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PLAGIARISM
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Basic Presentation Made by A. SIFE
from Dar Es Salaam at ToT PhD Course in
November 2013
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ILBiz Com
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PLAGIARISM
How big a problem is plagiarism at your
university?
 Is it growing or diminishing?
 Have you personally had a student who has
plagiarised?
 What is being done at your university about it?

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DETECTING PLAGIARISM
 The
internet makes easier to commit
plagiarism… But at the same time it has made
it easier to detect!
 Use meta-search engines – those which access
many search engines at the same time
 www.Completeplanet.com
 Use search engines such as:
 www.google.com
 www.scholar.google.com
 It is necessary to posses good search skills (e.g.,
phrase searching; use of Boolean operators –
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AND, OR, NOT; query modifiers – allintitle:,
allintext:, site:domain )
 Use

plagiarism detection software:
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/plagiarism/
 However,
most academic databases are part of
the “Invisible Web” and neither search engines
nor Internet plagiarism services have access to
them.
 Search
specific databases including library
catalogues, ETD etc.
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7/13/2017
www.Completeplanet.com
ILBiz Com
www.google.com
www.scholar.google.com
http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/plagiarism/
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PLAGIARISM
 the
practice of using other people’s ideas and
works without appropriating the sources and
passing it as one’s own works
 it is a false assumption of authorship.
 Includes:
Presenting the work of others as one’s own work.
 Copying verses/figures/tables from another work
without citing the source.
 Using synonyms but copying the sentence
structure of a source without citing the source.
 Failure to put “quotation marks”.
 Incorrect citation information.
 Hiring someone to write your work

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 However,
plagiarism is a highly subjective
concept relating to factors such as linguistic
competence, culture, academic integrity,
legal/regulatory frameworks and
institutional governance etc.
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FORMS OF PLAGIARISM
 Intentional
plagiarism occurs when writers
know well they are passing off someone else's
words or ideas as their own.
 Unintentional/accidental
plagiarism
is
often the result of poor citation or referencing
(lack of knowledge to do proper citation and
referencing) or lack of understanding about
what constitutes plagiarism
 Self-plagiarism is the act of using one's own
published
or
submitted
work
without
mentioning the previous use or publication.
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 Manual
detection - when supervisors use
knowledge/skills to detect that a submitted
work is composed of some parts that are not
the author’s own
 Look at:
 Writing style, language, vocabulary, tone,
grammar, etc. It doesn't sound like the
student you know!
 Look for gray letters in the text, often an
indication that the page was downloaded
from the web, as color letters on a screen
show up gray in a printout
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





Citations are made to materials not owned
by your library! Using secondary citations
without acknowledging through In:
referencing
Citations can not be verified.
Citations in the text are not included in
the list of references.
Websites (URLS) listed in citations are
inactive.
A students can not identify citations or
provide copies of the cited material.
A student can not explain what he/she has
written
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AVOIDING PLAGIARISM
 Teaching
students proper writing skills
 Introducing information literacy /search courses
to students and staff ---- including proper
citation styles (sometimes students are
relatively better than staff in using the Web!)
 Introducing students to what plagiarism
is….and the possible consequences
 Formulate anti-plagiarism policies,
laws/regulations
 Libraries making research output available
online e.g. ETD & grey literature
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 Institutions should acquire plagiarism
detection software
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Thanks to A. Sife for his work in preparing the basics
Of this Introduction to Plagerism
ILBiz Com
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