Investigating policies for plagiarism and academic integrity: The case of Turkey Salim Razı & H. Sümeyra Pektaş Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey www.salimrazi.com
You can download this presentation at www.salimrazi.com Challenges of academic writing Plagiarism, a crime? Related Academic Integrity projects The case of plagiarism at COMU The study Findings Discussion & Conclusion Implications Q & A
Academic writing is complicated (see Matsuda, 2001): Brings the risk of plagiarism. Several factors to be considered: More common in expanding circle. Cross cultural differences (Baurain, 2011). Cultural influences in writing (Kachru, 2009). National and institutional attitudes towards plagiarism. Being naïve in academic writing (Park, 2003; Razı, 2015a; Yeo & Chien, 2007). Insufficiency in L1 writing (Razı, 2015b). 3
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Internet technology makes plagiarism a crucial problem: Specifically for university assignments (Walker, 2010). Students might not feel that cheating on assignments is a serious problem (Brent & Atkinson, 2011). Plagiarism (Howard, 2007): not necessarily a crime, benefit as a teaching strategy. Academic writing: a complex intellectual skill. Plagiarism: the first vital step in developing academic writing skills. Howard s patchwriting : weak paraphrasing skills. 5
Plagiarism occurs when someone: Uses words, ideas, or work products Attributable to another identifiable person or source Without attributing the work to the source from which it was obtained In a situation in which there is a legitimate expectation of original authorship In order to obtain some benefit, credit, or gain which need not be monetary 6
Impact of Policies for Plagiarism in Higher Education across Europe (IPPHEAE): http://plagiarism.cz/ippheae/ Aimed to identify the actions of combatting plagiarism at 27 European HE institutions. South East Europe Project on Policies for Academic Integrity (SEEPPAI): http://www.plagiarism.cz/seeppai/ Aims at revealing the perceptions of students, lecturers, and managers in the related higher education setting. European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI): http://www.academicintegrity.org/icai/home.php Aims at understanding culture bounded interaction of plagiarism and academic integrity. Related infringements requires wider cooperation. 7
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A follow up investigation on policies for student plagiarism and academic integrity: Aimed at revealing the perceptions of undergraduate and postgraduate students, lecturers, and managers at the English Language Teaching Department of Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Turkey. 9
Setting: Fall semester of 2016 17 academic session COMU ELT Dept. BA, MA and PhD Programmes Participants (N = 135): Administrators (n = 3, out of 4, response rate = 75%; n male = 2, n female = 1) Lecturers (n = 6, out of 9, response rate 67%; n male = 3, n female = 3) Students (n = 126, out of 400, response rate 32%; n male 53= 2, n female = 73) BA (n = 72, out of 320, response rate 23%) MA (n = 20, out of 40, response rate = 50%) PhD (n = 21, out of 40, response rate 53%) 10
COMU ELT Dept. No investigation by the ethics board regarding plagiarism concerns! Does this necessarily mean, there is no plagiarism? NO! 11
2011 12 academic year: My initial attempt to use a text matching software. No other lecturers used it. 2016 17 academic year: 5 lecturers use it regularly; 4 lecturers, from time to time; and 3 lecturers, never. 12
Plagiarism incidents: COMU ELT Dept. Advanced Reading and Writing Skills Course 2010 11 & 2015 16 (Razı, 2016b) 300 Plagiarism 250 No submission Accepted Total 200 150 100 50 0 2010 2011 2011 2012 2012 2013 2013 2014 2014 2015 2015 2016 13
Make up exam: Minor plagiarizers revise and resubmit for make up exam. Major plagiarizers cannot resubmit for the make up exam; repeat the course. 14
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SEEPPAI questionnaire: Delivered online (Special thanks to Irene Glendinning for her generosity in sharing the instruments and managing the online data collection process.) Administrator version Lecturer version Student version Scale reliability: α =.73 over 12 items in section 4 17
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100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 19
120 100 80 60 40 20 0 before undergrad during undergrad during postgrad still not sure 20
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Strongly disagree Disagree Not sure Agree Strongly agree Not applicable 21
120 100 80 60 40 20 0 Plagiarism Academic dishonesty 22
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Assignment Final 23
120 100 80 60 40 20 0 24
80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 25
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 26
