Thai Undergrads' Essay On Plagiarism Reflects Their Attitude And Perspective.

Dishonesty in academic areas

Question:

What is the Role of Internet in Reducing Plagarism?

This paper aims at analyzing various articles that focuses on the role of internet to reduce plagiarism. This article mainly demonstrates the important ideas related to quantitative methods. This paper consists of 3 different sections that would discuss on various research methods and literature review of the articles.

Songsriwittaya, A., Kongsuwan, S., Jitgarun, K., Kaewkuekool, S., & Koul, R.    (2009). Engineering students’ attitude towards plagiarism: A survey study.Education, 69, 9-97

Dishonesty in academic areas has become one of the major issues in higher education. This paper investigates the attitude and perspective of undergraduate Thai students about plagiarism towards achieving their goals. This paper discusses the opinion of Merriam-Webster who says that “plagiarism is theft; that represents a new idea from an already existing source”. The article mainly demonstrates the disciplinary differences among the students and investigates prevalent rates and differences in plagiarism rates that they have adopted to reach their goals. There is no separate section for literature review in this article. However, in the introduction part the authors have different views of scholars about plagiarism among undergraduates.

One-way Anova is used to understand the major differences of plagiarism across the faculties and goal orientation of the students.  This method helps the authors to understand the significant differences among the students about the plagiarism. Using the post-hoc test, the paper finds that the differences exists more in Faculty of Liberal Art compared to other faculties. This permits the students to examine the effects of individuals of ach variable separately and then also helped the authors to understand effects of other variables like faculties and goal orientation on students about plagiarism.

Schrimsher, R. H., Northrup, L. A., & Alverson, S. P. (2011). A survey of Samford University students regarding plagiarism and academic misconduct. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 7(1).

The aim of this study was to understand and explore the opinions and attitude of Samford University with respect to academic misconduct and plagiarism. In order to conduct this research, the authors used the internet-based survey system that mainly included No/Yes questions and also Likert Scales. There was not such section naming literature review, however, the study mainly focused on why do students cheat? The literature review mainly focused on various factors like, increasing pressures from peers and parents and also the complexity in the material being taught. The literature review mainly concentrated in the academic misconduct that included the plagiarism and also various other situational ethics. Further, even the peer related factors also influence the students to cheat. However, it is to be noted that the literature review or the discussion on plagiarism in this article do not address the issue or question related to unintentional plagiarism.

To conduct this study, the Samford plagiarism survey used the likert scales ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. This survey was completed using internet through PHPESP, a web-based survey tool which help the non-technical people to develop and administer the surveys, collect the results, download the information and collect the data and also view statistic. Internet based system is both cost and time effective method which helped the survey to generate results without much effort.

Investigates prevalent rates of plagiarism

Ryan, G., Valverde, M., Pàmies, M. M., Casals, A., & Gorjup, M. T. (2011). Don’t be a copycat! Lecturers’ perceptions of plagiarism among university students. In IX Jornades de xarxes d'investigació en docència universitària [Recurso electrónico]: Disseny de bones pràctiques docents en el context actual= Jornadas de Redes de Investigación en Docencia Universitaria: Diseño de buenas prácticas docentes en el contexto actual (p. 176). Universitat d'Alacant

In this article, the main purpose of the study was to determine the perception of the lecturers about plagiarism. The research methodology section lacks in proper description of the research methodology. But, going through the section it is observed that the study follows a qualitative data collection. The qualitative data collection has helped the researcher to offer a deeper understanding of the various social phenomena which cannot be obtained from the quantitative methods. In the current research, the focus group interview was decided to be conducted including 10 people who are of similar characters or common interests. However, it is to be noted that the focus group method is a qualitative data collection that means the data collected is descriptive in nature. The focus group data collection survey permits the researcher to collect feelings or express clear ideas that helps the researchers to interpret and understand the plagiarism issue. The present study focused on grounded theory approach using the subjective and exploratory research. This helps the research to obtain cues.

Article 1- Engineering students’ attitude towards plagiarism: A survey study and Artilce 2- A survey of Samford University students regarding plagiarism and academic misconduct uses the quantitative data and the article 3- Don’t be a copycat! Lecturers’ perceptions of plagiarism among university students use the qualitative data. The main differences between the two methods are as follows:

Qualitative Methods	Quantitative Methods
Methods involve in-depth interview, focus groups and also document review for understanding the theme	Observation, structured interviews and survey and reviewing documents is used for gathering numeric information
Here, the inductive process is mainly used for formulating the hypothesis and theory	Here, the deductive process is mainly used to test pre-specified concepts, hypotheses and construction of theory.
This method is more subjective in nature. This helps to describe the condition and problem through experience	This method is more objective in nature. This method helps to observe the effects of the condition or problem.
It based on text	It is based on numbers
In few cases the researcher can receive more in-depth information	This method has less in-depth, however have more breadth of information
No statistical tests are used in this method	Statistical test are mainly used to analyze the cases.
Less generalized method	More generalized method

The comments given on each of the articles above, aligns with the literature review. This because, literature reviews specifically helps to address the research problem. This helps the researcher to get to the proper point quickly using the peer reviewed previous journals for outlining the problem area. Aligning the comments with the literature review helps to demonstrate the preparedness of the whole research and also helps to effectively justify the proposed qualitative o quantitative methodology. Further, he literature review has helped to compare the research with the existing proposed theories. This literature review has helped the author to identify the gaps in the research methods and also gave the idea to justify the validity, reliability and originality of the proposed research.

