Plagiarism is the act of taking credit for someone else's
work or idea, with or without their consent and
incorporating it into one's work without full
acknowledgement.[1] Plagiarism could be in different
forms such as verbatim quotation, cutting and pasting
from the internet, inappropriate paraphrasing,
inaccurate citation, self-plagiarism amongst others.
Plagiarism matters because it is a breach of academic
integrity. Intellectual honesty is a sacred principle that
underlies academia such that one is obliged to
acknowledge the originators of ideas, words and data
which forms the basis for one's work. Plagiarism is
highly unethical and can have serious consequences on
a researcher's career, institution, and other academic
affiliations.A meta-analysis conducted on publications about
scientists admitting to plagiarism reported about 1.7%
of scientists admitted to have self-plagiarised at one
time or the other, while about 30% admitted to
knowing a colleague who had plagiarised.[2] A recent
systematic review and survey of African medical
journals for plagiarism in the research was conducted
using Turnitin text-matching software. The software
generated an overall similarity index (OSI) and the
number of sentences copied in each of the articles
selected. The authors reported a form of plagiarism
in 63% of the articles checked, with 27% being level 1
(some plagiarism - involving one or two sentences),
19% being level 2 (moderate plagiarism - three to six
sentences) and 17% being level 3 (extensive plagiarism
- six or more sentences).[3] The authors also reported
47% plagiarism in the introduction section, 30% in the
methods, and 39% in the discussion section. There was
little or no widespread plagiarism in the results section
of included articles.[3] While this report has its limitations
which only included articles from the African Journals
Online (AJOL) database, there appears to be obvious
evidence of substantial plagiarism.Plagiarism is a global problem in academia, but it is
one malady with a great potential to afflict most African
academicians and journals. The reasons include weak
or lack of institutional policies on plagiarism and
reluctance to punish offenders; lack of researchers'
writing skills and English proficiency; researchers'
desperation to gain promotion as part of the so-called
"publish or perish phenomenon"; and the easy access
to a vast array of literature made possible by the
internet.[4]Although it appears that the internet has made
plagiarism easier, plagiarism and cheating have always
been around before the advent of the internet. A study
conducted in 1991 (pre-internet era) amongst students
at Rutgers University reported that two-thirds of the
students admitted to cheating at least once.[5] One could
argue that in the pre-internet era, plagiarism was more
difficult, and researchers had to work hard to even
get materials to plagiarise, which is not the case in the
internet era. The internet has perhaps made researchers
lazier both in the management of time and engagement
in project-related mental activities due to the vast
amount of accessible literature available at their
fingertips.[6]Like a double-edged sword, the internet has also made
plagiarism detection easier. Prior to the advent of the
internet, it might have been tedious and difficult to
detect plagiarism, but this is no longer the case.
Plagiarism detection online softwares such as
iThenticate®, Turnitin®, Grammarly®, etcetera, have
made it easier to detect plagiarism. Turnitin for
example gives an overall similarity index score of any
write-up to previous write-ups online, and the user
(Journal, researcher, university) decides what percentage
to use as cut off to determine an acceptable level of
similarity score.[7, 8] While there's no universally specified
similarity score, most Universities and journals do not
accept above 15% cut-off.[9] Nevertheless, even when
the similarity score is lower than the specified cut-off,
the author may still be considered to have plagiarized
if he/she had copied a statement(s) verbatim from
other sources without the use of quotation marks ("")
or italics on the copied texts before referencing.The internet has brought the issue of plagiarism in
academia to the limelight, more than ever before. While
some may perceive plagiarism as if it were the
invention of the internet, plagiarism predates the
internet. The internet's impact on plagiarism is still
ongoing, as the internet evolves, so too will its role in
plagiarism. The onus lies on African authors to make
proper use of the internet while writing, so it becomes
a cure to the potential malady of plagiarism in African
academia rather than a curse.Researchers and academicians should take responsibility
for upholding honesty and integrity. [4] Quality time
should be spent on improving their proficiency in English language by developing comprehension and
paraphrasing skills. Researchers should learn how to
properly quote and cite all materials used within the
text and proper referencing at the end of their writeups.[10] Proper permission should be obtained from
other authors or journals to reproduce tabular,
graphical, pictorial attachments, or use texts under
copyright.[10] African journals should use electronic antiplagiarism
software, educate researchers on plagiarism,
and promote ethical publishing.The curse of plagiarism occurs from authors'
inappropriate use and attribution of resources used
for their work, including materials from the internet.
There are lots of online plagiarism software that can
prevent authors from this "curse", and equally assist
academic institutions and journals in detecting
plagiarism before publishing academic materials.