Deterring Plagiarism: A New Role for Librarians

Introduction The proliferation of student plagiarism on university campuses is paralleled by the increasing number of articles appearing in academic journals presenting varying opinions on the topic. Opinions run the gamut from outrage at the student offenders to pointing fingers at faculty members who fail to create plagiarism-proof assignments. One also reads about controversial new methods for deterring and detecting plagiarism, most notably, online plagiarism detection systems. In surveying the literature, one can construct valid arguments for each point of view. This paper will explore the plagiarism dilemma from a librarian's vantage point, and will outline the strong support that has been offered to teaching faculty with plagiarism problems by the Joan and Donald E. Axinn Library of Hofstra University. It will also examine how Hofstra University decided to subscribe to Turnitin.com (www.turnitin.com), a popular but controversial online plagiarism detection system. As librarians, we know that detection is not the main objective in a campaign against plagiarism. Rather, universities should concentrate on educating students as to what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it. Consequently, as our last point we will summarize how Hofstra librarians are reaching out to both faculty and students in order to inform them about this fundamental concern. This paper will not necessarily offer the definitive philosophical answer to solving the plagiarism dilemma, but will attempt to convey a "reality" account of how we have dealt with student plagiarism at Hofstra University. Overview of the Plagiarism Problem Hofstra University is a mid-sized liberal arts university on Long Island with approximately 10,000 full- and part-time undergraduate students and about 3,700 graduate students. In addition, the Hofstra University School of Law has an enrollment of 1,700. In recent years, Hofstra, like other universities, has watched as students became adept at cutting and pasting from the Web, or purchasing papers from paper mills. Part of the dilemma is that many students are unfamiliar with what determines plagiarism and they stumble into it unawares, not only because they have never learned how to use sources, but sometimes because they have been taught that research means plagiarism (White 205). This sense of vagueness is exacerbated by the fact that, with the advent of the Internet, students have unlimited access to information. Additionally, the need for high GPAs to gain entrance to prestigious graduate schools creates an atmosphere of "anything goes" when it comes to completing research assignments. Even a school such as the University of Virginia, long noted for its honor system, has fallen victim to cheating scandals. When confronted with the possibility that some of his students might have plagiarized, Professor Louis Bloomfield of UVA devised a computer program that detected students who had used "recycled" papers from his previous classes. He discovered that 158 of the 500 students in his Physics 105-106 class had cheated (Cullen 2002). This discouraging incident highlights the extent of the plagiarism problem and it also underscores the fact that students' thirst for knowledge has been replaced by a quest for good grades. The problem is so huge that the popular media is now focusing attention to it. The CBS television news program 60 Minutes devoted a segment to cheaters and Professor Donald L. McCabe, founder of the Center for Academic Integrity (www.academicintegrity.org/), told Morley Safer that pressure has turned competitive schools like UVA into academic rat races. In addition to academic pressure, there is the general slackening of ethical codes in society that seems to give the students the go-ahead to succeed at any cost. Students hear of noted historians who have plagiarized, corporate accountants who have cooked the books, and alleged plagiarized material from the Internet being presented recently at a critical United Nations session on Iraq; sadly, they see no harm in a little cheating on their part. …