Although, all the three articles discussed above is mainly intended to help the students and the academic professionals to understand the impact of plagiarism in their career and also approaches that can be used to reduce plagiarism. There exists some gap between the methods that the researchers have used in all the three articles. In two of the articles discussed above the researchers have used quantitative methods and in the third article, the researcher have used the qualitative research. However, it is to be noted that the mixed research approach would help to reduce the issues of plagiarism. Mixed methods use both qualitative and quantitative methods. Through this process they can help the students to understand the concept of plagiarism, impact of plagiarism and also outcome of practicing plagiarism. Further, paraphrasing techniques, proper citations and use of formative feedback can be taught to the students to understand the issue. Additionally they must be shown a tutorial video related to Turnitin tool or other plagiarism tool that can be used to avoid plagiarism.

Disciplinary differences among students

The five different journal articles are chosen to complete this section are:

Löfström, E. and Kupila, P. (2013). The Instructional Challenges of Student Plagiarism. J Acad Ethics, 11(3), pp.231-242

Anderson, I. (2009). Avoiding plagiarism in academic writing. Nursing Standard, 23(18), pp.35-37

Klimaszewski, A. (2012). Preventing Plagiarism. Oncology Nursing Forum, 39(6), pp.525-527

Zimerman, M. (2012). Plagiarism and international students in academic libraries. New Library World, 113(5/6), pp.290-299

Heckler, N., Rice, M. and Hobson Bryan, C. (2013). Turnitin Systems: a deterrent to plagiarism in college classrooms. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 45(3), pp.229-248

The aim of this article is to understand the perspective of students and universities teachers about plagiarism and also utilization of software to detect plagiarism. For data collection the researchers uses the inductive analysis and T-tests to analyze the data collected from the students and the teachers. It is identified that contextual, unintentional and intentional are three reasons for plagiarism. Thus, the study suggests that detection software systems should be used for detecting plagi and also need to focus on conceptions and attitude.

This article aims at understanding the meaning of plagiarism. Here the article defines plagiarism as the means of taking somebody else’s work and copying it in own work without proper citation. This practice results in potential upset of the real writer and also disgrace the professional who is involved in this process. Thus, this article further aims at exploring the plagiarism issue and also different mechanism for avoidance and detection.

According this article, nurse scientists have to submit their professional journals. Thu, the professionals need to include few appropriate steps that would help to prevent plagiarism. Reference styles can be used to appropriately credit the individual’s original work. This article demonstrates that the statement of work is the main contribution of nursing towards patient. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to define plagiarism in various general terms.   

The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the concept of plagiarism and also detect the plagiarism in education of international students. This article encompasses on the plagiarism issues and its impact on the international students.

This study explores the use of plagiarism detection system to detect plagi. Internet and computer technology is helping the organization to handle plagiarism more effectively. Therefore, the faculties need to be more attentive to mitigate this practice or issue to maintain integrity in higher education and also give proper support to the students. The findings of the study suggest that making the students aware of the detection system would help them to get less inclined towards plagiarism.

Two different questionnaires were used for teachers and the students to collect the data. However, the researchers used the open-ended question to collect the data. Answering the open ended questions makes it difficult for the respondents to answer sometimes. It needs lot of time and effort to answer the questions and sometimes the researcher may yield unnecessary information. Thus no identifying data can be collected.

This paper lacks in proper research methodology to avoid plagiarism. Absence of proper research practices makes the paper ineffective. The paper only focuses on the secondary information, based on which the Turnitin software has been discussed that can help to detect the plagiarism.

Major differences of plagiarism across faculties and goal orientation

This report has discussed only the concept of plagiarism and how to detect plagiarism. This paper lacked in understanding where the Nursing professionals are already aware of this plagiarism or not. Determining this information, would have helped to understand their knowledge and then make proper conclusion to reduce their inclination towards copying or plagiarism.

This research of detecting plagiarism among the international students lacked in proper reliability, as the research did not use any survey to collect the data to make a proper conclusion on the research problem. The information gathered and used in this article focused only on secondary surveys, which might not be truly answered despite anonymity. Thus, there is dearth of data related to plagiarism affect on the international students.

Observing two classes crosswise over back to back years presented clear confinements postured by evaluating diverse understudies at distinctive time periods. This leaves open the likelihood of superfluous and obscure variables influencing the reactions. The utilization of Turnitin identification programming has the natural limit of yielding an original score as opposed to a duplicating without attribution score. Furthermore, the teacher did not assign a particular discipline for unoriginality, which could have adjusted the outcomes.

