West University of Timisoara. Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science Master program: Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Computing ETHICS… [610336]

West University of Timisoara. Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science
Master program: Artificial Intelligence and Distributed Computing

ETHICS AND ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
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Plagiarism in Graduation Thesis or Dissertation
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Coordonating professor:
Phd. Lecturer Liviu Octavian Mafteiu -Scai

Student: [anonimizat]

1.Introduction

The etymology of plagiarism comes from Latin ‘’plagiarius’’ with meaning of kidnnapper,
literary thief which comes from Greek language plagios that refers to someone who acts
indirectly ‘’ πλάγιος ’’pretending to be the author.

The European Code of Conduct for Research Integrity defines plagiarism in Section 2.2.4 as :
“the appropriation of another person’s ideas, res earch results or words without giving appropriate
credit. The precise wording of an idea or explanation or illustrative material (such as original
figures and photographs, as well as lengthy tables) in textbooks or popular material are protected
by copyrig ht laws, but nevertheless can be subject to plagiarism.”
Specialized institutions in Romania
• Romanian Copyright Office
• The National Council of Ethics for Scientific Research, Technological Development and
Innovation (CNE).

Regulatory law in Romania:
• Law No. 8/1996 on copyright and neighboring rights
• Law no.319 / 2003 on the status of research and development staff
• Law no. 206/2004 on Good conduct in scientific research, technological development and
innovation
• Law no.1 / 2011 on National Education
• ACTA – Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement between the European Union and its
Member States, Australia, Canada, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United Mexican
States, the Kingdom of Morocco, New Zealand, the Republic of Singapore, the Swiss
Confederation and th e United States of America

The objective of law no. 206/2004 is not copyright but the good conduct in scientific research,
technological development and innovation and sanctioned according to the procedures provided
by the Law no. 1/2011 on national education, Plagiarism of art. 4 par. (1) lit. d) of Law no.
206/2004: 'the exposure in written or oral communication, including in electronic form, of texts,
expressions, ideas, demonstrations, data, hypotheses, theories, results or scientific methods
extracted from written works, including in the format electronically, of other authors, without
mentioning this and without referring to the original sources''.

Levels of plagiarism in Universities and examples.

Example
Serious
plagiarism
one’s own work a text largely or wholly written by another person
or persons.
1 from one or more works of other
authors into one’s own text, without attribution, that is, omitting any reference to
the work(s) e ither in the body of the text, in footnotes, or in the
bibliography/reference list.
previously submitted to another institution in English or in another language.

Medium
level
plagiarism
texts without any reference in the body text, but the work is included in the
bibliography/reference list.
y consecutive phrases, or one or
two not necessarily consecutive sentences, from the work of others without
attribution.
without quotation marks but with reference provided wi thin the student’s text.
submitted for credit to another course.

Poor
Scholarship
without quotation marks but with reference provided within the student’s text.
source at the end of the paragraph.
but no
attribution in subsequent sentences, so that it is unclear whether the author's ideas
are continuing, or the writer’s own comments being offered.
quotation marks.
ng an author’s work with incomplete reference (e.g. page number is missing,
or the work appears only in a footnote/parenthesis and is missing from the reference
list.

Table 1: Offending Strategies in Writing Severity of Offense, CEU President and Rector John
Shattuck (2014), Plagiarism Central European University's Policy.

Plagiarism detection tools
1. Turnitin for Admissions.
2. iParadigms (Turnitin for Educators
3. Antiplagiarism.
4. Gramarlly.
5. iThenticate.
6. WriteCheck.
7. JPlag Dete cting Software Plagiarism

2. Case study

On some forums users discuss amout buying from a website graduation thesis and claim this
website that delivered them plagiarims thesis.
WEBSITE: www.lucrare -licenta.net
The website owner is ''BRAN RAUL CONSTANTIN PFA'' and CERCETARI NEPLAGIATE –
S.R.L , Mr. Bran has more domains registred:
1) ultimatesketch.com
2) lucrarineplagiate.com
3) lucraristiintifice.com
Many users that bought graduation thesis from this website made complains on a lawyers forum
''www.avocatura.com '' searching for support to rec over their money from the company that sell
to them the thesis. They also posted in search for answers on websie '' www.politisti.ro ''.
The reality is that this kind of scams don`t fulfill the constitutive elements from Criminal Code.
According to article 215 from Criminal Code the scam is ''Misleading a person by presenting a
truly false act or misleading of accepted truths, in order to obtain for himself or for another
person an unjust material benefit and if it c aused a damage, is punished with imprisonment from
6 months to 12 years''
Agreement of this kind have contractual value under Civil Code, is only a civil litigation and is
in competence of civil court to solve it.
A person cannot criminalize a company o r a person if is not satisfy by the product or service
provided. And also for this case the user rise claim that he bought a plagiarized thesis but
initialy he wanted to present at school the thesis made by this company as is made by himself
and this is a lso plagiarism.

Internet has increased plagiarism potential, as information is easily accessed through new
technologies (Sureda, Comas, & Morey, 2011). Potential causes could be that students don`t
have skills to write an academic paper, the leak of self -confidence to make a academic
paper/study, laziness or leak of time.
3.Conclusion

As a conclusion for this study case , users that in first place proposed to plagiate their graduation
thesis and tried to pay another person/company to make the thesis for th em are classified in
category of serious plagiarism according University rules and brake the Law no.1 / 2011 on
National Education.
At the end this users try to acuse of plagiarism the company that provided the thesis they
requested/bought and from legal point of view they cannot make a criminal complaint, juts try to
find a way to demonstrate in Civil Court that the company did not honored the contract.
Plagiarism is about academic integrity . about the principle of honesty. Plagiarism is not etichal
and coukd have seroius consequences as failure of thesis or expulsion form the university.

4. References

1. Sureda, J., Comas, R., & Morey, M. (2011). Las causas del plagio académico entre el
alumnado universitario según el professorado. Redalyc , 50, 197 -220

2. CEU President and Rector John Shattuck (2014), Plagiarism Central European University's
Policy, Central European University's Policy on Plagiarism | Official Documents

Web sites:
https://www.avocatura.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28875 , Case study
https://documents.ceu.edu/file/2659/download , Central European University's Policy on
Plagiarism | Official Do cuments
https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism?wssl=1
www.plagiate.ro , Regulatory law.
https://www.politisti.ro/forums/topic/11227 -inselaciune -lucrare -de-diploma/ , Case study
https://legeaz.net/cod -penal -actualizat -2011/art -215-cpen , Art. 215 Cod penal Înșelăciunea
infracțiuni contra demnității.