Plagiarism: Concepts, Factors and Solutions
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Iranian Journal of Military Medicine Vol. 14, No. 3, Autumn 2012; 168-177
Plagiarism: Concepts, Factors and Solutions
Bahadori M.1 PhD, Izadi M1 MD, Hoseinpourfard M1* PhD
1
Health Management Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Science, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
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The goal of knowledge production is the discovery of facts and improving the human situation, and as such,
plagiarism and using other unethical means are not compatible with this goal. Most academic scholars agree that
plagiarism is a serious violation of publishing ethics. In recent decades, the scientific community has become
really concerned about the fast growth of plagiarism. Although plagiarism is widespread, it isn’t consistent with
the principles of science.
Nowadays some media publish worrying news of plagiarism in scientific publications, including data
manipulation by well-known scientists. The prevalence rate of plagiarism has been reported in different studies
turns out to be different in various fields, countries, educational levels and times.
The goal of this study is to review the scientific concepts related to plagiarism, its factors and roots, its
prevalence in the world and methods of detecting it in order to improve the awareness of instructors and
students of plagiarism.
Keywords: Plagiarism, Solutions, Concepts, Causes
Introduction tional demand for better results and more publica-
The goal of research is to produce knowledge, and tions in scientifically accredited journals [4].
the aim of producing knowledge is to improve hu- Plagiarism is a controversial issue in higher edu-
man situation while doing research using unethical cation, and it is increasingly widespread among
or inappropriate means leads to scientific corrup- students. Some challenges in academic activities
tion, which is against scientific knowledge pro- are due to the increase in the number of students
duction [1]. No doubt, there is plagiarism in the [5]. Today, open access publications are not only
scientific community although it is against basic reasonable but also very vital to scientific innova-
scientific principles. Plagiarism is useless, mean- tions. Unlimited access to scientific ideas, meth-
ingless, unethical and thus forbidden [2].one of the ods, findings and results is not compatible with the
pathological componenets in the relationships be- restricting regulations of copyright, and this has
tween people is the legal culture in society [3]. made for more plagiarism [6].
Unethical issues are quickly increasing in the realm “If plagiarism turns into an ordinary and usual ac-
of science. In the future, such issues in gathering tivity, it will affect the security of scientific knowl-
data, cooperation between scientists and in publi- edge and destroy all social realms. In such a situ-
cations will most probably get more complicated ation, nobody will bother doing research; rather,
and more difficult to deal with. More than ever be- everybody will make use of ready-made knowl-
fore, postgraduate medical students should know edge produced by the past researchers and will de-
about methods, technologies and concepts of sci- stroy all knowledge. Such unreasonable behavior
ence. The global competition among the scientists will devastate the foundations of scientific prog-
of developing countries, especially Asian ones, is ress and everything else. And if a country loses its
a new reality for the western researchers who want firm scientific foundations, it will remain in past
to be the best in all areas of research. Researchers achievements and will not experience progress”
in developing countries are increasingly enjoying [7].
more research budgets, and this development has Plagiarism is one of the important issues of univer-
been accompanied by governmental and institu- sities in recent years. In the last two decades, the
*
Corresponding author: Hoseinpourfard M.J., Please, direct all correspondence at hpf.javad@gmail.com.Bahadori M. et al
progress in computer technology, that is, running giarists to take advantage of the situation [11].
websites to provide university services, the copy- Ben Jonson was the first one to sue the term pla-
paste tool, and loads of pre-fabricated papers, has giarism in the early 17th century. It was hard for
made for an increase in plagiarism [8]. Nowadays authors to protect their writings before devising
some media publish worrying news of plagiarism copyright laws. But as plagiarism increased in the
in scientific publications, including data manipula- 18th century and copyright laws were consequent-
tion by well-known scientists. The ethics of scien- ly clearly defined and devised by the middle of the
tific publication is in direct connection to the con- century, plagiarists faced a change in the public
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cepts of copyright in writing scientific papers and opinion and strong ethical viewpoints towards pla-
of plagiarism. Sometimes, journal editors take the giarism [12].
writers’ cunningness for their lack of familiarity In view of the prevalence of plagiarism in the sci-
with journal regulations or their lack of attention entific community and its devastating effects on
to a certain paper. As Kosovsky notes, “the road to scientific progress, this study aims at surveying
hell is paved with good intentions” and after that, the concepts, causes and solutions to the issue of
the writers make very serious ethical mistakes to plagiarism.
