Talk:Plagiarism

Discussion about Plagiarism
A major problem exists with inaccessible, too-lengthy policy documents on plagiarism. They pussy-foot about the consequences, resulting in a wide variation of interpretation and punishment. Hence the need for a concise, readable document. Average students cannot find in one easily available document, an explanation of what plagiarism is, what its consequences are, how to avoid it, and what the exact plagiarism penalties will be.


 * See http://www.plagiarism.org/ for what plagiarism is. Most colleges will include an academic honesty policy in the catalog to further define the interpretation.  Enforcement depends on the individual course syllabus, which is why there are so many inconsistencies, and no one place to look for specifics.  -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 14:50, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

It seems that even when there is clarity about all the issues mentioned above and someone plagiarizes, universities do not always take appropriate action against the plagiarist. The reason for this is that the holding of a disciplinary enquiry can be very time consuming and increasing university staff believe themselves to be over committed. The result of this is that to those who want to cheat universities appear to be condoning plagiarism. Even when action is taken against plagiarists universities tent to do this in private which also does not help. The old maxim that “Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done” should apply.


 * In the United States, FERPA prevents students seeing that justice has been done to others. -- Dave Braunschweig (discuss • contribs) 14:50, 2 August 2015 (UTC)

A Quote from the literature
General publicity and warnings. It is fundamental that students be aware of the issue of plagiarism, that penalties are being imposed in practice, and that cheating is being strictly policed. In particular, students need to be informed and able to form a critical perspective at the start of their program, and each subject should explain what plagiarism involves in that specific context. There should be student-oriented resources such as websites that explain all aspects of the issue: the historical-institutional contingency of the concept of plagiarism, what it is, why in the arts outside of academia plagiarism is highly tolerated, how to avoid it in the academia, what the consequences are in academia, and where to go if issues arise. []

Motivation
The need to inform students about plagiarism has started with the creation of this page to contain the text that is mutually agreed on.

Approach
As not all parties agree completely on what plagiarism is and how to avoid and combat it, this article will build up common beliefs, and omit any finer points of disagreement.

Limitations of article
The text is designed to fit on an A-4 sheet, folded into three, in a z-shape. Assuming that one column is lost to give space for a return slip to allow the student to acknowledge receipt and internalising of the material, leaves us with 5 columns for text. This limits us to 5 columns of 30 lines of text containing 10 words per line or a maximum of 1500 words.

House style
We use the Harvard referencing system to make additions easy.

Plagiarism and Wikiversity
As Wikiversity doesn't provide learners with accreditation we don't need to worry about plagiarism from an academic standards point of view. Anyone passing off other people's work as their own won't benefit from gaining an undeserved qualification. They might gain some undue status because of their unreferenced contributions. However they would loss all credibility once exposed.

Another problem would be the negative impact if Wikiverstiy became a source of plagiarised materials for learners at other institutions. This can be overcome by constant vigilance and investigating any materials that appear to be unauthorised essay banks.

The nature of a wiki means that all texts tend to be by multiple authors with cooperation being more important than individual contributions. A bigger problem for Wikiversity is that unreferenced material prevents other learners and collaborations from exploring important source materials and forming their own opinions of the subject and adding new content. The importance of providing fully referenced materials is stressed through out all the wikimedia projects.

I think that we should be emphasising the positive aspects of learning, such as honesty, openness and the importance of providing fully referenced materials because these enhances the learning experience of everyone and provides something positive for people to aspire to.

It might be better to help increase the profile of the importance of providing references at wikiversity via Reliable sources, Cite sources and Verifiability.Mystictim 21:28, 23 January 2007 (UTC)

I have incorporated your text at the top of the article. Thanks for your contribution. --Ian Kennedy 09:53, 8 February 2010 (UTC)