Last update: July 2011

Due to time constraints and the explosion of articles about plagiarism, this blog will no longer be updated; however, please see my Plagiarism Guide for ECSU Students and Faculty:

http://easternct.libguides.com/plagiarism

AP Wire | 04/11/2006 | Student accused of plagiarizing film reviews

Student accused of plagiarizing film reviews
Apr. 11, 2006
Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo.

"Officials at the University of Missouri-Kansas City are investigating a former writer for the school's student-run newspaper after he was accused of plagiarism."

Plagiarism persists in classrooms
By Kate York
The Marietta Times
Wednesday, March 22, 2006

"As local educators use new techniques to spot plagiarism, a case at Ohio University shows that the Internet isn’t the only way today’s students are passing off the work of others as their own."

Plagiarism: An erosion of ethics

Written by Emma Schmautz/Montana Kaimin

Tuesday, 07 March 2006

Editor’s Note: the name of the student referred to as “Allie” in this story was changed to protect her identity. "Allie was scanning the rows of students in the large lecture class she monitors when a disturbing sight caught her eye. One of the quiz-takers was copying the answers off of another student’s paper."

Plagiarism 'rife' at Oxford

Alexandra Smith
Wednesday March 15, 2006


"Plagiarism could threaten the value of a degree from Oxford University as students increasingly copy large slabs of work from the internet and submit it as their own, the university has warned.

The university has for the first time admitted plagiarism is plaguing the institution, prompting Oxford's senior proctor and chief disciplinary officer, Alan Grafen, to highlight the problem in Oxford Magazine, the dons' journal."

BBC NEWS | UK | Education |

Oxford dons alerted to plagiarism

"Dons at Oxford University are being urged to be vigilant against plagiarism among students."

Profs, TAs Struggle To Combat Plagiarism
By Sarah Rizk
Staff Writer
The Stanford Daily Online Edition

"At campuses across the world, administrators are using anti-plagiarism software to combat the increase in plagiarism that accompanied the rise of the Internet, a trend that has carried over into Stanford." Discusses use of detection software: Measure of Software Similarity (MOSS), Safe Assignments and Turnitin.

Colleges Turn To Internet To Stop Online Cheating

Plagiarism Is Easier; So Is Checking
By Linda B. Blackford
Lexington Herald-Leader Staff Writer

Report on use of Safe Assignments at Eastern Kentucky University and Turnitin at Western Kentucky University.

Partnering with Students to Avoid "Cut and Paste" Plagiarism (C&PP)

From TLT (The Teaching, Learning, and Technology Group): "The purpose of this LTA is to suggest technology augmented strategies that both faculty and students can employ to both avoid and detect student generated C&PP. However, students are not the only potential beneficiaries of methods to avoid C&PP. Anyone, (including faculty) who makes frequent use of internet based resources to gather research, can profit from these approaches.

Our specific bias is to empower faculty-student partnerships to detect C&PP, as well as to model ethical communication."

Plagiarism Introduction

An outstanding site for students and faculty, this work is the result of a collaboration of the Writing Center, the English Department, the Center for Teaching, Learning and Technology, the Office of Student Affairs, the WSU Libraries, and the University Ethics Interest Group at Washington State University.

Plagiarism Tutorial

From North Carolina State University: "This tutorial is designed to help NC State University Students navigate the often confusing rules, regulations, and law regarding plagiarism in academic situations.

Upon finishing this tutorial, you should have a basic, practical understanding of how plagiarism is defined, generally and at NC State University. A number of links are also provided if you would like to read more about plagiarism in academe."

Plagiarism-by-Paraphrase Risk Quiz
"Are you in danger of committing plagiarism while paraphrasing a source? The most common form of college-level plagiarism is not produced by intentional theft of another's ideas. For predictable reasons, it happens when students try to paraphrase published scholarly sources. Student writers are still learning the vocabulary and methods of the discipline, so they know fewer alternatives to the phrasing of the original passage. Also, student writers aren't always aware of just how careful one has to be when borrowing ideas even when the sources' words have been changed.

