Application of Blockchain Technology to Prevent
The Potential Of Plagiarism in Scientific Publication
Andi
Magister Teknologi Informasi Magister Teknologi Informasi
Department
STMIK Mikroskil Medan STMIK Mikroskil Medan
174212038@students.mikroskil.ac.id ronsen@mikroskil.ac.id
Abstract—Blockchain is an emerging technology that has
many potential applications. The blockchain contains a certain
and verifiable record of every single transaction ever made. In
this paper, we introduce the application for the prevention of
potential plagiarism based on decentralized architecture and
public-key cryptosystem, such that no need for trusted third
party. We use SHA-256 as hash function and Elliptic Curve as
digital signature algorithm. The results show that any attempt
to plagiarize a submitted paper will violate the rules. The
transmission of a paper is also encrypted through the use of
complex cryptographic principles and security algorithms such
that nobody can see or alter the paper. Even the reviewer is
unable to change the paper because by doing such action the
blockchain will report the violation.
Keywords—blockchain technology, plagiarism
prevention, proof of work,
I. INTRODUCTION
Blockchain is a decentralized and transparent
technology that does not use third parties in the process of
recording or exchanging data [1]. Each recorded data will be
inserted into a block that is secured using cryptography and
associated with the previous block to form a chain.
Nakamoto [2] introduced the concept of the first blockchain
application applied to digital currencies, namely Bitcoin.
One of important characteristics of blockchain is that it is
immutable, which is almost impossible to change or delete
part or the whole block in the chain. If there is a change in
data on the block, then the cryptographic hash value of the
entire network will also change, which means that one must
be able to solve cryptographic hash values from all networks
on the blockchain [3]. The distributed consensus and
anonymity are two important characteristics of blockchain
technology [4].
Blockchain technology has grown from version 1.0 to
3.0. Blockchain 1.0 refers to digital currencies, Blockchain
2.0 associated with smart contracts, and Blockchain 3.0 is
used for digital society [5]. The Blockchain 3.0 refers to
new technologies that are still in the development stage,
which can be applied in various fields, such as health [6],
the food sector [7], and most recently in electronic voting
[8]. In addition to these fields, the Blockchain can also be
applied in scientific publications. In the field of scientific
publications, the problem that cannot be solved is the
process of sending texts and peer reviews because they still
have insecure mechanisms and dishonesty from the
individuals (third parties) involved. Both of these cause the
possibility of data leakage, theft of ideas, changes in
evidence of plagiarism and the taking of scientific works
belonging to others which have the potential to act
plagiarism.
XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE
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Ronsen Purba Roni Yunis
Sistem Informasi Department
Department
STMIK Mikroskil Medan
roni-yunis@mikroskil.ac.id
Gipp [9] introduced CryptSubmit which is an
architectural system of sending scientific publications that
record scientific copyright works on the Blockchain network
before being sent to reviewers to prevent the risk of
plagiarism. Meanwhile, Pozi [10] proposes a blockchain-
based framework for calculating scientific writer's
contributions such that publication information can be
accessed transparently. However, the results of the two
studies still lack because they only focus on recording
copyright through timestamping. Information on scientific
works such as the title, content, and source of citation is not
included in the proposed model so that if the plagiarist
potential performs changes in scientific information, there is no
evidence that the plagiarism has been carried out. In
addition, the proposed model does not yet have a secure data
transmission mechanism so that when scientific works are
sent to reviewers, the possibility of such scientific work
being stolen and plagiarized by other parties is very likely.
In this paper, we introduce the application of
blockchain technology to model the prevention of
plagiarism potential in scientific publications. The proposed
model handles the problems related to: (1) the main process
in scientific publications, namely submission of scripts and
peer reviews, still has insecure mechanisms and dishonesty
from the individuals (third parties) involved, causing the
possibility of data leakage, theft of ideas, alteration of
plagiarism evidence and retrieval of scientific works
belonging to others which become gaps which has the
potential to carry out plagiarism, (2) the prevention of
potential plagiarism by implementing blockchain is only
based on recording copyright through timestamping only
and does not yet have a secure data security mechanism
such that the possibility of such scientific work being stolen
and plagiarized by other parties is very likely. We use
decentralized architecture by applying Secure Hash
Algorithm (SHA-256) as hash function and Elliptic Curve
Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA) as digital signature
scheme. We ran some simulation to proof that plagiarism
prevention by using dataset from https://aminer.org/citation.
We did tests for three cases i.e. (a) normal paper addition to
show that everything is normal if the paper addition does not
violate the rule of plagiarism prevention; (b) someone
intentionally changes the paper information to eliminate the
evidence of plagiarism and (c) preventing other parties from
plagiarizing and reading scientific works sent to the relevant
reviewer.
