Research Ethics and Nuances of Plagiarism

Plagiarism is claiming someone else’s ideas as yours own. It is an act or instance of using

or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the

representation of that author’s work as one’s own, as by not crediting the original author.

The following ways of taking information from others would be considered

plagiarism:

1. Not providing reference when we have used other’s idea in our work.

2. No use of quotation mark seven if we provide the reference.

3. Taking a few sentences or paragraph from other’s work without referencing.

Plagiarism comes in several forms and types: there is intentional and unintentional

plagiarism, self-plagiarism and collusion. Ultimately, they are all wrong and considered unlawful

and will lead to severe consequences irrespective of whether or not you planned to plagiarize.

Every institution will have a policy and guidelines on how plagiarism is dealt with, and often the

actual consequences depend on individual cases. In order to maintain academic honesty, the author

to avoid plagiarism in his/her writing. The writer needs to consult various sources which needs to

be properly citied and referenced. Proper citing would avoid plagiarism, and it would show respect

to the ideas and content of others.

When one writes a research paper one must follow research ethics incorporating it with

ethics of plagiarism to form a strong and relevant paper. Research of any sort is done to guide

actions. Ethics are needed to ensure that research results are true and are used properly. Research

ethics are the set of ethical considerations a research team has to consider while conducting

research. They are in place to protect the participants of a study from physical, psychological or
social harm through participation in the study. There are three main pillars of ethical research with

a lot more minutiae in between.

The first is to maintain confidentiality which means that all the identifying information

must be kept confidential and private and that individual should feel confident that no one else will

know of their participation in the study. The second is to limit harm which refers to that first and

foremost you must do no harm to that individual. And the last one is concerned with the

transparency which refers to the fact that you can’t outwardly lie to participants about what the

study is about.

There are two types of authors who have plagiarism in their manuscripts. The first type is the direct

plagiarizing that the author would plagiarize by duplicating another author’s text exactly and

pretending as his/her own work. It is commonly known as copy-pasting in word processing

applications. The second type is about authors who plagiarize unconsciously.

There are many factors which may cause these problems. Some of these

factors are as follows:

1) Uncited Ideas & Concepts: Scholars are used to read many articles to improve other

methodologies in order to deliver a contribution in science. Using other researcher’s idea

is considered as plagiarism unless his/her research article would be cited properly in the

manuscript.

2) Accidental Similarity: The next factor is when the text of the author has been closely

similar to another author’s by chance. When an idea or a sentence is as usual as

everybody uses in their own text, it might be possible that a sentence or a concept would

be recognized as plagiarism in plagiarism detection systems.

 3) Fixed Definitions: At almost all sciences, there are fixed definitions which authors

write and cite them, and modification would make them a change or twist the meaning.

4) Cross-Text Plagiarism (Text Recycling): A piece of writing consists of several parts

such as Introduction,Body and Conclusion. These parts are dependent on the manuscript

goals, applications and styles. However, they might have more sections including

Abstract, Evaluation, etc. Sometimes, authors need to repeat some concepts in various

parts of the text.

5) Self-Plagiarism (Similarity): Researchers might publish more than one article from

their own research. Even though they are different, they have many similarities in

different sections of the articles.

Drawing upon previously established ideas and values and adding pertinent information in paper

are necessary steps, but these need to be done with caution without failing into the trap of

plagiarism. It is thus imperative for researchers to increase their understanding about plagiarism.

In some cultures, academic traditions and nuances may not insist on authentication by citing the

source of words and ideas. However, this form of validation is a prerequisite in the global

academic code of conduct. The digital age too affects plagiarism. Researchers have easy access

to material and data on the internet which makes it easy to copy and paste information.

collaboration.

It may be laborious for teenagers who have grown up in a web “copy, paste” culture to envision

plagiarism as a moral issue. Somewhat amazingly, it’s not only struggling students who

plagiarize3: indeed, it may be students who are under pressure to achieve who are more likely to
engage in the subtler forms of plagiarism. Researchers have found 3 things where this can be most

likely: once students are struggling (such as one’s work should be finished in a decent point of

time, or a work is particularly vital for his or her grades); once students are not fascinated by the

work; and once students feel that the assignment is unfair to the purpose where they need no hope

of success while not cheating.

References

1. Educational Technology in Teaching and Learning: Prospects and Challenges, Publisher:

Patna Women's College, Editors: Doris D'Souza, Upasana Singh, Durga Sharma, Prabhas

Ranjan, pp.30-37

2. https://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/index.cfm

3. Academy/how-to-avoid-plagiarism-in-research-papers.

4. Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative, University of New Mexico

<http://danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu>

5.www.ccsenet.org/ies International Education Studies Vol. 7, No. 7; 2014