Plagiarism
A MAJOR CRIME FOR EVERYBODY?
CASE I: A PROFESSOR
Commotion just at the start of the academic year: a renowned K.U.Leuven professor of history is openly been accused of plagiarism. Michaël Auwers, a young researcher of the University of Antwerp discovered the case when he was busy preparing his request for a PhD. As he was no longer an official student, he went to a public library where he borrowed two books about diplomacy and Belgian foreign policy. They stood next to one another on a shelf and were written by historians. Peter Van Kemseke, currently a Belgian diplomat, edited ‘Diplomatieke Cultuur’, a compilation of scientific articles about the evolution of diplomacy since the 19th century and Luc De Vos, professor of History wrote ‘Het Belgisch Buitenlands Beleid’, a book on Belgian Foreign Policy. However, browsing through it and reading, Auwers discovered that several passages in De Vos’ book were literally taken from the earlier published ‘Diplomatieke Cultuur’. Auwers: “Quite soon I had found three articles in which entire passages had literally been copy-pasted from Van Kemseke’s book. I got intrigued by the affair and I wanted to find out whether I could find back every passage from the foreign policy book in the articles of the diplomacy book. I quite managed, as in the end passages from five different articles were used in the foreign policy book.” Auwers published his results in a renowned history magazine and got more than he expected. Not only did he cause a scandal in the academic world, but the media jumped on top of it too. The professor admitted his mistake, saying something had gone wrong in the process of converting his lectures into a book –one of his assistants would have been careless. The apologies were accepted, the book was taken out of the market and the professor remained on his post. After a small media storm everybody seems to have forgotten about it.
CASE II: A STUDENT
At more or less the same time -last summer- more cases of plagiarism were detected, as it was full second term thesis and exam time. All students that postponed their theses and papers to September finally handed in their work. Traditionally, this also is the time of the year in which the KU Leuven anti-plagiarism software works overtime. Therefore, it wasn’t a surprise that in a KU Leuven faculty another case of plagiarism was detected. A first year’s student submitted a paper that contained several parts that caught the attention of the corrector, as there were many passages that lacked a proper reference to their sources. After having transferred the suspicious paper to the software detection programme from the K.U.Leuven – a programme with the suggestive name turnitin – it was proven indeed that plagiarism was committed. The student in question was informed about the problems with his paper and finally was told to leave university. The academic year started and only a handful of people knew about the small drama that had taken place.
UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES
Two cases, two times a different outcome. In both the discovery of plagiarism led to unforeseen and surprising consequences. A student, who heard of the events concerning his expelled friend says “I don’t agree with this decision. I think it was too harsh for a first time offender; he had never plagiarized for other courses. He was moreover only a first bachelor. Knowing that the consequences can be that severe, if I were a corrector, it depends on a lot of things whether I would report it. I would have to take into consideration the current class standing of the student, if he participates in class, prepares well for each session, comes on time, the extent of the plagiarism, the kind of paper that was submitted. It’s really hard to say because on the one hand, you want to do the right thing: expose something that’s wrong or unfair to others. Yet, on the other hand, you do not want to destroy a student’s life -or at least affect somebody’s life so much.” Auwers looks back from a less personal point of view and speaks about his “deontological duty as historian.” Auwers: “This practise (plagiarism, red) was from a deontological point of view absolutely unacceptable. I never asked myself whether I would better have solved this in silence with the persons involved as I don’t know them personally. I only wanted to criticise a practise and in my head I made an abstraction of the persons who were seduced by it and by the persons who had been harmed by it.” Though he still thinks he has acted in a correct way, Auwers adds that next time he would “leave it to somebody else”. He admits to have been shocked by the media’s reaction as he had thought his findings would only stir up the academic world. Still, he emphasizes that he does not feel responsible for having destroyed the professor’s reputation. “I only accused a practise; it was not a personal attack. I believe I have not damaged the professor’s reputation. He has done it himself by committing a reprehensible act.”
UNEQUAL TREATMENT
It is ironic that the professor who once said that “history, the quest for truth, is the democratic answer to propaganda and lie” is now caught lying himself. More painful however is that this story seems to make clear that the university cares more about its professors than its students. That is strange, as students are the basis of any university. If there wouldn’t be students, there wouldn’t be a university –and without a university, no professors either. Of course it is controversial to dismiss a professor for one misstep in a long career. Still, the way in which this case is dealt with (read: ignored) is scandalous for a university that claims to be the best in Belgium and moreover enjoys a very good reputation in the world. A university that in public embraces a professor who has fallen in disgrace, but at the same time silently kicks out students by the backdoor gives a very wrong signal. This is not comparing apples and oranges. Acquired rights do not matter. Plagiarism is plagiarism, whether it is committed by a student or by a professor should not matter. One transparent policy for all!
Despite the controversial signs the university gives regarding plagiarism –favouring established names above harmless students- the act should never be encouraged. Students need to be made aware of what it is –as there are many forms and degrees of plagiarism- and be clearly informed of about the consequences, which in the worst possible scenario could indeed lead to expulsion, as we saw in the aforementioned student case. International students should be given special attention in the effort to inform everyone of plagiarism since they do not always come from universities with similar anti-plagiarism policies and measures. Everybody should be warned clearly from the start and not by scattered pieces of information here and there as it is done nowadays. Professors and the university together should take their responsibility in that area. This would prevent many future scandals and many future misery, as the current state of affairs is that students know that it is easy to plagiarize and in many cases get away with it, whereas some unfortunate ‘small committers’ like the student in our case, get a punishment that entirely falls out of the proportionality principle. The great irony here is that those huge punishments are partly given ‘to set an example’, but that nobody knows about it… In the end, what is maybe most important is that students get to know how easy it is to detect plagiarism. A PhD-student: “Students think that it’s so easy to plagiarize and that they can get away with it. They don’t realize that while it is easy to copy stuff from the web, it’s also easy for a teacher with some experience in these matters to detect plagiarism. Anyone can access the internet!” |
