Plagiarism: An Out-Dated Concept?

The article below was submitted to the Singapore Nursing Journal for publication. It was my very first essay for university and I had to write on something positive on plagiarism - making it from something wrong to right.

PLAGIARISM: AN OUT-DATED CONCEPT?

TAN CHIH HSUEH, EDGAR
NITEC (Nsg), Cert IV (C.H), Dip (MC)
BNsg Student, La Trobe University
Dip (C.H) Student, Academy of Hypnotic Science

310N/215 Bell Street, Preston, VIC 3072, Australia
+61 433353646, +65 96472689
mail@edgarmirantz.com

Abstract

Plagiarism has been viewed by different people and organizations with different viewpoints. This article shall be looking at the positive and the negative side of this issue, give some examples of what constitutes plagiarism and thereafter, giving a viewpoint on plagiarism. Plagiarism is also an ethical issue. Students continue plagiarising as they think that cheating is acceptable as everyone does it. This is due to the many reasons such as the large number of assignments to be completed. The definition of plagiarism should be modified so that students can use the resources of others simply by giving the credit to whom the resources originated from.

Keywords

Plagiarism, Students, Teachers, Ethics.

Introduction

Plagiarism has been viewed by different people and organizations with different viewpoints (Yeo, 2006), some positive and some negative. Universities view plagiarism as a serious issue (LAS-ESL, 2007) but students still continue doing it (Gaberson, 1997). This article shall be looking at the positive and the negative side of this issue, give some examples of plagiarism and thereafter, giving my point of view on plagiarism.

According to Logue (2004), he defines plagiarism as “…the intentional or unintentional use of another’s work or ideas, published or unpublished, without clearly acknowledging the source of that work or idea”. Rephrasing the text could also be constituted as plagiarism. Simply put, it is a form of cheating and can also be a form of stealing (Vogelsang, 1997). In society today, cheating and/or stealing is a punishable act by law and it is enforced by the law of the country. However, in plagiarism, there is a lack of enforcement and there is no black and white as to what the consequences are. To some, plagiarism is unacceptable as it is the same as making a product which is already patented or using someone else's logo which is already trademarked or an infringement of a copyright. However, plagiarism and the infringement of copyright are two different issues. There are laws governing copyrights and trademarks but there are no laws governing plagiarism (Dames, 2007). To others, plagiarism is common amongst students (Brown, 2002). It is acceptable and happens all the time. For example, I remember when I was in primary school, we would always be lending and borrowing each other's work just for the sake of reading and checking to see if our answers were right. This even happens to me when I was studying in a post-secondary institution. In that case, would this be considered then as plagiarism as everyone would have the same thoughts, ideas and answers? Then there is also an issue on self plagiarism whereby if a person were to use his or her own ideas in an article which was published previously and to use it again in the current article, it would be considered plagiarism (Lowe, 2003). Once the original author has wrote the article and has it published, the copyright together with the article, belongs to the publisher (Griffin, 1991). Permission must be granted from the publisher if the original author wanted to use back the same ideas for his next article.

There are many tools out in the commercial market to detect plagiarism (Cross, 2007). One of them is Turnitin. This company has a database of over 40 million of student assignments (Turnitin), articles and assignments for lecturers to detect if the student has plagiarised in their work. The company profits in their annual turnover as educational insitutations need to pay a licence fee to use this program (Turnitin). However, this issue has upset students as it is a form of violating the student's copyright (Smit, 2005) as it does not pay the students for the use of their work and/or assignment. In the United States, students protested against the use of Turnitin and after collecting signatories for a petition, they submitted it to the administration. Thereafter, the university administration eased the mandate a little by requiring only ninth and tenth grade English and social studies students to use Turnitin (Glod, 2006).

The university views plagiarism seriously and even says that “in very serious situations, will stop your study in university” (LAS-ESL, 2007). Plagiarism is also an ethical issue (Davidhizar, 2002). If one were to do something wrong once, what would the possibility of that person not cheating again? For example, in a clinical setting, a nurse does not have time to take the vitals of the patient at 4pm and uses the vitals from the previous day's 4pm vital sign to chart it, what are the chances that the nurse will not commit this offence again? And would this be considered plagiarism as she had copied the work of someone else? In this situation, it would not only involve the nurse but also a third party. The vital signs for that particular day and the day before could be different. If a client was seriously ill and no vital signs were taken, it would cost the client his life! Plagiarism is also a learning issue. Students are able to get a degree by doing all assignments and passing them. However, to what extent do the students know about their subject and how much knowledge of the subject does the student know by the time they graduate from their course?

