How to Avoid Plagiarism: Student Handbook

Tomáš Foltýnek et al. How to avoid plagiarism. Student Handbook Authors: Petr Černikovský, Tomáš Foltýnek, Josef Fontana, Zuzana Gojná, Dita Henek Dlabolová, Tomáš Holeček, Jan Hradecký, Irena Kozmanová, Jan Mach, Radka Římanová, Klára Tesaříková Čermáková, Adriana Válová, František Vorel, Helena Vorlová Translated from the Czech by Adéla Válková Published by Charles University, Karolinum Press Prague 2020 Graphic design and typesetting: Luboš Řídký Editor and illustrator: Marie König Dudziaková Copyeditors: Helena Vodenková, Hana Janišová Proofreading: Irena Glendinning, Viktor Janiš, Peter Kirk Jensen First English edition This handbook was published with the support of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and constitutes one of the outputs of the centralised development project MŠMT-12222/2019-3 “Prevention of plagiarism in student works”. The images in this handbook are for illustrative purposes only. They do not depict anyone associated with plagiarism in any way. Sources for illustrations: unsplash.com (Marie-Michèle Bouchard, Seth Doyle, Allison Griffith, Elijah M. Henderson, Jeanie de Klerk, Norbert Kundrak, Quan Le, Siora Photography). © Karolinum Press, 2020 © Tomáš Foltýnek et al., 2020 Cover illustration © Marie König Dudziaková, 2020 The use of this work is governed by the international licence Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which enables unlimited use, distribution and copying of the work in any medium, under the condition of giving appropriate credit to the original authors and source. ISBN 978-80-246-4816-3 Contents Dear students 2 It takes your own ideas 5 What is plagiarism 9 What is not plagiarism 14 (In)famous plagiarism cases 16 Consequences of plagiarism 20 How to cite 23 Final tips 31 Bibliography 36 About the authors 41 2 You’ve probably heard about plagiarism before. Unfortunately, it’s a real problem that we encounter in academia. You might be worried that plagiarism could happen to you, too. It can arise not only intentionally (we don’t suspect you of that), but also due to carelessness or lack of knowledge. In this handbook, we will show you how to correctly deal with sources of literature and a bibliography, which you use while writing your seminar papers, thesis and other academic texts – as a matter of fact in any work in which you use the findings of your predecessors. We all know how tempting it is to make our job easier, especially when someone has already formulated exactly what we want to say, or when we’re under time pressure. This is really tricky. It’s becoming apparent that even years after the end of our studies, plagiarism can be exposed. Of course, a student handbook can’t force you to obey academic integrity principles. In this handbook you’ll learn: how to formulate your own ideas how to correctly reference different sources what exactly constitutes plagiarism how to avoid various forms of plagiarism examples of (in)famous cases of plagiarism Introduction 3 three tips against plagiarism and finally, some advice for avoiding time pressure Naturally, you will not find a magic manual for writing great academic texts here. That’s because it doesn’t exist. You need to read a lot, write a lot, and talk a lot with your lecturers and fellow students. For the purposes of clarity, let’s describe an Academic text It presents findings to other researchers. It is not emotional. Nevertheless, it contains a story. The story describes your exploration of the topic, how you collected data or conducted experiments, and what your conclusions are. The story also facilitates the reading of your text, and perhaps will motivate the reader to cite your work or to follow up with his or her own research. In the research part, it summarizes what we know about the topic so far. It formulates questions and hypotheses. It describes your own findings and compares them to existing knowledge. It explains the methodology used, the collection of data and their analysis. And, naturally, it makes correct and ethical use of the findings and texts by other authors. And this is what we will look at on the following pages. Introduction 4 Introduction 5 During your studies, you will write various reports, seminar papers, academic articles and finally also your thesis. In these texts, originality and your own ideas are expected. Academic writing isn’t just a collage of other people’s texts, no matter how nice and professional it might seem. But what is an original idea? It doesn’t need to be ground-breaking. All it means is that you have thought through everything that you write. By yourself, you found and referenced any ideas taken from academic work, you decided that they were important, and you found their meaning and context in the texts on your own. You