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Editorial: Plagiarism

Plagiarize,

Let no one elses work evade your eyes,

Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,

So dont shade your eyes,

But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize

Only be sure always to call it please research.

(Tom Lehrer (1953). Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky)

Most of the steps that we take to advance our understanding are based on previous research.Bernard of Chartres used to compare us to [puny] dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants. He

pointed out that we can see more and further than our predecessors, not because we have keener

vision or greater height, but because we are lifted up and borne aloft on their gigantic stature.

(John of Salisbury, 1159) And that presents us with a problem when we are writing about our

work for publications, whether in conference presentations, organisational websitesor in jour-

nals like BJET. It is essential that we distinguish between the work that has been carried out byothers and the workand the writingthat is due to our original efforts.

Most research projects will start with a comprehensive study of the literature to determine what

has been found in the past, and it is that foundation that will inform the subsequent work. It is

quite likely that, in order to make the argument for the paper, you will need to quote from the work

of others. However, you must make it quite clear that is what you are doing and you must give

proper recognition to the original author (identifying the quotations and referencing the paper

appropriately).

There are three types of plagiarism.

a. Unattributed copying from the work of others;

b. Unattributed copying from work that you have published in the past;

c. Patch-writing where substantial passages are taken from previous published work and

slightly edited to change words or phrases so that they are superficially different.

The first of these is clearly dishonest. You are, in effect, stealing other peoples work and passing

it off as your own. In doing so you are claiming credit for something that it not your own. It may

be that the agency that is funding the work is being defrauded by paying for something that is not

original: it may be that the publisher is unknowingly put into the position of assisting you to

infringe another persons copyright.

Some people defend self-plagiarism on the grounds that the work is their own and that they are

entitled to use it as they wish. However, if the copyright has been assigned to a publisher (of a

journal or conference proceedings) then the author has accepted some restrictionswhich will

usually exclude the right to re-use the material without proper attribution and/or permission.

Furthermore, the funding agency may be paying for the same piece of work twice!Patch-writing may be employed by authors who have difficulty in writing in good English. Using

someone elses words and just making a few changes can result in writing that is more easily

understood, but it is still plagiarism.

British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 44 No 1 2013 34

doi:10.1111/bjet.12008

2012 The Author. British Journal of Educational Technology 2012 BERA. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford

OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

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Among the steps we are taking to eliminate plagiarism are that:

As a matter of routine, BJETchecks all of the work submitted for publication using iThenticate.This provides us with a report on material within the submission that has previously been

published elsewhere (the overlap)by the author(s) or by others.

Submissions that appear to include a significant amount of previously published material areinvestigated further to establish whether that material has been referenced and attributed

appropriately.

Where the overlap is found to exceed an acceptable level, we write to the author(s) providing a

link to the full report and inviting them to withdraw the submission, or alternatively to revise

it extensively to reduce the overlap and to indicate where they are quoting the work of others (or

their own previously published work). We also ask for their comments on the overlap.

If the author cannot provide an acceptable explanation or where the overlap is very significant

then we will immediately reject the submission.

The issue of plagiarism is being included in the BJET Reviewer Development Programme to

heighten awareness of the problem within the Reviewer Panel. We are engaging in discussions and the exchange of information on plagiarism with editors of

other journals in the field. Repeat offenders may find it difficult to get their work published in the

future.

BJET is a member of the Committee on Publishing Ethics (COPE) and has adopted theirguidelines.

You will find elsewhere in this issue a retraction for a paper that was published in BJETlast year

and was subsequently found to include significant passages of unattributed material from other

authors.

Plagiarism (whether from others or self-plagiarism) is a growing problem and BJETis committed

to eliminating it from the work we publish.

Nick RushbyEditor, British Journal of Educational TechnologyEmail: nick.rushby@dsl.pipex.com

References

Lehrer, T. (1953). Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky in Songs by Tom Lehrer.Salisbury, J. (1159). The Metalogicon. Book III, Berkeley, CA., University of California Press. p 167.

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2012 The Author. British Journal of Educational Technology 2012 BERA.