Plagiarism: Prevention and Detection Strategies

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• Affirm the importance of academic integrity and reduce opportunities to engage in academic dishonesty

   

  • Discuss the ethical side of plagiarism with your students.
  • Share your stories of dealing with student plagiarism.
  • Include the definition of plagiarism, clarify your expectations and student responsibilities in your syllabus. If your assignments involve teamwork, your syllabus should include definitions of acceptable forms of collaboration and responsibilities of project members for plagiarism.
  • Helpful UC resources for you and your students
    • Academic Misconduct (Office of University Judicial Affairs)
    • Student Code of Conduct
    • What is plagiarism? (UL page for students)
    • Library resources and Web links on plagiarism - see below under "Resources on academic plagiarism in the UC Libraries' collections," "Featured books," and "Plagiarism links."
  • Use library resources and online tutorials and quizzes to explain concepts related to plagiarism (paraphrasing, direct quotes, citing sources, etc.) and check the students' understanding of those concepts:
  • Tutorials/tests for advanced undergraduate and graduate students
    • How to Recognize Plagiarism - this tutorial from the Indiana University includes plagiarism cases, examples of appropriately documented and plagiarized materials and practice exercise with instant feedback. Includes a test available to non-IU students. Students who complete the test successfully get a printable certificate.
  • Tutorials/tests for lower division undergraduate students
    • All About Plagiarism (University of Texas in Austin) - this interactive tutorial teaches students about plagiarism and its consequences and provides tips on plagiarism avoidance. The tutorial contains Web links and tips for instructors using this tutorial.
      Plagiarism: The Crime of Intellectual Kidnapping - this tutorial from San Jose State University (also available in a Flash version) includes good examples of acceptable and unacceptable paraphrasing. Includes a downloadable (PDF) 13-question quiz.
    • Individuals and institutions may copy Plagiarism: The Crime of Intellectual Kidnapping text, graphics, animations, and scripts to use on their own campuses and customize in whole or in part (see the Open Publication License Agreement).
    • Plagiarism: this fun video from Paul Robeson Library (Rutgers University) is accompanied by a quiz (no printable results).
  • Use scenarios to teach students what constitutes plagiarism
    • Activity Sheet: Identifying Plagiarism (Word document). From "Plagiarism: Teaching Modules & Student Resources" at Lehman College.
    • Zippy Scenarios for Teaching Internet Ethics (University of Illinois)
    • UTS - Avoiding plagiarism - Real-life scenarios
    • Ariew, Susan and Heather Runyan. "Using Scenarios to Teach Undergraduates About Copyright, Fair Use, & Plagiarism." Paper presented at the LOEX Conference 2006. May 4, 2006, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, United States. Handout (Word document).
      
    • Manuel, Kate. "The ethics of 'real world' information seeking and use." In Carol Anne Germain and Deborah Bernnard (Eds.). Empowering Students II: Hands-on and minds-on library instruction activities. 55. Catalog record.
    • Whitbeck, Caroline. "Scenarios on Plagiarism" Online Ethics Center for Engineering. National Academy of Engineering. Online www.onlineethics.org/CMS/research/modindex/resethpages/plagiarism.aspx
    • Plagiarism workshop (Word document) - The activity sheet from the Higher Education Academy Psychology Network (United Kingdom) includes a number of activitie, including the popular "Where do you draw the line?" exercise.
    • The Plagiarism Handbook: Strategies for Preventing, Detecting and Dealing with Plagiarism by Robert Harris (link to catalog record) includes many useful tips for faculty and cartoons that can be used to discuss plagiarism issues with students. Some of the ideas on this page are modified from that book. The book also includes a “Citation Quiz” and “Using Sources Quiz.”
      See additional library resources below.
• Academic Integrity and Honor Pledge
  • In pursuit of its teaching, learning and research goals, the University of Cincinnati holds its students, faculty and administrators to the highest ethical standards defined by The Center for Academic Integrity as “a commitment, even in the face of adversity, to five fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility”.  Although not all students are subject to a college honor code or pledge, every student is bound by the academic misconduct provisions of this code enforced to assure academic integrity.  When dishonest students cheat to gain unfair competitive advantage over other students, they cheat themselves out of a decent education.  
  • Some faculty members and academic units may require students before taking tests and/or when submitting assignments to sign a pledge.  The pledge may contain language such as: “On my honor I pledge that this work of mine does not violate the U.C. Student Code of Conduct provisions on cheating and plagiarism.”  Honor pledges serve primarily as a teaching tool; unless a college has a mandatory honor code, pledges are used at the discretion of the instructor.
  • Academic Integrity & Honor Pledge Campaign FAQ (Word document)
• Use SafeAssign
  • SafeAssign™ is a plagiarism prevention service, offered by Blackboard. Instructors can set up SafeAssignments in their Blackboard courses and let students submit papers to these assignments. As students submit papers, they are checked against SafeAssign's comprehensive databases of source material.  The papers will then be delivered to instructors through the Blackboard Learning System together with the originality reports, with the results of the matching process, attached to them. (This information is taken from the SafeAssign Wiki, where you can learn more about SafeAssign, see sample reports, etc).

