University of Florida Libraries Journal Club Thursday August 7, 2008

1. Helping Faculty & Students with THE Academic Commandment Thou Shalt Not Steal University of Florida Libraries Journal Club Thursday August 7, 2008

2. Why do people plagiarize?

3. Why plagiarize? • Grade/publishing/funding* pressure • Cultural acceptance • Ignorance • of laws/ethical standards • of possible consequences * Idea of funding pressure courtesy of Sara Russell Gonzalez 8/7/08

4. High Profile Cases Image from http://archives.cnn.com/2002/SHOWBIZ/books/10/13/ambrose.death/index.html • Stephen Ambrose • Source documentation found but some profs remove books from reading lists • Doris Kearns Goodwin • Suspended from News Hour; speaking gigs canceled; resigned from Pulitzer Prize Board, which was asked to rescind her 1995 Pulitzer; book sales dropped 50% after 2002 accusation • Elizabeth Paige Laurie (Wal-Mart heiress) • Had to return her BA in Communications • Martin Luther King, Jr. • Boston University investigation concluded he had plagiarized portions of his dissertation but didn’t strip him of the degreehttp://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/mlking.asp Image from http://www.chime.org/infoctr/Annual_MualMtrg/2007.html Image from http://walmartwatch.com/blog/archives/wal_mart_heiress_returns_college_diploma/

5. Academic Rogues • University of Frankfurt (Germany) anthropology professor (Reiner von Zeiten) resigned - 2005 (Accusations included plagiarism, trying to sell archeological artifacts belonging to university and falsifying data) • Emory University history professor (Michael Bellesiles) resigned – 2005 • Oklahoma State U geography professor George O. Carney stripped of “regents” professor title and barred from classroom - 2004 • US Naval Academy history professor (Brian VanDeMark) demoted to assistant professor, stripped him of tenure, cut his salary by $10K – 2003 All from Chronicle of Higher Ed. For others plagiarists, see Chronicle 51.17 (12/17/04)

6. Non-professorial examples…. • Valedictorian (Blair Hornstine) • Harvard U acceptance revoked on admission of plagiarism 2003 • 122 introductory physics students investigated at U Va 2001 -- 45 students dismissed, 3 grad degrees revoked • 44 at Simon Fraser U in BC suspended 2002, others uncovered during the investigation got failing grades for the course (economics) • Bob Dylan & P. Diddy/Puff Daddy Coombs • Escaped charges cuz really mixed original and credit—tho small--on cover (see “Plagiarism in Dylan or a Cultural Collage?” NY Times 7/12/03: B7) • NY Times staff reporter Jayson Blair • resigned 2003 All from NY Times

7. Majority of Cases = Low Profile • Alan Lessoff, history professor at Illinois State University and editor of The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, says most (professional) cases are low profile cases involving “people who are marginal and insecure in their professional positions.” From History-Journal Editors Grapple with the Perils of Plagiarism, Chronicle of Higher Education 1/18/08 54(19): A8 http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=6&hid=9&sid=1a714b81-3967-40a1-885f-1c7cb9410830%40RCSM2&bdata=JnNpdGY0ZWhc3QtbGI2ZQ%3d%3d#db=tfh&AN=28551997 accessed 7/27/08

8. Why else do they do it? • Technological ease • Lack of confidence • Lack of skills

9. Insufficient Skills • Time management • Reading comprehension • Verbal self-expression • Paraphrasing • Vocabulary • Higher level thinking • Critical thinking • Synthesis of ideas, esp from different sources

10. So what? • What can WE do about it? Image fromhttp://www.lipsticklibrarian.com/explains.html

11. Librarian Help for Faculty • ID sources of plagiarism • Google phrases • Phrase search (esp. full-text) databases • Acquaint with detection software • How? Type “5-8 words of unique text” • If suspecting “close paraphrasing” shorten the search string to 2 complex, unique words likely to have come from source other than student

