Plagiarism

(Source: edutopia, 2011)

Plagiarism has always been one of the biggest publishing issue, especially in educational institutions. The term plagiarism can be described as the act of making use of other people's work without crediting the original author (Anderson 1998). BBC News (2011) reported an article titled 'Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom' that discusses about plagiarism issues over the years by well-known authors. As you can see from the title of the article itself, it takes very simple steps to plagiarize, all you got to do is copy, paste, and edit from a credible source. However, when you plagiarize, you are committing a crime, you are stealing!

Even though we often hear well-known authors get caught plagiarising, but plagiarism also applies to both published and even unpublished work, as well as any electronic and print materials, for example, e-mail or internet publications (Game & West 2002). 

Kasi (2009, p 187) stated that there are a few main types of plagiarism:

• Self Plagiarism – Authors using their own work in two or more works without citing the original work.
• Manipulated Plagiarism – Author manipulates another author’s thoughts, information, opinions, or data, and publishes the work as his own.
• Ideal Plagiarism – Author literally steals the paper or data from another author before the original work was published.
• Juice Plagiarism – Copying main ideas of paper and mixing them with new parts so the work seems as new writing

(Source: toonpool, 2011)

DePaul University (2001, cited in Nitterhouse 2003) explained plagiarism as a major form of academic dishonesty that involves presenting work of another as one’s own. Therefore, it is apparent that plagiarism must be avoided. 

Game & West (2002) and Nitterhouse (2003) both stated that plagiarism could be avoided in few ways:

• Any quotation must be used with quotation marks and of course citation must be present
• Any paraphrasing that is done must be cited. This includes summarizing or even slight altering the original exposition of a written idea.
• There should be acknowledgment of any ideas that were not conceived by the authors in the paper. This includes ideas received in any forms of personal communication and comments from reviewers, or anyone else at all.

Authors put a lot of effort into publishing their own work, thus making plagiarism a very unethical behavior. We should always cite other people's work if we are using them and never, never, NEVER steal/plagiarize. 

References:

1. Anderson, J 1998, Plagiarism, copyrighted violation, and other thefts of intellectual party: an annotated bibliography, McFarland & Company, North Carolina, viewed 10 June 2011, <http://books.google.com.my/books?id=O8EqxXsYv3EC&dq=plagiarism&source=gbs_navlinks_s>
2. BBC News 2011, Plagiarism: The Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V boom, viewed 10 June 2011, <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12613617?print=true#story_continues_2story_continues_2>
3. Game, A, West, MA 2002, 'Principles of publishing', Psychologist, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 126-129, viewed 10 June 2011, <http://proquest.umi.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/pqdlink?vinst=PROD&fmt=6&startpage=-1&ver=1&vname=PQD&RQT=309&did=113389686&exp=06-09-2016&scaling=FULL&vtype=PQD&rqt=309&TS=1307786786&clientId=14273>
4. Kasi, P 2009, Research: what, why and how?: a treatise from researches to researches, Authorhouse, Bloomington, viewed 10 June 2011, <http://books.google.com.my/books?id=ozfH7f6qp9AC&dq=types+of+plagiarism&source=gbs_navlinks_s>
5. Nitterhouse, D 2003, 'Plagiarism - not just an "academic" problem', Teaching Business Ethics, vol. 7, no. 3, pp. 215-217, viewed 10 June 2011, <http://proquest.umi.com.ezlibproxy.unisa.edu.au/pqdweb?index=0&did=424410931&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=PQD&TS=1307902580&clientId=14273>