expressed and developed your thoughts. You formulated hypotheses, examined what you know about the topic and how you learned what you know. This is exactly why you’re constantly being asked to write something. You don’t need to discover a new continent, but you need to undertake the journey across the ocean and learn something from it. It doesn’t matter that much whether you sail around the world, discover a new island or have to come back home after a thunderstorm. Where to conjure up an original idea New findings arise in various ways. Perseverance, thoroughness and patience play a more important role than innate genius. Experienced researchers usually combine different methods; students at the beginning of their academic journey often manage with one. Commenting on the opinions of others will help you formulate your own ideas. Originality 6 You can try to discover an original idea by: critically comparing two or more views on one issue supporting, disproving or modifying an existing hypothesis or theory with new arguments verifying an existing hypothesis or theory with an experiment, or adapting a theory or explaining existing data using an original method collecting new data formulating and verifying a new hypothesis suggesting a new solution to an existing problem proposing a new research method… Adialogue with others Academic texts can be compared to a dialogue. Your own ideas react to the opinions of other authors. You can agree with them, compare them, develop them, show them from a different perspective, or even rebut them. While doing that, you need to clearly distinguish the voices of different speakers. It is assumed in an academic text that everything which is not marked as a quotation or a paraphrase is the author’s original text. Originality 7 Originality 14 7. Commissioned papers Every author is entitled to provide his or her work to someone else without requiring that he or she be stated as the author. However, when we present such work as our own, we are committing plagiarism. This is called ‘contract cheating’ or ‘academic ghostwriting’. A student commissions, usually for money, a work written by someone who agrees not to be included as the author. The student who puts his or her name to that work becomes a plagiarist. Pay attention: Contract cheating is a form of plagiarism which does not breach the Copyright Act, nevertheless it breaches good morals and academic ethics. According to the Higher Education Act, contract cheating warrants expulsion from the study programme or rescinding the academic degree. We must also take into account that the actual author of the text or the company that operates in the field of commissioned papers might easily blackmail the student. 1. Common knowledge Some ideas have their own authors. For others, however, we can’t determine the work that they came from. These ideas are so-called common knowledge, and we can state these without referencing a source. They should be limited in our work because they do not contribute any novel ideas. Moreover, the vast majority of the presumed readers of our work are already familiar with such ideas. Forms of plagiarism 15 Common knowledge is useful in the introduction, discussion or conclusion sections as a prelude to other ideas, whether our own or reproduced. A universally known piece of information is, for example, that the capital city of Burkina Faso is Ouagadougou. 2. Proofreading, copy editing, translations As long as the external contribution does not affect the ideas of the work, we do not consider it to be plagiarism. This includes copyediting or typographical adjustments. Translated works should state the translator, but the author remains the same. It is appropriate to mention those who helped us with our work, for example in the acknowledgements. Forms of plagiarism 16 We are all tempted to make our job easier sometimes – especially when deadlines, exam period and thesis defence are looming. But, even if we get away with this now, it might happen that in ten or twenty years we will be in a position that will cause someone to inspect our academic work again. And everything will come out to light. In fact, this has happened to many public figures. The defence of the Minister of Defence Perhaps the most well-known foreign plagiarised work is the dissertation thesis of the former German Minister of Defence. He was writing it at a time when he was already a politician and under a lot of work-related pressure. In 2007, he defended his thesis with the highest marks and obtained a Doctor of Law degree. A routine check in 2011 revealed over eighty copied passages in more than one hundred pages of his work. Initially, the accused Minister of Defence denied cheating and only admitted to mistakes in the annotations, which he apologised for. However, it was