The 'Paraphrase-Plagiarism Risk Quiz' was designed and edited by Arnold Sanders, Associate Professor of English and Writing Program Director at Goucher College, with programming assistance and web-design by Susan Garrett Weiss, Assistant Professor of English at Goucher and in English and Linguistics at Western Maryland University. Additional programming assistance was provided by Kristin Stanley, a senior Computer Science major at Mount St. Mary's College." Categories include: Literary Criticism, Science/Biology, Social Science/Anthropology, Economics, and History.

Plagiarism-Proofing Assignments - Doug Johnson

Phi Delta Kappan, March 2004
Adapted from a chapter in the book Teaching Right from Wrong in the Digital Age (Linworth, 2003)

Abstract:

"Much effort is expended in education trying to 'catch' plagiarism in student work. Teachers and library media specialists are using various web services and techniques using search engines to determine if or how much of student writing is lifted from online sources. This article argues that educators’ time is better spent creating assignments, especially those that involve research, that minimize the likelihood of plagiarism. Sixteen suggestions are given for ways teachers can modify assignments to help stimulate higher level thinking and thereby reduce the likelihood of plagiarism. A rubric to evaluate the quality of a research question is included."

Plagiarism on Rise at UW
The UW Daily
By Dionne Desiano
January 27, 2005

"In the last two years, reported cases of plagiarism at the UW have almost doubled, according to an administrative assistant to the vice president for student affairs.

'In 2002 there were 35 reported cases; last year there were 66,' said Amanda Myhre, the administrative assistant to the vice president for student affairs.

More than 75 percent of college students admit to having cheated at least once on tests or having copied papers, according to the Center for Academic Integrity's Web site."

Check for Plagiarism
Poynter Online, Dec. 20, 2004
By Sree Sreenivasan, Columbia Professor & Poynter Visiting Professor

"Since the dot-com-bust death of FindSame.com a few years ago, I have been looking for a free tool that can help find examples of plagiarism. I recently came across one such tool. It's called Copyscape and works pretty well. Enter the URL of a page of content you wish to track and it will send you a list of webpages that contain most of the content on your page. It uses Google (what else!) to scour the web, but isn't affiliated with Google (it's run by the same folks that created GoogleAlert.com)."

ASU student says professor plagiarized:
By William Hermann
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 15, 2004

"An Arizona State University graduate student has accused a prominent professor of using his work without giving him credit. Dwayne Kirk, 33, says that plant biology Professor Charles J. Arntzen, 63, 'lifted whole paragraphs of my work and represented it as his own.' Arntzen says that while he values Kirk's scholarship and service on his laboratory team, what he used from the graduate assistant 'was a summary of data, a summary of a decade of research done by our team.' advertisement."

OSU Investigating Plagiarism Allegations Against Professor
KOTV - The News on 6

"STILLWATER, Okla. (AP) _ Oklahoma State University officials have launched an investigation into whether an award-winning geography professor plagiarized several publications. An article released Monday in The Chronicle of Higher Education, cites seven instances when George Carney allegedly lifted material without crediting the authors."

Edward Waters loses accreditation after plagiarism scandal
Tallahassee Democrat
12/09/2004

"JACKSONVILLE - Edward Waters College has lost its accreditation two months after a plagiarism scandal at the historically black college, school officials said Tuesday. The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools voted to drop Edward Waters from membership."

Four Academic Plagiarists You've Never Heard Of:
How Many More Are Out There?
The Chronicle of Higher Education

12/17/2004
By THOMAS BARTLETT and SCOTT SMALLWOOD
RASH OF PLAGIARISM

"Famous scholars get the ink in good times and bad. Stephen E. Ambrose's plagiarism would not have made the news were it not for the millions of books he sold. Few people would have cared about Doris Kearns Goodwin's borrowings had they not seen her on television."

Article: Professor Copycat

Article: What Is Plagiarism?

Article: The Fallout

Article: Mentor vs. Protégé

Article: Judge or Judge Not?