The remaining paper is structured as follows: Section 2
provides background research related to blockchain
application. Section 3 presents the research methodology or
our approach to prevent the potential of plagiarism. Section
4 provides the result and discussion and Section 5 provides
the final conclusion of the paper.
II. RELATED WORKS
In 2008, an individual (or group) writing under the
name of Satoshi Nakamoto published a paper entitled
“Bitcoin: A Peer-To-Peer Electronic Cash System”. This
paper described a peer-to-peer version of the electronic cash
that would allow online payments to be sent directly from
one party to another without going through a financial
institution. Bitcoin uses cryptographic proof instead of the
trust-in-the-third-party mechanism for two willing parties to
execute an online transaction over the Internet. Each
transaction is protected through a digital signature is sent to
the “public key” of the receiver, and is digitally signed using
the “private key” of the sender. In order to spend money, the
owner of the cryptocurrency needs to prove his ownership
of the “private key”. Bitcoin uses a consensus protocol
called PoW (Proof of Work) based on Cryptocurrency to
ensure that only legitimate transactions are allowed in the
system. Every time a new transaction is made, the hash
value of the transaction is calculated and entered into a
database called the blockchain. This block is connected to
other blocks that already in the chain. To connect one block
to another, the hash value of the previous block is entered
into the next block in order to calculate the hash value of the
new one. The hash value must meet certain requirements
called difficulty so that it can be considered a legitimate
block as described in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. Blockchain Illustration
After bitcoin, blockchain technology has been successfully
used in several industries, such as finance, energy, health
sector, and supply chain. Mettler [11] conducted research
related to the potential application of blockchain in the
health sector in order to prevent counterfeiting of health data
such as drug and medical records. This study only explains
that blockchain has enormous potential if applied in the
health sector. After the study, the idea began to emerge to
apply blockchain in other fields such as that done by O’Dair
[12] to analyze the application of Blockchain in the music
industry, especially in the protection of music copyright and
recording the payment of loyalty benefits from the music
created. Furthermore, some researchers began to analyze the
blockchain in recording copyright in other fields, such as
conducted by Xu [13] which proposed a method of
safeguarding and protecting copyright by using rights
management schemes based on blockchain technology. The
results of the study are in the form of an architectural model
that explains the procedures for copyright protection by
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implementing the blockchain. Based on some of these
studies, it is proven that blockchain has a high level of
security such that Hanifatunnisa [14] conducted research to
implement the blockchain in e-voting to maintain data
security such that it cannot be changed by third parties.
Through the implementation of the blockchain, the e-voting
database cannot be changed, because even a slight change of
data will change the hash value of the entire network.
Gipp [9] introduced CryptSubmit, an architecture of the
delivery system of scientific publications that record
scientific copyright in blockchain network before being sent
to reviewers to prevent plagiarism. Hepp [15] continued to
study the idea and overcome the weaknesses of
timestamping which are still centralized by proposing
Decentralized Trusted Timestamping (DTT). The results of
the study presented a new approach to timestamping and
archiving digital content using blockchain technology.
Furthermore, Pozi [10] continuing the implementation of
blockchain in scientific publications, namely by proposing a
blockchain-based framework to calculate the contribution of
scientific writers so that publication information can be
accessed transparently. Research on the implementation of
blockchain to prevent plagiarism was then carried out by
Holland [16], but in a different perspective by explaining
how the blockchain application in preventing counterfeiting
and plagiarism towards brands comes from 3D printing
printers. The results of this study illustrate the model and
proof of how the blockchain is carrying out brand
registrations to prevent counterfeiting and acts of
plagiarism.
III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
In this paper we solved two problems related to
preventing the potential of plagiarism: (1) the main process
in scientific publications, namely submission of scripts and
peer reviews, still has insecure mechanisms and dishonesty
from the individuals (third parties) involved, causing the
possibility of data leakage, theft of ideas, alteration of
plagiarism evidence and retrieval of scientific works
belonging to others which become gaps which has the
potential to carry out plagiarism, (2) plagiarism prevention
by implementing blockchain is only based on recording
copyright through timestamping only and does not yet have
a secure data security mechanism such that the possibility of
such scientific work being stolen and plagiarized by other
parties is very likely. This paper is an improvement to
research by Gipp [9] called CryptSubmit as shown in Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. CryptSubmit Architecture [9]
 really prevent participants (researcher and reviewer) from
There are two main differences between our model to misconduct action. First, we change the information about
the model by Gipp [9]: (1) we record the whole information plagiarism in order to eliminate evidence of plagiarism.
of scientific work rather than just the timestamping; (2) Secondly, we will show how the blockchain eliminates the
scientific work submission from the writer to the reviewer is existence of third-party intermediaries who have the
not protected by digital signature. Based on the above potential to commit plagiarism. Finally, we show how to
architecture, we introduce a new model and we use Citation prevent other parties from doing potential plagiarism and
Network Dataset [17], as shown in Fig. 3 below. read the scientific work sent to the reviewer.