soon proven that he committed plagiarism and he lost his degree. A month later, he resigned from his ministerial office as well as other posts. His prosecution for copyright law violations was discontinued after he paid twenty thousand Euros to charities. That is because no serious breach of third-party rights had been committed. AMinister who lasted thirteen days In our country, plagiarism in the political sphere was discussed in 2018. An analysis of a master’s thesis on child arrangements during divorce, Examples of (in)famous cases of plagiarism 17 which a former Minister of Justice defended in 2011, proved similar to another thesis, a book and other online sources. The author copied entire passages of text without referring to their source, sometimes paraphrasing them. She also kept the same grammatical mistakes. Consequently, her other thesis on the topic of rabbit breeding which was defended at a different university, was also analysed. It transpired that sixteen out of forty-eight pages were copied from another work. These were, again, unreferenced. As a result of the criticism from the professional community, the Minister of Justice resigned after just thirteen days in office. Free time of the Minister of Labour In the same year, plagiarism was exposed committed by a former Minister of Labour and Social Affairs. An analysis of his bachelor thesis Youth and Free Time from 2007 found similarity in almost forty out of sixty-five pages. Passages were copied including grammatical mistakes, formatting and typos. He defended his diploma thesis, Free Time of Adults, two years later. It consisted mainly of the text of his bachelor’s thesis, only with the words ‘children and youth’ replaced with the word ‘adults’. He extended this work by twenty-four pages, which again included copied passages with no direct citations. He, too, resigned from his ministerial office after the analysis of his bachelor’s thesis was published, and he gave up his political posts. What lesson can we learn from this? There are many cases where obtaining an academic degree with the help of plagiarism was proven. In most of them, plagiarism was only Examples of (in)famous cases of plagiarism 18 Examples of (in)famous cases of plagiarism 19 suspected several years after they were written. Specifically, suspicion arose when the work was published, they were analysed with improved tools for checking text originality, or the author assumed an important public office. The authors rarely admit the truth. At first, they defend themselves with their successful thesis defence or the approval of their supervisor, or they play down their plagiarism as a small technical omission. After the evidence and the copied passages of text are exposed, they must resign from their office due to public pressure, and they may also lose their academic degree. It is definitely correct to require moral and academic integrity from those who participate in a state’s leadership, who hold important posts, and distribute financial resources. Let us require the same from ourselves. The knowledge that we will not be facing accusations in a couple of years which might end our career and cost us our credibility is invaluable. After all, this is what fairy tales teach us: we shouldn’t cheat, and the past will always catch up with us. Examples of (in)famous cases of plagiarism 20 Penalizing plagiarism Plagiarism is not only shameful, but it also constitutes a serious breach of academic integrity. Any cases uncovered are usually dealt with directly by the university. Plagiarism is monitored among students, alumni, as well as academic staff. Here, we will consider the first two groups. The process of dealing with plagiarists is guided by internal regulations of individual universities and faculties, and the Higher Education Act. Since plagiarism might also constitute an intellectual property offence, the Copyright Act and the Criminal Code might also be relevant. What to do with astudent who plagiarises When plagiarism is suspected, it is first decided whether the case in fact constitutes plagiarism or not. It is then determined how the case should be dealt with. At our universities, both questions are usually addressed by the same committee, which makes a decision about both the guilt or innocence of the (alleged) plagiarist and his or her punishment. The severity of the punishment depends on whether or not the plagiarism was intentional, on its extent, seriousness and the motivation for cheating. The type of work is also taken into account, together with the level of experience of the student, his or her conduct and any attempts to remedy the situation. That means that the university will deal differently with plagiarism in a seminar paper of a first-year bachelor student than plagiarism in a master’s thesis. 