One of the risks of publishing in web vectors like Auricle is that sometimes many hours of analysis, reflection, and eventually writing can be hijacked by someone, somewhere, who, with a few judicious tweaks, magically transforms the original article and puts it forward as all their own work. It happened to Auricle just the other day and so, because we are about disseminating information, addressing issues and putting forward perspectives, the experience is the subject of today's article. A colleague from another institution contacted me attaching a document which for a moment I thought was just a copy of a recent Auricle article authored by one of my collegues. But no, the author had magically changed to someone else who I didn't know … but I do now:)
My first reaction was to be deeply amused, then annoyed, but I'm back to amused again. I'm amused because the new 'author' appears to be oblivious to the reality that others in the e-learning world are also reading Auricle and that we tend to communicate with each other. What's really ironic is that it's the very openness of dissemination that ensured I was notified of the plagiarism almost as soon as it happened. Which raises some interesting questions. In higher education the inclination is to restrict and log access, issue dire warnings about the penalties of plagiarism, and potentially ruin the careers of students and faculty who sucumb. But still that doesn't stop some individuals with an essay crisis or a pressing review deadline. So, on reflection, I would rather Auricle articles remain open. We want our articles to be reused and referenced, but that doesn't mean we will accept other people claiming them as their own.
Reasons for, and reactions to, plagiarism are more complex than we might think. A recent JISC news item (27 May 2004) Plagiarist Sues University gives a flavour. Further commentary on this item is also available on the BBC News site.
Oh … and because we believe education is the best approach, the new 'author' of our article might find the JISC Plagiarism Advisory Service a useful resource.