IV. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
In this paper, we build an application to model the
prevention of potential plagiarism using node.js and we run
the test on Processor Intel ® Core™ i5 @ 2.3 GHz. We
provide some features such as: paper submission or add
publication by legitimate writer, list all added blocks to see
all legitimate blocks, and do some changes to the information
on a certain block in the chain (network). We separate the
experiments into 2 parts i.e.: (1) quantitative test to find the
relationship between number of blocks and difficulty targets
to security level which is indicated by mining time if there is
change in the block; (2) qualitative test to show that 1. any
attempt to plagiarize somebody’s work will be detected, 2.
peer reviewers who are also third parties will be eliminated
Fig. 3. Proposed Model for the Prevention Of Potential so that the potential for plagiarism can be prevented, 3. paper
submission from a writer to the system will be encrypted and
Plagiarism
signed such that nobody can see or alter the paper to prevent
potential of plagiarism.
The publication processes are conducted as follows:
For the quantitative test, we use the number of blocks NB
A. Publication Registration = 1, 10, 50, 100, 250 and 500. Meanwhile, for difficulty
Researchers who have scientific works carry out the targets we use DT= 1 until DT = 5. For different NB and DT,
publication process by filling in the online forms that are we find the mining time as shown in Table 1 below.
separate on the front end which is usually a website. After
Table 1. Experiment Mining Time
the online form is filled in, the next step is to sign
information on scientific papers using ECDSA to produce a Number Mining Time (Seconds)
public key, private key and message digest. The final of Blocks
DT=1 DT=2 DT=3 DT=4 DT=5
process is to process or send the scientific work to 1 0.006 0.104 0.156 9.937 92.197
reviewers, so you must press the submit button. 10 0.057 0.546 3.39 88.539 1,754.79
50 0.353 2.054 26.027 426.595 8,350.6
B. Backend Process 100 1.141 4.393 57.791 977.731 17,539
The system implements the blockchain using SHA-256 250 5.777 13.991 142.74 2,325.54 42,847.5
500 22.298 40.645 326.921 4,484.16 90,695.7
every time a new publication is submitted. Information
about scientific work will be protected with a digital
signature using public key and private key, where the From Table 1 above, we can see that the more block and
private key will be stored (kept) by the researcher and the the more difficulty target, we find that mining time very
public key will be given to the reviewer concerned so that significantly increases. This time increasing indicates that it
scientific information can only be opened by the reviewer. is difficult to make any slight change to the block that
All information that is processed will be stored in the already in the blockchain. Furthermore, the mining time
database and read through the blockchain network. The needed to fulfill difficulty target shows that it is impossible
blockchain network contains information on all scientific to plagiarize the paper that its hash value already in the
works that have been sent by previous researchers. Each blockchain. The test shows that for number block 500 with
scientific work is stored in a block that will be connected to difficulty target 5, it takes up to 90,695.7 seconds to
complete the mining process. If it is assumed that scientific
previous blocks such that if there is a change in scientific
publication information on a blockchain network is around
work information by someone, it will be related to other
500,000, then if the mining process is carried out on the
blocks, so that evidence of plagiarism is impossible to entire block it will take 90,695,700 seconds (around 25,193
eliminate. days). This test result shows that the model could prevent the
C. Paper Review potential of plagiarism since the computation time needed
does not make sense in order to mine the entire block to
The reviewer who wants to review a paper must have a become valid.
public key such that he (she) can open the whole
information about that scientific publication. For qualitative test, we experiment three different tests to
see that blockchain application can detect any action related
In our model, we simulate three different scenarios to to plagiarism conduct:
show that the blockchain technology we implement can

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 First, a writer conducts plagiarism by publishing created where each sender has a copy of his/her own record
scientific works belonging to others by making a few which is able to eliminate third parties interfering in it. Each
changes. The author assumes that with the presence of a third peer is protected by a consensus such that if there is data in
party within the publishing organization, the evidence of different peer, it will be rejected in the blockchain network.
