Ethical Dilemmas: Plagiarism and Researcher Responsibilities

This essay addresses the critical issue of plagiarism within academic and research settings, exploring its ethical implications and potential consequences. The paper defines plagiarism as the theft of intellectual property, highlighting its detrimental effects on individuals, organizations, and the broader society. It emphasizes the ease with which plagiarism can be detected and the severe repercussions faced by those accused, including academic expulsion, professional damage, and legal actions. The essay also examines ethical dilemmas faced by researchers, such as the handling of confidential information and the proper attribution of sources. The paper underscores the importance of understanding plagiarism, adhering to ethical guidelines, and utilizing available resources to ensure academic integrity and responsible research practices. The consequences of plagiarism are discussed along with how to avoid plagiarism and the implications of this practice. The essay references relevant academic sources to support its arguments, providing a comprehensive overview of plagiarism in research.

Running head: PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism
Name of Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

1PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is known to be the theft of intellectual property, and this has remained a
problem in the world of academia settings (Gallant, 2016). It is a worrying situation now that
plagiarism is extending into fields of medical, manufacturing processes in industries, military
and also in legal briefs. Plagiarism can have extreme ethical implications because it is
basically the stealing of one’s thoughts and portraying it as their own, and this can seriously
harm organizations along with individuals in the society that they live in. It is very easy to get
technical in terms of the ethical implications of plagiarism because it is not the stealing which
is the true crime of the situation, but it is the deception of the idea as one’s owns that inflicts
the moral harm on the party who’s reputation it will be damaging, a basic insult to the
original author’s intelligence and integrity (Yadav, Rawal & Baxi, 2016).
It has certainly become a lot easier to detect plagiarism in literature works in these times
because there are various online software that allow people to check the extent to which a
document may be plagiarised with accurate details of what the source is, and the link to
where it can be found. Once a person is accused of having plagiarised their work, the person
will then continue on and be regarded with suspicion with any other future works that he or
she may publish. There are approximately six consequences of plagiarism that will be
important for everyone to know before they start writing a literature work which requires
reference to the work of other authors (Helgesson & Eriksson, 2015).
Firstly, allegations regarding plagiarism can cause great harm to the student’s academic
position as it may result to him/her getting expelled or suspended from their institution. This
has potential to be reflected in a student’s academic record as a ethics offense, resulting in the
student having restricted opportunities at other institutions (Franco-Salvador, Rosso &
Montes-y-Gomez, 2016). Along with academic reputation, being suspected of plagiarism can
greatly harm one’s professional reputation as well. All this can be reported to the police as

2PLAGIARISM
crime against personal ethics and can result in the suspect dealing with legal repercussions.
These legal repercussions could translate to monetary restitution.
It is important to keep in mind that the consequences of plagiarism are extremely far
reaching and no one of any stature is immune . It will be vital for an individual to think twice
before writing any project, and learn about plagiarism – what it is and how can one avoid it.
There is nothing difficult or complex about the rules of plagiarism, and if it is difficult to
understand there are enough online platforms that will check the degree of plagiarism in any
document. Mere laziness and dishonesty could lead one’s reputation being ruined, and
possibly the loss of a career.

3PLAGIARISM
References:
Franco-Salvador, M., Rosso, P., & Montes-y-Gómez, M. (2016). A systematic study of
knowledge graph analysis for cross-language plagiarism detection. Information
Processing & Management, 52(4), 550-570.
Gallant, T. B. (2016). Modern Plagiarism. Sat, 3, 25am.
Helgesson, G., & Eriksson, S. (2015). Plagiarism in research. Medicine, Health Care and
Philosophy, 18(1), 91-101.
Yadav, S., Rawal, G., & Baxi, M. (2016). Plagiarism-A serious scientific misconduct. Int J
Health Sci Res, 6(2), 364-366.