You are
all
welcome
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At the end of this session, it is
expected that we shall all have
understood the following:
The meaning of plagiarism
 Where and how plagiarism is conducted
 Academic integrity
 Who the culprits of plagiarism are
 Types of plagiarism
 Why Plagiarism is committed
 The consequences of Plagiarism
 How to curb plagiarism

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Esther Obachi
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Plagiarism affects all of us
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Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is honest and
responsible scholarship
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Introduction
What is plagiarism?
 It is the action or practice of taking
someone else’s work, idea, etc., and
passing it off as one's own. It is simply
literary theft (Oxford English Dictionary,
2000).
 It is academic dishonesty
 Derived from a Latin word “plagiare”
meaning kidnap
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Introduction Cont…d

Plagiarism has become a big menace in
all institutions of higher learning
throughout the world. This is due to
advancement in technology. However,
the same technology will help in curbing
it
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Causes of Plagiarism
Laziness
 Why go through all the hassles of
researching when I can copy and paste?Student
 Why go through the hassles of confirming
what I suspect? – Lecturer
 Lecturers tend to set the same types of
questions to avoid making new marking
schemes
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Causes cont…d
Lecturers are sometimes too lazy or
overwhelmed with work to go through the
students’ work even when they know for
sure that they (students) have copied from
each other
Poor time management
 Sometimes students have no time to do
their studies
 Sometimes lecturers don’t have time to
prepare their schemes of work & lesson
plans

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Causes cont…d
Ignorance
 Some commit plagiarism without knowing
 Others don’t know that it is unethical to
plagiarize
 Others do not know the consequences of
plagiarism
Poor or lack of referencing skills
 Some do not know how to cite, so they
take a shortcut
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Causes cont…d
It is fun
 Some just do it just to see if they will be
discovered
 Everyone is doing it, therefore, it can’t
be wrong
Lack of integrity
Some people do not care how they
achieve their goals in life (the end
justifies the means)
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Causes cont…d
Lack of plagiarism detection skills
 Advancement in technology has made
plagiarism easy
Greed
 People want to make money illegally e.g
paper mills websites,
Schoolssucks.com, Allfreeessays.com,
essaysfree.com etc. - (where research
papers are sold or given for free online)
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Causes cont…d
Deception and pride
Some people would like to pass out as
very knowledgeable and therefore, live a
lie by using other people’s works
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Types of plagiarism (Das & Panjabi
2011, p.68)
Plagiarism of ideas
 A journal reviewer may take a rejected
paper and rewrite the idea in that paper
in his own words
 Picking ideas from seminars and
conferences
 Theses derived from previous
researches and not from gaps identified
from the theses
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Types of plagiarism cont…d
Direct plagiarism
 Copying someone’s work word for word
Self plagiarism
Repeating what you have written before
without giving credit or seeking permission
from the publisher/copyright owners
Mosiaic Plagiarism
Borrowing some words from the original
author and mixing them with your own and
not crediting the original author – This is
the commonest type of plagiarism
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Other ways in which plagiarism is
committed

Submitting the same article for a
publication in two different publishers sometimes in a different language
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The difference between copyright
infringement and plagiarism
Copyright has a legal implication
 Plagiarism has an ethical implication
 Misappropriation (financial implication)
 Misrepresentation (integrity)
 One can plagiarize without infringing any
copyright

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Consequences of plagiarism
It obstructs the main purpose of
research i.e growth in knowledge
 Thwarts knowledge generation and
progression
 Injures the reputation of the researcher,
the supervisor and the institution. In
other words, plagiarism can bring about
severe consequences to both the victim
and the institution in which it is
committed.

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Consequences of plagiarism
cont…d

Affects careers -For example, the
recent infamous high profile ‘copy and
paste’ case of German Minister of
Defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg
that revealed he had committed
academic dishonesty, consequently
causing him to lose his professional title
and irreparably damaging his integrity
from an otherwise highly regarded and
accomplished scholar.
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Consequences of plagiarism
cont…d
The US Vice President Joe Biden whose
plagiarism case forced him to abandon
his presidential bid in 1988
 Our own student Ms Mary Ogola whose
graduation was stopped by the
Bungoma high court due to plagiarism

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Consequences of plagiarism
cont…d

The reality is that plagiarism is an act of
fraud that involves both stealing
(another’s intellectual property) and lying
about it. Think about the SMSs that you
receive during Xmas or any other
popular holiday. If you like it, you pass it
on to another person/friend. Don’t you?
How many of us pass it as if it were our
own creation? Do we ever imagine that
that could be plagiarism?
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Curbing Plagiarism





Find out the perceptions of students and
staff regarding plagiarism
Formulate a plagiarism policy that is
workable
Establish an online students’ term-paper
repository
Educate/sensitize students and staff on the
issues of plagiarism
Be proactive rather than reactive on issues
of plagiarism
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Curbing Plagiarism cont…d





Train both students and staff on proper
referencing skills / Let it be part of the
curriculum
Acquire referencing tools (online or otherwise)
and make sure they are available to all
Always cite and encourage proper citation
Recommend the citation styles for department
and stick to it
Academic departments should always work
with instruction librarians on referencing and
plagiarism issues
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Curbing Plagiarism cont…d
Install plagiarism checkers and be ready
to use them
 Studies reveal that students who know
how to use plagiarism detection tools
don’t plagiarize
 Upload all your research papers onto
the internet
 Do not repeat tests and term papers

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Curbing Plagiarism cont…d
Encourage integrity
 Establish an institutional Repository for the
University’s grey literature/unpublished work
 Last but not least, be true to yourself.

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Recap




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


Defined plagiarism
Highlighted the causes of plagiarism
The difference between plagiarism and
copyright
Types of plagiarism
The strategies that can be used to
prevent/curb plagiarism
Concluded that integrity is the best weapon
against Plagiarism
Therefore, Cite, Cite and cite some more!
Thanks for listening & All the best
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References
Anon, 2003. Longman dictionary of
contemporary English. New [4th] ed.,
Harlow: Longman.
 Das, N. & Panjabi, M., 2011. Plagiarism:
Why is it such a big issue for medical
writers? Perspectives in Clinical
Research, 2(2), p.67.

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