Evaluation of an intervention to help students avoid unintentional plagiarism by improving their authorial identity

Students with poorly developed authorial identity may be at risk of unintentional plagiarism. An instructional intervention designed specifically to improve authorial identity was delivered to 364 psychology students at three post‐1992 universities in London, UK, and evaluated with before‐and‐after measures of beliefs and attitudes about academic authorship, using the Student Authorship Questionnaire. Changes in questionnaire scores showed that the intervention led to significantly increased confidence in writing, understanding of authorship, knowledge to avoid plagiarism, and top‐down approaches to writing, and significantly decreased bottom‐up and pragmatic approaches to writing. For understanding of authorship, knowledge to avoid plagiarism and pragmatic approaches to writing, significant intervention by year of study interaction effects showed that the greatest improvements were among year one undergraduates. Direct evaluative feedback showed that 86% of students believed the intervention helped them avoid plagiarism and 66% believed it helped them write better assignments. Post‐intervention focus groups revealed changed student understandings about authorial identity and academic writing. The results show that interventions can help students avoid unintentional plagiarism by adopting more authorial roles in their academic writing. Further research could explore other influences on authorial identity, and examine the impact of authorial identity interventions on other outcome indicators.     

Reducing unintentional plagiarism amongst international students in the biological sciences: An embedded academic writing development programme

There is general agreement in the literature that international students are more likely to plagiarise compared to their native speaker peers and, in many instances, plagiarism is unintentional. In this article we describe the effectiveness of an academic writing development programme embedded into a Biological Sciences Taught Masters course designed to reduce unintentional plagiarism amongst international students in the cohort. We compared plagiarism rates in the years before and after the implementation of the writing intervention. In addition, we analysed data from a high response rate questionnaire (87.8%: class of 90 students) designed to evaluate students’ perceptions of the usefulness of the writing development programme and to elicit information about their prior educational experiences which might relate to plagiarism. Our combined quantitative and qualitative data show that an early pedagogical response reduced plagiarism levels amongst international students. However, the UK and international students in the same cohort reported markedly different responses to the writing programme. We therefore suggest that, if international students are provided with an initial opportunity to practise academic writing and receive feedback, they are more likely to be successful when writing coursework assignments later on. However, any initial writing development programme should be adapted to accommodate the differing needs of the UK and international students within the cohort.     

Skills training to avoid inadvertent plagiarism: results from a randomised control study

Plagiarism continues to be a concern within academic institutions. The current study utilised a randomised control trial of 137 new entry tertiary students to assess the efficacy of a scalable short training session on paraphrasing, patch writing and plagiarism. The results indicate that the training significantly enhanced students' overall knowledge about in-text referencing protocols. Importantly, this knowledge was found to translate into applied skills, with the intervention group performing significantly better in a practical skills application task. Moreover, the findings suggest that it is confidence in writing in English, not language background per se, which plays a significant role in students' practical skills in referencing and their confidence in performing assignment preparation tasks that can help them avoid claims of inadvertent plagiarism.     

Evaluation of intervention on Chinese graduate students’ understanding of textual plagiarism and skills at source referencing

Abstract

Textual plagiarism is a serious violation of established academic protocols, but it requires considerable writing experience and care to avoid as well. Although student understanding of textual plagiarism and their plagiaristic behaviour in English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts have been quite well researched, few studies have sought to evaluate instructional interventions specifically designed to reduce plagiarism by empowering student writers with a better knowledge of plagiarism and skills at source referencing. To the best of our knowledge, no study to date has ever systematically assessed students’ understanding of plagiarism and their source referencing performance in response to intervention. This classroom-based research, at a university in Beijing, aimed to discover whether a 6-hour block of instruction could facilitate better understanding of plagiarism and appropriate source referencing skills. The results showed that the intervention did generally give students a better appreciation of how textual plagiarism looks and significantly reduced blatant and subtle plagiarism in their writing. However, students’ heavy reliance on original source language did frequently reoccur in student writing if in less clear-cut ways. Some helpful lessons were drawn from this study.     

Academic integrity: a quantitative study of confidence and understanding in students at the start of their higher education

Establishing a positive, proactive approach to issues such as plagiarism requires that students are equipped with the skills and experience to act with integrity, and that educators are fully aware of the attitudes and ability of students, particularly when they start university. This project used a questionnaire-based methodology to probe the attitudes, ability and confidence of undergraduates newly enrolled at a university in the UK, with a focus on concepts relating to written assignments. New undergraduates were confident in their understanding of plagiarism, yet performed poorly on simple tests of referencing. Students were generally of the opinion that academic misconduct should be modestly penalised compared to the standard penalties imposed by the UK higher education sector. Positive correlations were found between confidence, performance and recommended penalties, suggesting that confident students did better on tests of simple tests of referencing, and recommended more severe penalties for transgressions of academic integrity. These correlations were supported by findings that new postgraduates were more confident than new undergraduates, recommended more severe penalties and performed better in the simple tests of referencing. Findings are discussed in the context of educational needs identified for students, educators and institutions.     