the end [9]. Terminology, Definitions and Idioms
The author of a book, paper, poem or a scientific According to the Persian dictionary of Dehkhoda,
passage, after hours of thinking and writing about the word “steal” means “taking away somebody’s
a subject, puts to paper the fruit of years of his or possession with deception and tricks” or “to take
her continuous efforts. As such, the plagiarist not hold of something without the right to do so” [13].
only steals the fruit of such efforts but also reg- Wilson Mizner states that “when we steal an idea
isters all that painstaking work to his or her own from one author, it will be called plagiarism, but
name [7]. when we do it from a few authors, it is called re-
Plagiarism is hundreds of years old, but, due to search” [14].The word plagiarism comes from the
the progress in information technology, it has ac- word “plagarius”, meaning kidnapper, robber, mis-
quired new and different methods compared to the leader, and literary thief” [15]. Plagiarism usually
past. Plagiarism was almost a rare phenomenon refers to stealing ideas or words that are higher
until 1990, but it has spread across the world in than the level of public knowledge [16].
recent years and has worried the academic com- In Webster’s Dictionary, a plagiarist is defined as
munity [10]. In the past, there were a few scien- “One who plagiarizes, or purloins the words, writ-
tists who produced knowledge and some of them ings, or ideas of another, and passes them off as his
would produce no more than a couple of papers in own; a literary thief” [17], and plagiarism as “tak-
their lifetime. In those times, strict reviewing prin- ing someone›s words or ideas as if they were your
ciples were at work, there just a few journals and own”[18]. The University of Liverpool defines
scientists had a hard time convincing the scientific plagiarism as the “use of materials from unac-
community to accept their ideas. In the 19th cen- knowledged sources or direct quotation of materi-
tury, the problem was stealing ideas, and that was als from documented references without acknowl-
why many discoveries and inventions were dis- edging that the words have been taken verbatim
puted. Today, however, the number of scientists, from those references” [19]. Payer sees plagiarism
students, journals and papers has really increased. as “taking others’ ideas, words or wok as if they
While there is no problem with the increase in the were your own” [20]. Or as Stebel man puts it,
number of papers, peer-reviewing of the papers is plagiarism consists of “claiming as your own the
the main problem. It is certainly expected of a re- writings and research papers that originally belong
viewer to have a good command of the subject of to others [21]. Vessal and Habibzadeh take pla-
a paper. But, given the large number of papers to giarism to be “ascribing others’ ideas, processes,
be reviewed, are there enough specialists to review results and words to oneself without due acknowl-
the papers? No scientist can claim that he or she edgement” [22]. Using sentences from published
has studied all specialist papers in his or her area of medical literature with little change in the words
knowledge, and this paves the way for some pla- without acknowledging the source is also an in-
Ir J Military Medicine Vol. 14, No. 3, Autumn 2012Plagiarism: Concepts, Factors and Solutions
stance of plagiarism. Using unpublished images or the same data in two papers (on with a clinical fo-
pictures with the owners’ permission is also called cus and one with a theoretical focus), and publish-
plagiarism [23]. ing the same paper under two names, one being the
The Federal Government of the United States de- real author in his or her own country and the other
fines “research misconduct as fabrication, falsifi- being a foreign author.
cation or plagiarism in proposing, implementing or Republishing, which is done in a deceptive way,
reviewing of research projects or in reporting the is certainly unacceptable. If editors, reviewers and
results of research” [24]. end readers of data notice the overlap between pa-
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Plagiarism is an unethical activity in scientific pers, they can make the right decision about it. Du-
writing. For something to be called plagiarism, plicate publication is, nevertheless, deceptive and
it needs to be a serious deviation from normally involves three problems: it is unethical, it wastes
accepted behavior of the relevant scientific com- resources and it has adverse impacts upon future
munity which is done consciously and deliberately clinical and research decisions. Editors and readers
and must be proved with solid evidence. Plagia- of a published report want to make sure that they
rism may occur in different forms: stealing ideas are dealing with new and important data, and may
and stealing parts of texts. Self-plagiarism happens wrongly be persuaded to think so, while this is not
when an author uses his or her own previously pub- the case. Duplicate or redundant publication mis-
lished work without acknowledging it [25]. Self- leads the readers and reduces the credibility of the
plagiarism is defined in three ways in the relevant journal as well as its ability to attract good papers.
literature: 1) publishing a paper which basically Duplicate publication makes for wasting resources
overlaps another paper without due acknowledge- by wasting the time which should be allocated to
ment; 2) breaking a large paper into a few smaller other papers [28].
papers and publishing them separately, called sa- “Most academic researchers agree that plagiarism
lami slicing and 3) republishing the same work. is a serious problem in the ethics of publication.
