaining work composed by

someone else and submitted under another's name.

Unintentional (Often results from students' inexperience)• Simply not understanding what plagiarism is.• Not citing or referencing properly within your work. • Pressure from deadlines and poor time-management leading to

a ‘cut and paste’ approach• Disorganized research and note-taking leading to confusion

between your own thoughts and ideas taken from other sources.• Lack of confidence in putting things into your own words (poor

paraphrasing).

Why does plagiarism matter to you?

• Very common (30% of students’ papers)

• As researcher, you need to know it to avoid it in your future research work

• As lecturer, you need to know it to detect it in:– Students’ projects/thesis (supervisor/examiner)

– Research papers (reviewer of journals/scientific promotion)

Detecting Plagiarism

• What do you think is the easiest, simply available method to detect plagiarism?

Detecting Plagiarism

1. Google

• Google 4-6 words, a sentence, a paragraph

• You might find a similar study

• Compare it with the submitted study for similarities

Detecting Plagiarism2. Simple free plagiarism detection software

(e.g., plagiarismchecker.com)

3. Plagiarism checking software

• There are many types of plagiarism tools to check

students' and researchers’ work for improper citation or

potential plagiarism.

• Most international peer review journals and institutions

use these tools to check submitted manuscripts or thesis.

• These tools compare the submitted work against the

world's largest academic database.

Detecting Plagiarism

Examples of plagiarism checking software

http://turnitin.com/

Most commonly used by institutions and journals

Watch this “Originality check demo”

http://turnitin.com/en_us/features/demos

http://www.ithenticate.com/

Buy online credits - $50 per manuscript (25,000 words)

and discount for multiple manuscripts

plagiarismdetect.com

Per page price

Principles of anti-plagiarism

• Most journals and institutions do not accept if

≥30% of manuscript/thesis has been copied from

various previously published sources.

• Direct copying of sentences or paragraphs is

only acceptable both with a reference and by

putting the copied section in quotation marks to

indicate that the section is not your own words.

Results from plagiarism checker

Possible consequences of plagiarism

• Plagiarism is considered stealing, but the concept does not exist in a legal sense.

• Institutions and journals have specific guidelines

and disciplinary procedures– Lower grades– Thesis not accepted, thesis stripped of– Expulsion from university/no degree– Loss of job– Articles rejected by journals and employer informed– Loss of scholarly reputation

• Students and researchers should become aware of plagiarism– Sign declaration that have understood what is plagiarism

and will avoid it– Training course and presentations on plagiarism

• Check for plagiarism

• Establish clear guidelines for plagiarized cases– Warning, lower grades, repeat assignment, fail, expel

How to avoid plagiarism

How to avoid plagiarism

• How many of you have heard about plagiarism before this course?

• How many of you did completely understood what is plagiarism before this course?

• When you were postgraduate student:– has the university explained to you what is plagiarism?

– has the university asked you to avoid plagiarism?

– have you tried to avoid all types of plagiarism?

– was your thesis/dissertation checked for plagiarism?

How to avoid plagiarism

• Write your own ideas and in your own words

• Cite your sources

• Learn to quote and paraphrase your sources properly

• Draw from many sources

• Map out your argument and then bring in sources to support it

• Never copy more than 3-4 words in a row from a source without using quotation marks

• Never use special words or phrases without properly quoting and citing them

What do I need to cite?

You should always provide references for– Direct quotations– Summaries, paraphrases– Charts, graphs, diagrams– Results of others’ research

What I don’t need to cite?

You don’t need to provide references for

• Common knowledge or factsE.g.: In Iraq, health services are provided by public and private health sectors. The public health sector includes a network of primary health care centers and hospitals.

• Your own arguments and original ideas

E.g.: This study showed that the participants had negative experience with the antenatal care at PHCCs and preferred to use private care, but they rarely used the latter. This could be the kind of viewpoint of many poor people who cannot afford to use the private care.

How to avoid plagiarism

1. Direct quotation

If you quote directly from the source:

• Indicate the quoted passage by quotation marks

“……”

• Provide a citation within the text

• Link the citation of quoted material to the reference

• Remember, you should keep direct quotations to the

minimum in the manuscript.

Example of direct quotation with proper citation

Student workAccording to the Global Status Report on Road Safety-2013,

“approximately 1.24 million people die every year on the

world’s roads, and another 20 to 50 million sustain nonfatal

injuries as a result of road traffic crashes” (WHO 2013).References:

WHO. Global status report on road safety 2013: Supporting a decade of

action. Luxembourg: WHO; 2013.

Original text

Approximately 1.24 million people die every year on the world’s roads, and another 20 to 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries as a result of road traffic crashes.

How to avoid plagiarism

2. Paraphrasing

• Paraphrase the original source rather than directly quoting

• Indicated the source of the original ideas by providing a citation in the text

• Provide the full reference in the bibliography

• This is more commonly used than direct quoting

Example of paraphrasing with proper citation

Original text

Approximately 1.24 million people die every year on the world’s roads, and another 20 to 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries as a result of road traffic crashes.

Student workRoad traffic accidents claim an estimated 1.24 million lives and 20 to 50 million nonfatal injuries in the world every year (WHO 2013).

References:WHO. Global status report on road safety 2013: Supporting a decade of action. Luxembourg: WHO; 2013.

Questions?