WEEK 5: Violations in the academic field-Part II

This week’s materials were very interactive and interesting to follow. Below are my thoughts related to each of them:

• News article

I consider that the news reveal a serious, real problem. It is interesting to read the comments and wonder if this was part the responsibility of the committee that passed the candidate and conferred her the diploma and PhD title. While this problem can still be of present debate, I consider that each university should offer students and faculty a plagiarism software to check materials. To my knowledge this resource is not provided at Virginia Tech. When you talk about catching plagiarism you need to also provide resources and solutions in this regard.

• Video 2

I agree with many of the reasons and motivations mentioned in this clip about why most of the student cheat. I also know that statistics show that most students who commit allegations are never caught. I know from previous trainings I attended that a key motivation of conducting plagiarism is being under pressure, not having enough time to finish the giving assignment. Overall, I agree with the motivations overviewed in the clip by the professor.

• Video 3

This clip was very helpful since it had concrete examples about plagiarism, providing advices in this regard. I particularly find interesting the aspects of plagiarizing yourself and making up sources, as falsification tactics. Also the diagram about citing general information is helpful. However, I would have been more specific about paraphrasing. For instance, the APA style guideline makes the following recommendation when paraphrasing: use different words, use them in a different order than in the original source and use a different grammatical structure.

• LAB experiment

This interactive video is a great way to learn how to act in situations which can be related to plagiarism. I thought it was great since we can explore the roles we play and see the consequences of our actions. I chose the graduate student’s role and decided to seek a university advisor in this regard. However, I chose initially to see my advisor and I was disappointed to see that he was so much on Greg’s side. I decided that “playing” the graduate student’s role fits my situation right now and it can be a great example of what decisions to take during this process. I think the video shows some important issues or pitfalls of reporting allegations such as: time consuming, affecting your image in the department and the relationships between people. However, I feel this clip does a great job on showing us the consequences of our decisions. This is how we can really learn about what to do in such a situation. Also the clip raised the issue of protection when reporting allegations. This is indeed a serious concern. Finally, the clip emphasizes also on the rewards and implications of the presented case. I will definitely share it with my advisor and my colleagues.