How to correct teaching methods that favour plagiarism: recommendations from teachers and students in a Spanish language distance education university

The presentation of the intellectual work of others as their own by students is believed to be common worldwide. Punishments and detection software have failed to solve the problem and have important limitations themselves. To go to the root of the problem, we applied an online questionnaire to 344 university students and their 13 teachers. Our objective was to compare their views on plagiarism and to test nine hypotheses about causation. We found that both students and teachers know what plagiarism is and that each group blames itself to some extent. Students blamed their own attitude but also mentioned their need to cope with an unnecessarily heavy workload imposed by teachers. Teachers blamed impunity and their own failure in providing meaningful and creative student work. Only 8% of the students admitted to plagiarising contents and admission was independent of need for higher scores, years in the university, sex, age, occupation, career or living in a small city where educational resources are more limited. We found that Spanish language literature has given more attention to the students’ point of view than much of its English counterparts, and conclude that plagiarism can be prevented by an approach based mainly on a workload defined by teacher teams instead of isolated teachers; reduction of rote learning (associated with texts that are easy to copy and paste); assignment of individualised work that cannot be plagiarised (workshops, exhibitions, forums, portfolios, solving real cases, applying concepts to the student’s personal experience); and accompanying students along the whole process of producing the written work.     

Turnitoff: identifying and fixing a hole in current plagiarism detection software

In recent times, plagiarism detection software has become popular in universities and colleges, in an attempt to stem the tide of plagiarised student coursework. Such software attempts to detect any copied material and identify its source. The most popular such software is Turnitin, a commercial system used by thousands of institutions in more than 100 countries. Here, we show how to fix a loophole in Turnitin's current plagiarism detection process. We demonstrate that, in its current incarnation, one can easily create a document that passes the plagiarism check regardless of how much copied material it contains; we then show how to improve the system to avoid such attacks.     

Academic integrity and plagiarism: a review of the influences and risk situations for health students

Health professions are increasingly focusing on the development of integrity and professionalism in students of Health disciplines. While it is expected that Health students will develop, and commit to, the highest standards of conduct as undergraduates, and henceforth through their careers, the pressures of assessment and external commitments may lead to both unintentional and intentional plagiaristic behaviours. Exponential growth in Internet resources and new information technologies, as well as individual belief systems or naivety about the authorship attribution convention, suggest complexity in understanding the risks and factors associated with academic plagiarism. This paper reviews the education literature to provide an insight for academics into reasons for student plagiarism and, where possible, management of these risks. Our review refers to the health professions as a discipline in which academic conduct in students should be at the highest possible standard.     

Cameos,supporting roles and stars: citation and reflection in the context of initial teacher education

Background: Reflection is well established as an important part of teacher education, but it is also the focus of critical enquiry. This means that reflection is of interest to those who wish to explore its use to produce ‘better’ teachers. It is also of interest to scholars who are interested in the wider implications of reflection, for example, in relation to power and social control. Academic articles are the primary medium through which ideas and practices are communicated. However, they can only contribute if they are accepted for publication on the basis of making a contribution to knowledge. To be seen in this way, a journal paper needs to cite earlier work to show understanding of this work and how this is being augmented.

Purpose: This paper aims to initiate an academic debate of citation practices which, it argues, should be based on an awareness of current practices and a willingness to share, and even change, them. To facilitate the debate and the development of a better understanding of citing and its implications, the paper offers a tripartite citation framework.

Sources of evidence: The extensive citation analysis literature is reviewed to provide a context for an examination of the variety of citation practices found in 24 papers, which all focus on initial teacher education and which cite the same critical paper (Fendler, L., Teacher reflection in a hall of mirrors: Historical influences and political reverberations. Educational Researcher, 32, no. 3: 16–25, 2003; doi: 10.3102/0013189X032003016).

Main argument: This paper argues that there is value in differentiating three categories of citation, labelled ‘cameo’, ‘supporting role’ and ‘star’. These categories do not make judgements about what counts as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ referencing. Rather, they provide a way for authors to assess how they are citing and what the possible consequences may be. These can include an apparent lack of understanding not just of a cited paper but also of the wider literature. This means that citation that is not being carefully managed can undermine an argument.

Conclusions: This paper concludes that there is there is a need to initiate an academic debate about citation which is premised on the development of self-awareness about current practice and its consequences. Such a debate could bring about a number of benefits. It would encourage individual scholars to develop self-aware and ethical citation; it would also clarify current expectations about citation and enable academic communities to reflect on whether enquiry is well served by them.     

