The theme is picked up in this week's Times Higher: www.thes.co.uk
(second item on the front page).

Phil Baty

-----Original Message-----
From: Plagiarism [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mike
Reddy
Sent: 27 May 2005 14:50
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Nature Article


Was at the Steering Committee Meeting yesterday for the JISC PAS and
John Barrie of iParadigms mentioned that Nature would be doing a piece
on plagiarism. Here it is (in part at least):

http://www.nature.com/materials/news/features/050519/journal/
435258a.html

"Nature 435, 258?259 (2005)

Special Report: Taking on the cheats

The true extent of plagiarism is unknown, but rising cases of suspect
submissions are forcing editors to take action. Jim Giles reports.

The fight against plagiarism is about to take a decisive turn. Academic

publishers have told Nature they hope that software designed to catch
cheating students could soon be used to unmask academics who plagiarize

other researchers' - or their own - work.

Big publishers such as Elsevier and Blackwell, which between them
publish more than 2,500 journals, have been prompted to act by reports
that plagiarism is becoming more common. "We're hearing about it more
frequently from editors," says Bob Campbell, president of Blackwell
Publishing in Oxford, UK."

As for TV, I saw the Sky news item via the net... but not the debate
with Fiona Duggan that was broadcast at 12-30 apparently - Sky news
live not available on the web, and the debate has not been added to the

video items available on-line 8-(

Did anyone else see it? Sky were going to interview me for a comment,
but all the Liverpool coverage has swamped the Sky film crews
apparently...

However, look (listen?) out for Radio 1's Newsbeat item due on or about

the 31st May, which focusses on A-level and F.E. students. They were
very keen to know how many students had been 'caught' by TurnitinUK; of

course, it is impossible to say this, as the software only reports
originality, and the final decision is up to the academic. However, the

figure of 11% of submitted articles having over 75% non-original
material is indicative, as even a cited, referenced essay that more
than 3/4 of material from other sources isn't going to be the most
desirable in the academic sense; imagine submitting a poem where most
of it was recognisably Shakespeare's!

I would love to know if there are cases where the software has led to a

successful 'conviction' that subscribers are willing/able to share in
confidence. It would just be interesting to know that there had been
some follow up, as the JISC can only look at general stats.

Mike

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