Dr. Christine Zaher Represents Richmond

05/08/2008

International Plagiarism Conference

Dr Christine Zaher represented Richmond at the 3rd International Plagiarism Conference held in June 2008 at Northumbria University. At this conference, it was pleasing to note that “best practice” for plagiarism deterrence and detection advocated in many of the sessions has already been implemented by Richmond over the past four years. Richmond’s own academic integrity policy and procedures are well developed, fully publicised and, crucially, are implemented university-wide.

During this year’s conference, three issues of interest were raised. The first was the applicability of the UK Fraud Act 2006 to cases of academic dishonesty. In 2007, four students were prosecuted by a UK university for fraudulent practice directly related to academic dishonesty. They were subsequently found guilty in a UK court of law. This now has implications for all universities, and underscores the importance of deterrence strategies. A second issue raised was that of self-plagiarism. It was reported that too many academics - students and faculty alike - are unaware that they are committing plagiarism when they include copied, paraphrased or edited work in a publication or presentation from one of their own previous publications/presentations without due acknowledgement of their own original work. This can apparently result in accusations of academic dishonesty even years after the “recycling” occurred. A third concern raised at the conference relates to the exponential increase in cases of intellectual theft. Students and faculty members are therefore being encouraged to check their own work regularly via search engines such as Google Scholar. (One presenter showed how an article he had written appeared in multiple instances on the web, each time accredited to a different author!)

The fact that this conference is international signals the level of concern about academic integrity in all forms and at all levels. As part of the international movement towards more rigorous standards, Richmond will continue to refine its strategies for deterring and detecting academic dishonesty to ensure that the degrees it awards are indeed earned.

Link to this page: http://www.richmond.ac.uk/n/543.aspx