Plagiarism Help
Detecting Plagiarized Papers
Technology Learning Council
Huntington University
Huntington, IN
 

I.    Definition of Plagiarism:
    1. The action or practice of plagiarizing; the wrongful appropriation or purloining, and publication as one's own, of the ideas, or the expression of the ideas (literary, artistic, musical, mechanical, etc.) of another. (Oxford English Dictionary Online. 2005). <http://dictionary.oed.com/> [emphasis mine].

II.    Introduction:   
    There are numerous ways to address the topic and problem of plagiarism. Technology effectively and efficiently delivers such information to students. Plagiarism detection software packages such as Turn-it-in and MyAssignment are tools used in catching would-be plagiarizers. However, this HU site gives an overview about using Google as the major plagiarism detection tool. Other free detection services and a few helpful hints are also given. It is hoped that this site will aid Faculty in grappling with a very complex issue in a more efficient and effective manner.
    Some of you have had the joy of doodling while in a committee meeting and some have felt the excitement of noodling under a dark, murky, stream embankment. However, neither activity compares with the relief found in successful (or perhaps unsuccessful) Googling for plagiarized papers. Sometimes, finding a suspected plagiarizer is innocent, however, gives more relief than catching a guilty one. Rather than performing a normal search to retrieve information from Cyberspace, this Googling fishes for plagiarized papers. Following are some potentially helpful hints for this type of search:

III.    How helpful is Googling?
    Well, according to Mark McCullough's article, "Using the Google search engine to detect word-for-word plagiarism in master's theses: a preliminary study" found in College Student Journal (Sept. 2005), Googling is quite helpful.  Additionally, if any of you wish to investigate further, look for this article in the full text database at LookSmart-FindArticles. Here are some of the abbreviated findings from his article:

• Using 260 anonymous, randomly selected, master's, scanned theses that were completed in 2003.
• Two questions:
      (1)    "Is Google an effective tool for detecting plagiarism in master's theses?" and
      (2)    "Is Google an efficient tool for detecting plagiarism in master's theses?"
• Potential occurrences of plagiarism: 57 of 210 (27.14%) of theses.
• 27.1% theses found with suspicious phrases within 10 minutes of searching.
• Tracking a plagiarized source may be time-consuming.
• "Google searching holds promise as a quick and inexpensive approach for detecting word-for-word plagiarism in theses."

    Use complementary search engines with Google. You might do a Google Scholar search if you are looking for scholarly materials. If wanting to use another search engine in addition to Google, try Yahoo! or AskJeeves. You might also use something like Dogpile, as it searches Google and several other engines simultaneously. There are other good search engines, but these names pop up frequently. Using two or three search engines should increase chances of finding plagiarized papers.

IV.    Using Google as an online plagiarism detection device:

•     Enclose up to 10 suspected words from unique phrases or sentences; put them in quotation marks. Google will find the phrases, including stop words (e.g. a, an, and the, of, in, etc.) in the order in which they are entered.
•     Use Google Advanced Search to find other search options. In addition, Google has numerous search operators listed on their GoogleGuide. For instance, do web searching by using: allintext:, allintitle:, allinurl:, etc. Ignore the space immediately after the colon. This type search will allow you to be more specific in your searches.
•     If you do not find distinctive phrases using the quotation marks, remove them and use the same phrase. This enquiry will broaden the search and perhaps find suspected material.
•     If you are looking for a specific work of art, use the Google Images button and search the title of the work in quotation marks.

V.    Check the library's proprietary, paid subscriptions and other databases:

•     In addition to using Google, use the same searching techniques mentioned above, especially keyword searches within quotation marks, and search vendor databases found through the library's home page. These include EbscoHost, Gale/Thomson InfoTrac, JSTOR, CredoReference, Westlaw Campus Research, and eLibrary.
•     Additionally, search the free online journal databases such as IngentaConnect, Find Articles, HighBeam Research, and HighWire.  FindArticles (general subjects) and HighWire Press Stanford U (scientific subjects) give free, online full text articles. The others have a mix of abstracted and full text articles. There are other free, online full text databases available to search as you find need.
•     Some researchers estimate up to 70% of plagiarism comes from books. Normally, search engines and plagiarism detection software do not search print, CDs, or online books. One site that gives free, full text, online books is The Online Books Page from the University of Pennsylvania. It lists over 25,000 titles. Consider this site, arranged by subjects, if a particular title comes to mind while reading a student's paper.
•     Another site to consider searching is Encyclopedia Britannica Online.

VI.    Free Plagiarism Detection Sites and Helpful Hints:

• Examples of Paper Mills: Remind the students they are much more capable of writing good papers than those offered by paper mills.
  *    Costal Carolina University's Kimbel Library gives a significant listing of paper mills in "Cheating 101: Internet Paper Mills" (2006).
   
• Examples of free online plagiarism detection tools:
  *    Bartleby.com: Search using quotation marks for materials cited in Bartleby's thousands of public domain texts: Simliar to The Online Books Page.
  *    Copyscape: "Search for copies of your page on the Web." URLs.
  *    Glatt Plagiarism Self-Detection Test & Instructions: This free site is for students to check their papers for inadvertent plagiarism. Use it as a possible starting point to discuss a suspected paper.
  *    Internet Essay Exposer: Checks up to 10 search engines simultaneously; ...101,000 essays.
  *    JPlag: "...you must obtain [a free] account. .... JPlag is typically used to detect and thus discourage the unallowed copying of student exercise programs in programming education."
  *    SPlat Detects self plagiarism: using one's own previously published materials to create another publication and not giving credit to the earlier work. Of course this site would be used to check for plagiarism among professionals.
  *    WCopyfind: "It can find documents that share large amounts of text. handle text, html and some word processor files (notably Microsoft Word documents). .... It cannot search the web or internet to find matching documents for you. .... WCopyfind can't handle PDF files directly, but you can use copy and paste to move the text from a PDF file to a word processor file." Check the site for other characteristics.
   
• Helps in deterring plagiarism: At the beginning of a course when discussing plagiarism:
  *    Define and discuss plagiarism with your students.
  *    Give the consequences of plagiarism to your students.
  *    Give the names of several paper mills and that those papers are often inferior in quality compared to what you require.
  *    Mention you are plagiarism savvy (if you are) and may use detection tools.
  *    Let students know you are willing to work with them regarding writing mechanics such as creating citations, paraphrasing, quoting, etc.
  *    Ask students to create papers in stages: Begin by assigning a formal thesis statement, then an outline, and finally the narrative, perhaps assigning the introduction, body and concluding remarks in stages. This makes doing the paper easier than plagiarizing it.
  *    When using a detection tool, try to use these results as a jumping-off point to initiate instruction rather than using it as a disciplinary tool.
  *    Remember, you may ask a librarian for help in finding plagiarized library materials.

Created by:
    Robert Kaehr, Member
    Technology Learning Council
    Huntington University
    Huntington, Indiana
    February 2006

Last Checked: 08/01/06