Article: The Price of Plagiarism

Article: How Long a Shadow Should Plagiarism Cast?

Article: University Presses Choose Caution in Responding to Accusations of Plagiarism

Harvard Law Professor Caught Plagiarizing from Fellow Professor
Library Journal
9/13/2004

"Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree is taking responsibility for lifting almost verbatim six paragraphs from the work of another author, which he used in his recent volume All Deliberate Speed: Reflections on the First Half-Century of Brown v. Board of Education (Norton). The Boston Globe reported that Ogletree is facing unspecified disciplinary charges from the university for including uncredited material from Yale Law School Professor Jack M. Balkin's 2001 volume What Brown v. Board of Education Should Have Said (NYU Press)."

Harvard law prof admits swiping phrase from book
BostonHerald.com
By Kevin Rothstein
Tuesday, September 28, 2004

"Harvard's renowned constitutional law scholar Laurence H. Tribe has acknowledged cribbing a phrase from another book, becoming the third Harvard law professor in a year to stand accused of the academic crime."

Pressured to pass
Cheating and plagiarism are serious concerns for university students, faculty and administrators
By Kelly Parker
The Orion Online
September 29, 2004

"When Brandon Gilligan was a first-year student, he missed a day of speech class and a quiz. A friend offered to fill out the quiz for him, and when she turned it in, the teacher noticed her turning in two copies. Both students were taken to Student Judicial Affairs and put on academic probation. Gilligan failed the quiz and had to write a seven-page paper about cheating, but he did not fail the class. He said he was surprised nothing more."

At Harvard, lapses by scholars put focus on plagiarism policy
New York Times
By Sara Rimer
November 25, 2004

"CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- When it comes to its students, Harvard University policy shows little tolerance for plagiarism. Undergraduates found guilty of 'misusing sources' will 'likely' be required to withdraw from the college for at least two semesters. They will lose all coursework they have done that semester (unless it is virtually over), along with the money they have paid for it.

With such a policy for students, what is Harvard to do when two of its most prominent law professors, Charles Ogletree Jr. and Laurence Tribe, publicly acknowledge that they have unintentionally misused sources, as happened this fall? Weighing in on the matter, Harvard's student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, said the university appeared to have one set of rules for its famous professors and another for its students."

Hey, kids! Somebody always notices
TheStar.com
DON SELLAR
Oct. 16, 2004

"The teacher did the right thing. She reported the plagiarism incident to the ombud's office. Then, two things happened."

How to cheat and get away with it
By Peter Martell
Scotsman.com
October 17, 2004

"Research released earlier this year by consultancy firm FreshMinds, for the national Plagiarism Advisory Service, found that 25% of recent graduates admitted they had plagiarised work at least once while at university. Of those, 16% said they had plagiarised more than once."

Telling the Truth
Students debate on academic integrity issues
By Princess McDowell
The Shorthorn

"Cheaters prosper, Engineering Senator, Nicolas Cornor said. 'Martha Stewart, Haliburton, Enron and Microsoft are accurate representations that honesty in the public doesn't get you anywhere,' the aerospace engineering sophomore said.

Patricia Nickel, testing assessment services coordinator, rebutted by saying students have a responsibility to hold up the university's reputation even after they leave. 'If you cheated your way through school and you don't really know the material, you are hurting the university,' Nickel said. 'These people go out into the work force and represent UTA. If they look bad, we look bad.'

Cornor and Nickel were panelists at the Academic Integrity Debate on Tuesday. The debate was the second event of Academic Integrity Week, sponsored by Student Judicial Affairs."

Plagiarism report labelled a whitewash
The Sydney Morning Herald
By Matthew Thompson, Higher Education Reporter
October 29, 2004

"An independent expert who was paid $2000 a day to look into allegations of academic misbehaviour produced a report that was a 'whitewash' and a 'cover-up', the Independent Commission Against Corruption heard yesterday. The director of the Sydney Graduate School of Management, David Lamond, was hired by the University of Newcastle to investigate allegations that senior academics had covered up mass plagiarism by foreign students who paid full fees."