21 Each university and also each faculty has slightly different internal regulations, which guide the process of dealing with plagiarism. It usually looks like this: Penalizing plagiarism 22 Penalizing plagiarism Student vs. alumnus Universities may consider plagiarism committed by a student as a disciplinary offence. This is reviewed by a disciplinary committee. According to the seriousness of the offence, it might be dealt with by issuing a warning or deciding on a conditional, or even unconditional, expulsion of the student from the university. The last option is only considered in cases of intentional plagiarism. Universities can now also penalise their alumni for plagiarism. That is within the responsibility of a rector’s review committee. In the most severe cases the academic degree can be rescinded. Such punishment is applied in cases of intentional plagiarism which constitutes a serious violation of the Copyright Act. When the law steps in Plagiarism might also have legal consequences beyond academia. The aggrieved author or those who hold the rights to the work may demand rectification of the breach, an apology or financial compensation. A serious violation of intellectual property rights that has a harmful impact on society might also be treated as crime; this carries a penalty of up to two years imprisonment. Honesty is key We can easily avoid all these punishments by being aware of what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. That includes knowing the correct rules of referencing, and naturally studying with integrity. 23 Citation rules Can you remember the three tips against plagiarism? They are the basis for all citations. Three tips against plagiarism 1. Distinguish someone else’s ideas from your own 2. Refer to the original source 3. Reference the original source so that it can be traced back There are many ways you can refer to the original source. We call these referencing styles. Referencing styles are sets of rules that tell us what information to include, in what order, how to format them and how to use punctuation. It’s important to select one referencing style and use it consistently throughout your work. A source of information may be not only written text, but also oral communication such as an interview, a video, image, graph, table… We need to identify all of these using references. Every profession and every school has its own rules for referencing. You should definitely look these up before you start writing. Your supervisor might even tell you his or her preferred citation style. If not, it’s up to you. The most frequently used referencing style in the Czech Republic is ČSN ISO 690. If you’re unsure about which style to use, 30 Paraphrasing with an in-text mention of the author Mužík (2010) characterizes a workshop as a didactical method which follows from a different educational activity, such as a lecture, during which the participants in a closed session engage in a specific chosen topic, and the result or output of which will continue to operate after the end of such session. I agree with such characterisation of a workshop. Citation rules 31 Final tips Few people decide to become plagiarists at the outset. But then they might realise that their topic is too complex, or they want to save their time and effort. Or they’re not really into their studies. Or they just want to come up with a new, original idea at any cost. The most common motive for plagiarism is lack of time. The deadline is quickly approaching and secretly borrowing a couple of paragraphs or pages seems like the easiest way out at that point. Here are a couple of tips for avoiding time pressure: 1. Plan your time. And multiply it by two Producing an academic text requires time. It’s not just about writing, but also searching for sources, reading them and making notes. Insufficient time before the deadline can undermine your otherwise strong integrity. Estimate the time necessary for writing your paper. Set milestones of what you want to have finished and by when. Allow for some free time in your plan – you can’t just work and write the entire time. When planning, consider these: 1. How does the supervisor imagine that the work will be carried out? 2. Does the supervisor require consultations? How often? How often will I need them? 32 Final tips 3. What do I need to research before I start writing? How will I find my sources? 4. Do I need to conduct my own research or experiment? 5. How many standard pages do I have to write? 