Preventing Plagiarism

Academic Dishonesty

Fraud committed by students or academics in an educational setting is called academic dishonesty. In the academy, it involves stealing ideas and representing them as one’s own. Some common examples of academic dishonesty perpetuated by postsecondary students are cheating on exams by obtaining the answers from another student, paying for someone else to take a test or write a paper, and plagiarizing content for assignments.

I was first exposed to cheating on a large scale when a fellow teaching assistant noticed a profoundly improved pattern of test grades for an otherwise underperforming student. Ultimately, my friend caught a cadre of students who cheated from one high-achieving student throughout the semester.

In this case, the motive and behavior were not surprising: Struggling students have cheated from classmates from time immemorial. However, later, I was surprised to learn of a graduate student failing his preliminary exams, in part, because he did not provide a comprehensive reference list to support his research.

This student considered citing works in a literature review to be a largely symbolic exercise that simply showed his willingness (or not) to jump through hoops established by the graduate committee. Either no one in his U.S. high school, college, or graduate program explained the reason that citations are important to the credibility of an academic paper; he did not comprehend the explanation; or he chose to sabotage his career by willfully ignoring the standard.

Plagiarism

Although he did not acknowledge that his failure to cite sources completely and accurately was dishonest, my friend had, indeed, committed plagiarism. All scholars, from high school students to accomplished researchers, must attribute statements in a paper to the person(s) who originally published them.

A Plan for Citing Sources

Despite failing to recognize the importance of a reference list, my friend accurately described the process of citing sources as jumping through hoops. Keeping track of sources is laborious and time-consuming. However, a good plan can make citing sources easier. Here, we present a three-part plan for accurately attributing work by others.

Part I: Keep Detailed Source Notes

Part II: Use the Author–Date Format

Part III: Quote Sources Accurately