Turnitin Faces more criticism

The Daily Motion reports that professors at Syracuse University are beginning to question the effects turnitin.com has on professor-student relationships.

Ectasy of Influence

Jonathan Lethem has contributed a superb, thoughtful essay on plagiarism to Harpers. With regard to plagiarism, he observes "it becomes apparent that appropriation, mimicry, quotation, allusion, and sublimated collaboration consist of a kind of sine qua non of the creative act, cutting across all forms and genres in the realm of cultural production."

Richard Posner publishes The Little Book of Plagiarism

Richard A. Posner's The Little Book of Plagiarism (Random House, 2007) surveys the legal, ethical and practical issues involving "literary theft."

Cheating and Plagiarism continue on college campuses

Lehigh University's student newspaper reports that the number of recorded instances of cheating and plagiarism remains constant, and isn't in fact decreasing.

Turnitin and student privacy

There is a growing concern at University of Buffalo regarding the extent to which the use of Turnitin violates student privacy.

ACRL Webcast: Combating Student Plagiarism

ACRL is offering a Webcast, "Combating Student Plagiarism," on 10/26, 2:00 p.m. EST

The Webcast explores the role of the academic librarian in combating student plagiarism. Lynn Lampert, coordinator of information literacy and instruction at California State University-Northridge will lead this Webcast.

Registration is limited to 60. ACRL and ALA members receive a registration discount. For complete information, including a link to registration, go to: http://www.ala.org/ala/acrl/acrlproftools/plagiarism.htm

SJSU Plagiarism

San Jose State Uni has produced a tutorial and quiz to discourage undergraduate plagiarism.

Ivys shun plagiarism detection tool

Bloomberg.com reports that several Ivy League Universities are refusing to subscribe to plagiarism detection resources claiming that, "using software would undermine the trust between teachers and students."

Chicago Manual of Style now available online

The Chicago Manual of Style has gone online. A free trial is available.

KU re-thinks its turnitin subscription

After an outcry from faculty and teachers, Kansas University has decided not to cancel its subscription to a popular online tool for spotting plagiarism.

In a surprising development, iParadigms appears uncharacteristically sensitive to the matter of intellectual property in their dealings with the unversity:

Because Turnitin.com retains student papers, the service has raised intellectual property and copyright issues. . . .