The Ethical Implications of Plagiarism and Ghostwriting in an Open Society

Abstract

Plagiarism is the theft of intellectual property. Plagiarism has been a problem in academic settings and appears to be on the increase, now moving into areas including the medical and scientific fields as well as industry, manufacturing, military, and legal briefs. The ethical implications can have serious consequences for organizations, individuals, and society, resulting in harm being done to others in favor of expediency. In this scholarly essay, the authors explore and discuss the ethical implications of plagiarism and the increase of ghostwriting in a free society through the writings of Kant, Popper, Kostenbaum, Plato, Whedbee, and others. The conclusion is that the act of stealing is not the true crime; rather, it is the act of deception that inflicts moral harm on all parties by damaging the reputation of self and others, insulting others’ intelligence, and harming the integrity of all. The intended audience is students in their first year of a doctoral program.

Paid Academic Writing Services: A Perceptional Study of Business Students

“…The findings of the present study reveal that the more the students are aware of the academic assignments the more they are intended to go for the paid academic writing services. Nevertheless, this finding of the study does not agree with the study conducted by Fusch, Ness, Booker and Fusch (2017) concluding that the students not interested in learning are more inclined towards the paid academic writing services. As a result, such students are unable to clear doctoral programs thus plagiarism misleads them and affects negatively.…”

“…The result of the study cited that few students involve in contract cheating, however repeatedly do. Similarly, research on Plagiarism and Ghostwriting by Fusch, Ness, Booker and Fusch (2017) the authors worked with students and able to draw conclusions that a small percentage of students are not interested in learning to write and plagiarized their works in academic tenure. Nevertheless, they are unable to clear doctoral programs thus plagiarism misleads them and affects negatively.…”

“…Roberts (2009) argues that the concept of Paid Writing, previously, was commonly practised by political leaders to improve their speeches to be delivered publically, as the professional writers had word-selection skills. Landers (2008), as cited by Fusch, Ness, Booker, and Fusch (2017), reporting for the Wall Street Journal, wrote that ghostwriting for presidential speeches and books have been a long-known implementation and seems to be commonly accepted. Ghostwriting is a legal and justifiable business, and many ghostwriting agencies have a significant history of success.…”

Views of Community Managers on Knowledge Co-creation in Online Communities for People With Disabilities: Qualitative Study

“…Recognizing that as researchers we cannot completely separate our beliefs and expectations from the subject of research [ 84 ], we tried to mitigate this potential bias through regular meetings throughout the course of the study. These meetings helped us to discern our own perceptions, allowing us to better understand and interpret our data to represent our participants’ experiences [ 84 ]. Given its exploratory nature and its focus on OHCs for people with disabilities, our findings are not generalizable.…”

La comprensión de las citas por parte de los estudiantes de arquitectura: Turco vs. Asiáticos y Africanos

“…Plagiarism is about the transformation of an art object into an art material or the re-presentation of it in today's sense of art which extends from imitation, appropriation and pastiche to plagiarism (Isıtman, 2018). Plagiarism, an old academic issue (Pieterse, 2014) that has become more widespread due to improvements in internet facilities and electronic sources, has become an important and serious problem, particularly in academic environments (Fusch, Ness, Booker, & Fusch, 2017;Šprajc, Urh, Jerebic, Trivan, & Jereb, 2017;Cheak, Sze, Ai, Min & Ming, 2013;Park, 2003Lepp, 2017Rincón & Barrutia, 2017). Plagiarism is defined in the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary (2017) as "us[ing] someone's words or thoughts without citing that person".…”