Will the real author come forward? Questions of ethics, plagiarism, theft and collusion in academic research writing

Abstract

This paper raises some questions about academic authorial honesty under the headings of Plagiarism (including self‐plagiarism), Theft, and Collusion. Compared with the medical sciences, the social sciences in general and education specifically, lag behind in terms of critical attention being paid to the problem of plagiarism, the peer review process and academic authorial ethics. The ubiquity of the Internet, the ever intensifying demand to publish or perish, and maybe, a general shift in perceptions of what constitutes ‘bad’ plagiarism and collusion which challenge traditional notions of what constitutes authorial honesty, mean that the time may be ripe for a consideration by academic writers and journal editors of how they regard and deal with the whole area. This paper makes an early contribution to the discussion.

Keywords:

• research ethics
• plagiarism
• academic writing
• authorial honesty
• peer review

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the two reviewers whose comments on an earlier version have led to what I believe is a better paper. As one of them wrote: ‘there is also the interesting case of international students being helped with their English by fellow students going through their work “improving their English” but perhaps in the process improving the quality of their argument. This is sometimes done by fellow academics in relation to articles to be submitted for publication’ (2008, anon). Indeed. Thank you.

Notes

1. These figures tell us nothing about the intentions of the reported ‘plagiarizers’ and consequently will probably include people who made genuine mistakes as well as those who intended to deceive.