Evaluation of a Process and Proforma for making Consistent Decisions about the Seriousness of Plagiarism Incidents

Yeo, Shelley; Chien, Robyn

doi:10.1080/13538320701629202

Cited by 25 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Or when it is not? Teaching and minor reprimands seem best for new and junior students who are first or second offenders, with sterner measures reserved for senior and repeat offenders (Tennant & Rowell 2010;Yeo & Chien 2007). Definite consequences must also be mandated for plagiarism discovered in a thesis after the diploma is issued (Pavela 1999;Standler 2012).…”

Section: Detection and Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plagiarism in five universities in Mozambique: Magnitude, detection techniques, and control measures

Coughlin¹

2015

Int J Educ Integr

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Hugely facilitated by the Internet, plagiarism by students threatens educational quality and professional ethics worldwide. Plagiarism reduces learning and is correlated with increased fraud and inefficiency on the job, thus lessening competitiveness and hampering development. In this context, the present research examines 48 licenciatura theses and 102 masters theses from five of Mozambique's largest universities. Of the 150 theses, 75% contained significant plagiarism (>100 word equivalents) and 39%, very much (>500 word equivalents). Significant plagiarism was detected in both licenciatura and masters theses. By using both Turnitin and Urkund to identify potentially plagiarized passages, professionally verifying whether those passages contain plagiarism, and, if confirmed, counting the words involved, the study presents a new method for classifying the quantity and significance of plagiarism. The use of two text-similarity-recognition programs also improved the rate of detection and, in some theses, significantly increased the classification of the gravity of the plagiarism encountered. Based on a broad review of the literature, the article argues that, to combat wide-scale plagiarism, academic institutions need to cultivate a consensus among faculty and students about the definition and types of plagiarism, the appropriate penalties, and the paramount professional and economic need to nurture professional ethics. However, to achieve even partial success requires significant involvement by administrators, faculty, students and student leaders guided by a holistic strategy using technological, pedagogical, administrative and legal components to prevent and detect plagiarism and then reeducate or discipline students caught plagiarizing.

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Section: Detection and Consequencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Plagiarism in five universities in Mozambique: Magnitude, detection techniques, and control measures

Coughlin¹

2015

Int J Educ Integr

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“…The framework can serve as a guide for referral to, for example, a faculty or university panel if the case is seen as sufficiently serious. Findings from the testing of this framework indicated that participants thought the tool aided their decision-making and that pairs of academics using the tool together could be beneficial in terms of achieving consistency (Yeo and Chien 2007). This development has clearly influenced how others now manage cases, as explained later in this chapter in relation to another Australian university, Griffith which uses an adapted version in determining the seriousness of a breach of academic integrity (Griffith 2011).…”

Section: Engaging Staff and Developing Their Shared Understandingmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…The introduction and maturing of an academic conduct officer system across an institution, such as that described in the previous section, with officers working "on the ground" at the faculty or department level and who are formally recognized through senior management, can have a positive impact on the consistent use of policy and procedures. Schemes, such as that described by Yeo and Chien (2007), designed to support staff making criteria-based judgements to establish level of severity are also likely to have a positive impact. When both specialist officers and reporting proformas are recognized by the institution, these factors can strengthen defined responsibilities for investigating and managing cases, a commitment to ongoing professional development about academic integrity issues, and supporting and mentoring academic colleagues with regard to such issues as decision-making for the appropriate referral of a case.…”

Section: Bringing Policy To Lifementioning

confidence: 97%

“…One way to address this is through creating frameworks and decisionmaking tools, such as those developed by Yeo and Chien (2007) in one Australian university. These guidelines for deciding severity and then for allocating a penalty can be used by teaching staff to form judgements relating to a particular case.…”

Section: Engaging Staff and Developing Their Shared Understandingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Developing a Sustainable Holistic Institutional Approach: Dealing with Realities “on the Ground” When Implementing an Academic Integrity Policy

Morris¹,

Carroll²

2016

Handbook of Academic Integrity

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“…Dawson and Sutherland-Smith (2017) reported that academics can identify some forms of contract cheating, but again their experiment was outside of the time pressures of providing grading and feedback within sessional requirements, and without the need to discuss irregularities with students. Other studies focus on how to classify the seriousness of incidents and apply consistent penalty decisions once issues such as plagiarism are identified (Carroll & Appleton, 2005;Yeo & Chien, 2007). Studies such as these improve our understanding of some issues related to contract cheating, yet do not capture nor examine the cheating behaviours as and when they occurred within a teaching session, nor include student insights.…”

Section: International Journal Formentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting contract cheating in essay and report submissions: process, patterns, clues and conversations

Rogerson

2017

Int J Educ Integr

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Detecting contract cheating in written submissions can be difficult beyond direct plagiarism detectable via technology. Successfully identifying potential cases of contract cheating in written work such as essays and reports is largely dependent on the experience of assessors and knowledge of student. It is further dependent on their familiarity with the patterns and clues evident in sections of body text and reference materials to identify irregularities. Consequently, some knowledge of what the patterns and clues look like is required. This paper documents how to identify some of the patterns and clues observed in essay and report submissions. Effective assessment design with specific contextual requirements make irregularities easier to detect and interpret. The irregularities identified were confirmed as instances of contract cheating through conversations held with postgraduate students. An essential element of the conversations was the evidence presented for discussion. Irregularities were noted on a pro-forma specifically developed for this purpose. Patterns identified include misrepresented bibliographic data, inappropriate references, irrelevant material and generalised text that did not address the assessment question or grading criteria. The validated patterns formed the basis of identifying potential instances of contract cheating in later submissions. Timely conversations with students before the end of semester are essential to determining whether the patterns and clues link to poor knowledge of academic writing conventions or classified as contract cheating necessitating the application of appropriate penalties under institutional policies and procedures.

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Evaluation of a Process and Proforma for making Consistent Decisions about the Seriousness of Plagiarism Incidents

Cited by 25 publications

References 14 publications

Plagiarism in five universities in Mozambique: Magnitude, detection techniques, and control measures

Plagiarism in five universities in Mozambique: Magnitude, detection techniques, and control measures

Developing a Sustainable Holistic Institutional Approach: Dealing with Realities “on the Ground” When Implementing an Academic Integrity Policy

Detecting contract cheating in essay and report submissions: process, patterns, clues and conversations

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