This section emphasizes on literature review of two different articles chosen from section. One is Löfström, E. and Kupila, P. (2013), The Instructional Challenges of Student Plagiarism and another is the Zimerman, M. (2012), Plagiarism and international students in academic libraries.

According to Lofstrom and Kupila (2013), Plagiarism is one of the most controversial issues in academic writing. Student’s plagiarism can be defined as copying work of somebody else’s and including it in own writing without paraphrasing or using citation. The reason behind the plagiarism is absence of proper concept of plagiarism in academic writing. They often lack in competencies and often view the academic conventions as normative prescriptions. Further, they also express frustration towards the process of learning and also academic writing. To avoid such frustrations, they believe that copy-pasting generally helps them to complete their writing without putting much effort. In order to evaluate the quality of the learning and writing of the students, it is important for the teachers to use plagiarism detection software. There are various reasons behind plagiarism and it is important for the university teachers to identify the reasons and allocate proper resources needed to tailor interventions that would help to address the root cause of the problem. The three main reasons behind plagiarism are contextual plagiarism, intentional plagiarism and unintentional plagiarism. The contextual plagiarism can be reduced by guiding the students with various components, identifying and assessing the resources, giving more time and peer support. Further, the unintentional plagiarism can be addressed by giving proper instruction in academic writing and also giving opportunities to the students to practice own voice as writers. Through this research, the researcher also highlights that the students have raised their concern towards accidental plagiarism. Further, in order to address the intentional plagiarism, the students must be taught with academic integrity and also ethical principles. They should be encouraged towards good learning.

Opinions and attitude of Samford University students regarding plagiarism and academic misconduct

According to Zimerman (2012), in the educational system, the plagiarism has become one the main pillars in the academic misconduct. Due to globalization, there has been some conjecture towards plagiarism among the international students. This paper defines plagiarism as a method of utilizing ideas or word’s from another’s works and copying it in own work without proper citation. It is found that the sophomores, freshmen and college students are cheating compared to seniors and juniors international students. The main reason behind the beginning of plagiarism is nothing but the internet. The usage of internet has encouraged the students to practice cheating. This paper discusses that the students who are not caught, practicing plagiarism, never take plagiarism seriously, they feel it is a victim less crime. From this it is quite clear that it is important to make the students aware of plagiarism and also make them aware that it is an unethical behavior. Further, this paper also emphasizes that the perspective about plagiarism changes with the different culture of students. Few students feel that they lack in proper writing styles thus, copying the work would help them to come out of this issue, Chinese students feel that it is traditionally discover by rote, similarly, UK students say that deliberately copying various material is substantial plagiarism. Plagiarism is very common in Russia as, the medical libraries serve as a substitute by importing the foreign books. Thus, it is the responsibility of the academic libraries to reduce the damage that might happen due to plagiarism in academic writing. They should help the students to make use of proper citation methods and also support the students who need one to one assistance. Further, writing workshops can be held to make the students aware of different styles of referencing like APA or MLA etc in their writing. Additionally, the students need to be taught or made aware of anti-plagiarism software like Turnitin software that can even detect a minor plagiarism. This is  a win-win situation and also a unique strategy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the paper focuses on plagiarism in academic writing, which is the most dishonest practice and growing issues in colleges and universities. With the rise in the latest technology and internet, the students are found to be copying the whole texts in their writing leading to plagiarism in their writing. This paper has given a brief idea using various journals about the concept of plagiarism and also discusses the use of software like Turnitin that can help them to understand their weakness and also lower down their inclination towards plagiarism. This paper has covered various aspects of plagiarism by discussing different research methods that the researchers have used o detect the issues in academic writing.

References

Anderson, I. (2009). Avoiding plagiarism in academic writing. Nursing Standard, 23(18), pp.35-37

Heckler, N., Rice, M. and Hobson Bryan, C. (2013). Turnitin Systems: a deterrent to plagiarism in college classrooms. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 45(3), pp.229-248

Klimaszewski, A. (2012). Preventing Plagiarism. Oncology Nursing Forum, 39(6), pp.525-527

Löfström, E. and Kupila, P. (2013). The Instructional Challenges of Student Plagiarism. J Acad Ethics, 11(3), pp.231-242

Ryan, G., Valverde, M., Pàmies, M. M., Casals, A., & Gorjup, M. T. (2011). Don’t be a copycat! Lecturers’ perceptions of plagiarism among university students. In IX Jornades de xarxes d'investigació en docència universitària [Recurso electrónico]: Disseny de bones pràctiques docents en el context actual= Jornadas de Redes de Investigación en Docencia Universitaria: Diseño de buenas prácticas docentes en el contexto actual (p. 176). Universitat d'Alacant

Songsriwittaya, A., Kongsuwan, S., Jitgarun, K., Kaewkuekool, S., & Koul, R.    (2009). Engineering students’ attitude towards plagiarism: A survey study.Education, 69, 9-97

Zimerman, M. (2012). Plagiarism and international students in academic libraries. New Library World, 113(5/6), pp.290-299