Copyright, on the other hand, means enhancing Plagiarism appears in different forms: stealing
knowledge and useful arts by providing limited- ideas and stealing texts (verbatim plagiarism).
time security for authors and inventions through Plagiarism is no doubt an instance of misconduct.
exclusive rights regarding their writings and in- Stealing part of text and rephrasing it is a severe
ventions. Authors of technical papers are usually problem in the humanities and literature where in-
asked to transfer the copyright of their work to the novation in phrasing and eloquence are essential.
journal or the publisher [26]. But in the realm of science, it is the scientific con-
Scientific integrity depends on honesty and trans- tent itself, not its eloquence, that matters” [29].
parency of the methods of producing and trans- The purpose of scientific journals is to some extent
ferring knowledge [26]. Republishing results is different from that of non-scientific ones. For in-
announcing the same results in two or more pa- stance, medical journals are published in order to
pers, multiple recalculations of the same results in improve the science of medicine and public health
meta-analyses and as a result in serious errors in by publishing the results of scientific research. In
research [27]. many areas such as literature and humanities, how-
Duplicate or redundant publication occurs when ever, different authors have different views. They
there is an overlap, without acknowledging it, try to reflect their own understanding and feelings
between two papers in terms of their hypotheses, of texts by means of a selection of good and suit-
data, arguments or results. This could include an able words. Thus, each and every word, along with
overlap with other authors, their results or their its immediate context, has a role in conveying the
samples. The most important cases involve lack meaning to the reader. But in a scientific writing,
of acknowledging the sources. The following are the writer’s audience consists of scholars who are
example cases of republishing: publishing data looking for facts based on solid evidence. There-
which has been published before, reusing tables fore, the writer is supposed to observe and report
and figures in later publications, publishing larger correctly. Unlike literary researchers, a scientific
papers using previous smaller papers, publishing paper author should follow a certain and well-es-
Ir J Military Medicine Vol. 14, No. 3, Autumn 2012Bahadori M. et al
tablished scientific method and make sure that he copying materials of one or more texts and pro-
or she will not be become biased in his or judg- viding the right citations without using quotation
ments since this can endanger the truth or reliabili- marks to make the readers believe that they have
ty of the judgments. Thus, whether or not he or she paraphrased the materials not quoted them, and re-
is eloquent, as far as an author is a just observer wording sentences from other sources without giv-
who works based on accepted scientific methods, ing credit to them [31].
evidence and facts, he or she can publish his or Recognizing plagiarism faces a number of prob-
her findings and could be said to have followed a lems. One problem is recognizing the amount of
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universally accepted method [29]. plagiarism because it can cover a wide scope. The
Plagiarism, in general, includes attributing some- second problem is the question as to how much
body else’s work to yourself without giving credit change in the original material can make for pla-
to the author, copying other’s ideas or words with- giarism [31]. Roig argues that many students
out giving credit to the source, not putting quota- struggle between rewording and summarizing be-
tions in quotation marks, giving the wrong infor- cause they cannot distinguish between them. The
mation about a reference, changing the words while third issue is that most authors believe that there
keeping the structure of a sentence from another is no need to reference common knowledge, but
source without acknowledging it, and copying a we may ask what common knowledge is and who
large number of words or ideas from other sources defines it? [32]
with or without due acknowledgement [30]. Plagiarism can be divided into two types with
Another definition of plagiarism numerates the regard to intentions. The first type is intentional
ways of plagiarizing in the following way: “‘co- plagiarism where the author is fully aware of the
py-past’ which means verbatim copying of words, plagiarism and is willing to do it. The second type
plagiarizing ideas, which consists of using a con- of is unintentional plagiarism where a person pla-
cept or idea which is not commonly known to oth- giarizes due to his or her unawareness and lack of
ers, rephrasing, which means changing the gram- skill in writing. The latter type could be prevented
matical structure, using synonyms, reordering the [33].
