John

One of the studies I use was done in 2002 in Australia by CAVAL, which
describes itself as "a consortium of the Victorian University Libraries
and the State Library of Victoria .... established in 1978 to enhance
the effectiveness of the educational and research activities of its
member institutions by continually increasing the excellence of their
library services".  The study used Turnitin software, involved 5
Australian universities and was summarised by Jim Buckle in AustralianIT
dated 13 September 2002 as follows:  "The survey, conducted on behalf of
six Victorian universities by university-owned information resources
group CAVAL Collaborative Solutions, examined 1751 essays chosen at
random from 17 subjects in the first semester of this year. It was
believed to be the first of its kind. Using web-based detection
software, it found 155, or 8.85 per cent, of the essays contained
unattributed text copied from other sources that made up 25 per cent or
more of the total word count."  For more information, contact CAVAL on :
www.caval.edu.au

But does this actually answer your question, even it it was rephrased
for the Australian context?  No.  It overlooks all the web sources
beyond the reach of detection.  Most teachers I meet say copying from
text is still a large (and sometimes dominant) source of trouble.  It
can't look at ghost writing or student collusion (though other tools
can).  The CAVAL study didn't deal with texts that start out in one
language and are submitted in another.

And even if you had a general idea how much is about, the incidence
varies hugely between disciplines, between student cohorts, depending on
what you are defining as "plagiarism", between courses which ask general
questions and those who ask students to consider specific, recent,
evaluative ones.  I met an academic two weeks ago who was writing a
commissioned essay for one of the many "bank" sites with the title "What
is social policy?"  I would guess that a course where such an essay
would suffice is going to have much higher rates than any general
finding about incidence might indicate.

What interests me is imagining that we confirmed that the fear far
exceeds the incidence, how would that change things?

Jude Carroll


Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, Oxford Brookes
University, Wheatley OXFORD OX33 1HX
01865 485827;  fax 01865 485937


-----Original Message-----
From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John
Royce
Sent: 30 October 2003 16:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Plagiarism Studies

Hi!

I am hoping that someone in this forum can help me.  I have tried two
other forums/ listservs with this query, and it has produced some
interesting correspondence, but I am no nearer nailing my problem.

I recently came across a statement, not the first time I've come across
this, but this time it jarred:
"Recent studies indicate that approximately 30 percent of all students
may be plagiarizing on every written assignment they complete".

That is truly alarming.  Nearly one-third of all students are
plagiarizing on EVERY (completed) written assignment - and presumably
getting away with it because they do it again and again!  Add in all
those students who plagiarize only occasionally...  It is terrifying.

ALL students, though?  Is this all high school students? All college and
university students? Adult learners?  Is this in every country, all over
the world? There is something here that needs qualifying, surely?

Surely?

But which recent studies?  I ran a check on Google, looking up "every
written assignment they complete" - and there are some 26 hits,  24 of
which refer directly to this finding. Many of these are reputable
journals or academic institutions.

Not every site cites its source, but those which do all point to
plagiarism.org or to turnitin.com (which is part of the plagiarism.org
company).   The original statement is on the page
<http://www.plagiarism.org/problem.html> , and it is this finding that
all those journal articles refer to.

I made other searches as well, in Google and elsewhere (including
bibliographies and other plagiarism studies), looking for anything which
will help nail down these elusive studies.  No joy.

So my question is, Does anyone here know which "recent studies" are
referred to?  There is no indication on the Turnitin / Plagiarism.org
site, and no other mention anywhere else. There IS a Turnitin study
which claims "30% of a large sampling of Berkeley students were recently
caught plagiarizing directly from the Internet-- results of a
Turnitin.com test, conducted from April-May 2000" - but 30% Berkeley
students caught once (?) does not equate with 30% of ALL students on
EVERY completed written assignment.  And Turnitin is normally very
careful to cite its sources, so the absence of a source this time does
make one wonder...

I have written to Turnitin, asking them to pinpoint these "recent
studies", but have had no reply, and as I say, I have asked this same
question in other forums, again without success.

So, does anyone in this forum know which studies are cited here?

Thank you all for your help.

Best,

John Royce

Library Director : Robert College of Istanbul

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