As the U.S. Attorney General and Department of Justice call upon schools to incorporate cyber ethics courses within their curriculum, instructors and librarians in colleges and universities throughout the United States find themselves besieged with new forms of high-tech cheating. The increase in computer and Internet use, coupled with the expanding availability of online term paper mills and full-text databases, have given rise to technology-enabled cut and paste plagiarism.

In 1999, the Center for Academic Integrity conducted a study that revealed 69 percent of all college professors detected one or more instances of plagiarism per year. That number continues to grow. In April 2001, a professor at the University of Virginia decided to check the papers of students in a class with a normal enrollment of approximately 500. Using a program designed to compare current Physics assignment papers against a database of 1,850 papers collected from students during the previous three semesters, he uncovered over 100 questionable papers. As a result, 122 students are undergoing investigation and face possible expulsion (Argetsinger, 2001).

Kitalong (1998) describes the three levels of plagiarism as follows:

•  Outright cheating: students submit work that is entirely someone else's research and writing.

•  Non-attribution: students copy parts of another's writing without identifying or citing the source of the original work.

•  Patchwriting: students closely paraphrase another's work without citing the original source.

Online Cheatsites

The proliferation of Internet paper mills makes cyber cheating even easier. The New York Times (Flynn, 2001) describes the inception and activities of SchoolSucks.com, a Web site that offers free, downloadable papers and reports to students. Started in 1996, this site contains more than 5,000 pieces of homework, operates under the slogan “Download Your Workload” and boasts of approximately 10,000 daily visits by students.

Another online paper mill is Other People's Papers, (http://oppapers.com). This site was founded in 1997 and features a database of over 10,000 free papers available for students to download. Students have a choice of searching for papers on specific subjects or simply clicking on a link to access some of the most popular papers. Other links take students to recently donated papers or a place where they can upload their own papers for sharing. This and other sites also offer to produce custom papers at costs that range from $8.95 to $38.00 a page, depending on the needed turn-around time.

A number of states have passed laws to prevent the sales of term papers, essays, reports, or dissertations. Some states allow the college or university to seek court action to prevent paper mills from selling papers to students. In other states, only the State Attorney General is empowered to seek an injunction (Standler, 2000).

The growing number of both fee and free cheatsites aiding and abetting plagiarists may make instructors feel as if they are fighting a losing battle. Nevertheless, there are strategies to counter this alarming trend. Instructional methods as well as technology can help prevent as well as detect cyber cheating.

Why Students Cheat

Many students are confused about what is meant by the term plagiarism. Their instructors have taught them how to research and retrieve chunks of information. They may not have learned how to correctly paraphrase or cite their sources. Still others use plagiarism as a way to compensate for poor planning and time management skills. Copying and pasting information from a database or Web site is quick and easy. The exercise of searching, evaluating, reading and synthesizing information takes skill, time and advance planning. Students with poor study skills and rapidly approaching deadlines may succumb to pressure and rely on technologically assisted cheating as a way to quickly complete an assignment (Harris, 2002).

Other researchers cite escalating competition among students seeking scholarships, admission to prestigious graduate schools, degrees or diplomas as factors in the growing practice of plagiarism. Aggressive parents and oblivious college administrators have also been blamed for students' ethical lapses (Kleiner & Lord, 1999).

Scope of the Problem

How extensive is the problem? A survey of 2,200 students from 21 colleges revealed that 10 percent admitted to plagiarizing material from the Internet. A professor from the University of California, Berkeley, checked papers from 340 neurobiology students using an Internet search engine, discovering 45 of the students had plagiarized material (Argetsinger, 2001).

After uncovering one plagiarized assignment, a George Washington University professor decided to check every paper submitted by students in her class. She found that 42 of the papers submitted were composed almost entirely from plagiarized information (Ryan, J.J.C.H., n.d.). The University of California reported an increase from 70 cases of plagiarism in the 1994-1995 school year to 142 cases in 1999-2000 (Young, 2001).

