Paul Dobersztyn - Article Review #1

Badke, W. (2007). Give plagiarism the weight it deserves. www.onlinemag.net, 5(31).

Introduction:

Plagiarism is definitely a problem and frowned upon, but there hasn’t been enough education regarding plagiarism. This article describes, what plagiarism is and calls for more education regarding it. It also describes society’s views on sharing and rights regarding copyrighted material. I chose plagiarism as my research topic, but I need to get more specific. This article definitely raised a few interesting points that I need to research further.

Problem Statement:

Educators identify plagiarism as the top offense in the information crimes agenda.

Literature Review:

This article draws from a study from the Center of Academic Integrity (www.academicintegrity.org). Results show that 40% of 50,000 undergraduate students have plagiarized from material found on the internet. According to the article, in a study in 1999 of 50,000 undergraduate students, 77% of the student body didn’t view plagiarism as a serious problem. Badke tries to solve the problem of plagiarism first, by trying to identify the types of plagiarists. Then continues to differentiate between accessibility and permission to appropriate. These concepts are important to know when researching plagiarism, because it gives a good basis to start. Another interesting viewpoint, is how other societies view plagiarism. If someone comes from a country that everything is shared, they could view an individual who claims that they own this property as selfish and insulting. Finally Badke reminds us of the challenge of anti-plagiarism education.

Method:

The article doesn’t include details of the research, but provides a website with the link of the research. I checked the website and the articles published are under review so they were removed.

Caveat:

The study reference in this article is over ten years old, so opinions and numbers could have changed drastically since then. The fact that the website containing the actual research is under review, kind of questions its integrity. I wish I had the actual numbers and values to look at myself. I don’t even know what schools they interviewed, and their basis of selection. Overall this article raised a few good points and questions but definitely lacks in any steady or worthwhile information,