Plagiarism: Warnings after university thesis plagiarism revealed

Recent media coverage of research in Thai universities that copies the writing of other people, has drawn attention to culture of plagiarism that holds back research work in Thailand. Govt action being taken.

EDUCATION & RESEARCH

Plagiarism: Warnings after university thesis plagiarism revealed

2/05/2016
Dumrongkiat Mala

Plagiarism in Master's and PhD degree theses and dissertations at Thai universities has arisen again as an issue.

A recent surge in the detection of plagiarism in Master's thesis work may actually be a good sign from one perspective, indicating that Thai students are, in fact, actively trying to use the research of other Thai students. 

Nevertheless, plagiarism is a bad thing that holds back a whole education system from achieving world-class stature. China and other Asian countries such as Korea have also had to make proactive efforts to elminate plagiarism as Thailand is doing now.

Plagiarism happens when a writer presents another writer's creative work or ideas as their own ideas instead of saying where they came from (citing the source) using citations (footnotes or inline) and a bibliography (list of books and articles used). 

RECENT CASES OF PLAGIARISM

Recently, two cases of alleged plagiarism at Silpakorn University have attracted huge public attention and made newspaper headlines.

Jatuporn Donsom, a lecturer at Rajabhat Buriram University, claimed her 2008 Master's thesis titled "Ethnic Identity Creation of Vietnamese-Thais at Na Jok village, tambon Nong Yat, Muang district, Nakhon Phanom province" was partly plagiarised by a graduate student at Silpakorn University.

Ms Jatuporn said she demanded the university council investigate and revoke the graduate student's degree. She made the request in April last year, but nothing had happened.

Several days later, another case related to academic plagiarism was discovered by researcher Poe Limkul, which also took place at Silpakorn University.

Ms Poe shared images of Wattana Boonjub's 2009 doctoral thesis on Thai architecture on his Facebook page, indicating Wattana had plagiarised some content for her PhD dissertation from a book titled Architecture of Thailand, written by Nithi Sthapitanonda and Brian Mertens in 2006.

Silpakorn University's Faculty of Architecture, where the thesis was submitted, has promised to investigate. It said the university is taking the matter seriously as the affair might damage its academic reputation.

PLAGIARISING 80% OF PHD DISSERTATION: SUPACHAI LORLOWHAKARN 

These incidents are not the first cases of plagiarism to have cropped up in Thai higher education.

In 2012, plagiarism made international headlines when Supachai Lorlowhakarn, the director at Thailand's National Innovation Agency (NIA), had his PhD revoked after Chulalongkorn University declared him guilty of plagiarising 80% of his thesis from the work of Wyn Ellis, a Thailand- based British agriculture researcher.

Supachai's case put a spotlight on Thailand's lax policies towards plagiarism, and sparked concerns among academics across the country over the country's academic reputation (for details of the case see here).

PLAGIARISM DETECTION SOFTWARE

Many Thai academic institutions have been instructed to adopt computer programmes, such as Turnitin and Akarawisut, to detect plagiarism in theses submitted by their Masters and PhD students.

However, education critic Sompong Jitradup, said only a handful of universities are now using such programmes to catch students, so the situation overall has not improved since Mr Supachai's case.

Perhaps the best way to use to use this plagiarism detection software is to get students to check their own writing with the programs before they even turn their writing in to their teacher.

HALF OF MASTER'S THESES PROBABLY NOT CHECKED FOR PLAGIARISM

"As you can see in just the last week we heard of two cases, so for me it means plagiarism is still a serious issue. I suspect up to half the theses submitted by Masters students have not been checked by plagiarism detection software," he said.

Mr Sompong, who is also on the committee of the National Research Council of Thailand (NRCT), said a recent NRCT study about graduate students in Thailand found three important concerns.

NOT PRODUCING KNOWLEDGE BENEFICIAL TO ECONOMY OR SOCIETY

The first is that most theses written by Masters students do not create new knowledge or ideas which benefit society or the economy.

Secondly, the study found the ratio of thesis advisers to Masters students does not match what it should be in terms of quality standards, as advisers on average have to guide and work with more than 10 graduate students at a time.

He said the root cause of the problem comes from high-level competition between universities in post-graduate courses.

FOR-PROFIT MODELS PRODUCE QUANTITY, NOT QUALITY

"Universities are now focusing more on quantity rather than quality. They are all using for- profit models. From my perspective, if they continue to push for greater student numbers, a Masters or PhD degree will be worth less and less soon," Mr Sompong said.

He added that when universities pack in too many students at the Masters level, it's hard to maintain or improve the quality of their services.

CULTURE OF PLAGIARISM

Lastly, there is a culture of plagiarism in Thailand.

Copying search results from the internet without any analysis has been accepted practice among some students as they can pass exams or obtain degrees with this and it has been accepted without any repercussions.

"The widespread acceptance of plagiarism is a serious matter as it could create a generation which lacks creativity and the ability to think analytically. We need to ensure our youth realise plagiarism is intellectual theft," he said.

GOVT ACTION TAKEN

After the two cases of alleged thesis plagiarism at Silpakorn University were revealed last month, the Office of the Higher Education Commission (Ohec) warned universities that they are responsible for placing more emphasis on the quality of teaching, especially at the graduate level.

Ohec oversees higher education institutions at both the undergraduate and graduate school levels. Its secretary-general Arporn Kaenwong says the office is concerned over the allegations.

"We have told all universities to place more emphasis on post-graduate education quality, not just providing commercialised courses which attract students who are not interested in learning but just want the degrees," Mr Arporn said.

HOW TO AVOID PLAGIARISM, WHY IS PLAGIARISM BAD? 

What easy steps can students take to avoid plagiarism?

As writing teachers always tell their students, when you use ideas and material from articles and books in your writing, either: 1. quote (put quote marks around borrowed writing), 2. summarise (reduce the borrowed writing to fewer words) or paraphrase (rewrite with different words) and 3. cite the source in a citation (include name of book in bibliography and say what page the information comes from in a little note or citation).

An inline citation of the source at the very place where the information is used is the easiest, looking like this: (Fernquest, 2006, 36), meaning that the information comes from page 36 of the article that Fernquest published in 2006.

Although lazy cut and paste copying from a .pdf file or web page is often part of the act of plagiarism, not citing your sources is the key thing that the writer failed to do.

In a community of writers using each other's work (e.g. medical researchers), it is just common sense that writers keep track of ideas and show others where their ideas came from, not pretending that they dreamed everything up themselves.

Copyright, however, is an ownership or intellectual property (IP) issue and not the same thing as plagiarism. For more discussions of plagiarism, see Wikipedia here & a law journal article that describes the difference between copyright and plagiarism here (page 141).

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/955793/ohec-warns-unis-on-academic-plagiarism

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