12. Web as Detection Tool Odds of detecting: • When material taken from open Web = nearly 100% • Google Scholar = better than 50% detection of scholarly articles 2+ yrs old • Books = 12-13% as long as books are “recent” (2003-2006) • Windows Live Academic=poor plagiarism detector From Badke, William. Training Plagiarism Detectives: The Law and Order Approach. Online 31 no 6 n/d 2007 p-50-52

13. Free Paper Mills • Got Essays http://www.gotessays.com/ • Free Essay Network http://www.freepapers.net • Lazy Students http://www.lazystudents.com/ • My Term papers http://www.mytermpapers.com/ • Get Free Essays http://www.getfreeessays.com/ Not free: • School Sucks http://www.schoolsucks.com/

14. Librarian Help for Faculty Suggest faculty require students to: • Submit paper topics • Outlines • Rough drafts • Work with faculty to restructure assignments • harder to plagiarize • higher level thinking “proves” student grasp of concepts

15. Bloom’s Taxonomy(1956)(Revised by Anderson, 2001) REMEMBERING Recognize, list, describe, identify retrieve, name …. Can the student RECALL information? UNDERSTANDING Interpret, exemplify, summarize….. Can the student EXPLAIN ideas or concepts? APPLYING Apply, use in a new way … Can the student USE the new knowledge in another familiar situation? ANALYZING Compare, organize, deconstruct … Can the student DIFFERENTIATE between constituent parts? EVALUATING Critique, judge, hypothesize ... Can the student JUSTIFY a decision or course of action? CREATING Design, construct, plan, produce ... Can the student GENERATE new products, ideas or ways of viewing things ? Adapted from: http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm and http://eprentice.sdsu.edu/J03OJ/miles/Bloomtaxonomy(revised)1.htm

16. Resources for Faculty • University of Toronto http://www.utoronto.ca/writing/plagiarism.html • Plagiarism detection software: • Eve http://www.canexus.com/eve/index.shtml • Plagiarism Resource Site http://plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/ (free download) • http://www.wordchecksystems.com/ (some free downloading) • Scriptum http://www.scriptum.ca • Ithenticate http://www.ithenticate.com/index.html • Glatt Plagiarism Services http://www.plagiarism.com/index.htm

17. Librarian Help for Students • In BI: • Define plagiarism • Describe ways to prevent it • Give examples of consequences of accusations • Make your instruction discipline-specific (citation standards, professional code of ethics) • In reference transactions: • Regularly note citation info Image from http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/English/exhibits/archives/big/big_49_reading_room.htm

18. Exercises • Distinguishing plagiarism from legitimate use of sources • Appropriate paraphrasing • Appropriate use of quotation marks • Appropriate citation

19. Student-Oriented Resources • UC Davis http://sja.ucdavis.edu/files/plagiarism.pdf • Indiana University (focus on recognizing appropriate paraphrasing) http://www.indiana.edu/~wts/pamphlets/plagiarism.shtml • University of Teeside explanation of different types of plagiarism with real examples, each accompanied by explanation of why a piece of work is considered to be plagiarised (or not!) http://dissc.tees.ac.uk/Plagiarism/Plag-4.htm • Purdue University Writing Lab brief, clear overview of what is and isn't acceptable practice http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/589/02/ • Rutgers http://searchpath.libraries.rutgers.edu/mod6/01-ideas-citing.php • UConn (not as creative as other tools but very brief overview with a bit of interactivity) http://www.lib.uconn.edu/using/tutorials/LILT/plagiarism.htm

20. The Best! • The Squawking Parrot tutorial http://www.scc.rutgers.edu/douglass/sal/plagiarism/intro.html • “The Cite is Rite” educational game show http://library.camden.rutgers.edu/EducationalModule/Plagiarism/citeisright.html Worst in terms of being most distracting? http://library.apsu.edu/plagiarism/tutorialFlash/introduction.php based on http://tutorials.sjlibrary.org/tutorial/plagiarism/selector.htm