Plagiarism and its Effect on Society

Running head: PLAGIARISM AND ITS EFFECT ON SOCIETY
Plagiarism and its effect on Society
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1PLAGIARISM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY
Thesis Statement: Plagiarism has a bad influence on the Society
Plagiarism refers to the stealing of the language, thoughts and ideas of another author.
It occurs when an individual copies elements from the work of another author and passes it
off as his own. It is indicative of “wrongful appropriation” and is an act of academic
dishonesty. It leads to the breach of the ethics related to journalism. It is subjected to different
kinds of sanctions like penalty and suspension. The notion that the original is an ideal rose in
Europe in the 18th century with the dawning of the Romantic movement. Plagiarism is not a
crime in itself but it constitutes the issue of copyright infringement (Angélil-Carter 2014). It
is generally held that the idea of plagiarism and that of copyright infringement overlap
considerably. Plagiarism cannot be punished by the law but it is the educational institutions
that punish instances of plagiarism.
Minimum amount of plagiarism exists in the educational sector in which a person
commits plagiarism by the substitution of the synonyms. Falsification along with fabrication
also account for major offences besides that of plagiarism. Alteration of the research
materials and the result of the research not being reflected in the proper manner leads to
falsification. This has a bearing on the credibility of research. According to White (2013), act
relating to overt plagiarism is a failure in terms of personal integrity. It shows lack of the
element of professionalism. An experience at the geriatric fellowship has shown that problem
pertaining to plagiarism is more wide spread than it is recognized. It was found that three out
of the total of 26 applications was consisting of plagiarized portions from that of a single
website. It has been stated by Louw and Pieterse (2015) that this kind of incident of
documentation of plagiarism can help in raising awareness among that of the medical
educators. Some of the citizens do not recognize the fact that copying from sources verbatim
amounts to plagiarism.

2PLAGIARISM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY
According to Weber-Wulff (2014), plagiarism is not synonymous with the concept of
copyright infringement. They are indicative of different concepts. False claims in relation to
authorship constitute the issue of plagiarism irrespective of the factor whether the material
has been protected by copyright. The violation of the rights of the copyright holder is termed
as copyright infringement and in this case material of a person (restricted by virtue of
copyright) is used without his consent. Plagiarism on the other hand refers to the unearned
increment of plagiarizing of the reputation of an author. It refers to achieving false claim of
that of authorship and it is a moral offence to the audience of the plagiarist (Chien 2014). It
is also considered to be an offence for those who has provided the particular plagiarist with
the benefit. The publisher of the plagiarist is also committing an act of moral offense in this
kind of a case.
In the field of academia, plagiarism is held to be an act of academic dishonesty and
the offenders are subjected to expulsion. There are certain institutions that make use of
plagiarism detected software in order to uncover instances of potential plagiarism. According
to Stuhmcke, Booth and Wangmann (2016), plagiarism is not an innovative problem and
dependence on the factor of internet has increased the opportunities in relation to plagiarism.
The careless “cutting and pasting” poses problem for the unwary users of Internet. There are
a large number of websites in the present age that provides students with the opportunity to
download term papers free of cost. It has been argued by Appiah (2016) that they tend to
present themselves as “research assistance” but they offer possibilities relating to plagiarism.
They tend to provide guidance to the students who are under undue pressure. It is mentioned
over there that students should use the papers like models. It has been argued by Dalal (2015)
that the students in haste often end up using the material of the papers that amounts to
plagiarism. The author’s credentials should always be asked because a paper that is
anonymous can be indicative of another student.

3PLAGIARISM AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SOCIETY
Level Three Plagiarism is considered to be a very serious form of plagiarism. It
occurs when the conduct of the student is dishonest and the plagiarism compromise the
process of assessment. This occurs when the work has been got from that of another person.
It happens when the work of the student is similar to that of the work of other student that is
inclusive of that of assignment of the previous years. Large sections are copied from that of
other source and it is presented in a manner as if it is his own work. The lack of necessary
citation also leads to academic misconduct. Plagiarism cannot be simply be termed as a
black-and-white issue. According to Amos (2014), boundary between that of plagiarism and
that of research is indistinct. On the event of the writer writing from the work of another
author leads to plagiarism. When the writer copies from that of different sources and retains
the original phrasing then it amounts to plagiarism. The retaining of the content of the source
but changing of key phrases paves the path for plagiarism. It is found that when the writer
borrows from his previous work then it also violates the policies relating to plagiarism. Self-
plagiarism can be defined in three manners within the relevant literature (Angélil-Carter
2014). It means the publishing of paper that overlaps with that of another paper and it is not
acknowledged properly. Dividing a large paper into that of smaller papers and then
publishing them on separate basis can be tantamount to that of plagiarism.
Scientific integrity is dependent on honesty along with that of transparency of method
that transfers knowledge. It has been argued by Bruton and Childers (2016) that re-
publishing the same results in different papers and multiple recalculations of that of the same
result can lead to errors in the process of research. Redundant publication takes place in case
of an overlap between the two papers. This includes the overlapping with that of another
author and their results. According to Risquez, O’Dwyer and Ledwith (2013), re-publishing
done in a deceptive manner cannot be accepted and it points forward to three problems. It can
be unethical, waste the resources and has bad impact on that of future research decision.