original sentences, or rewriting the same content in In another classification, plagiarism is divided into
different words, artistic plagiarism, which denotes four categories: 1) “casual plagiarism, which oc-
presenting others’ works using a different medium curs because of lack of awareness of plagiarism,
such as text, voice, or image, plagiarizing codes, or insufficient understanding of referencing or ci-
that is, using other programs’ codes, algorithms tation;” 2) unintentional plagiarism, where, due
and functions without the right permission or ref- to the wide amount of knowledge in the scientific
erencing, using expired or neglected links, adding area, a person may unknowingly present ideas sim-
quotation marks or other referencing signs without ilar to those of others;” 3) intentional plagiarism,
providing the right referencing information or up- where a person deliberately and knowingly copies
dating links to sources, inappropriate use of quota- part or all of somebody else’s work without giv-
tion marks, failure to recognize the quoted parts of ing credit to them; and 4) self-plagiarism, which
a text, incorrect referencing, i.e., adding incorrect consists of reusing one’s own published work in a
referencing information or references which do different form with acknowledging it” [30].
not exist and plagiarism in translation, which con- The Prevalence of Plagiarism
sists of translating a text without giving reference Researches show that plagiarism is an increasingly
to the original text” [30]. widespread practice in educational and research
The following are some instance of student pla- institutes. The rate of plagiarism is different in
giarism: stealing material from a source and pass- various areas of research. As reported, the rates of
ing it for as their own, for instance, by buying a prevalence of plagiarism are 78% in the students
preordered paper, copying an entire paper without of Organizational Studies and 63% in the students
acknowledging it, presenting another student’s of humanities. Also, there is a meaningful differ-
work without their knowledge, presenting some- ence between the behavior of American students
body else’s paper and passing it as your own, and that of Hungary in terms of plagiarism [31].
Ir J Military Medicine Vol. 14, No. 3, Autumn 2012Plagiarism: Concepts, Factors and Solutions
Similarly, studies carried out by Park in the United tion showed some signs of duplicate publication.
States, South Africa and Finland reveal that the According to Tramer et al, 17% of the reports and
rates of plagiarism are different for different ar- 28% of patient data were duplicated and the inclu-
eas of study [31]. According to some research, the sion of redundant data in a meta-analysis led to a
number of plagiarizing students in an institute in- 23% overestimation of the treatment effectiveness
creased from 11% in 1963 to 49% in 1993. These of an antiemetic agent. Redundant publication can
results include all forms of plagiarism, including undermine the results of studies which are based
copying material from encyclopedias, journals, on reliable evidence. It can exaggerate the signifi-
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papers and the like [34]. Jude Carroll argues that cance of the results and mislead the reader [28].
unacknowledged copying of materials from books According to a met-analysis by Fanelli, medical
and journals are more common than from web scholars report more cases of scientific misconduct
sites [35]. that those of fields of study [23]. The University of
According to some research, 12% of the papers Sao Paolo has appeared in the media on the sus-
suspected of plagiarism belong to the students of picion of plagiarism in scientific publication and
Politics. According to another researcher, in an research. Journals are concerned about fabrication
American university, 16.5% students report to or making up of data in published papers or dupli-
have plagiarized, and 50% of the students believed cation production of data or text by other authors
that their classmates often copy-pasted material without proper citation or referencing or even du-
from the Internet without acknowledging it [36]. plication of the published research or texts in other
Satterthwaite argues that the rate of plagiarism in papers [43].
America is 30% [37]. One study shows that 94% Factors of Plagiarism
of students had misconducted in their research for According to Ashworth, the concept of plagiarism
at least once, and another study shows this rate to is not clear enough so much so that some students
be 91% [38]. Dordoy, who has studied plagiarism are afraid of unwitting plagiarism while putting to
in the students of an English university, claims that paper what they take to be their own ideas [44].
the rate of copying a paragraph from a book or a Researches show that students and teachers have
web site was 73.9% [39]. different understandings of plagiarism. For some
A study focusing on plagiarism reveals that 48% of teachers, some definitions are influenced by higher
the students were not aware of the methods and re- education values such as the copyright, personal
quirements of referencing [40]. The results of some effort and unity in the university [45]. The multi-
research on academic misconduct tell us that 76% plication of databases, with all its benefits, has also
of students had responded positively to cheating caused a rapid growth in plagiarism. Some factors
in high school or college [40]. Carroll holds that affecting student attitudes toward plagiarism are
because most students do not know what makes ignorance, lack of personal investment in their
for plagiarism, they do not commit it with the in- education, situational ethics, and lack of consistent
tention of deceiving others [41]. A study in 2009 styles among and within various disciplines [46].