plagiarism can be changed and deleted if at any time a The test shows if there is an information change by one peer
dispute arises over the scientific work resulting from the will automatically change the hash value of the last block
plagiarism. For this test, it is assumed that the block number and will be different from the other peer. Through the
of the scientific work produced by plagiarism is in block permissionless blockchain mechanism, it can create a
number 22 and original scientific works are in block number
decentralized and trusted publicity network such that we can
20. With the timestamping, it can be seen who the owner of
add the application of text mining that provides more
the scientific work first published the scientific work, so that
it can be proved that the number block 22 is plagiarizing the accurate results of plagiarism comparison. Fig. 5 shows how
scientific work contained in block number 20. Suppose that a the blockchain can detect any change made and eliminate
writer or third party, attempts to change the information of the existence of third party.
the author's name from Eun-Kyeong Kwon to Sutanto and
timestamping information from 2019-07-07 03:38:44 to be
2019-07-07 02:38:44 such as block 22 was first published
before block 20. However, when a change occurs, the hash
value of block 22 and the next blocks will change. In this
case, we show that block 22 and block 23 becomes red which
means that the block is invalid as a result of the information
change. has been changed. as shown in Fig. 4.

Fig. 5. The Application of Blockchain that Eliminates

Third-Parties Existence
Fig. 4. Information Change in Block 22 Causes Block 23
Invalid Third, a writer who sends a paper for the publication of
In order to make the blocks to be valid, the mining process scientific work to reviewers wants to secure his/her
must be carried out against these blocks. The mining process scientific work information such that nobody can read
is certainly not easy to do, because it requires a very his/her paper. It is assumed that a researcher who sends
expensive computing equipment and takes a very long time his/her work will sign the paper using ECDSA with his/her
to mine. The more blocks found on the blockchain network, private key and only legitimate reviewer who owns (knows)
the longer time will take to do the mining process for the the valid public key can verify the signature of the paper
entire block. This result is in line with the previous owner. This is done to prevent other people to carry out
quantitative test. plagiarism and nobody can open the submitted paper. If
there is a change for the paper during the submission
Second, a writer who is also a reviewer from an process, blockchain will detect that change and reject the
educational institution uses his/her authority to carry out paper for review. Simulation of opening scientific
acts of plagiarism. Every piece of scientific work publication information with a public key can be seen in
information sent to him/her is taken and quoted to be Figure 6.
published in his/her name. This happens because the
scientific publication process still utilizes third parties as
publications that do not have security guarantees for the
submitted scientific work. Because of these problems, it is
necessary to apply the permissionless blockchain in a
network of scientific publications. Suppose that there are 3
peers namely A, B, and C, each peer represents the sender
(writer) of scientific publications. When there is a new
scientific publication sender who wants to join the network,
all block data will be duplicated and stored into a new peer,
namely peer D. This mechanism eliminates the existence of
third-party intermediaries that store a database of scientific Fig. 6. Simulation of Opening Scientific Publication
publication information. A decentralized network will be Information by Entering a Valid Public Key

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 After the scientific publication information is open, then
the authenticity of the information must be verified, whether
it has been changed or not by pressing the verify button. If
the information is not changed, the block will be green and
if the information has been changed, the block will be red.
The simulation of digital signature verification can be seen
in Figures 7 and 8.
Fig. 7. Valid Message Digest Verification Simulation
Fig. 8. Invalid Message Digest Verification Simulation
Through the application of digital signatures in the
proposed model, it is, of course, able to safeguard the
information of the owner of the scientific work so that the
scientific work is not easy to be stolen or plagiarized by
unauthorized parties.
V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH
Based on the results of research conducted, it can be
concluded that blockchain can be used as a solution in
preventing the potential of plagiarism namely (a) through the
application of the technology it is shown that it is impossible
to change plagiarism evidence or claim the scientific work of
others because a slight change will have an impact on the
entire network , (b) blockchain has the potential to eliminate
third parties who often become a loophole to carry out
potential plagiarism, (c) through the application of digital
signatures can provide guarantees for the protection of
scientific works that only legitimate reviewers can read the
scientific work, making it impossible to do so information
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theft or potential plagiarism. At the end of the study, a
combination of the number of blocks with difficulty targets
was tested to prove the safety of the blockchain. The
experimental results imply that using blockchain is very safe
because no one can make changes to the data on the block
and validate all blocks on the network. Future research can
be done by using blockchain 4.0 as a new technology for
industry 4.0 and implementing deep learning to make any
plagiarism misconduct can be broadcasted to the entire
scientific publication network. The use of blockchain 4.0 can
increase trade per second (TPS) significantly.
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