The university may be inadvertently be promoting plagiarism. For example, during tutorial groups, students are encouraged to voice out their opinions and the tutor writes down the opinions on the board. Isn't that considered plagiarism since the idea was from someone and it is being used by another? Lecturers are also partly to blame (Larkham and Manns, 2002). Assignment topics and question papers are being repeated from time to time. It is not surprising that students are bored and running out of creativity of what there is to write. If they write something which has been written by other students, he would have considered to have plagiarised even though he did not do it. Even lecturers are not able to agree to what constitutes plagiarism in different situations (East, 2006), how else would students even be able to then know?

However, students still continue plagiarising as they think that cheating is acceptable as everyone does it (Brown, 2002). This is due to the many reasons such as the large number of assignments to be completed, that the assignment topics are considered boring or not relevant and having to quote a certain number of references which means that there are at least a certain number of materials to be read, having to bear in mind that the library only has limited number of resources. In addition to the assignment given, students also have to study for their examinations given that what is covered in the lecture is only merely the surface of the subject. If a student were to spend so much time on assignments and studying, this equates to the student having very little or even no time to relax and enjoy themselves. In cases of students with families who have low income, they would have to work part-time to make ends meet (Larkham and Manns, 2002). Access to the internet is easily available and sometimes, they do not even know that they are plagiarising while in the midst of doing so. The internet is such a powerful medium. It has millions of articles and knowledge of many different viewpoints from people all over the world. Many people in the world plagiarise and most of them gets away without being caught. Logue (2004) notes that in a class of 64 third year diploma and 10 degree students, 50% of diploma and 30% of degree students admitted to both intentionally and unintentionally paraphrasing text in their assignments without acknowledging the source. However, if plagiarism is unchecked, the result could be that no new content would be generated and the level of research papers would be reduced.

In the nursing and medical field, there are so many journals in the profession with more and more articles being published. With this trend, nurses are being encouraged to publish and given the stress to contribute articles. Some may have no choice but to plagiarise in order to get good quality articles. Cronin (2003) believes “that authors often are unaware that they are committing the act of plagiarism. Many never learned the “rules” for professional writing while in school.”

From my point of view, the definition of plagiarism should be modified so that students can use the resources of others simply by giving the credit to whom the resources originated from. It saves time and allows people to be able to express themselves freely. There would always be new problems therefore new solutions would have to be found and discovered. People should use the combination of drawing on the experience of the old, come with new ideas and methods to solve the problems. In this way, the old and the new would compliment each other. People should also be honest with their work. There was once this very good doctor who was well respected in his medical practice, had an academic appointment and enjoyed teaching. After he plagiarised from another publication, all his academic credentials and teaching position was lost. No one recalled about all his good things that he had done. For a period of time, he also lost respect from his fellow colleagues. Now, even when he wants to publish original and good articles, he has difficulty in doing so (Griffin, 1991).

Conclusion

Plagiarism can be good, yet harmful if overused. It helps people to save time and lets them focus on other more important matters. However, if everyone does it, there would be no improvements in life. Therefore, it should only be allowed in certain circumstances and that new findings should be used to complement it. A universal definition to what extent of reproducing other's work would constitute plagiarism is also needed. Institutions needs to draw the line to what constitutes plagiarism and what is not. There should also be instances which plagiarism to a certain limit or circumstances is allowed. These again, should be made known clearly. Students should be educated on plagiarism and be warned of the consequences of this issue.

References

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Cronin, S. (2003). The problem of plagiarism. Dimensions of Critical Care Nursing, 22(6), 253-54.

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Dames, K. (2007). Understanding plagiarism and how it differs from copyright infringement. Computers in Libraries, 27(6), 24.

Davidhizar R. (2002). Duplicate publication, part 1: consideration of the issues. Nurse Author Ed, 12( 3), 1-4.

East, J. (2006). The problem of plagiarism in academic culture. International Journal for Educational Integrity, 2(2), 16-28.

Gaberson KC. (1997). Academic dishonesty among nursing students. Nurse Forum, 32(3), 14-20.

Glod, M. (2006). Score one for mclean high students. Washington Post. Retrieved 27 March 2008 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301466.html.

Griffin, G. (1991). Don't plagiarize - even yourself!. Postgraduate Medicine, 89(4), 15.

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LAS-ESL. (2007). Plagiarism. Retrieved 24 March 2008 from http://www.latrobe.edu.au/plagiarism/index.html.

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Lowe, N. (2003). Publication ethics: copyright and self-plagiarism. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, and Neonatal Nursing, 32(2), 145-146.

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Vogelsang, J. (1997). Plagiarism - an act of stealing. Journal of Peri Anesthesia Nursing, 12(6), 422-425.

Yeo, S. (2006). Science and engineering students’ beliefs about plagiarism: ‘It’s only an assignment’. Proceedings of the Assessment in Science Teaching and Learning Symposium. The University of Sydney, 139-144.