6. Approximately how long will the writing take? (You will need to guess at the beginning of your studies, later on you will have a clearer idea.) 7. When do I need to submit my work and how? Should I print it, submit it electronically or both? 2. Consult Keep in touch with your supervisor regularly. That doesn’t necessarily mean often. It’s also not necessary to hold personal consultations; some people prefer e-mail, a phone call or Skype. The consultation shouldn’t be just a formality – it should be beneficial for both sides. Don’t hide it if you’re behind schedule, and don’t pretend that you understand if you’re unsure about something. Two heads are better than one, and your instructor or supervisor was assigned to you for the very purpose of helping you. 3. Don’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know Academic writing should be part of your curriculum. If it isn’t, or if you weren’t paying attention, don’t be ashamed to admit it and make up for 33 Final tips what you’ve missed. Your schoolmates, instructors or this handbook will help you. 4. Read This might sound hackneyed, but you won’t get any better advice. By reading research and scientific papers, you learn much more than you think. Apart from gaining an insight into different topics, theories and figures, you will also learn about academic text, its rules and structure. You will then have a model on which to base your own work. 5. No secrets, tell everything Always reference ideas that you borrowed. Even your own ideas, if they proceed from your earlier work. If you’re unsure as to whether you need to reference something, reference it. Even if you don’t feel like searching for the original source, give it the extra couple of (fine, sometimes even couple dozens) minutes, find the original source and reference it. And if someone was helping you, for example with proofreading or translation, which not forbidden, include this information. In an academic text, it’s better to give more information than to hide something. The clear conscience that your work was really written by you and you correctly referenced everything is invaluable. Even in a text that was produced fairly, anti-plagiarism software will find similarities. It is just a mechanical aid. It’s necessary to consider and evaluate the result. A similarity percentage by itself means nothing. 34 Final tips 6. Remember the three tips against plagiarism You always need to: 1. Distinguish someone else’s ideas from your own 2. Reference the original source 3. Identify the original source so that it can be traced back 7. Admit amistake if you make it If your plagiarism is exposed, admit it. If you’re already trying to cover up some error, don’t wait until it’s exposed and own up to it. You will still be punished, but at the same time you will have opened a way out. This will ease your conscience and you will be one of those who face up to their problems. 35 Final tips 36 Bibliography Originality | It takes your own ideas GRAFF, Gerald a Cathy BIRKENSTEIN. They Say / ISay: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. Fourth Edition. New York; London: W.W. Norton & Company, 2018. ISBN 978-0393631678 Forms of plagiarism | What is plagiarism FISHMAN, Teddi. „We know it when we see it“ is not good enough: toward a standard definition of plagiarism that transcends theft, fraud, and copyright. In: Proceedings of the Fourth Asia Pacific conference on educational integrity (4APCEI). Wollongong, Australia: University of Wollongong, 2009, s. 5. Also available from: https://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/09-4apcei/4apcei-Fishman.pdf FOLTÝNEK, Tomáš, Norman MEUSCHKE a Bela GIPP. Academic Plagiarism Detection: A Systematic Literature Review. ACM Computing Surveys [online]. 2019, 52(6), 112:1-112:42 [ref. 2020-08-29]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3345317. ISSN 0360-0300. MEUSCHKE, Norman a Bella GIPP. State-of-the-art in detecting academic plagiarism. International Journal for Educational Integrity. 2013, 9(1), 50-71. ISSN 1833-2595. WALKER, John. Student Plagiarism in Universities: What are we Doing About it? Higher Education Research & Development [online]. 1998, 17(1), 89-106 [cit. 2020-0830]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/0729436980170105. ISSN 1469-8366. Act No. 111/1998 Coll. Act on higher education institutions and on amendments and supplements to some other acts (the Higher Education Act). 37 Bibliography Examples of well-known plagiarised works | (In)famous plagiarised works Stejný úvod i závěr. Bakalářská a diplomová práce exministra Krčála se v některých pasážích neliší. Česká televize. [Online] 20. 7. 2018. [Referenced on 11. 5. 2020]. Available from www: https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/domaci/2542900-ct-byvalyministr-petr-krcal-opsal-i-cast-sve-diplomove-prace „Opsaných je 40 stran z 65, včetně úvodu,“ říká expert. Podívejte se na bakalářskou práci ministra Krčála. Česká televize. [Online] 17. 7. 2018. [Referenced on 11. 5. 