Internet plagiarism in higher education: tendencies,triggering factors and reasons among teacher candidates

While plagiarism has been a growing problem in higher education for a long time, the use of the Internet has made this increasing problem more unmanageable. In many countries, this problem has become a matter of discussion, and higher education institutions feel obliged to review their policies on academic dishonesty. As part of these efforts, the study aims to examine the tendencies of teacher candidates to plagiarise using the Internet, factors affecting their tendencies and the reasons for plagiarism. In this context, a questionnaire was administered to a total of 386 first- and fourth-grade college students at a college of education. The data were analysed using frequencies, percentages, the Mann–Whitney U test and Kruskal–Wallis one-way analysis of variance. The findings revealed that the teacher candidates had, to some extent, a tendency to plagiarise using the Internet by copying material or using the same assignment in different courses. Gender, department and length of computer use were found to be significant factors affecting their tendencies to plagiarise using the Internet. Time constraints, workload and difficulty of the assignments/projects were indicated as among the major reasons for tendencies towards Internet plagiarism.     

Referencing and identity,voice and agency: adult learners' transformations within literacy practices

Referencing skills contribute much to the emergence of voice in students' academic writing. Such skills have a bearing on the identity of learners as writers. In referring certain ideas to certain sources, the writer is able to distinguish voices of others and, in doing so, provide space for the hearing, or establishment, of their individual voice. However, an understanding of the rationale behind referencing and taking on the techniques required for its conventions often proves a complex, intimidating affair for students. Much fear is incited within learners by the convention of referencing, together with the scourge of plagiarism. Thus, rather than learners being ensconced within the academic environment through being able to relate to and engage with other voices, thereby acquiring agency in their writing, issues around referencing can actually serve to alienate them from the academic environment and deter them from their own agency. It may involve much practice and discussion before students see referencing as an asset in their writing. This process entails deconstructions, renegotiations and reconstructions of relationships with ideas and identities. This paper focuses on the relationship of agency and the issue of referencing in the development of an authorial identity for adult learners in the academic institution.     

Writing to learn in science: Effects on Grade 4 students' understanding of balance

In this study, we randomly assigned 69 Grade 4 students to a writing-to-learn treatment (n = 23), comparison (n = 23), or no-treatment control (n = 23). Treatment and comparison students completed a science experiment involving balance. During the experiment, treatment students wrote four short responses and an extended response to document their learning. To control for writing time, comparison students wrote four short responses and an extended response about topics other than balance. On a 20-item balance knowledge posttest, control outperformed treatment (d = 0.89) and comparison (d = 1.05) on the lowest level balance questions (Level 1). At the highest level questions, Levels 3 and 4, treatment (ds = 1.42 and 0.94) and comparison (ds = 1.62 and 1.37) outperformed control. There were no significant differences in total words written or level of balance understanding on a posttest written response. The performance of individual responders to treatment is also discussed.     

Taking Political Autonomy Seriously: a reply to Ian Gregory

This paper raises some questions about academic authorial honesty under the headings of Plagiarism (including self‐plagiarism), Theft, and Collusion. Compared with the medical sciences, the social sciences in general and education specifically, lag behind in terms of critical attention being paid to the problem of plagiarism, the peer review process and academic authorial ethics. The ubiquity of the Internet, the ever intensifying demand to publish or perish, and maybe, a general shift in perceptions of what constitutes ‘bad’ plagiarism and collusion which challenge traditional notions of what constitutes authorial honesty, mean that the time may be ripe for a consideration by academic writers and journal editors of how they regard and deal with the whole area. This paper makes an early contribution to the discussion.     

Writing for professional recognition in higher education: understanding genre and expertise

ABSTRACT

This study draws on the theoretical frameworks of genre theory and writing expertise to explore how educators manage and excel in writing for professional recognition. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with four educators from different disciplines in which participants discussed their experiences of preparing and writing for Senior Fellow. Despite the fact that writing for professional recognition can be a contentious genre to manage with its reflective features favouring those from certain disciplinary backgrounds, the participants described positive and affirming experiences. The findings also suggest that educators are strategic in their approach, and that the writing process can have unexpected affordances including a developed knowledge of writing, professional confidence and a sense of empowerment. The findings have implications for developing systems and resources to support educators preparing for fellowship.     