indicates that 212 papers showed some potential According to Dordoy, the most important factors
signs of plagiarism. In these papers, the similar- influencing plagiarism include promotion, laziness
ity between the original paper and the republished or mismanagement of time, easy access to materi-
one was 86.2% while the average of shared sourc- als on the Internet, unawareness of rules and regu-
es was 73.1%. Of the 212 papers, only 47 (22%) lations and unwitting plagiarizing [39].
cited the original paper. Also, there were miscal- Some other factors causing plagiarism are low
culations, contradictory data and manipulation of commitment to the learning process and focus-
figures in 47% of the papers [42]. ing on getting an academic degree, the student life
Bloemenkamp et al. report that 20% of the papers style, family pressures, etc. make students try to
published in Holland’s Journal of General Medi- achieve the best results with the least efforts and in
cine had already been published elsewhere. Simi- the least time [47]. In the past, students had to go
larly, Schein and Paladugu reported that one sixth to libraries, retrieve information and retype it while
of the papers appearing in three journals of opera- today and with the rapid progress of the Internet,
Ir J Military Medicine Vol. 14, No. 3, Autumn 2012Bahadori M. et al
this process has changed and most teachers believe seem to believe that ‘they should get grades based
that computers have made it easier to cheat and on effort rather than on achievement’.
plagiarize [48].Angellil-Carter claims that there is 3. Time management. There are many calls on
no transparency about factors influencing plagia- student’s time, including peer pressure for an ac-
rism all over a university [49]. Dickert claims that tive social life, commitment to college sports and
not only are Hong Kong university students not performance activities, family responsibilities and
familiar with plagiarism but also it is very hard to pressure to complete multiple work assignments in
detect plagiarism in this university [50]. Informa- short amounts of time. Little wonder that Silver-
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tion is easily accessible through electronic media man (2002) concludes that ‘students’ overtaxed
and word processing applications can easily copy- lives leave them so vulnerable to the temptations
paste material [51]. of cheating’.
In some countries, there is a lot of pressure on re- 4. Personal values/attitudes. Some students see
searchers to publish so that if they do not publish no reason why they should not plagiarize or do it
in journals with high impact factors or other in- because of social pressure, because it makes them
ternationally indexed journals, they will not get feel good or because they regard short cuts as clev-
promoted even if they have high instructional er and acceptable.
skills. This situation represents the familiar saying 5. Defiance. To some students plagiarism is a tan-
“Publish or perish.” Therefore, some scholars may gible way of showing dissent and expressing a lack
make ethical mistakes under the pressure to make of respect for authority. They may also regard the
progress and to hurry up with publishing [9]. task set as neither important nor challenging.
Cultural issues are specially considered in the 6. Students’ attitudes towards teachers and class.
problem of plagiarism. Cheating and plagiarism is Some students cheat because they have negative
an acceptable practice among the teachers and stu- student attitudes towards assignments and tasks
dents of countries where there is little awareness of that teachers think have meaning but they don’t
copyright [52]. A study reveals that students with a (Howard, 2002). Burnett (2002) emphasizes the
stronger belief in detecting plagiarism commit this importance of a relationship of trust between stu-
less than others and turn out to have better writing dent and teacher, because ‘the classes in which
skills, self-confidence and creativity [53]. Robert [students] are more likely to cheat … are those
Harris takes students’ looking for short cuts, their where students believe their professor doesn’t
low interest in the research subject, their low plan- bother to read their papers or closely review their
ning skills, mismanagement of time, lack of skills work’.
in scientific writing and their interest in ignoring 7. Denial or neutralization. Some students deny to
regulations as some of the reasons why students themselves that they are cheating or find ways of
take to plagiarism [54]. legitimizing it by passing the blame on to others
Another study shows that the following are among 8. Temptation and opportunity. It is both easier and
the most important reasons why students plagia- more tempting for students to plagiarize as infor-
rize: mation becomes more accessible on the Internet
1. Genuine lack of understanding. Some students and web search tools make it easier and quicker to
plagiarize unintentionally, when they are not fa- find and copy.
