Preventing plagiarism - China Daily

We should establish an effective checking system to prevent plagiarism of academic papers, says an article in People's Daily. The following is an excerpt:

The Internet offers great help for academic research but it is also an easy way to plagiarize someone's work.

A company that runs a database for academic research said it would be easy for professors to find out whether their students have been cheating if they use its database. But it hoped professors would not use the database for that purpose as it would affect sales.

It is surprising that a company offering help to academic institutes can allow and even encourage students to cheat.

These types of companies should be condemned. But in fact they are not alone. Due to a lack of strict rules, the academic field has now become chaotic.

The average quality of our academic papers is low. Cases of plagiarism have cropped up repeatedly.

As an overseas research shows, 1 to 5 percent of papers that have already been published involve plagiarism and cheating in the world; In Asian countries, the rate is higher. We should be on the alert.

The basic way to build and maintain academic excellence is to implement a strict checking system.

In fact, the monitoring needs to be done before people doing research start working on their thesis, and when their completed papers are reviewed by their professors.

With an effective research checking system in place, those who cheat should be punished

Plagiarist physicists at Punjab University fired

The Daily Times: Physicists from CERN and the Abdul Salam International Centre for Physics have lauded a decision by Punjab University Chancellor Khalid Maqbool to fire five plagiarists at the university. In February, on the recommendations of an inquiry committee, the governor ‘forcibly’ retired on charges of plagiarism PU Centre for High Energy Physics director Fazle Aleem along with Rashid Ahmad, Sohail Afzal Tahir, M Aslam Saeed and Maqsood Ahmad. The issue had delayed approval of a Rs 110 million grant to the university until the matter was satisfactorily resolved. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) released the funds on shortly after the inquiry panel announced their decision. COMMENTS

Plagiarism: Words and ideas

Mathieu Bouville
Science and Engineering Ethics — doi: 10.1007/s11948-008-9057-6

Plagiarism is a crime against academy. It deceives readers, hurts plagiarized authors, and gets the plagiarist undeserved benefits. However, even though these arguments do show that copying other people’s intellectual contribution is wrong, they do not apply to the copying of words. Copying a few sentences that contain no original idea (e.g. in the introduction) is of marginal importance compared to stealing the ideas of others. The two must be clearly distinguished, and the ‘plagiarism’ label should not be used for deeds which are very different in nature and importance.>>>

Plagiarism Accusation About Turkish Physicists

Dr. Murat Civaner

Turkiye Klinikleri J Med Ethics

Year: 2008 Volume: 16 Issue:1 

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

In an article published in Nature dated Sept 6, 2007, it was stated that nearly 70 articles of 15 scientists from 18 Mart, Dicle and Mersin universities have been removed from a popular preprint server by allegation of plagiarism.[1]

Some points in the article such as value-laden statements, generalizations, and that not taking into consideration of a system which urges academicians publishing with an orientalistic point of view in another language that they have not been educated appropriately, generated the thought of writing to the editor of Nature. I would like to share this letter, which was rejected by Nature, with our academic community, and sending your journal by hoping it to be ac cepted for publishing.

"Sir
Certain issues raised by Mr. Brumfiel’s article (“Turkish physicists face accusations of plagiarism” Nature 449, 8, 2007) must be addressed. It mustn’t be over looked that as yet there isn’t enough information to assess the situation thoroughly, and this essentially precludes the ability to make an ethical analysis of the situation. Although they contain some fallacies such as ad populum and non sequitor, some of the arguments made in their own defense by the accused academicians deserve to be considered seriously. For instance, they have publicly declared that some of the articles they have been accused of plagiarising were published after their work. Therefore language such as “allegedly” or “seem to be involved” is correct, not politically but factually. However, the sentence, “There are some cultures in which plagiarism is not even regarded as deplorable” is a counter-example. I’m not aware of any sociological research concerning this premise, perhaps it’s true; nevertheless, its inclusion makes the language value-laden. Since culture includes moral values which have been shaped and changed by various factors, it’s a mistake to discuss the moral atmosphere surrounding a certain scientific community without considering the factors which have shaped it, such as English barriers, as Mr. Smith mentioned (“Need to speak English puts burden on Asian scientists” Nature 445, 256, 2007), and local factors, such as those in Mr. Sarioglu’s formula: “They’re isolated, their English is bad, and they need to publish”. What Mr. Sarioglu didn’t include is ‘their work should interest Western editors’. If scientific work is assessed regarding editors’ interests per se, not the needs of a particular society, then publishing transforms to some kind of a price to pay, and end transforms to means.”

[1]. Brumfiel, G. Turkish physicists face accusations of plagiarism. Nature, 2007. 449(7158):8.

On plagiarism

Physics in Medicine & Biology
Editorial

Simon Harris et al 2008 Phys. Med. Biol. 53
doi: 10.1088/0031-9155/53/5/E01

>>>

It is possible to plagiarize not only the work of others, but also one's own work through re-use of identical or nearly identical portions of manuscripts without acknowledgement and without citation. Simultaneous or subsequent submission of similar manuscripts with only minor differences and without citation between the manuscripts is, unfortunately, a not uncommon practice by authors hoping to acquire multiple publications from a research project. PMB strongly discourages this practice and will act against it if the facts become known before publication. In extreme cases of self-plagiarism (duplicate publication of a (nearly) full paper which has already been published elsewhere in a peer-review journal) sanctions similar to those outlined above may be applied. Occasionally similar articles may legitimately be published in two journals, because the journals reach different audiences and both would be interested in the article. This practice must be approved by the editors of both journals, and the duplication must be acknowledged in each article >>>

India to propose regulatory body to curb misconduct

Nature news

India is to consider creating a national body to investigate plagiarism and misconduct in science after a string of high-profile frauds.

C. N. R. Rao, who heads the national science advisory committee, told Nature that he will discuss the proposal at his next meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Rao was reacting to the news that Sri Venkateswara University in southern India is to reopen a massive fraud case involving chemistry professor, Pattium Chiranjeevi. Last month, Chiranjeevi was found guilty of plagiarizing or falsifying more than 70 research papers published in a variety of Western scientific journals between 2004 and 2007. Some of the journals have started retracting the articles.