Questioning Student Learning: an exploration of student's views on learning to become independent nurse prescribers

This illuminative evaluation study gives insights into attitudes to learning, interaction and the perceived roles of theory, evidence, reading and previous experience. These insights lead us to question some aspects of the course as currently presented. Students indicated that they found the course material stimulating but prior guidance on the areas to read before commencing learning would have been helpful. Students were desperate to learn and to be successful, but many were apprehensive about the intensity of the pharmacological content and diagnostic skills that are required to make a clinical diagnosis. Sadly, some students felt that the restriction of the extended nurse formulary, while valuable to their professional development and credibility as a nurse, would not enhance the care that could be provided to patients. This limitation was not realized until the course had commenced. This may have been avoided if an information day had been provided before commencing the course. For many students, a positive finding was the realization of the relevance to practice and the contribution that could be made to everyday nursing care. Future independent nurse prescribing students would benefit from the provision of pre‐course reading, guided studies in pharmacology, normal physiology and physical examination skills before commencing the course of study. The use of a theoretical self‐assessment tool would allow potential students to assess their suitability for the programme. Aspects of student learning need to be discussed early in the programme.     

Source-code plagiarism in universities: a comparative study of student perspectives in China and the UK

There has been much research and discussion relating to variations in plagiaristic activity observed in students from different demographic backgrounds. Differences in behaviour have been noted in many studies, although the underlying reasons are still a matter of debate. Existing work focuses mainly on textual plagiarism, and most often derives results by studying (small) groups of overseas students studying in a Western context. This study investigates understanding of source-code plagiarism (i.e. plagiarism of computer programmes) amongst university students in China. The survey instrument was a Chinese translation of a survey previously administered in English in the UK. This paper reports the results of the exploratory survey conducted in China, and compares these results to those from a parallel survey conducted in the UK. The results show that there is a significant difference in understanding between the respondents from the two surveys, and suggest topics which a future and more comprehensive study may focus on.     

汉英学术写作中引用的对比研究

为了研究母语分别为汉语和英语的学者在同一领域的学术写作中引用的使用的异同,笔者选取了语言政策与语言规划领域中具有代表性的中英文学术论文为研究对象,发现两者之间既有共同点也存在差异性。其中差异性主要体现在：英语文章较汉语文章更多使用直接引用而较少使用间接引用中的完整引用;英语文章中转述动词的丰富性要远远高于汉语;英语中参考文献较汉语更新更全面。     

Academic socialization of doctoral students through feedback networks: a qualitative understanding of the graduate feedback landscape

ABSTRACT

Scholars focus on the social nature of academic writing to refine an understanding of feedback interactions in higher education. However, studies on the various sources of feedback – feedback networks – have been scarce, particularly during the initial years of doctoral education. Using a qualitative case study approach, multiple sources of feedback for four students in one doctoral program in the United States were identified in line with broader trends focusing on feedback as a social practice. Informed by the academic socialization framework [Duff, Patricia A. 2012. “Second Language Socialization.” In Handbook of Language Socialization, edited by Alessandro Duranti, Elinor Ochs, and Bambi B. Schieffelin, 564–586. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell], this study aims (1) to navigate the landscape of graduate feedback, including interactions beyond class as well as oral and written feedback, and (2) to elucidate the socialization process. Findings suggest that academic writing development is defined as how feedback is situated within disciplinary, academic communities of interaction. This article describes how the larger network of feedback creates the types of interaction that characterizes the community.     

Discourses of plagiarism: moralist,proceduralist, developmental and inter-textual approaches

This paper reconstructs prevalent academic discourses of student plagiarism: moralism, proceduralism, development, and writing/inter-textuality. It approaches the discourses from three aspects: intention, interpretation and the nature of the academic community. It argues that the assumptions of the moralistic approach regarding suspect intention, the transparency of interpretation, and the homogeneous nature of the academic community are in effect sustained by discourses of proceduralism and development. This results, first, in the simplistic rendition of student identities as honest/dishonest, and, second, in the proposal of or acquiescence to the triad of prevention, detection and punishment. The paper concludes that radical re-conceptualization of plagiarism may only be discovered in the discourse of inter-textuality where intention, interpretation and the academic community are construed as social practices concerning the negotiation of various identities and values – those of students as well as those of academics.     

Rethinking the contributions of young people with learning disabilities to iPad storymaking: a new model of distributed authorship

Digital technologies such as iPads are now ubiquitous in classrooms and family homes, enabling new possibilities for all learners but particularly for those with disabilities. Existing literature explores how children with learning disabilities create and benefit from personalised digital stories but does not unpack theoretical understandings of their ‘authorship’. This paper addresses this gap by proposing an original model of ‘distributed authorship’ with three axes of distribution—interpersonal, technological and temporal—to account for the authorial contributions of young people with learning disabilities. Five families were given an iPad with Pictello storymaking app and instructed to use it with their young person in any way which was engaging for them. Data generation over 12 weeks included weekly diaries, home videos, semi-structured interviews and story collection. Findings indicated that whilst ability to directly engage with the app varied, all the young people could be said to exert authorial influence on the stories distributed across three axes: support from others, support from the technology itself and incorporation of prior embodied agency. The study has theoretical implications for our understanding of ‘authorship’ as well as implications for pedagogy and practice by reconceptualising severely disabled children as literate learners and co-authors.