miliar with proper ways of quoting, paraphrasing, 9. Lack of deterrence. To some students the bene-
citing and referencing and/or when they are un- fits of plagiarizing outweigh the risks, particularly
clear about the meaning of ‘common knowledge’ if they think there is little or no chance of getting
and the expression ‘in their own words’. caught and there is little or no punishment if they
2. Efficiency gain. Students plagiarize to get a bet- are caught [31].
ter grade and to save time. Some cheat because of Some of the perceived obstacles to changing the
what Straw (2002) calls ‘the GPA thing, so that management of plagiarism are:
cheating becomes ‘the price of an A’ (Whiteman a reluctance by staff to process a case of suspect-
& Gordon, 2001). Auer &Krupar (2001) identify a ed plagiarism due to the time and workload in-
strong consumer mentality amongst students, who volved in proving‟ the plagiarism;” a reluctance
Ir J Military Medicine Vol. 14, No. 3, Autumn 2012Plagiarism: Concepts, Factors and Solutions
to become the one who dares to differ where it has some of these applications are free and they are all
been somewhat common practice to “turn a blind good for English texts. There are methods, how-
eye” to some relatively minor cases of plagiarism; ever, that can be used in any language. The Glatt
a perception that the University is reluctant to act plagiarism service, for example, is a computer ap-
on suspected plagiarism and that therefore the ef- plication which does not depend on correlation
fort expended by individual staff is likely to be techniques. It deletes every fifth word in a paper
fruitless in terms of dissuading or punishing pla- suspected of plagiarism and the author of the paper
giarism; a fear of risking collegial relationships is then asked to fill in the missing words. If the
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with students by seeming or becoming authoritar- student can’t fill in 77% of the missing words, the
ian through a focus on minimizing plagiarism; a work is most probably plagiarized [17]. Wcopy-
concern that following through with cases of re- find is a free application on the Internet which can
peated plagiarism that may lead to student expul- be used to detect plagiarism. This software exam-
sion might damage the international reputation of ines a group of document files to compare their
the faculty or university; and a further concern that content [57].
such damage to reputation may result in reduced There are other tools such as http://ithenticate.com,
international enrolments; fear of harassment from http://www.crossref.org) and http://turnitin.com to
the student(s) accused of plagiarism and/or from discover plagiarism, but these tools can examine
their friends (such harassment occurred previously the papers indexed in MEDLINE only [42]. This
in the faculty); fear of student complaints if accu- area of study has been attended to by Turnitin and
sations of plagiarism are made (this had been an Safe Assign in the last 10 years. Kohler and We-
issue for some sessional staff who were concerned ber-wulf carried out a study in 2010 on 47 systems
that a student complaint might mean the end of of direct plagiarism detection and concluded that
their employment) [55]. only 5 of them were to some extent useful [58].
Detecting Plagiarism There are three approaches to detecting plagia-
Detecting plagiarism is hard and this makes pla- rism. The most common approach is by comparing
giarism a threat to the health of scientific literature. the document against a number of other documents
Often plagiarism is recognized by learned review- on a word by word basis. The second approach is
ers who possess up-to-date knowledge in their own by taking a characteristic paragraph and just doing
specialist filed [23]. a search with a good search engine like Google.
The following include some of the methods that And the third is by style analysis, which is usu-
can be used by researchers to detect plagiarism. 1) ally called stylometry [30]. Computer applications
General sight overview: the academic staff should reports cannot be simply relied here and there will
assess the sentence structure, grammar and idioms be need for specialist interpretation in such cases
used in the students’ assignments. They should ex- [30]. Detecting plagiarism is sometimes very dif-
amine the work which is lower or higher than the ficult, especially when rephrasing has occurred,
student’s abilities can afford; 2) Search of online when non-electronic sources have been used and
bookstores: these stores help the academic staff to when there is shift of language between the origi-
decide whether the students mentioned the right nal document and the plagiarized one [30]. Al-
dates for publications or whether the sources used though comparing abstracts is a good way to de-
were appropriate to the subject in hand; 3) Search tect plagiarism, a comparison of the full texts will
of keywords: searching keywords in search engines render better results [23].
