Plagiarism needs more attention (2)

Plagiarism needs more attention (2)

By Ignas Kleden

This is the second of two articles exploring academic life in Indonesia vis a vis the recent case of alleged plagiarism at a respected university.

JAKARTA (JP): The question looming large in academic circles is how to treat the subculture of academia given the society in which it exists.

The old belief of philosophical rationalism -- wherever modern science comes in, the mythological and metaphysical world views will disappear -- no longer holds true. Despite the rapid development of the sciences in many non-western countries, old world views persist.

Is it possible to treat older cultural values more selectively in order to give more room to the development of an academic subculture?

How can we push for more openness, especially in the academic world, if we are burdened with the traditional obligation to be polite and quiet towards our seniors?

How can we encourage criticism if standing behind our arguments is treated as idle vanity or unnecessary provocation?

These questions need to be considered if we are to find a solution or some sort of modus vivendi beneficial to academic development.

The choice is limited: either we give preference to the academic subculture by means of modifying some traditional values, or we give preference to our traditional values by means of compromising basic academic values.

In the first case, we'll have to suffer from some feelings of cultural insecurity. However, we will build our academia on a basis which is comparable with and acceptable by international standards. In the second case, we retain our cultural security while sacrificing some basic academic values, ending in a sort of scientific syncretism that may be distant from international standards.

In our case, the standard-setting which pertains to the writing of a thesis can be discerned in two related facts. First, the thesis in Yogyakarta was written for a master's degree, whereas that in Surabaya was written at the undergraduate level. Second, the work written at Gadjah Mada University received an A grade, whereas the undergraduate thesis in Surabaya received a C.

From these two facts, the whole standard-setting of writing and approving a thesis is brought into bold relief.

Can we assume that the academic community in Indonesia has criteria to judge the quality of a work submitted? This question should be discussed seriously regardless of whether or not the plagiarism did or did not take place.

Needless to say, the important role of structural as well cultural factors cannot cancel or nullify the individual responsibility and personal integrity of a student. A thesis is written proof that a student is able to work independently and has intellectual autonomy.

Of course, there are different levels of autonomy, the highest of which is attained if someone is able to submit a Ph. D thesis or a thesis at the same level. Every piece of academic work is supposed to be treated as the result of one's own capacity both in terms of intellectual maturation and academic education as well as personal integrity and moral responsibility.

As a result, plagiarism is seen as a betrayal of all the virtues mentioned above.

First of all, not only does it not recognize or appreciate the work of other academics, but it denies that the work plagiarized has been written at all. It is a violation of intellectual property rights par excellence.

Second, it gives recognition to someone who does not deserve it.

Third, with regard to the plagiarist, it is a blatant violation of personal integrity and moral responsibility.

It must be made clear to a student how an academic work should be written. It goes without saying that in science, work builds on works, books on books and knowledge on knowledge. Nobody starts from zero. However, respect must be paid to academic conventions, which are established to differentiate between the materials one makes use of, and those one claims to discover.

How to make a citation, how to refer to a source, or how to paraphrase an important sentence of another author as well how to acknowledge all the substantial contributions one has received from other colleagues are relatively well regulated in academic conventions.

If those conventions are not familiar to a student, he might plagiarize unwittingly, for example, by forgetting to mention the source and the author quoted.

There are at least two sorts of plagiarism: that which is committed due to ignorance of academic conventions, and that committed in spite of academic conventions. In theological terms, the former case leads to a sin of omission, and the latter to a sin of commission.

However, the statement given so far by the graduate student in Yogyakarta needs some comment. He has stated that, first, he had no idea of the work written previously in Surabaya and never read it before embarking upon his own thesis. Second, he felt so sorry about the response of his colleague in Surabaya who brought the case to the public, without trying to first settle it on a personal basis.

We are obliged to leave the first thing to the committee which has been convened to scrutinize the case. However, the second point reflects a misleading perception of what plagiarism is all about.

Plagiarism is not a matter of a personal relationship between two students; rather, it is a matter which involves the whole academic community and thus a public affair. Assuming that the two students have discussed the case in a personal atmosphere, it will not justify the handling of the case on a merely personal basis.

If the case is covered up and not brought to the public, it will be only more detrimental to the whole academic community because it transgresses the two principles formulated by Robert Merton, an American sociologist, namely the principle of academic community and the principle of organized skepticism.

With regard to the former principle, both achievements and failures should be made accessible to an academic community. With regard to the second principle, we should enable the whole academic community to look into the case in order to find out how far academic conventions are obeyed or violated, and the extent to which basic ethical values are known and followed.

Public intervention is needed in order to show that Indonesian academia treats ethical principles of academia seriously. There might be a long way to go before Indonesian universities can become centers of excellence, but a few wrong measures could turn our beloved academia into a center of bad jokes.

The writer is a sociologist now working at the SPES Foundation Research Center.