Plagiarism Resource Site

Talk of the Nation: Every writer, student and scholar is supposed to give credit, where credit's due, but it's easier and easier to steal. The Internet gives everyone access to enormous amounts of material, and reproduction is a lot faster than research. Guests on the program discuss the plague of plagiarism. (Guests: Donald McCabe, John Barrie, Michael Williams.)

Michigan Technical University is considering that the punishment for a second offense of academic dishonesty be changed. The director of student judicial affairs, Patricia Gotschalk, has recommended "the minimum punishment to be a grade reduction in the course instead of automatically failing the course. . . . Gotschalk says some professors may be reluctant to report cases of academic dishonesty if they believe the student's punishment will be too harsh."

At U of Oregon "reported violations of academic dishonesty have increased 184 percent in the past two years, rising from 57 to 162 incidents." This increase is attributed to a wider participation in "the Student Judicial Affairs process."

Plagiarism, especially among fee-paying international students, still a problem for Australian universities.

Russell Jacoby considers how the "jargon of choice . . . corrodes academic freedom."

At a panel discussion, Central Michigan "students and staff raised questions . . . about the university investing nearly $15,000 for a new service to help prevent plagiarism."

In Slate an NYU journalism professor describes how he combats student plagiarism.

"'The most serious problem in our society is a lack of awareness among school authorities of academic dishonesty,’' Oh Young-hee, a psychology professor at Duksung Women’s University in northern Seoul, said in an interview with The Korea Times."

A sociology professor at University of Pennsylvania"has accused one of his colleagues of committing 'conceptual plagiarism' in a scandal that has enveloped the department and generated buzz at universities across the country."

Vice president and associate provost Dennis Jacobs, co-chair of the University Code of Honor Committee, notes that "The vast majority of students found responsible for Honor Code violations at Notre Dameare first-year students or sophomores." According to Thomas Flint, Faculty Honor Code Officer "about 150 students over the past three years were caught for violating the Honor Code, with less than half of these students found guilty of a major violation." Half of the Honor Code violations involved plagiarism.