Publishing Research Quarterly (2021) 37:53–54

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12109-021-09786-w

How to Deal with Academic Plagiarism More Effectively

Mina Mehregan1

Accepted: 11 January 2021 / Published online: 28 January 2021

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature 2021

Abstract
Plagiarism as one of the elements of scientific misconduct is regarded as violation
of publication ethics. There are several ways to reduce plagiarism phenomenon in
academic environment. One of the most effective solutions in this regards is that
regulatory organizations take strict punitive measures against those involved in such
unethical practices.

Keywords Plagiarism · Publication ethics · Research misconduct

Opinion

Plagiarism is one of the elements of scientific misconduct which is defined as pre-

senting another person’s work, ideas or words as one’s own without giving proper
acknowledgment and is considered as violation of publication ethics [1]. Generally,
plagiarism can be classified as two main types: deliberate and accidental. The acci-
dental plagiarism is not intentional and it happens without intending to deceive. On
the other hand, there is deliberate plagiarism which is committed intentionally and
knowingly with the purpose of deceiving. Regardless of the type of plagiarism, the
most basic solution to this issue is to prevent it from happening in the first place.
Therefore, one needs to know the causes of this phenomenon. There might be several
reasons why some researchers engage in practice of plagiarism. The main causes are
laziness, the ignorance of proper citation, the extreme pressure the researchers feel
to publish high quality papers for the academic promotions or to receive research
funding, and lack of fear of the potential consequences [2].
Due to abovementioned reasons of the plagiarism practice, one simple step to
reduce plagiarism in the academic environment is to train the beginning researchers
to take the responsibility in giving appropriate credit to other researchers’ works.
Also, some institutions have adopted guidelines to limit the total number of publica-
tions that will be considered as a criteria for an individual’s promotion, employment

* Mina Mehregan
mina.mehregan@mail.um.ac.ir
1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran

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and funding. Moreover, while it would be better for scientific papers to include more
details about the methodology so that other researchers could interpret the results
easier, but some small details in the text should be avoided to prevent probable pla-
giarism by some unethical researchers. Therefore, the reviewers should keep in mind
not to force the authors to disclose all the small details of their investigations in the
manuscript. More importantly, the act of plagiarism can be controlled by strict regu-
lations [3]. Because, most of the journals may not welcome the idea of retraction in
order to protect their reputation and the researchers engaged in the plagiarism prac-
tice may view the punishments of the plagiarism as inconsiderable [4]. Therefore, in
order to prevent plagiarism, the regulatory organizations such as COPE (Committee
on Publication Ethics) and ORI (Office of Research Integrity) not only have to take
strict punitive measures against those researchers involved in this unethical practice,
but they should also have a representative to oversee the plagiarism investigation
process. Having the executive power of these agencies will most likely help a lot in
reducing plagiarism.

References
1. National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine. On
Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: The
National Academies Press; 2009.
2. Roka YB. Plagiarism: Types, Causes and How to Avoid This Worldwide Problem. Nepal J Neuro-
science. 2017;14(3):2–6.
3. Yadav S, Rawal G, Baxi M. Plagiarism -A Serious Scientific Misconduct. Int J Health Sci Res.
2016;6:364–6.
4. Mehregan M. Ethical Reviewers are Essential for Scholarly Journals for Timely Processing of Sub-
missions and Avoiding Retractions. J Korean Med Sci. 2019;34(5):e41.

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