“Hands up for mistake, we were idiots” – Some words on plagiarism
In the previous posts (post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4, post 5) related to research ethics, plagiarism was mentioned many times as a form of research misconduct. Plagiarism is among the “big three” in the international categorisation of research misconduct: Fabrication, Falsification, Plagiarism (FFP). Post 2 shared (at title level) several TENK cases resolved in 2018, where plagiarism was found in Master’s/Pro Gradu theses and in a scientific article; post 4 similarly shared TENK cases where plagiarism and self-plagiarism was found in doctoral theses. In this post, I want to discuss plagiarism – with students, with national and international colleagues in the scientific world, and – basically – with anyone interested.
Plagiarism, in my view, is like stealing – in scientific texts typically of words/thoughts, and sometimes images or other creative concepts. It is done without citing/properly attributing the original source. These days, plagiarizing is easy for the one who wishes to do it: electronically copy-paste from a source, and use it in your own work without acknowledging the source – done in seconds or minutes. Writing original text (and creating images, etc) is much more laborious and time-consuming. read more >>