Misconceptions of Plagiarism
By
Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano
School
of English
Faculty
of Social Sciences
Universidad Latina de Costa
Rica
Friday, March 5, 2016
Post
229
“As a
researcher, it is important to understand the impact of validity and
reliability and to be able to determine whether your research as well as
others’ research is valid and reliable” (Laureate Education, 2015) . Nevertheless, one
other factor that can affect how valid and reliable a research project is 100%
linked to plagiarism, which “is an
act of fraud. It involves both stealing someone else’s work and lying about it
afterward” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.) . It is for this
reason, as stated by Laureate Education (Inc., 2015) ,
“committing plagiarism –whether by accident or purposely- is a serious form of
dishonesty and has severe repercussions for academic researchers.”
“Although
researchers can turn to guidelines and regulations for help in dealing with
some of the ethical concerns likely to emerge in a case study” (Merriam, 1991) , or in any other
form of academic inquiry, “the burden of producing a study that has been
conducted and disseminated in an ethical manner lies with the individual
investigator” (Merriam, 1991) . Plagiarism can have its bad repercussions
in the validity and credibility of data analyzed for an academic research
project; it can have an ulterior effect on the trustworthiness linked to an
individual researcher who, by making trite mistakes, uses information wrongly
to validate his/her findings.
“Many
people think of plagiarism as copying another’s work or borrowing someone
else’s original ideas. But terms like ‘copying’ and ‘borrowing’ can disguise
the seriousness of the offense” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.) . Researchers may
find beneficial data for his/her paper among another author’s findings or
recommendations; the problem is that a direct quotation or paraphrase is not
credited to the original writer becoming all of this section of the paper an
ethical violation. “Researchers may copy complete or partial text from another
source as long as quotation marks are placed around the original text followed
by a citation to the resource and reference to the resource included in the
bibliography or reference section” (Inc., Ethics in Research, 2013) . The absence of any
reference to the source becomes an unmindful act of plagiarism.
What are
other forms of plagiarism that must be avoided by any researcher? For
Plagiarism.Com (What is plagiarism?, n.d.) , there are six types
of plagiarism that a researcher needs to stay away from, let us take a look at
them: 1) “turning in someone else’s work as your own,” 2) using the same exact
“words and ideas” from an author failing to give proper credit to his/her work,
3) “failing to put a quotation in quotation marks,” 4) providing the wrong reference
in regards to the “source of quotation,” 5) “changing words but copying the
sentence structure of a source without giving credit,” and 6) using excessive
“words and ideas” from a source and literally making it the most part of your
project with or without credit to the author. Any of these four types of
mistakes in one’s writings can make us researchers fall into a kind of fraud
that will undermine our investigative projects.
Among
the most common misconceptions regarding plagiarism are the ones in direct
connection with images, videos and music. “Using an image, video or piece of
music in a work you have produced without receiving proper permission or
providing appropriate citation is plagiarism” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.) . All of us in the
world of academic inquiry need to be aware that using a photograph or a scan of
a copyrighted photograph is a violation. “Re-creating a visual work in the same
medium” or “re-creating a visual work in a different medium” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.) is also an example
of plagiarism. And what about “re-mixing or altering copyrighted images, videos
or audio, even if done so in an original way” (What is plagiarism?, n.d.) ? No doubt it is
another form of plagiarizing someone else’s work and authorship.
“While
this is a breach of research ethics, it unfortunately occurs and in many cases
is a result of misconceptions about plagiarism” (Inc., Journal 4: Misconceptions of Plagiarism, 2015) . All of us in the
world of academic research must be in the lookout to avoid making mistakes that
can take us into any form of plagiarism. As a matter of academic and
professional integrity, it is our duty to create a sort of checklist that can
help us track whether what we are doing with information is or is not making us
fall into plagiarism.
References
Laureate Education, Inc. (2013). Ethics
in Research. Retrieved from Faculty Development: https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/bbcswebdav/institution/LPS1/FD/.pdf
Laureate Education, Inc.
(2015). Journal 4: Misconceptions of Plagiarism. Retrieved from
Faculty Development: http://global3.laureate.net/#/home/faculty
Laureate Education, Inc. (2015). Blog
4: The Validity and Reliability of Research. Retrieved from Laureate
Faculty Development:
https://lnps.elearning.laureate.net/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_85522_1&content_id=_190137_1&mode=reset
Merriam, S. (1991). Case Study
Research in Education, A Qualitatiave Approach. San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass Publishers.
What is plagiarism? (n.d.). Retrieved from
Plagiatism.Com: http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/
Friday, March 04, 2016
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