Plagiarism...

Plagiarism is not unique or a monopoly held by any one country or institution; it is universal. However, it is interesting when it occurs in Indonesia for no other reason than it reminds me of this saying that often does the rounds during discussion of Indonesian copyright law; Indonesia does not know copyright but rather the right to copy. This is not nearly as funny as it sounds and is serious. Yet, some people never learn that the best theory when writing academic papers is to err on the side of caution.

The Jakarta Globe is reporting on the most recent alleged act of plagiarism to have occurred in Indonesia.

The cold, hard simple reality is that plagiarism is theft. It is also academic and reputation suicide. It is hard to mistakenly or inadvertently plagiarise the work of another. There might be occasion where the work has been sloppy and lazy, but it is rare that the plagiarism was done inadvertently.

Being back at school and doing a Masters, I have adopted the following approach; "when in doubt, cite!"

The thing about plagiarism is that you will never get away with it. Sooner or later someone somewhere will recognise the work and then you are busted, your reputation in tatters. It is just not worth it. Besides, and it is worth noting, there are dedicated websites and internal univeristy sites that specifically address issues of plagiarism. This in turn makes it easy for lecturers and tutors to discover plagiarism. It has become as simple as typing in a phrase or paragraph of text and clicking send. The text is then cross-matched through relevant databases and bingo, you're busted!

It is just too easy to get caught out now that it is not worth the risk.

When I used to teach, I always made it explicitly clear to my students that plagiarism was theft, it was worse than cheating, and if you got caught you would be history! It was good to see that in the first instance this year at Parahyangan University in Bandung that the academic in question resigned, however, it will be equally interesting to see whether the second instance of plagiarism this year is dealt with in a similar way.

My thoughts on the matter seem pretty clear, don't they?

Legal Education and Plagiarism

The idea that Indonesia is a country that does not recognise copyright but rather recognises the right to copy is a play on the two principles. Most Indonesian students would not realize that there is in fact a legal right to copy in limited circumstances and generally this is related to fair use. But more intriguing than the right to copy is the lack of knowledge and understanding that Indonesian university students have on the whole about plagiarism. It is this misguided notion of right to copy that appears to have permeated into and reduced the understanding of students on the serious nature of plagiarism.

To state that plagiarism is simply not giving credit where credit is due is a misrepresentation of the seriousness of the fraud perpetrated. It is academic theft and the punishments must be severe if educational institutions are serious about stomping the practice out! There is a whole website dedicated to issues of plagiarism. Yet, even better is a website that exposes famous people who are allegedly plagiarists. Despite, the disclaimer that the people on the site are 'alleged' plagiarists, the site itself highlights the scourge that is plagiarism and the stupid belief that in this modern day and age of technology and super-sophisticated search engines that people still think they can get away with plagiarism, Stupid!

This piece is not an analysis of the statistical occurrence of plagiarism in Indonesia and it does not claim to be definitive or empirical, but rather it is a personal musing based on the personal experiences of someone who has taught a class or two at a number of Indonesian universities.

Having spent plenty of years in university getting a couple of degrees and having it constantly drummed into my thick skull that when in doubt on must footnote and then to teach a University class in Indonesia where it seems to be a case of when in doubt claim it as your own, has most certainly been an eye-opener! It is not something that has shaken my world but more so it is once again one of those perversely funny and sad moments rolled into one.

These students are the next generation and it is sad that they do not appreciate that academic theft and fraud are real professional killers in the professional suicide sense. But how serious the allegations are treated and the punishment meted out if proved depends on who you are. Plagiarism has become a scourge in even the most pre-eminent of universities including, among others, Harvard University. At Harvard a group of students had banded together and produced a blog, which sadly seems to have stopped being updated.

The point that I am trying to make from my soap box is simple; there must be a clearly defined prohibition against plagiarism for law students where the consequences of breach are also clearly defined. This must be a contract that students' sign to acknowledge that they are aware of the penalties and accept them.

The possibility of the rotten core consuming the whole is real!