Digital Journal UAH - cyberplagiarism - The easiest way out of a complex problem
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The Library of the University of Alcala is a service that
offers students a number of resources
where they can find reliable information.
In order to let students know from the beginning what resources are
quality resources, how to get to to them and how to select and always work
with academic peer-reviewed resources and not with any old thing;
and, above all, for the student to get used to citing them.
That is why we have the citation page,
with quotations in the most usual
citation styles available for consultation,
since all material used must be cited.
The aim of these resources is
to avoid plagiarism in academic work.
By means of workshops, students can learn
about plagiarism and how to avoid it.
From the very beginning, we are told
that plagiarism isn't acceptable. So, we don't do it,
and yes, we know the resources. Above all here in the library, they've always run a course for us to learn
how to use the appropriate rules to avoid plagiarism.
Teachers have told us the importance of not copying works
that appear on the Internet and that we always have to
cite where we have got the information from.
Also, we've had a technology subject in our degree
and they insisted on the importance of the library,
that as to plagiarism, it's important not to...
Despite this, scientific research confirms that about seven
out of ten of the students keep on cheating
due to the lack of information.
Plagiarism is a very useful tool for us,
although it is true that it is wrong
and should not be done because of copyright and that sort of thing.
But, I think they should be a bit more permissive,
because now you can get a zero just because you copied a sentence.
The solution to this problem could be found thanks to
the library and teachers' support.
Many students copy, not because they mean to do something wrong
or because they like to,
although some of them do,
but because they don't know
that it is important
to cite properly
and to acknowledge that the work isn't theirs,
but is somebody else's
and that citation styles are very important.
So, there are two things:
training and the teacher's requirements.
Subtitles by: María García, Manuel Moreno, Andrada Oltean, Florencia Riquel, Elena Rodríguez, Marta Redondo and Sandra Vargas.