To place these figures in perspective, the examples cited reflect only those cases of plagiarism that were actually detected. An accurate assessment of the total number of college students indulging in cyber cheating cannot be determined, although academics at a variety of institutions insist the numbers are continuing to climb.

Student Tools

One approach to the plagiarism plague is to better educate students. Instructors can provide clear definitions, supplemented by concrete examples of plagiarized material. Harris (2002) recommends demonstrating the difference between correctly cited paraphrasing or quotations and work inappropriately copied directly from the source. He argues that this instructional methodology serves two purposes: it provides education for the uninformed while conveying the message that an instructor is actually monitoring student work to detect plagiarism.

He also suggests engaging students in class discussions that explore the effects of plagiarism on other students in a class and the educational institution. Additional dialogues on source citation can include the advantages of citing sources to bolster arguments in persuasive writings or speeches.

Some colleges provide online student guides that provide many of these same educational functions. Two excellent examples are those offered by Indiana University (Plagiarism, n.d.) and Princeton University (Academic Integrity, n.d.). Each of these pages provides an unequivocal definition of plagiarism, provides examples of unacceptable as well as comparable appropriate uses of information derived from other sources. The Indiana University page also discusses how students can avoid plagiarism and why this is important.

High-Tech Strategies for Instructors

Prevention and detection are two possible approaches to attack the growing problem. The same technology that has spawned online paper mills has also given rise to software and search services designed to nab the would-be cheater.

Some instructors rely on search engines or full-text databases as a way to check phrases from student papers to determine if portions of text have been pilfered from other writings. A number of plagiarism-detector Web sites also exists to assist beleaguered instructors.

Plagiarism.org offers a document source analysis tool to create digital fingerprints of text documents. Through their Turnitin.com portal (http://www.turnitin.com), papers can be submitted to a service that checks it against their database of hundreds of thousands of papers. Unlike many of the online paper mills, this service is not free. Costs range from $100 per instructor to more expensive options.

EVE2 ( http://www.canexus.com ) is an essay verification engine that can be downloaded, then run to help detect plagiarized papers. EVE2 uses advanced search features to compare documents in plain text, Microsoft Word, or Corel Word Perfect format against multiple web sites. At the conclusion of the search, it provides a report that includes an evaluation of each page in the paper, what percentage of the page contains plagiarized material, and the URL where the original source document can be located.

Glatt Plagiarism Services ( http://plagiarism.com ) provides three different software services to both detect and deter plagiarism. For a fee, users can download and use a detector program that eliminates every fifth word in a student's paper, replacing the word with a blank. Students are then required to supply the missing word. The software analyzes results and assigns a probability score that indicates potential plagiarism.

The Glatt Plagiarism Teaching Program is a software tool that assists instructors teaching students how to avoid plagiarism. The program includes a series of exercises designed to build writing skills and detect plagiarism in their own writing.

A third option is the Glatt Plagiarism Self-Detection Program. This product allows users to run an automated self-detection test on writings to obtain a rough estimate whether or not plagiarism has occurred.

Low-Tech Approaches

Harris (2002) advocates a series of strategies to help prevent plagiarism, primarily creating unique assignments with specific criteria that canned papers most likely will not address. In addition, he recommends providing students with clear and explicit instructions. Requiring students to adhere to an instructor-prepared list of unusual or narrow topics is another technique he suggests. By insisting papers contain specific components or specific kinds of resources, an instructor can also help thwart would-be cheaters. Other strategies proposed include requiring students to follow a list of sequential process steps for the paper, delivering oral reports describing their research process, and including annotated bibliographies as part of the completed assignment.

Kleiner and Lord (1999) cite a 1998 study that found students in classes taught by teaching assistants rather than tenured professors were 31 percent more likely to cheat. They recommend an open and honest discussion about plagiarism as part of classroom instruction and using discipline directed at apprehended plagiarists as an opportunity for additional teaching.

Hinchliffe (1998) offers a variety of strategies to prevent plagiarism. She suggests placing the emphasis on the research process, requiring students to apply rather than describe ideas. This includes a reflection paper as a supplement to the assignment, and a discussion of the topic of plagiarism with the class.