Plagiarism forum centers on stealing from the Internet
October 29, 2004
Pipe Dream on the Web
By Rachel Jacobs

"While grading a paper, a teaching assistant noticed that the majority of the essay was in Times New Roman, but other parts were in a completely different font. So, he went to his professor and told him he thought it was plagiarized. If this sounds familiar, Binghamton University students have either been in this situation before or were a part of a Student-Faculty Connect Month event hosted by the Institute for Student Centered Learning and faculty masters on Tuesday. The event was organized in hopes of opening lines of communication between students and faculty members in relation to the 'P' word."

Program to nail copycats
11/1/2004

By Andre Gouws

"Stellenbosch - The days are numbered for students who copy each other's assignments. A computer studies student at the University of Stellenbosch has designed a plagiarism detection program. McElroy Hoffmann, 21, of Springbok in the Northern Cape, who is studying BEng(computer systems), wrote the program that checks assignments for similarities."

Punishment for Plagiarizing Reports Varies
November 21, 2004
By Gary White
The Ledger

"Colleges and universities discourage students from committing plagiarism but allow leeway in punishing those who do. Florida Southern College's course catalog warns students that plagiarism is grounds for suspension, and college Dean Susan Conner urges professors to state the plagiarism policy in each course syllabus.

A professor has the option of issuing an F or zero on the assignment or failing the student in the class. The college requires documentation from a professor who accuses a student of plagiarism, and a student has the right to appeal."

Web cheats get online for Google Scholar
Freelance UK
December 13, 2004

"Google has unveiled its latest beta search facility for academics, students and freelancers to allow them an instant find through millions of pages of hefty information. The online service means any internet user can gain keyword access to research papers, university websites, academic books or even finished theses. It has been tested by the California-based company and aims to provide a one-stop search through abstracts, pre-prints, published papers and technical reports in all major fields. Results have already been commended for being more relevant by showing how often research has been cited by other academics rather than its overall hit popularity.

While this aspect of the service has been embraced by users, academics in particular have expressed concern about a 'copy and paste' culture, emerging in the wake of Google Scholar. They say the accuracy and speed of the search engine could lead to a rise in how much information in essays is simply lifted from online sources."

Dumbing Down Process
Student Direct Online
Nov 29, 2004
By Tamanna Rahman

"A SURVEY commissioned by the Times Higher Education Supplement has found that almost half of academics felt pressured to pass students who they felt should have failed, and about a fifth admitted to turning a blind eye to plagiarism....Professor Fouracre, confirmed that plagiarism is still taken very seriously, but the problem is proving it. 'As the anti-plagiarism software improves though, the situation will get better'. Concerns over plagiarism come alongside news that the search engine Google have recently launched ‘Google scholar’ – a new service which searches through academic material such as journals, papers and libraries. Whilst some have applauded the move as making access easier to important academic documents, some have said it will add to the current 'cut and paste' culture amongst students."

Is plagiarism extinct?
Tallahassee Democrat
12/05/2004
By Mary Ann Lindley, EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR

"At lunch the other day a university professor told me that when he grades student papers, he almost always feels obliged to 'google' them before giving them a grade. That's one of the great new verbs that comes to us courtesy of the Internet and its powerful search engines, one of which is Google....The professor googles his students' papers to see if they're trying to appear smarter than they are. That is, if they're outrightly borrowing large portions of other people's ideas or language and claiming it for their own. A phrase that seems too grand for Joey to have come up with on his own, for example, shows up as belonging word for word to - why, look here! - Alexis de Tocqueville (always a favorite of the young intellectual)."

Plagarism on the rise, study finds
The UW Daily
By Mina Barahimi
December 06, 2004

"Professors beware, 38 percent of undergraduates in a study have admitted to internet plagarism. And with papers due and finals week approaching, many students at the UW may turn to plagarism and cheating to mitigate pressure.

During a conference at the UW in November, a national expert presented a series of findings, which indicate that Internet plagiarism, and exam cheating in particular are on the rise."

