Institutional Plagiarism Policy (Georgian higher education institutions’ case)

Abstract

The article deals with various aspects of plagiarism: definition (discriminating it from cheating and copyright violation), types (intended / unintended), involved people, causes, prevention, detection and punishment of plagiarism. A survey (questionnaire containing 42 items to be assessed in a 5-point Likert scale and one open- ended item) was conducted in Georgia. The questionnaire developed based on the literature review was uploaded on social media in three variants (to analyze the results separately and compare them): for students, for researchers and for assessors. The obtained results revealed that the opinions of the three groups of respondents differed to a certain degree, but were quite similar, eventually. The survey disclosed the existing problems, such as: lack of academic writing (in the native and especially foreign language) and research skills, lack of training in avoiding plagiarism, insufficiently clear university policies in the area, the emphasis on punishment instead of prevention, etc. Based on the obtained results recommendations for universities are given concerning plagiarism policies.

Upholding Social Integrity in Higher Education Institutions

“…Without adequate knowledge of research, a rush to publish in limited time for certain gains, do research based assignments just for the sake of superfluous completion and award of a satisfactory grade have also accelerated the use of plagiarism in academia. Unless strict policy measures control such practices, heavy fines are incurred together with academic demotions upon the perpetrators, and public defamation, such practices will continue to haunt and Dar & Asad destabilize academia (Doghonadze et al, 2018).…”