Dear All,
There is some confusion here on plagiarism. First, I agree that plagiarism is a major violation of research ethics and academic norms. Before exploding on plagiarism as contrasted with misattribution, please let me explain the difference.
What I understood Terry to be saying -- and what we faced here -- was artist Joe Bloggs submitting articles on the work of artist Joe Bloggs by critic Billy Bump while leaving critic Billy Bump's author credit intact yet claiming it as a publication. That is, artist Joe Bloggs submits the article by critic Billy Bump as his, Joe Bloggs's, publication while submitting the correct reference -- or as much of it as he can manage:
My Publications by Joe Bloggs
Bump, Billy. 2010. "Joe Bloggs's Thrilling Art." Global Journal of Exciting Articles, v. 12, no. 5, pp. 78-83.
This is not plagiarism, but misattribution.
If, however, Joe Bloggs were to take Billy Bump's text -- or anyone else's -- and put his own name on it, THAT would be plagiarism.
For Joe Bloggs to claim the article as a publication without amending the author credit or the text is misattribution.
To change the author credit, to claim authorship, or to reproduce the text under his own author credit is plagiarism.
The difficulty here is that the definition of the transitive verb "to plagiarize" in Merriam-Webster's is: "to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own" or "use (another's production) without crediting the source."
Even though Joe Bloggs mistakenly claims this as a publication, leaving Billy Bump's author credit intact means that despite stupidity or ignorance in claiming this as a publication, Bloggs has not passed Bump's words off as his own, and leaving the author credit intact means that Bloggs credited the source.
This is the problem we had here, and it seemed to me that this is the problem as Terry described it. Ignorance or stupidity? Yes. Plagiarism? No.
If, of course, the student DID commit plagiarism by claiming author credit, then Terry has a case for rejecting the application.
Yours,
Ken
Professor Ken Friedman, PhD, DSc (hc), FDRS
Dean, Faculty of Design
Swinburne University of Technology
Melbourne, Australia
email: [log in to unmask]
URL: www.swinburne.edu.au/design
Phone Dean's Office +61 3 9214 6078
Phone Faculty Switchboard +61 3 9214 6755
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