Schools fight against copying

HERALD NEWS
December 6, 2004
By AMISHA PADNANI

"Zahrah Abdur-Raheem said it's easy for her to plagiarize when she has a heavy workload at school. The third-year student at Montclair State University said she has taken ideas from the Internet and used them as her own just to get a final paper done on time. 'I like the thought and reword it from the Internet,' she said. 'Just change a few words here and there.' A biology major who also holds a part-time job, Abdur-Raheem said she does her own work most of the time, but she finds it difficult when 'there's so much expected of students.' Faculty and administrators say plagiarism is a growing problem at North Jersey colleges and universities. They're developing new methods to prevent students from succumbing to the temptation of plagiarism, including reminding students of the consequences and providing a comfortable learning atmosphere where students would not be afraid to ask for help."

Barnard Addresses Plagiarism With Web Site Subscription
Columbia Spectator Online
By Nick Klagge
December 07, 2004

"In a world where both collaborative research and the use of electronic resources have become widespread, even currently scandal-free universities like Columbia have been forced to re-evaluate their procedures for handling issues of academic honesty. Barnard College is currently undertaking steps to ease the policing of academic dishonesty. According to Barnard Dean of Studies Karen Blank, the college will soon undertake a one-year trial subscription to the website Turnitin.com."

Taking Plagiarism Seriously
Arbiter Online
By Dr. Michael Mattison and Blaine Eckles
December 09, 2004

"In a recent Arbiter article ("Visiting professor accused of plagiarism," 11/29/04), a University faculty member defended plagiarizing another individual’s editorial piece by stating, 'If you take information off the Internet, it’s free and clear.' Though we do not wish to criticize the individual personally, we do want to stress that we find his statement utterly ridiculous. Worse, we find it dangerous. Following such advice could lead to severe consequences for a writer.

LIE OF THE LAND
By RITA DELFINER, New York Post Online Edition
October 22, 2004

"Nearly all U.S. high school students talk the talk that honesty is the best policy--while at the same time, many of them are lying, cheating and stealing, according to a new study. A national survey of 24,763 high-schoolers found 62 percent of them admitted cheating on a school test in the past 12 months, 27 percent stole something from a store during that period, and 40 percent admit they 'sometimes lie to save money.' In a telling twist, nearly a third didn't even tell the truth on the integrity survey--29 percent of the students polled by the Josephson Institute of Ethics 'fessed up to fibbing on one or two of the more than 60 questions."

The Borrowers
Reviewed by Mark Lewis, washingtonpost.com
November 14, 2004; Page BW04

PAST IMPERFECT
Facts, Fictions, Fraud -- American History from Bancroft and Parkman to Ambrose, Bellesiles, Ellis, and Goodwin
By Peter Charles Hoffer. PublicAffairs. 287 pp. $26

SCANDALS AND SCOUNDRELS
Seven Cases That Shook the Academy
By Ron Robin. Univ. of California. 277 pp. Paperback, $19.95

Lipson delves into academic dishonesty
By Yuefan Weng, Chicago Maroon
October 28, 2004

"Hongtae Kim, a second-year economics concentrator, is the perfect candidate to read political science professor Charles Lipson's new book Doing Honest Work in College. 'I actually had an experience in cheating before, Kim said. But even though I was not caught, I felt horrible afterward and I now believe that we are mature enough to be responsible for our own work.' In an interview, Lipson said the Internet has created a resource arena with no clear ownership rights, resulting in a virtual free-for-all forum for students to garner fraudulent information and papers."

Is cheating a necessary survival tool?
News Sentinel | 10/25/2004 |
By Mike Manuel in the South Side Times

"Nearly a quarter of a century ago, if you cheated in school, you were looked down upon, not only by your teachers and parents but also by your peers as well. Those who accompanied daily life around you made sure that the traditional morals and ethics of the learning atmosphere were protected on a day-to-day basis. Obviously, this has dramatically changed since the mid-1900s."

