Dear all contest Members

It's a time for us to give you a brief and simple word concerning the plagiarism.

As it was required by the Skill Contest Board, we will try to stress out a practical paragraphe about this concept, which is not a new issue, especially among the academic world.

We will discus this concept in four (4) main parts: Introduction (What is the plagiarism) - Form of Plagiarism - Reasons why does Plagiarism occur - How can we try to avoid this intellectual piracy .

What is plagiarism ?

From Random House Compact Unabridged Dictionary and Oxford English Dictionary, Wikipedia define Plagiarism as "the wrongful appropriation, close imitation, or purloining and publication, of another author's language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions, and the representation of them as one's own original work.

We can see that it "a form of piracy. It poses a threat to the Integrity of Scientific Community. It is one of the most common offenses and often is the result of lack of Knowledge and understanding of the concepts.

However the plagiarism might look like, the point at which the process moves from originality to plagiarism is not easily defined and creates the great paradox that surrounds plagiarism. Plagiarism is a terrible old disease, fatal to the plagiarist. It is illegal, immoral, and unethical. James P. Smith¹ stated: "Plagiarists must have a death wish for their actions can result in professional suicide."

Although misconduct in Science, plagiarism is not a recent phenomenon² academic plagiarism is a thorny ethical and practical problem. Thus we can simply define the plagiarism as "a Crime of Intellectual Kidnapping"³

Forms of Plagiarism

Sometime plagiarism can be difficultly recognized due to its several manifestations and forms. Ideas and text are always the common objects to be plagiarized. The common forms of plagiarism are Self-plagiarism and redundant and/or duplicate publications.

In many cases the writers don't even know which actions constitute plagiarism, then they believe that by citing the appropriate references they do escape to the plagiarism and all its effects.

An additional and common form of plagiarism related to incorrect citation could be called the "second-generation reference". In this form of plagiarism, author A, the plagiarist, uses a citation from author B, who has (correctly or incorrectly, but certainly originally) cited author C.⁴ From this example, we can see that plagiarism can be also committed unwittingly by omission of a reference.

Reason why does plagiarism occurs?

Let's try to stress out the point why does plagiarism always occur with students or writers?

We have several reasons why people are brought to plagiarize. Among the many reason we have the assignments deadlines are always the external pressure which give the people the concept to plagiarism.

We can subdivide three categories ⁵

1. Writing and Research Skill

O Lack of research Skill

Many students practice plagiarism because they do not know how to search database for academic journal papers.

O Issues relating to evaluate the Internet sources

Many students do lack the evaluative critical spirit of the information provided by internet.

O Confusing between plagiarism and paraphrasing

This issue often occurs when they students are faced to an unfamiliar vocabulary and technical terms. This inability to distinguish between the two concept is often the root causes of unwillingly and unintentional plagiarism

O Confusing terminology and careless note taking

Terminology constitutes also one of the major issues in plagiarism. Students might not understand some terms (for example report and assay) and this leads easily to plagiarism

Sometimes the ways students take note bring them to plagiarize, because during this phase, the materials are mixed up.

2. External factors

O Pressure from teachers/family and competition for scholarship and Job

Sometimes are object to great deal of pressure to maintain a certain grade points regardless of what is learned. Competing for scholarship, job, or entry into graduate school enhances the pressure on the students who easily overcome their problems with a certain level of plagiarism

3. Internal Factors

O Poor time management and organization skill

Students who often plagiarize don't have a time management or organizational skill necessary to complete a large research paper. They find themselves with a lot of task to accomplish and with a lot of pressure.

How can we try to avoid this intellectual piracy?

As stated by Sue Thompson⁶, a systems cordinator of San Marcos Library for the California State University "Plagiarism seems like such an easy concept to understand: the dishonest practice of claiming credit for something you didn't do. Avoiding plagiarism seems equally simple: giving credit where credit is due. And it is that simple -- sort of." ⁶

Learning is to absorbe as much reliable information and knowledge as we can in order to develop or to build up our own understanding and interpretation on a particular subject for the sake of the science

O We should first know what is plagiarism

O We should know the difference between plagiarism and paraphrasing

O Students should be trained to conduct research work by themselves rather than copying other people work

O The students and researchers should have the awareness of integrity and ingenuity of academic paper ⁷

O The students must be told about the severe kind of penalties against this serious crime of plagiarism

O Students should change their attitude about using citation

O Improve their note taking skills

O Keep good time management and

O Find the appropriate style for the appropriate paper

O Acknowledge the source used in our work.

O Believe in your own writing and conclusion

O Always double-check your own work

O Be confident in what we are assigned to do

O Have the passion to learn and to face challenges

Let us give credit to Science and its Knowledge but being proud of who we are and by saying NO to Plagiarism.

<<Knowledge is a weapon, i intended to be formidably armed >> - Terry Goodkind

References

1. Smith JP. Plagiarists publish and perish [editorial]. J Adv Nurs. 1999; 30:777-778

2. Broad W, Wade N. Betrayers of the truth. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1982

3. Pamela A. Jackson. Plagiarism Instruction Online: Assessing Undergraduate students' Ability to Avoid Plagiarism. College & Research Libraries. September 2006

4. John D.Armstrong Ill. Plagiarism: What Is It, Whom Does It Offend, and How Does One Deal with It? AJR: 161, September 1993

5. http://guides.library.ualberta.ca/content.php?pid=62200&sid=457755

6. http://library.csusm.edu/plagiarism/index.html

7. http://www.essaysaid.com/articles4.html