Carnevale (1999) provides tips to prevent online cheating that reiterate what has already been discussed. One strategy he recommends is to solicit writing samples from each student at the beginning of the semester, keeping these examples on file to compare against later writings should plagiarism be suspected later.

Like Harris and Hinchliffe, McKenzie (1998) offers antidotes to cheating that also embody rich instructional methodology. He stresses directing students to perform third level research that draws upon higher thinking skills and requires the ability to synthesize prior research and then generate new ideas. Instructors are directed to design assignments that require detailed explanations, problem-solving, and decision-making, rather than trivial pursuit scavenger hunts wherein the student tracks down and poaches another's discoveries.

Conclusion

Studies have shown that plagiarism and cyber cheating is on the rise, partially due to the ease with which information may be found and copied from Internet sources. Students often lack the time management and organizational skills required at the undergraduate level. As a result, they find themselves overwhelmed by deadlines. Increased competition and the pressure to achieve academic success combine with poor study skills, leading to serious lapses in ethical judgment.

Instructors have discovered that having an institutionally approved code of conduct is not a sufficient defense against technology-assisted, cut and paste cheating. The best strategies incorporate multiple avenues to deter and detect potential plagiarists while using this issue as a teachable moment. Instructors have access to a variety of online resources that may be used to analyze student writing, comparing suspicious papers against text in multiple database offerings. Software tools have also been developed to examine and evaluate questionable submissions.

At the same time, instructors can address the issue of plagiarism by including open discussions on the subject and re-engineering assignments. Requiring students to research and write on unique, more thought-provocative topics and helping them to develop higher thinking skills not only helps eradicate the plagiarism plague; it also improves education.

Additional Online Resources

Plagiarized.com: The Instructors Guide to Internet Plagiarism

http://www.plagiarized.com

Safety Net @2Learn.ca: On Plagiarism

http://www.2learn.ca/mapset/SafetyNet/plagiarism/

References

Academic Integrity at Princeton. (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.princeton.edu/pr/pub/integrity/pages/plagiarism.html

Argetsinger, A. (2001). Technology exposes cheating at U-Va. The Washington Post Online. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.washingtonppost.com/

Carnevale, D. (1999). Web services help professors detect plagiarism. Chronicle of Higher Education, 46(12), 49. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from EBSCOhost (Masterfile) on-line database: http://ehostvgw2.epnet.com

Flynn, L.J. (2001). The wonder years: Homework is free online. The New York Times. September 10, 2001. Retrieved April 9, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.jointpartnership.com/nytimes/

Harris, R. (2002). Anti-plagiarism strategies for research papers. VirtualSalt. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.htm

Hinchliffe, L. (1998). Cut-and-Paste Plagiarism: Preventing, Detecting and Tracking Online Plagiarism. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://alexia.lis.uiuc.edu/~janicke/plagiary.htm

Kitalong, K. (1998). A symbolic web of violence. Computers & Composition, 15, 253-263.

Kleiner, C. & Lord, M. (1999). The cheating game. U.S. News and World Report, 127(20), 54-63. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from EBSCOhost Masterfile on-line database, http://ehostvgw2.epnet.com

McKenzie, J. (1998). The new plagiarism: Seven antidotes to prevent highway robbery in an electronic age. From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal, 7(8). Retrieved April 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.fno.org/may98/cov98may.html

Plagiarism: What it is and How to Recognize and Avoid it. (n.d.) Retrieved April 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://indiana.edu/~wts/plagiarism.html

Ryan, J.J.C.H. (n.d.). Student plagiarism in an online world. PRISM Online. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.asee.org/prism/december/html/student_plagiarism in an onlin.htm

Standler, R. B. (2000). Plagiarism in Colleges in U.S.A. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from the World Wide Web: http://www.rbs2.com/plag.htm

Young, J.R. (2001). The cat-and-mouse game of plagiarism detection. Chronicle of Higher Education, 47, A26-27. Retrieved April 8, 2002 from EBSCOHost Masterfile on-line database, http://ehostvgw2.epnet.com