WHEN ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
HAPPENS ON YOUR CAMPUS
by Karén L. Clos, Dean of Learning & Instruction
Barton County Community College, Great Bend, KS
Innovation Abstracts, The University of Texas at Austin

Lipson authors student guide on honesty in academic work

By William Harms, News Office
University of Chicago Chronicle

"College students throughout the country have a new book to add to their collections of dictionaries and other essential reference materials-the first-ever guide to avoiding cheating and plagiarism. The guide focuses considerable attention on Web-based research, where much of today's troubles begin"

Mediaphor Plagiarism- Finder 1.0.9

Thursday 18, November 2004
By Matthew Overington, apcmag.com

"Finally, teachers gain an ally in the ongoing war on plagiarism. For years, teachers have been fighting plagiarism, but with the advent of the Internet, the battle seemed lost forever.

German software house Mediaphor is turning the tables on would-be cheats with Plagiarism-Finder, a program designed to scour online articles for designated quotes and snippets."

DEAR PLAGIARISTS: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
Pediatrics. Nov. 2004, Vol. 114 Issue 5, p1211
Source: EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier

Subject Terms:
*PLAGIARISM
*INTERNET fraud
*INTERNET
*WEB sites

Geographic Terms: UNITED States

Abstract: "Focuses on the prevalence of Internet plagiarism in the U.S. Initiative to deal with Web site plagiarism; Advocacy of college students to Internet plagiarism."

If your library subscribes to the EBSCOhost database, Academic Search Premier, the Persistent link to this record above will take you to the database record, where you'll find a link to the PDF Full Text. If you're not a subscriber, ask your reference librarian if your library has a subscription to Pediatrics; if not, you can use the citation information along with this ISSN, 0031-4005, to order the article via Interlibrary Loan.

Students can avoid falling into plagiarism trap
By HILARY COSTA, The California Aggie

A student view from University of California, Davis.

Moravian College Efforts to Prevent Plagiarism Exemplify National Trend

BETHLEHEM, Pa., Aug. 26 (AScribe Newswire)

"The new academic year is about to start at colleges across the country. That means thousands of students writing thousands of papers. With rising concerns about plagiarism, some teachers are taking a novel, pro-active approach to the problem."

Pressured to Pass
The Orion Online
by Kelly Parker
September 29, 2004

Cheating and plagiarism are serious concerns for university students, faculty and administrators

"One of the steps Chico State is taking to combat academic dishonesty is the recent creation of the Council for Promoting Academic Integrity. "

Plagiarism is the Sin du Jour
The New York Sun
September 29, 2004

"According to a recent article in the New York Times, Duke University's Center for Academic Integrity says 40% of college students admit to plagiarizing off the Internet, up from 10% in 1999. Students don't have to find old papers or copy passages off the Internet, either - they can buy ready-made papers for a couple of hundred dollars from Web sites likeaceyourpaper.com and schoolsucks.com. With unmanageable workloads and the knowledge that classmates are buying their B-pluses, the siren call can be difficult to ignore."

Trying To Keep Students Honest at Universities
MercuryNews.com
09/26/2004

SJSU Attempts To Heighten Sense Of Ethics On Campus
by Becky Bartindale

"Annette Nellen had her most personal encounter with plagiarism last year after doing a Google search. The San Jose State University tax professor pulled up an award-winning student paper from a New York University Web site and -- surprise! -- she had written it two years before for a law conference.

Her experience shows how the Internet has heightened both challenges and opportunities for inhabitants of universities. For Nellen, the Web provides a chance to share research with students and colleagues around the world. But for students who either don't know how to write an academic paper or want a quick fix, it offers nearly limitless opportunities to steal other people's work."

Plagiarist student to sue university by Phil Baty, The Times Higher Education Supplement

"A student who admits plagiarising his way through his three-year degree course plans to sue his university for negligence after he was caught out on the day before his final exam...Mr Gunn, 21, claims that he was unaware that his activity - cutting and pasting material from the internet without attribution - constituted plagiarism and argues that the university failed to give proper guidance on accept able research techniques."