    Please note that when students submit a Blackboard written assignment for an instructor using the new text-matching software they will see the following:

  • Please note that material submitted for this assignment will be  screened by Blackboard's SafeAssign feature against a variety of  databases. The purpose of this feature is to minimize plagiarism and  to help educate students about the proper citation of any borrowed  content. For more information about plagiarism and citation  conventions, please see  <http://www.libraries.uc.edu/help/students/plagiarism.html> As part of the submission process, you will also have the opportunity  to leave a copy of your work within the SafeAssign Global Reference  Database, which helps to protect the originality of your work across  institutions. This step is voluntary and you may choose not to  participate in this part of the submission process. For more  information please check with your instructor.

• Plagiarism prevention strategies
  • Make it clear to the students that you know their writing style.
  • Work with librarians to develop creative assignments. Please see the "Teaching Information Literacy Skills" guide for assignment tips and ideas.
  • See more tips from the following sources:
  • Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research Papers by Robert Harris
    CyberPlagiarism: Detection and Prevention (Penn State)
    Preventing Plagiarism  (Preventing and Detecting Plagiarism, University of Texas at Austin) This tutorial is being updated. Watch the progress at http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/faculty/plagiarism/index.html
    Additional Web links - see under "Plagiarism links" below
• Detecting plagiarized papers
  • See Tips on detecting plagiarism ( CSUCI Library) for plagiarism detection tips.
    
  • Go to Google and do a search for the exact phrase that might be plagiarized. (Enclose the phrase in double quotation marks).
  • Go to the Summon metasearch tool or general databases (Academic Search Complete, Expanded Academic ASAP, ProQuest Research Library or Wilson OmniFile) or a frequently used database in your subject area and do a search for the exact phrase that might be plagiarized.
  • If you suspect that you are dealing with a case of plagiarism, have a conversation with the student: ask questions about content, ask to define the terms and adjectives that stand out stylistically.
  • Use plagiarism detection software.
    
• Taking action
  • Faculty Guidelines for Responding to Academic Misconduct (Word document) are intended to help faculty members respond to cheating and plagiarism. They are based on the Student Code of Conduct that assures due process for students accused of misconduct while enabling course instructors to impose appropriate sanctions for academic misconduct. The Guidelines were revised in August 2010.
• Resources on academic plagiarism in the UC Libraries' collections
  • To search for resources on plagiarism and academic integrity in the UC Library catalog and the OhioLINK Library Catalog, use the following subject heading: Plagiarism (click here for search results in the UC library catalog) or Plagiarism - Prevention (click here for search results in the UC library catalog). This subject heading will also retrieve relevant periodical articles in the Academic Search Complete database.
• Featured books
  • Student plagiarism in an online world : problems and solutions. Hershey, PA : Information Science Reference, c2008. Langsam stacks, PN167 .S78 2008  (link to catalog record). Connect to resource online.
  • DeSena, Laura Hennessey. Preventing plagiarism : tips and techniques. Urbana, Ill. : National Council of Teachers of English, c2007. Langsam stacks, PN167 .D47 2007 (link to catalog record).
  • Gilmore, Barry. Plagiarism : a how-not-to guide for students. Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, c2009. Langsam Stacks, PN167 .G46 2009  
  • Gilmore, Barry. Plagiarism : why it happens, how to prevent it. Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, c2008. CECH Prof Ed, Clermont Stacks. PN167 .G47 2008
  • Lampert, Lynn D. Combating student plagiarism : an academic librarian's guide. Oxford : Chandos, 2008. Langsam stacks, Z675.U5 L36 2008 (link to catalog record).
  • Marsh, Bill. Plagiarism : alchemy and remedy in higher education. Albany : State University of New York Press, c2007. Langsam Stacks, PN167 .M285 2007  (link to catalog record)
  • Posner, Richard A. The little book of plagiarism. New York : Pantheon Books, c2007. Langsam Stacks, K1485 .P67 2007 (link to catalog record).
  • Robin, Ron Theodore. Scandals and scoundrels : seven cases that shook the academy. Berkeley : University of California Press, c2004. Langsam Stacks, Clermont Stacks PN167 .R63 2004  (link to catalog record)
  • Stern, Linda. What every student should know about avoiding plagiarism. New York : Pearson/Longman, c2007. Langsam Stacks, PN167 .S74 2007  (link to catalog record)
  • Sutherland-Smith, Wendy. Plagiarism, the Internet, and student learning : improving academic integrity. New York : Routledge, 2008. Langsam Stacks, Clermont Stacks PN167 .S88 2008  
• Plagiarism links
  • Ctrl-V Plagiarism in the News by iThenticate and Plagiarism Today
  • Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices. " The statement is intended to provide helpful suggestions and clarifications so that instructors, administrators, and students can work together more effectively in support of excellence in teaching and learning."
  • OVCR - Plagiarism
    A comprehensive collection of links to online articles about plagiarism, copyright and intellectual freedom, resources on plagiarism for instructors and students, plagiarism case studies, detection tools, and term paper sites. The links have been carefully selected for the research Ethics pages on the site of the Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
  • NEW! The Plagiarism Spectrum: Tagging 10 Types of Unoriginal Work - this extneded infographic "identifies 10 types of plagiarism based in the findings of the workdwide survey of nearly 900 secondary and higher education instructors."
  • Badke, William. "Give Plagiarism the Weight It Deserves." Online; Sep/Oct2007, Vol. 31 Issue 5, p58-60, 3p. (Online, requires off-campus access).

Suggest new resources on plagiarism for this page.

The content of this page was originally developed by the Academic Integrity Committee in Spring 2003.
The page was updated by the Academic Integrity Committee and University Libraries Instructional Faculty in September 2007.
Latest update January 14, 2013.