Preventing Plagiarism: for Faculty & Teaching Assistants
Defining Plagiarism | Strategies
for Preventing Plagiarism | How to Detect Plagiarism
The Binghamton University Student Academic Honesty Code defines plagiarism as: "Presenting the work of another person as one’s own work (including papers, words, ideas, information, computer code, data, evidence organizing principles, or style of presentation of someone else taken from the internet, books, periodicals, or other sources)."
The same code also defines academic integrity as ""trust of those who look to universities for honest evaluations of academic work arrived at through honest processes." When someone commits an act that violates academic integrity, they violate this trust. Ways that this can be done include: cheating, multiple submissions of one assignment, unauthorized collaboration, fabrication and misrepresentation, sabotage, forgery and bribery.
All students at Binghamton University agree to abide by the Academic Honesty Code when they register for any class. The code is included in both the Student Handbook and the University Bulletin, and applies equally to all schools and departments.
Strategies for Preventing Plagiarism
Educate Your Students
Preventing plagiarism is better than trying to detect it after the fact. The concept of plagiarism should be considered a vital topic for every class where research is required of students. Many students from non-Western cultures use "authoritative" writings without citing because they are unfamiliar with western academic scholarship and conventions.
- Define plagiarism and show students how to properly cite sources using discipline specific definitions and examples
- Explain the purpose and benefits of correct citation formats
- Show them the University's plagiarism policy
- Explain the value of using various types of sources to strengthen their arguments and develop their ideas
- Teach students how to differential between quoting and paraphrasing; give examples of properly paraphrased and cited texts
- Take them to paper mill sites, critique the weak papers found there, and analyze them
- Make sure your students have the proper research skills to do the assignment.
Research is not searching Google. Consider asking a librarian to come to
your class to show them how to find and evaluate appropriate sources.
- Show the Plagiarism and Academic Honesty Integrity page to your class. There are websites and tutorials listed that students can use to educate themselves on how to avoid plagiarism in their writing.
- Also point out the Citing Sources web page for information on how to properly cite sources. Please note that the Libraries has a subscription to the full Chicago Style Manual online (link is on the page), and has short handouts on how to create the works cited pages in APA, MLA and Chicago Style available as handouts in the Libraries, and linked on the page as well.
Re-Design Assignments
Creating unique assignments that specify types or currency of library and Internet resources is one way to prevent plagiarism.
- Require specific resources, specifying the parameters of the topic
- Focus on the process by assigning due dates for components of the assignment
- Require photocopies of their documented sources, such as title pages of books, first pages of journal articles, etc.
- Require multiple drafts of papers
- Move away from traditional "term paper" assignments - assign literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, etc.
- Require a reflective essay or presentation of their research
- See Research/Writing Assingments: Alternatives to the Term Paper for more ideas
How to Detect Plagiarism
1. Turnitin software is a starting point for detecting plagarisim. It indexes:- 4.5 billion current and archival web pages, updating its database by adding 40 million pages daily
- previously submitted student papers that are in its database
- some full-text proprietary databases provided by libraries.
It does NOT index Lexis-Nexis, one of the most popular databases used by BU students, online encyclopedias, or usenet discussion postings. Also, it will NOT detect plagiarism from print sources such as personal or library books, textbooks, theses, and dissertations.
Binghamton University has a subscription to Turnitin and it is now imbedded into all Blackboard courses. Contact Carol Bell in Computing Services for more information and training on how to use this service.
2. Web search engines can be a quick and easy way to detect cut and paste plagiarism from public web pages.
- Use a unique phrase or a mis-spelled word from the text. Put your search string in double quotations (" "). Google's sophisticated algorithm has a good retrieval rate. However, be aware that in Google phrase searching is limited to ten words.
- Use more than one search engine because each "indexes" different pages and parts of the Web. In addition to Google, use alltheweb or a metasearch engine like Vivisimo, Metacrawler.
3. Subscription Databases Provided by the BU Libraries
Plagiarized text from the Libraries full-text databases is more difficult
to find.
Turnitin does NOT index all the full-text databases that
the Libraries provide access to. The most frequently used interdisciplinary,
general full-text databases that the undergraduates on this campus
use include:
- Business Source Premier
- Academic Search Premier
- JSTOR
You can search subject-specific databases such as ERIC, Medline, Web of Science, PsychINFO which have Get it @ BU links to full-text in other databases. As in using web search engines, search for unique phrases from the suspected text or search by key concepts (keyword searching) or by author or title of the articles in the bibliography.
3. Consult With a Librarian
If you suspect that the plagiarized text is from a print source - book or encyclopedia that is not online, consult with your subject librarian. Most librarians have assisted faculty in the past in finding plagiarized text from both print and online sources.