Indore: While it seems okay to copy and paste from internet, to most people, plagiarism can cost a lot more than we anticipate. Citing the importance of originality and after-effects of plagiarism, Dr Never Muskwe associate professor and head HRM Studies De Montfort University, UK, said, “Plagiarism involves deliberately or inadvertently presenting someone else's ideas as your own.”
He added that plagiarism is cheating and is treated very seriously and usually results in disciplinary action. “Plagiarism is a pressing problem encountered in the academic process and is one of the most common causes of compromising the academic integrity of the author. Welcome to the world of ethical academics,” Muskwe said.
Muskwe was addressing in Virtual International Workshop on Referencing for students of Daly College Business School. Further, in the workshop, he discussed referencing as an essential part of academic writing.
“It puts your work in context, demonstrates the breadth and depth of your research, and acknowledges other people’s work,” Muskwe said. He added that student must give reference while using or quoting someone else’s idea, like from a journal article, textbook or website.
“Student should cite the original author to make it clear where that idea came from. This is the case regardless of whether writer has paraphrased, summarised or directly quoted their work,” Muskwe said.
He added that globally universities have a strict approach to plagiarism, yet on the internet, ‘copy and paste’ culture is rife. “It has been observed that students, research scholars blatantly lift information from each other to create almost identical articles without crediting the original creator and commits serious academic offence,” Muskwe said.
He added that students can avoid losing marks, make sure his work is understood and, most importantly, avoid being accused of the dreaded ‘p’ word: plagiarism.
“We need to educate students in a way that they can investigate issues, analyse data, and research what is already known, in order to come up with well-argued discussions, conclusions and recommendations,” Muskwe said.