2020.] Available from www: https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/domaci/2539924-opsanych-je40-stran-z-65-vcetne-uvodu-rika-expert-podivejte-se-na-bakalarskou-praci Bayreuth, Kommission „Selbstkontrolle in der Wissenschaft“ der Universität Bayreuth. Bericht an die Hochschulleitung der Universität Bayreuth aus Anlass der Untersuchung des Verdachts wissenschaftlichen Fehlverhaltens von Herrn Karl-Theodor Freiherr zu Guttenberg. [Online] 5. 5. 2011. [Referenced on 23. 9. 2020.]. Available from www: https://www.presse.uni-bayreuth.de/de/archiv/2011/Bericht_der_ Kommission_m__Anlagen_10_5_2011_.pdf PREUß, Roland a Tanjev SCHULTZ. Guttenberg soll bei Doktorarbeit abgeschrieben haben. Süddeutsche Zeitung [online]. 16. 2. 2011 [Referenced on 11. 5. 2020]. Available from www: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/plagiatsvorwurfgegen-verteidigungsminister-guttenberg-soll-bei-doktorarbeit-abgeschriebenhaben-1.1060774 TRONÍČEK, Jakub a Markéta CHALOUPSKÁ. Nastupující šéfka justice Taťána Malá podle expertů opisovala v diplomové práci. iRozhlas.cz. [online] 28. 6. 2018 [Referenced on 11. 5. 2020] Available from www: https://www.irozhlas.cz/zpravydomov/tatana-mala-diplomova-prace-plagiatorstvi_1806281500_ace Uni Bayreuth entzieht Guttenberg den Doktortitel. Spiegel Politik [online]. 23. 2. 2011. Available from www: https://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/plagiats-affaereuni-bayreuth-entzieht-guttenberg-den-doktortitel-a-747358.html 38 Bibliography Penalizing plagiarism | Consequences of plagiarism BIERNÁTOVÁ, Olga a Jan SKŮPA. Bibliografické odkazy acitace dokumentů dle ČSN ISO 690 (01 0197) platné od 1. dubna 2011 [online]. Brno: Citace.com, 2011 [ref. 2020-04-03]. Available from: http://www.citace.com/soubory/csniso690interpretace.pdf Explanatory memorandum to the Act No. 137/2016 Coll., amending the Higher Education Act and others, for item 156 [for § 47c to § 47g] [online]. [ref. 2020-04-03]. Available from: http://www.noveaspi.cz/products/lawText/13/6500/1/2?#pa_270 FOLTÝNEK, Tomáš a kol.. Testing of support tools for plagiarism detection. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education [online]. 2020, 17(1), 46 [ref. 202009-01]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-00192-4. ISSN 2365-9440. HOLÍKOVÁ, Jana. MŠMT k problematice plagiátorství na vysokých školách ze dne 24. 7. 2018. In: MŠMT [online]. © 2013 – 2020 [ref. 2020-04-03]. Available from: https://www.msmt.cz/ministerstvo/novinar/stanovisko-msmt-k-problematiceplagiatorstvi-na-vysokych MATZNER, Jiří. Může být plagiátem závěrečná řeč advokáta? Hospodářské noviny, 17. 7. 2015. [online]. [ref. 2020-04-03]. ISSN 1213-7693. Available from: http://www. pravniradce.ihned.cz/c1-64323720-muze-byt-plagiatem-zaverecna-rec-advokata Plagiátorství. In: TICHÁ, Ludmila a kol. Jak psát závěrečnou práci [online]. Ústřední knihovna ČVUT, © 2009, akt. 2016, 23-29 [ref. 202004-03]. Available from: http:// knihovna.cvut.cz/files/VSKP/VSKP_04.pdf TULÁČEK, Jan. Porušení autorského práva a plagiát. Bulletin advokacie [online]. 2004(11-12), 24-31 [ref. 2020-04-02]. Available from: https://www.cak.cz/assets/ files/170/BA_04_11.pdf SOTOLÁŘ, Alexander. Porušení autorského práva, práv souvisejících s právem autorským a práv k databázi (Komentář). Trestní zákoník (č. 40/2009 Sb.) - Komentář. 39 Bibliography Wolters Kluwer, [online]. [ref. 2020-04-03]. Also available from: http://www. noveaspi.cz/products/lawText/13/6500/1/2?#pa_270 Judgment of the senate of the Czech Supreme Court 30 Cdo 5164/2009 from 23 November 2011 about copyright law and compensation of non-financial loss [online]. ASPI [legal information system]. Wolters Kluwer ČR. [ref. 2020-08-31]. Act No. 111/1998 Coll. Act on higher education institutions and on amendments and supplements to some other acts (the Higher Education Act). Act No. 121/2000 Coll. Act on copyright and rights related to copyright and on amendments to certain acts (the Copyright Act). Act No. 40/2009 Coll. the Criminal Code. Citation rules | How to cite ČSN ISO 690 (01 0197) Information and documentation - Rules for bibliographical references and citations of information sources. 3rd ed. Prague: ÚNMZ, 2011. Czech technical norm. BIERNÁTOVÁ, Olga aJan SKŮPA. Bibliografické odkazy acitace dokumentů dle ČSN ISO 690 (01 0197) platné od 1. dubna 2011 [online]. Brno: Citace.com, 2011 [ref. 2020-08-29]. Available from: http://www.citace.com/soubory/csniso690-interpretace.pdf HAVLOVÁ, Jaroslava. Citační manažer. In: KTD: Česká terminologická databáze knihovnictví ainformační vědy (TDKIV) [online]. Praha: Národní knihovna ČR, 2003- [ref. 2020-08-29]. Available from: https://aleph.nkp.cz/F/?func=direct&doc_ number=000013827&local_base=KTD KRČÁL, Martin a Zuzana TEPLÍKOVÁ. Naučte (se) citovat. Blansko: Citace.com, 2014. ISBN 978-80-260-6074-1. Also available from: https://www.pablikado.cz/ dokument/naucte-se-citovat