is another tool in the hands of academics to find Systems of retrieving data or plagiarism detect-
instances if plagiarism, although today’s search- ing applications are capable of finding plagiarism
ing technology makes it possible for us to search where a verbatim copy of words has happened, but
a whole text, too; 4) a use of plagiarism services: what happens when the order of words has been
there are many software applications and tools and changed but not the overall meaning of the sen-
web sites that can help us detect plagiarized texts tences? Naturally, in such cases, the software will
[56]. Most of these tools use correlation techniques not be able to detect plagiarism and the plagiarizer
to detect similarities between documents. Only will be able to deceive it. Therefore, these systems
Ir J Military Medicine Vol. 14, No. 3, Autumn 2012Bahadori M. et al
may become useless in the short run [11]. they know well about it and not try to learn more.
Strategies to Tackle Pagiarism Similarly, the staff may also wrongly think that
As Delvin points out universities do not like to students are well aware, and thus lose the opportu-
endanger their reputations for the sake of plagia- nity to teach students to avoid plagiarism [40]. Al-
rizers [59]. One of the measures needed to assure though the preventing approach takes more time, it
the quality of universities is to make sure that their is more effective than other approaches [64]. Ex-
assessing policies and activities are useful enough ercises and activities encouraged by staff have led
that their assessment is effectively examined in to good results. These activities include methods
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terms of its validity, reliability and fairness. Some of appropriate citation, quotation, paraphrasing,
of the plagiarism preventing measures recom- phrasing and presenting some instances of plagia-
mended by quality assuring organizations include rism [40].
providing a definition of academic misconduct The attempt by some Australian universities to
with regard to plagiarism, cheating, identity fraud hide their management of plagiarismhas made it
and using inappropriate content” [60]. In order to difficult to share the best practices in this field.
effectively and fairly fight against plagiarism, stu- Although it seems that common policies are in
dents and staff need to have the same definition of it practice with respect to plagiarism, there is noth-
[61]. A preventing approach on the part of the staff ing to indicate the success of these policies. Del-
can eradicate this sort of misconduct and make for vin reports that for some, “catch and persecute”
academic progress and consistency in freshmen. leads to a decrease in plagiarism [59] while there
Along with practical approaches based on skills, is little evidence to suggest the effectiveness of
interactive prevention can not only improve the such a measure [52]. Gallant similarly argues that
students’ skill in referencing and citing and avoid- traditional methods of preventing plagiarism, such
ing plagiarism but also increase their awareness of as persecution as a preventing measure, honor
and sensitivity to this matter [62]. code systems and instructor detection are not ef-
University authorities are responsible for prevent- fective today [8]. In the UK, in order to minimize
ing plagiarism in all departments of their universi- plagiarism, they makes use of special courses, as-
ties. The universities’ policies in this regard should sessment, giving awareness to students, teaching
be clearly defined and announced and disseminat- student the necessary skills, detecting plagiarism,
ed among students and staff, preferably published persecution and special policies, and instructional
on the universities’ web sites, in libraries, student programs [65].
deputy offices, research centers and dormitories. Conway and Groshek have shown that student eth-
Academic staff should always talk to students ics is flexible and can be shaped at any level of
about academic values and avoiding plagiarism. education. Students showed in this research that
Students, on the other hand, should try to improve they are concerned about ethical violations and ex-
their skills in writing papers, research method- pect that severe punishment will be considered for
ology, and organizing data. University teachers those students who plagiarize or fabricate materi-
should encourage academic honesty in students, als.” Repeating anti-plagiarism actions at any stage
clearly define plagiarism for them, and point out of education can empower students [66]. MIT has
to them that they should reference the accessed defined good methods and policies to manage aca-
materials. University policies can also help staff to demic misconduct. In this university, teachers are
decide how to deal with plagiarism [17]. rewarded for teaching the right academic behavior
Burke points out that universities should focus on to students [67]. The Online Writing and Commu-
teaching student as to how they should avoid pla- nication Centerof this university runs a program
giarism [63]. The results show that teaching stu- for improving students’ writing skills and explains
dents, especially in the first year, is more effective different aspects of plagiarism [68]. In some uni-
than other ways of preventing plagiarism. Landau versities, such as Berkeley, people are academical-
argues that taking an active approach to plagiarism ly sanctioned for plagiarism [69]. In Stanford Uni-
