Plagiarism

Abstract

Plagiarism has gained much public attention with media, corporations, and researchers leading the way. The general public’s perception is that plagiarism is a “plague” spreading without control within our educational institutes. Furthermore, a social perception has been created that the Internet is the “catalyst” of modern-day plagiarism. This chapter explores the domain of plagiarism, taking into consideration some definitions of plagiarism, the recent history, the cultural context, the view of students and teachers, and the situation in Distance Education. The chapter goes on to discuss the actual catalysts of plagiarism and methods used to detect plagiarism. Finally, the chapter forwards some good practices that may help prevent and act as deterrents of plagiarism and addresses challenges faced in tackling the problem of plagiarism.