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Word for word, no quotations Word for word, no quotations, correct references, no in text citations Word for word, no quotations, correct references and in text citations Some words changed, no quotations, references or in text citations Some words changed, no quotations, correct references, no in text citations Serious plagiarism Plagiarism Not sure Definetely not plagiarism Some words changed, no quotations, correct references and in text citations 27
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Word for word, no quotations Word for word, no quotations, correct references, no in text citations Word for word, no quotations, correct references and in text citations Some words changed, no quotations, references or in text citations Some words changed, no quotations, correct references, no in text citations Some words changed, no quotations, correct references and in text citations Yes No 28
Awareness of plagiarism and practising citation: During BA; should start earlier. Anonymous multi mediated writing model (Razı, 2016a) : Awareness regarding plagiarism concerns. Multiple submissions causes drop in plagiarism (Ledwith & Riques, 2008). Students seem confused regarding institutional policies. Confirmed by their responses to sanctions. Awareness of plagiarism and academic dishonesty largely depends on lecturers: Confirmed by services provided: Lecturers & supervisors. Finding good quality sources! Module on literature review & 7/24 open library. Reasons: Similar to previous findings (Razı, 2015c). Easy to copy from the internet: Similar to Walker (2010). Responses to fictitious cases: They need more training regarding what causes plagiarism. 29
Analyze qualitative data. Compare students responses with lecturers and managers. Compare COMU results with SEEPPAI. Adopt Plagiarism Reference Tariff. Develop institutional policies. Institutional policies are core elements of academic integrity (Bretag, personal communication). 30
References Baurain, B. (2011). Cross cultural moral explorations in plagiarism. In L. H. Phan & B. Baurain (Eds.), Voices, identities, negotiations, and conflicts: Writing academic English across cultures. Studies in writing (Vol. 22 pp. 123 138). Bingley, UK: Emerald. Brent, E., & Atkinson, C. (2011). Accounting for cheating: An evolving theory and emergent themes. Research in Higher Education, 52, 640 658. Fishman, T. (2009). We know it when we see it is not good enough: Toward a standard definition of plagiarism that transcends theft, fraud, and copyright. Paper presented at the 4th Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity (4APCEI) 28 30 September 2009, Australia. Retrieved from http://www.bmartin.cc/pubs/09 4apcei/4apcei Fishman.pdf Howard, R. M. (2007). Understanding internet plagiarism. Computers and Composition, 24, 3 15. Kachru, Y. (2009). Speaking and writing in World Englishes. World Englishes today. In B. B. Kachru, Y. Kachru & C. L. Nelson (Eds.), The handbook of World Englishes (pp.240 270 ). Oxford: Wiley Blackwell. Ledwith, A., & Risquez, A. (2008). Using anti plagiarism software to promote academic honesty in the context of peer reviewed assignments. Studies in Higher Education, 33, 371 384. Matsuda, P. K. (2001). Voice in Japanese written discourse: Implications for second language writing. Journal of Second Language Writing, 10, 35 53. Park, C. (2003). In other (people s) words: Plagiarism by university students Literature and lessons. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 28, 471 488. Razı, S. (2015a). Development of a rubric to assess academic writing incorporating plagiarism detectors. SAGE Open, 5(2), 1 13. DOI: 10.1177/2158244015590162 Razı, S. (2015b). Plagiarism in academic writing in English medium universities. Paper presented at the 21st Conference of the International Association for World Englishes, 8 10 October, Istanbul, Turkey. Razı, S. (2015c). Reasons of plagiarism in undergraduate academic writing and benefiting from Turnitin. Paper presented at the International conference plagiarism across Europe and beyond 2015, 10 12 June, Brno, Czech Republic. Razı, S. (2016a). Are review skills and academic writing skills related? An exploratory analysis via multi source feedback tools. International Journal of Progressive Education, 12(1), 117 127. Razı, S. (2016b). Reducing plagiarism incidents in student assignments by implementing anonymous multi mediated writing model. Paper presented at Inaugural Mediterranean Conference: Integrity as a way forward, 8 10 September, Athens, Greece. Tennant, P., & Rowell, G. (2010). Plagiarism reference tariff. Retrieved from Plagiarismadvice.org Walker, J. (2010). Measuring plagiarism: Researching what student do, not what they say they do. Studies in Higher Education, 35, 41 59.
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