fotolia, Gerhard Seybert

Plagiarism: Definition and Detection

Prof. Dr. Debora Weber-Wulff

HTW Berlin

Science – Between Research Ethics and Plagiarism

November 12, 2020 // GRACE@Zoom
 Debora Weber-Wulff

• Professor for Media and Computing, HTW Berlin

• PhD in theoretical computer science
• Plagiarism researcher since 2002, have tested
plagiarism detection software since 2004
(newest test just published)
Software cannot detect plagiarism!
• Computing & Ethics working group and fellow
of the Gesellschaft für Informatik
• Active with the German plagiarism documentation
wikis GuttenPlag Wiki and VroniPlag Wiki since
2011

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 Definition: What is Plagiarism?

Charles Robinson, 2008, http://charles.robinsontwins.org/photos/2008/twinsdays/content/IMGP1792_large.html

Used by permission.

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 Definition: What is Plagiarism?

• A legal definition does not exist; this is an

educational and integrity problem.
• Some authors speak of theft of text, others about
fraud.
• A common misconception sees plagiarism only as
an issue of copyright.
• It is not about giving proper references for facts.
• There are quite a number of attempts to define
plagiarism in English, but most are more or less:
"We know it when we see it"1.

1 378 U.S. 184 at 197 (1964)

[https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/378/184/case.html#197,
Justice Stewart concurring]
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 What is Plagiarism?
Definition Adapted from Teddi Fishman
(Former Director International Center for Academic Integrity, ICAI)

•• Plagiarism
Plagiarism occurs
occurs when
when someone
someone
•• uses
uses words,
words, ideas,
ideas, or
or work
work products
products
•• attributable
attributable to
to another
another identifiable
identifiable
person
person or
or source
source
•• without
without properly attributing
attributing the workthe work
to the to the source
source
from
from which
which it
it was
was obtained
obtained
• in a situation in which there is a legitimate
expectation of original authorship.
Fishman, T. (2009)“We know it when we see it” is not good enough: toward a standard definition of plagiarism that transcends theft, fraud, and copyright In: Proceedings of the Fourth
Asia Pacific Conference on Educational Integrity (4APCEI) 28–30 September 2009 University of Wollongong NSW Australia.

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 What About Intent?

Portrait of Tommasi Inghirami, Wikimedia Commons

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 Types of
Academic Misconduct

• Plagiarism
• Copy & Paste DerHexer, [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons

• Disguised Plagiarism
• Shake & Paste
• Translation
• Pawn Sacrifice
• Other types
• Image Manipulation
• Data Fabrication
• Duplicate Publication
• …

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Copy & Paste

Siena, 2012, PhD, https://vroniplag.wikia.org/de/wiki/Mmu/Fragment_085_01

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Copy & Paste with Wikipedia links
source!
copied from

LMU München, 2010, Medicine, http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Pak/Fragment_024_01

Wikipedia links
 Disguised or Mosaic Plagiarism

• Changing word order in phrases

“Iceland and Greenland” → “Greenland and Iceland”

• Exchanging words with synonyms

“The hypothesis that gained wide acceptance is that the spread of SD

probably involves the release and diffusion of the chemical mediators” →

“The hypothesis that gained wide acceptance is that the propagation of SD

probably involves the release of different chemical mediators”

http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Amh/Fragment_007_14

• Adding or removing words

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or
Mosaic
Disguised

Plagiarism

WU Wien, 2001, PhD, https://vroniplag.wikia.org/de/wiki/Svr/Fragment_061_01

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Disguised or Mosaic Plagiarism

TU München, med., http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Vm/Fragment_036_01

 Mosaic Plagiarism in Scientific,
“Peer-Reviewed” Publications

Int J Clin Exp Med. 2015; 8(5): 6773–6783. Int J Clin Exp Med. 2015; 8(5): 6957–6966.