is very important because students who are not versity, students learn about the university policies
fully aware of such misconduct may suppose that to deal with academic misconduct, copyright and
Ir J Military Medicine Vol. 14, No. 3, Autumn 2012Plagiarism: Concepts, Factors and Solutions
fair use of materials. important question;
Although there is always need for good inspec- Competing submissions of coworkers who dis-
tions, the responsibility to keep research integrity agree on analysis and interpretation of the same
lies with the scientific community itself and aca- study;
demic staff should make sure that students learn Articles from different groups of authors who have
about this integrity. Authors should guarantee that analyzed the same data. This is often the case with
their reported work is new and correct. Scholars very large administrative data sets or large national
who agree to review papers should feel responsible surveys sponsored by government agencies;
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for doing informed, thorough and conscientious Republication of an article in another language
reviewing. Journal editor, who are themselves dis- with cross-referencing. There are mixed thoughts
tinguished scholars, should assure the originality on the acceptability of this practice. Typically the
of the material they publish [42]. The ideas and two (or more) journals need to work together and
thoughts of different thinkers and authors are in- often permission to publish is needed. The Interna-
evitable connected. So, it is a great responsibility tional Council of Medical Journal Editors has pub-
of authors to make sure that no plagiarism occurs lished criteria for this practice. While publication
when they publish their results. This means that the of data in an uncommon language need not neces-
authors must do whatever they can to ensure that sarily prevent it being presented in English, sec-
the words of their papers are theirs. They should be ondary publication should follow the International
always sure that it is clear for their readers whether Council of Medical Journal Editors guideline in
the ideas presented in the papers are theirs or oth- the uniform requirements [9].
ers’ and this could be clear by citing earlier pub- Strategies to Avoid Plagiarism
lished sources [24]. 1. Read the instructions for authors provided by
The process of peer-reviewing is the best mech- the journal.
anism to ensure the high quality of publications. 2. Always acknowledge the contributions of others
But recent studies have shown that lack of appro- and the source of ideas and words, regardless of
priate standards can result in duplicate publication whether paraphrased or summarized.
as well as publication of papers which include 3. Use of verbatim text/material must be enclosed
plagiarism [42]. At present, plagiarism tackling in quotation marks.
approaches focus on instructions to students and 4. Acknowledge sources used in the writing.
making them aware of the related policies and pos- 5. When paraphrasing, understand the material
sible outcomes. For instance, students are taught to completely and use your own words.
utilize to access and use sources in the right way. 6. When in doubt about whether or not the concept
Also, developing scientific integrity and honor or fact is common knowledge, reference it.
code systems are among good approaches to pla- 7. Make sure to reference and cite references ac-
giarism [70]. Carroll argues that teachers should curately.
focus on prevention [71]. McCabe similarly thinks 8. If the results of a single complex study are best
that reducing the chances of plagiarism is an im- presented as a cohesive whole, they should not be
portant tool in reducing scientific misconduct [72]. sliced into multiple separate articles.
Authors should bear in mind that it is not accept- 9. When submitting a manuscript for publication
able to republish a paper which has already been containing research questions/hypotheses, meth-
published, but this rule has the following excep- ods, data, discussion points, or conclusions that
tions, if the right disclosure is made to the editors have already been published or disseminated in a
and reader: significantmanner (such as previously published as
Prior publication in abstract form only (generally anarticle in a separate journal or a report posted onBahadori M. et al
publication, if there are any doubts or uncertainty in Science and Technology. 2010;4(3):1-16.
about duplication or redundancy of manuscripts 2.DeVoss D, Rosati AC. “It wasn’t me, was it?”
originating from the same study, the authors should Plagiarism and the Web. Computers and Composi-
alert the editors of the nature of the overlap anden- tion. 2002;19(2):191-203.
close the other manuscripts (published, in press/ 3. Pakjou A, Izadi M, Masoudipour Sh, Fazel M.
submitted, unpublished) that might be part of them “Pattern of travel medicine ethics in international
an uscript under consideration. Augmenting old cooperation programs.” Journal of Military Medi-
data that was previously published with new ad- cine. 2011;13(2):117-123.
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ditional data and presenting it as a new study can 4.Stewart Jr CN. Research Ethics for Scientists: A
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Ethical problems in science are quickly increas- first century: A teaching and learning imperative:
ing and have become controversial issues in uni- Jossey-Bass Inc Pub; 2008.
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