Plagiarism Resource Site

The inquiry into the Newcastle plagiarism scandal has highlighted a rarely discussed aspect of the plagiarism problem -- the tension between maintaining academic standards in the face of increased competition for recruiting students. According to a recent report in Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/08/1094530693563.html> A Malaysian education executive wrote to University of Newcastle officials after foreign students were failed for plagiarism, asking them to review the cases "more generously", an inquiry has been told. The email, produced at the Independent Commission Against Corruption yesterday, said the university could struggle for enrolments if a lot of fee-paying students were failing.

"The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has set aside five days to conduct hearings into allegations of plagiarism at the University of Newcastle."

The New York Times examines cyberplagiarism. I wanted to see whether the online atmosphere made cheating easier. I was also curious about what exactly these little Internet elves wrote about and if the papers were any good. I bought a couple of book reports, those three-to-five-page papers students write for introductory English classes, from...

The Houston Chronicle reports on UT Austin's adoption of an honor code. Student leaders at UT say they've wanted an honor code for years. But school officials began pushing for one as well in 2001 after five students were caught cheating on exams and essays within a two-week period.

Instructors must rethink their approaches to plagiarism according to student opinion piece in the PSU Vanguard.

A student who admits plagiarising throughout his three-year degree in English is suing the University of Kent. He claims "the university failed to give proper guidance on acceptable research techniques."

Rebecca Moore Howard's seminar presentation, "Plagiarism Epidemics, Media Epidemics," is now available.

Citing Donald McCabe's survey, U of New Mexico sees local and national increase in plagiarism. Mercury News in turn reports that it's not clear if more people are cheating or more people are getting caught. U of Washington notes a drop in plagiarism cases. Faculty there emphasize instruction to discourage inadvertent plagiarism.

Alexander Berezin dismisses Turnitin as a typically American newfangled gimmick in an opinion letter in the CAUT Online.

Lee Dunn, Chris Morgan, Sharon Parry, and Meg O'Reilly, in The Student Assessment Handbook: New Directions in Traditional and Online Assessment (Routledge Falmer, 2004), include a discussion of plagiarism. For a brief notice, see news.com.au