The menace of plagiarism: How to detect and curb it

Abstract

Plagiarism - using someone else's ideas, writings or results, and presenting them as one's own without giving proper credit to the actual author. In today's competitive world plagiarism is spreading at a tenacious rate. Scientific writing requires good expertise for it demands both features: vividness and terseness, which are generally hard to accomplish together. Any scientific work should be characterized by clear expression, concise content, accurate facts, and perhaps most importantly, honest and objective narrative. The principle reason behind the steep evolution of plagiarism seems to be lack of awareness along with the presence of fierce competition. Several students and other academicians have a misconception that they either won't get caught or there would be little or no long-term effects for plagiarizing other people's content. This paper highlights the menace of plagiarism with some case studies and the means to curb it effectively with the help of educational seminars for especially young researchers. We also discuss the results of surveys conducted after organizing the seminars for plagiarism awareness. As per survey results, most of the students were not even aware about plagiarism earlier, but after the seminar, their understanding of plagiarism issues and its consequences enhanced, and they felt highly motivated against it.