Ways to Detect & Deal Plagiarism in Academic Writing

The word plagiarism refers to the wrongful act of stealing another author’s ideas, opinions, expressions, linguistic or literary compositions without acknowledging the author and branding them as one’s original work. It is considered a breach of literary ethics and academic dishonesty. A scholar may resort to plagiarism for personal reasons, but can cause damage to the whole scientific community.  Since the purpose of scientific research is the welfare of mankind, it can be potentially damaged by the acts of theft, misinformation and deceit. As a result, volumes of plagiarized data are produced which damages the credibility of the scientific systems.

Its consequences may include violation of copyrights followed by legal disputes and proceedings. An author proven guilty of plagiarism may lose the credibility of all his literary work and can be rejected by the scientific community as a whole. Moreover, an organization publishing plagiaristic writings may be deemed as sub-standard and ultimately abandoned by the scholastic community. Therefore, it is highly crucial to learn about plagiarism and to be able to distinguish between original and wrongfully appropriated work pieces.

Being aware of the research ethics and international guidelines, Asian Network for Scientific Information (ANSI) has always strived to produce high quality peer-reviewed research data to help serve the scientific community in a better way. The organization works by having top quality, authentic journals indexed in its digital library. In all the procedures, only original information is validated and accepted leaving no room for scientific misappropriation. The organization has a rigorous method with multiple cross-checks. This ensures the credibility of submitted information and scientific data as a whole. In addition to this, the reputed body arranges workshops and trainings time to time for improving the standard of the published scientific material.

Recently, one such a half-day workshop on “How to Detect and Deal Plagiarism in Academic Writing” was organized in collaboration with the Asian Council of Science Editors (ACSE).This workshop was exclusively designed as per the customized requirements of Asian Network for Scientific Information for the capacity building of their manuscript handling editors. It was conducted by Ms. Maryam Sayab, Professional Development Manager of The ACSE, on October 17, 2019 at the Asian Digital Library (ADL), Faisalabad, Pakistan.

The training course specifically focused on improving and enhancing the capabilities and skill set of academic editors of ANSI to evaluate the submitted manuscripts for plagiarism. Ms. Maryam briefly described the basic principles of plagiarism as well as the modern types of plagiarism and ways to avoid plagiarism. She stressed that plagiarism is against the international moral code of the scientific community. The key tips to detect plagiarism during evaluation without using any software were also shared by her to ensure international ethical code for the researchers’’ community is followed in true spirits.

In her perspective “Plagiarism is a deceptive approach of an author to his own research. It damages the research integrity and misleads the readers of his field. Regardless of the type of plagiarism, committed by the author, this approach is not acceptable at all.”

She also emphasized the role of academic editors in preserving the integrity of scientific knowledge when it comes to plagiarism. A discussion was made on reported cases of plagiarism by the ethical committees of the publishing industry to enlighten the trainees about such issues. All the trainees participated actively while highlighting the previously known forms of plagiarism as well as queries related to handling the manuscripts.  The course summarized by producing practice worksheets and by holding an ‘Integrity Quiz’ for the assessment of the session.

About Asian Network for Scientific Information
Asian Network for Scientific Information is a leading service provider for publishers belonging to the field of Science, Technology and Medicine (STM) in Asia. Currently, it is publishing about 37 peer-reviewed journals of several academic disciplines. It aims to advance the learning process by providing information and enhancing communication among scientists, researchers, students and professionals in an efficient and intelligent manner.

About Asian Council of Science Editors
Asian Council for Science Editors is a reputable and one of the leading organizations in Asia aiming at providing an active and progressive platform for Asian editors and scholars to understand state of the art technology being used in solving editorial complexities, ways and means to find innovative solutions to the editorial and publication problems and prepare old, young and would be editor/publishers to face challenges related with quality of scholarly publications that may appear in near and/or distant future.

Testimonials

I have been part of the Asian Network for Scientific Information for quite some time and my association with this network has helped me to learn new information in a highly efficient manner. The recently organized workshop was a great experience for me. I gained new insights to tackle plagiarism and highly encourage everyone to be a part of such informative sessions. I believe this will help us collectively to serve the scientific community in a better way.

(Hina Waqar, Academic Editor | ANSI)

I really appreciate the effort made by the Asian Network for Scientific Information to help us learn about new approaches and techniques. The ACSE’s professional trainer explained the bottom-up approach for making visualization clear in a very easy manner. I feel confident enough to utilize the knowledge gained through this workshop in my daily work. Moreover, the overall information was presented in a clear and appealing way with examples.

(Fariha Sattar, Academic Editor | ANSI)

The workshop was very useful for me as I learned the quick method for article analysis by following some easy to learn tips in an intelligent manner. I gained information about the technical terms being used for different categories of plagiarism and ways to differentiate between them. In short, it was an informative session which will help me improve my work as an academic editor and author.

(Rida Zainab, Academic Editor | ANSI)

As a newcomer, I found this workshop extremely useful. It brought me conceptual clarity of plagiarism and increased my knowledge. I highly recommend this workshop for academic editors and authors belonging to the scientific field.

(Sehrish Naz, Academic Editor | ANSI)

The workshop was really informative for me and will enable me to perform better in a personal capacity. It has enabled me to dispense my services to the scientific community in a proficient manner.

(Saba Akram, Academic Editor | ANSI)

This workshop was very interesting and informative. The trainer helped us to understand the kinds of plagiarism and ratios of acceptability. I truly appreciate their efforts for delivering knowledge on plagiarism and to answer queries of each participant individually. This workshop will contribute significantly in the evaluation of papers as well as paper write-ups in the future.

(Sabeen Saher, Academic Editor | ANSI)

This workshop turned out to be quite explanatory, instructive and enlightening for me. Many of the conceptual ambiguities were brought to clarity. The presenter’s method of covering the topic was very effective. I believe it has cleared the confusion of all the participants about plagiarism and has helped them to process information in an efficient manner. Overall, it was a good learning experience. I would recommend the academic editors and postgraduate students to attend such courses to have a better understanding of the norms and ethics of academic writing.

(Saira Kanwal, Academic Editor | ANSI)

Well presented, very enthusiastic and informative workshop about plagiarism. The workshop was very educational for me. Though I previously had some background knowledge about plagiarism, it was a great opportunity to refresh all my concepts. The workshop covered important questions, different terminologies being used for plagiarism, and some tips for locating and evaluating sources by examples. I am truly thankful to ANSI and ACSE for the mutual informative venture and look forward to more in the future.

(Zunaira Nazish, Academic Editor | ANSI)