Knowing that the expectation of the reader would be more than that of the text, I chose a broad title for this editorial. But my objective here is to initiate a reflection of disquiet, rather than to defend a finished thesis on the triad originality - authorship - plagiarism This is simply because we have no universal definitions or concepts, unanimously accepted in this time and space, with all the biases of the various areas of knowledge and cultures. Thus, the difficulty in initiating by its essence compels us to reverse the natural order and analyze the deviation of virtue by the failure; namely, plagiarism as a tangible academic and scientific problem.
Although there is also no single definition for plagiarism, by necessity I adopt
here the broad concept of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences, in its document on
integrity in research: Plagiarism involves the appropriation of ideas and the work
of others without proper credit and also, Self-plagiarism or republication of
already released scientific results, as if they were new, without informing about
the prior publication(101 1.Academia Brasileira de Ciências. Rigor e integridade na condução
da pesquisa científica: guia de recomendações de práticas responsáveis
[Internet]. Rio de Janeiro; 2013 [citado 2014 abr. 15]. Disponível em:
http://www.abc.org.br/IMG/pdf/doc-4311.pdf
http://www.abc.org.br/IMG/pdf/doc-4311.p...
).
Plagiarism detected in academic works and scientific publications implies a
moral and legal violation of copyright and intellectual property, with possible
academic and financial sanctions. In the context of the university, in the extreme
case, the plagiarist can fail a course and lose rank or title. Although the legal
view in relationship to plagiarism is not specific, there is a focus on copyright
protection, which includes a citation in the Brazilian Penal Code, punishable by
imprisonment or a fine for infringement of copyright(202 2.Pithan LH, Oliveira AP. Ética e integridade na pesquisa: o plágio
nas publicações científicas. Rev AMRIGS. 2013;57(3):240-5). Regarding scientific publications, established
plagiarism can lead to retraction or correction of a published article. One recent
research study showed that plagiarism corresponded to the cause of 9.8% of retracted
articles in the PubMed database; as well, duplicate publication (self-plagiarism or
redundancy) was cited in 14.2% of the cases(303 3.Fang FC, Steen RG, Casadevall A. Misconduct accounts for the
majority of retracted scientific publications. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.
2012;109(42):17028-33). Therefore, when detected, confirmed and judged, a case of
plagiarism can be corrected to restore the actual authorship. But a major challenge
is how to detect, confirm and judge plagiarism. In cases of scholarly journals, the
Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE)(404 4.Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Promoting integrity in
research publication [Internet]. [cited 2014 Apr 15]. Available from:
http://publicationethics.org/
http://publicationethics.org/...
) offers assistance to editorial teams and makes available
several support materials in an online format with open access.
In the majority of cases, the identification of plagiarism in a work occurs by chance or due to a complaint by a third party. Although information technology has provided software that detects duplication in the text and quantification in percentage, the question remains: how much similarity is sufficient to constitute plagiarism? And if the amount of text copied was small, but it used cardinal parts, such as the results or discussion? Or even, what if the text and the numbers are not identical, but the idea is? How does one identify, measure and judge something so subjective in an objective manner, and particularly at the same time? And who judges? And what happens next?
An article published in 2009(505 5.Vasconcelos SMR, Leta J, Costa LOO, Pinto AL, Sorenson MM.
Discussing plagiarism in Latin American science: Brazilian researchers begin to
address an ethical issue. EMBO Rep [Internet]. 2009 [cited 2014 Apr
15];10(7):677-82. Available from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727439/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
) showed there were still intercultural differences in the
perception of plagiarism of ideas, data and text between Anglo-Saxon and Latin
American researchers. Several other factors facilitating the practice of plagiarism
were also analyzed by the authors, such as: the academic and scientific culture of
productivity, ignorance of the limits of the appropriation of another’s idea and
work, deficiency of training in research integrity, lack of mastery of academic
writing, of paraphrasing, and also of the English language(505 5.Vasconcelos SMR, Leta J, Costa LOO, Pinto AL, Sorenson MM.
Discussing plagiarism in Latin American science: Brazilian researchers begin to
address an ethical issue. EMBO Rep [Internet]. 2009 [cited 2014 Apr
15];10(7):677-82. Available from:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727439/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles...
). If these are the possible causes
of the problem, one can outline a strategy for the prevention and treatment of the
illness.
The prevention of misconduct has its basis in general information, in faculty and editorial capacity building, in student education, and ongoing academic monitoring. Currently, our communities connected to teaching and research are still unprepared to avoid cases of plagiarism, whether intentional or not, derived in bad faith or by inexperience and ignorance of rules of responsible conduct in research. In the universities, there is need for clear institutional policies with delimitation of actors and roles to watch over the academic activities of students and faculty. However, the coordinated efforts to combat plagiarism and other forms of academic-scientific misconduct must be multi-sectorial, involving the government, associations related to teaching and research, funding agencies, publishers and the general public. Achieving this is no easy task, especially considering the promotion of best practices on a global scale, in a world that seeks the increasing sharing of information and knowledge through international institutions.
The Conferências Mundiais de Integridade em Pesquisa (World Conference on
Research Integrity) stands out among global initiatives focusing on a broad
discussion of international guidelines on the promotion of good academic-scientific
practices and the combatting of misconduct. The fourth edition of the World
Conference will take place in Rio de Janeiro in 2015(606 6.4th World Conference on Research Integrity. Research Rewards and
Integrity: Improving Systems to Promote Responsible Research, Rio de Janeiro;
2015 May 31-June 3 [Internet]. [cited 2014 Apr 17]. Available from:
www.wcri2015.org
www.wcri2015.org...
), after previous events in Lisbon, Singapore and
Montreal. It will be a unique opportunity for inserting the Brazilian scientific
community increasingly into international cooperative efforts for responsible
conduct in research and scientific publication. We, in Brazil, must do our part and
put discourse into action. Plagiarism and other deviations will only be combated
with the deliberate adherence and massive support of all who work for the
qualification of education and for reliable and relevant science for
society.
References
-
011.Academia Brasileira de Ciências. Rigor e integridade na condução da pesquisa científica: guia de recomendações de práticas responsáveis [Internet]. Rio de Janeiro; 2013 [citado 2014 abr. 15]. Disponível em: http://www.abc.org.br/IMG/pdf/doc-4311.pdf
» http://www.abc.org.br/IMG/pdf/doc-4311.pdf -
022.Pithan LH, Oliveira AP. Ética e integridade na pesquisa: o plágio nas publicações científicas. Rev AMRIGS. 2013;57(3):240-5
-
033.Fang FC, Steen RG, Casadevall A. Misconduct accounts for the majority of retracted scientific publications. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109(42):17028-33
-
044.Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE). Promoting integrity in research publication [Internet]. [cited 2014 Apr 15]. Available from: http://publicationethics.org/
» http://publicationethics.org/ -
055.Vasconcelos SMR, Leta J, Costa LOO, Pinto AL, Sorenson MM. Discussing plagiarism in Latin American science: Brazilian researchers begin to address an ethical issue. EMBO Rep [Internet]. 2009 [cited 2014 Apr 15];10(7):677-82. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727439/
» http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2727439/ -
066.4th World Conference on Research Integrity. Research Rewards and Integrity: Improving Systems to Promote Responsible Research, Rio de Janeiro; 2015 May 31-June 3 [Internet]. [cited 2014 Apr 17]. Available from: www.wcri2015.org
» www.wcri2015.org
Publication Dates
-
Publication in this collection
June 2014