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 Shake & Paste

• Wikipedia: Wer wird Millionär

Osnabrück, 2009, Cultural Studies http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Gma/070

2008

• Bild, 14 June 2007

• Der Tagesspiegel, 14 June
2007
• Die Welt, 14 June 2007

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Translation

Heidelberg, 1997, Medicine, http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Awb/Fragment_022_01

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Translation

Heidelberg, 1997, Medicine, http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Awb/Fragment_022_01

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Translation

Heidelberg, 1997, Medicine, http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Awb/Fragment_022_01

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Translation

MH Hannover, med.habil., 2015, http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Mjm/Fragment_036_55

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Translation

MH Hannover, med.habil., 2015, http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Mjm/Fragment_036_55

 Pawn Sacrifice
Münster, 2010, Medicine http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Slo/Fragment_008_09

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Image Manipulation

TU München, med., http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Vm/Fragment_028_00

 Example of a Manipulated Blot from an Online
Journal

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 Plagiarism AND Data Fabrication

Charité, 2010, Medicine, http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Ali/Fragment_024_01

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 Plagiarism AND Data Fabrication
Different values

Charité, 2010, Medicine, http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Ali/Fragment_024_01

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 Plagiarism AND Data Fabrication
Different values Same percentages!

Charité, 2010, Medicine, http://de.vroniplag.wikia.com/wiki/Ali/Fragment_024_01

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 Detecting Plagiarism

• Teachers, researchers, and administrators want a

simple solution

Photo: Flickr cc-by-nc-sa: xtrarant, 2008

Art Installation: Jamie Pawlus, Indianapolis, Indiana, 2003

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 There are many companies willing to oblige

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 The sales pitches promise the moon

• "Advanced online plagiarism detection" (CatchItFirst)

• "Originality check" (Turnitin)
• "Student work is instantly checked for potential

Luc Viatour, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

plagiarism using pattern recognition
algorithms." (Turnitin)
• "Easy, quick and accurate" (Ephorus)
• "Based on the latest research in computer
linguistics" (PlagScan)
• "Verification of originality" (StrikePlagiarism)
• "Plagiarism prevention that simply works" (Urkund)

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 European Network for Academic Integrity:
Testing of support tools for plagiarism detection

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41239-020-00192-4

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 Test of 15 web-based text-matching systems
in eight languages

• Czech
• English
• German
• Italian
• Latvian
• Slovakian
• Spanish
• Turkish

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 Coverage vs. Usability

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 Coverage vs. Usability

→ Ouriginal

= Turnitin

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 Such software is mostly snake oil

• False positives
• False negatives
• The companies sometimes violate
student’s copyrights.
• Reports are often very hard to
interpret.
• The numbers reported are generally
meaningless.

Snake Oil, Macau 2015,

Debora Weber-Wulff
CC-BY-SA

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 So do I have to look myself?
Sure! But you have to read the text

• The text is nicely written but …

• … it is stylistically above the level of the writer.
• Strange formatting
• Typos
• Abrupt style changes
• Odd words
• Embedded links

Flickr, cc-by-nc-nd, t_buchtele, 2009

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 Not just dissertations, published articles may also
contain hidden links pointing to a source

Simorangkir, D. N. (2010). The Feminization of Public Relations in Indonesia: Role Expectations and Prejudices.
International Journal of Arts and Sciences, 3(15), 71-89.

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 Searching with Google & Co

• Three to five nouns

• Enclose a phrase in
“..." Flickr, cc-by-nc-nd, Athena1970, 2008

• The typo
• Phrases from an often
referenced source
• Don’t only look at the
first page
• Set a time limit

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 Less is more

• Three to five words suffice

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 Less is more

• Three to five words suffice

Really!

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 Additional Tools

• Google Scholar
• Google Books
• Scanner, Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
• PicaPica
• Wikiblame
• TinEye & Google image search
• Text Compare
• Similarity Texter
https://people.f4.htw-berlin.de/~weberwu/
simtexter/app.html

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 Don’t sweep plagiarism under the carpet!

By Banksy
Photo byAbhishek.ujoshi (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons

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 Thank you! Hvala vam!
Questions? Vprašanja?

• My homepage:
people.f4.htw-berlin.de/~weberwu/
• My blog:
copy-shake-paste.blogspot.com
• VroniPlag Wiki: (c) 2018 HTW Berlin /
Nikolas Fahlbusch

vroniplag.wikia.org/de/wiki/Home
• TeSToP report:
https://link.springer.com/article/
10.1186/s41239-020-00192-4

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