Deterring Plagiarism in Higher Education

This page supports Jude Carroll's Handbook for Deterring Plagiarism in Higher Education. We will endeavour to keep this resource up to date and even add new resources as we discover them. Those resources added since the book went to press are marked 'New!'

Other books on plagiarism

The Plagiarism Handbook
Robert Harris
Los Angeles: Pyrczak Publishing ISBN 1 884585 35 3
Harris' book takes a similar approach to this publication. It is clearly aimed at the American market and provides detailed information on electronic detection, especially on tracking down sources.

Academic Dishonesty: An Educator's Guide
Bernard E. Whitley Jr., Patricia Keith-Spiegel;
Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2002
The authors state "The goal of [this book] is to provide university faculty with a concise handbook covering the full spectrum of issues related to academic dishonesty," so it covers more than plagiarism and considers techniques for encouraging academic integrity.

Student cheating and plagiarism in the Internet era: A wake-up call
Lathrop, A and Foss, K
Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited, Inc.
Gretchen Pearson, whose web site is frequently recommended as a rich resource (see below) comments, "This is the book that I wish were my web page! While it purports to be for [secondary school] teachers and librarians, it is equally useful for those in higher education. Every academic library should own a copy of this book."

Articles available on line

Anti-Plagiarism: Strategies for Research Papers
Robert Harris
7 March 2002
http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm

Cheating 101: Paper Mills and You
Margaret Fain and Peggy Bates
Coastal Carolina University
Last revised 26 March 2001
http://www.coastal.edu/library/presentations/papermil.html
This Teaching Effectiveness Seminar offers a systematic look at paper mills and some useful links to articles about users' reactions. The presentation is aimed at providing faculty with an overview of the current state of internet paper mills, how to locate paper mills, how to detect plagiarised papers, how to track down suspicious papers, and how to combat plagiarism.

General sites about plagiarism

New! http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk
This new Plagiarism Advisory Service aims to raise awareness of plagiarism in the academic community by providing:

Generic advice for institutions, academic staff and students
Educational tools for students in the area of plagiarism
A portal to external online resources
Guidance on copyright and data protection
A link to the electronic detection service and training on its use

http://plagiarism.phys.virginia.edu/home.html
A site at the University of Virginia managed by Louis Bloomfield, an academic with an interest in plagiarism. It offers free access to his own detection tool and links to a well-filtered list of other sites plus space for whistleblowers to report plagiarism cases.

http://www.academicintegrity.org/index.asp
The Centre for Academic Integrity provides "a forum to identify, afirm, and promote the values of academic integrity among students, faculty, teachers and administrators". It also commissions and reports research on student cheating and offers further services to members.

http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/
A comprehensive site managed by the University of Pennsylvania which is regularly updated and provides useful links to other sites and to electronic detection services.

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/services/instruction/faculty/plagiarism/index.html
This site at the University of Texas is often cited by others who are setting up their own sites or investigating plagiarism.

Sites with an emphasis on teaching students about plagiarism

http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/plagiarism.html
Extensive guidance, information and examples.
http://education.indiana.edu/~frick/plagiarism/
This site includes an on-line quiz with 10 items to demonstrate paraphrasing and citation rules that allows students to check their understanding.
http://sja.ucdavis.edu/avoid.htm#guidelines
Guidelines and examples.
http://www.hamilton.edu/academic/Resource/WC/AvoidingPlagiarism.html
A frequently recommended site. Covers everything and offers good examples and exercises. Useful for generating handouts [with appropriate acknowledgement, of course].

Clarifying copyright

Ten big myths about copyright explained
Brad Templeton
http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html
'An attempt to answer common myths about copyright seen on the net and cover issues related to copyright and USENET/Internet publication.'
Plagiarism in Colleges in USA
Ronald B. Standler
http://www.rbs2.com/plag.htm
This detailed discussion of the legal aspects of plagiarism is cited frequently and nearly always positively by lists like this on plagiarism sites. It includes references to legal cases and offers views on how universities should manage the difference between plagiarism and copyright.

Paper mills and 'cheat sites'

There are literally hundreds of these sites and they change regularly. If you find one, it will link to many others. A good way to start is with a catalogue site such as those listed below.

New! http://www.essaysforstudents.com offers "essays, dissertations and course notes of guaranteed 1st class and 2:1 standard
New! http://www.essayschool.com offers over 60,000 essays, as well as custom-written essays.
New! http://www.papers4you.com/ contains "thousands of essays, dissertations and other assignments".
New! http://www.math4money.com/ offers solutions to maths problems.
New! http://www.coursework.info/ "a collaborative project to preserve intellectual and academic information and catalogue it online for the benefit of students". Claims over 50,000 essays and pieces of coursework.
New! http://www.yourlawanswers.co.uk/ a site offering assistance with law degrees, including purchasing essays.
New! http://www.thejournal.com/magazine/mcmurtry/ an index of paper mills categorized by price per page.
http://www.coastal.edu/library/mills2.htm lists more than 150 paper mills including free sites and pay-per-page "services". It also categorises sites by topic and disciplines.
http://www.essaycrawler.com
Offers 35,000 free essays "...so you can get done and get on with your life". This is also a good place to start if you suspect a student's paper has been purchased.
http://www.study-area.com/student
Claims to be a site for UK students and offers 1,200 documents for 5 per month or 15 per year . The free "previews" appear very American.

Electronic detection

http://www.copycatchgold.com/
Checks for collusion and copying between students.
http://www.turnitin.com
Offers an on-line service that checks the Web and builds a database of past submissions. Free trials are offered.
http://www.plagiarism.com/index.htm
The Glatt Detection site offers tools for self teaching and checking authorship. The site claims to be especially useful for authentication if the original source is not found
http://www.canexus.com/eve/index.shtml
For a free trial download program of the Essay Verification Engine (EVE).
http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~aiken/moss.html
Measure of Software Similarity (MOSS).