Parallels of Unintentional Plagiarism and Predatory Publishing: Understanding Root Causes and Solutions

Authors

Monica Berger, CUNY New York City College of TechnologyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-29-2017

Abstract

Plagiarism and predatory publishing share common attributes. Although students do not publish in predatory journals, both plagiarism and predatory publishing fall under the umbrella of academic integrity and scholarly ethics. Academic misconduct has many faces, ranging from student cheating on exams to purchasing a doctoral thesis and claiming it as one’s own work. Some forms of academic misconduct, such as the examples above are always intentional. However, many manifestations of academic misconduct are less clearly intentional. Students often plagiarize unintentionally because they lack writing skills including paraphrasing and citing. Faculty sometimes publish with predatory journals when they lack scholarly publishing knowledge. Weak information literacy underpins both behaviors. However, other factors drive both plagiarism and predatory publishing. Three broad areas are cultural considerations, generational differences, and local academic values. The discourse related to cultural considerations is especially fruitful to unpack. Unintentional and intentional violations of academic integrity are the outgrowth of a scholarly ecosystem that is post-colonial and neoliberal. Students and faculty are under-supported, expected to produce too much with too little time. Pedagogical solutions to academic integrity problems are helpful in the short term but limited when the underlying system doesn’t support positive change.

Comments

Paper presented at the CUNY-Wide Conference on Academic Integrity, Eugenio María de Hostos Community College, Sept. 29, 2017.