Plagiarism detection and prevention: Are we putting the cart before the horse

Abstract

The increasing ease of detecting internet plagiarism has intensifi ed debate in Australia, as well as the UK and the USA, on eff ective deterrents in the face of increasing evidence of plagiarism. Many universities are re-vamping their plagiarism policies and some conferences have themes entirely devoted to the subject of academic integrity. Policies and conference discussions relating to academic values and integrity have focussed on improved information on the rules of citation and attribution, coupled with more systematic vigilance and disciplinary procedures. Th e literature has also become increasingly insistent that information on rules of citation and attribution needs to be coupled with an appropriate apprenticeship into the conventions and language of academic writing. Yet there is a fi rst step that is still being overlooked, the initial induction of students into the research-led, evidence-based culture of academic endeavour. By focussing on rules and strategies for avoiding plagiarism, but ignoring the basic reasons for these requirements, we have put the cart before the horse. Th is paper suggests that tertiary induction of new students needs to focus fi rstly on developing an appreciation of the culture of enquiry that characterises learning at the tertiary level and that success is more likely if the students’ goal is something positive: to achieve a new approach to learning, than if it is something negative: to avoid ‘committing’ plagiarism.